Mariana Pentcheva
Mezzo Soprano
Born in Bulgaria, Mariana Pentcheva attended the Conservatory in her hometown Sofia, where she studied singing with Alexandrina Milcheva. Winner of several international competitions, including “Marcello Viotti Competition” in Vercelli, “Concorso Voci Verdiane” in Busseto, and “Luciano Pavarotti International Voice Competition” in Philadelphia, she made her operatic debut in 1991 at the Teatro Comunale in Firenze.
She has since then established an international career, performing regularly in some of the world’s most prestigious concert halls, opera houses and festivals, including Teatro alla Scala, Teatro San Carlo di Napoli, Teatro dell’Opera di Roma, Teatro Comunale di Bologna, Teatro Verdi di Trieste, Teatro Massimo di Palermo, Arena di Verona, Teatro Regio di Torino, Teatro Regio di Parma, Teatro Massimo “V. Bellini” di Catania, Teatro La Fenice di Venezia, Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro, Ravenna Festival, Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome, Covent Garden, Wexford Opera Festival, Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie in Bruxelles, Teatro Colón de Buenos Aires, Teatro Real in Madrid, Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona, Teatro de La Maestranza in Sevilla, Opernhaus in Zürich, Semperoper in Dresden, Opernhaus in Leipzig, New National Theatre and Suntory Hall in Tokyo, San Diego Opera, IsraelPhilharmonic Orchestra, just to name a few. In these institutions she has often performed such works as Verdi’s Messa da Requiem, Un ballo in maschera, La forza del destino, Il trovatore, Falstaff, Don Carlo, Aida, Cavalleria rusticana, Adriana Lecouvreur, La Gioconda, Oedipus rex, Aleksandr Nevskij, Norma, Möise et Pharaon, Tannhäuser, Lohengrin.
She has often worked with several important conductors, such as Riccardo Chailly, Daniele Gatti, Antonio Pappano, Philippe Jordan, Vladimir Jurowski, Gustav Kuhn, Riccardo Muti, Daniel Oren, Zoltán Peskó, Emmanuel Krivine.
A regular guest of the Teatro alla Scala, where she made her debut as early as in 1994, performing Spontini’s La Vestale and Rigoletto under the baton of Riccardo Muti, she sang there again and again, in several other productions including Madama Butterfly with Riccardo Chailly, Nabucco with Riccardo Muti, La Gioconda, La forza del destino, Rigoletto and Un ballo in maschera.
Mariana Pentcheva has also sung some less frequently performed operas, such as Respighi’s La fiamma, Zandonai’s I cavalieri di Ekebù, Pacini’s Saffo (at the Wexford Opera Festival, also available on a Naxos cd).
During the most recent times she has sung some among her most beloved works, including Un ballo in maschera (Berlin, Graz, Leipzig, Lausanne, Duesseldorf), Oedipus rex (Lisbon, Torino, Roma), Il trovatore (Trieste, Palermo, Verona), Don Carlo (Barcelona), Cavalleria Rusticana (Berlin, Torino, Genova, Palermo), Adriana Lecouvreur (Las Palmas), La Gioconda (London, Barcelona, Nice), Rigoletto (Milano), Maria Stuarda (Roma), Don Carlo (Torino), Aida (Macerata, Parma, Modena, Reggio Emilia), Oberto, conte di San Bonifacio (Busseto, Verona), Aida (San Diego, Firenze, Verona, Palermo e Trieste), La forza del destino (Parma), Falstaff (Montecarlo), Messa da Requiem di Verdi (London, Liverpool, Mosca, Verona, Modena,).
During the 2011/12 season she gained a great success performing Un ballo in maschera at Opernhaus in Zurich, Il trovatore at Teatro Massimo di Palermo and at Athens Festival, Aida at Teatro Regio di Parma and at Teatro Valli di Reggio Emilia. Among her future plans are Un ballo in maschera at Opera Australia of Sydney and at Melbourne International Arts Festival.
Also an active concert performer, Mariana Pentcheva has sung Haydn’s Die Schoepfung, Scriabin’s Symphony n. 1, Mahler’s Symphonies n.2, 3 and 8, Verdi’s Messa da Requiem and Kindertotenlieder by Mahler.