"It has always been a privilege for me to say that I am Bulgarian, where I come from and what I have in me. For me to play this small role, through my career, in the history of Bulgarian classical music is a huge privilege", the world-famous soprano said during her last visit to her homeland a few days ago. The occasion for it was her debut participation in a complete performance on the stage of the Sofia National Opera.

A full 12 years after her first concert in front of her native audience and long months of negotiation and coordination with her work schedule, Sonya Yoncheva performed the role of Mimi from Giacomo Puccini's opera La Bohème on the Bulgarian stage. 

It was her debut in this role in 2014 that brought Sonya Yoncheva to the stage of the Metropolitan Opera, followed by appearances at the Paris Opera, La Scala, Berlin Staatsoper and the Bavarian Opera in Munich. ‎

Sonya Yoncheva is the "perfect Mimi", wrote the world critics, and the Bulgarian public was convinced of this at the beginning of March. Yoncheva arrived here after participating in a production of Luigi Cherubini's Medea at the Milan Scala and Puccini's Madama Butterfly at the Staatsoper Berlin.‎

"It is a real honor for me to share this moment with my very good friend, maestro Boyan Videnov, the conductor of the production (who lives in Italy - note ed.). I also want to say how important it is for me to share the stage with another friend of mine - Bozhidar Bozhilov, whom I met in 2020, when I decided to make a contest for Bulgarian voices and see who are today's talents. As you know, I am very involved in this direction and I want the future of the Bulgarian opera will be secured, and Bozhidar, from the very first time I heard his voice, I understood that he is a great talent," said Sonya Yoncheva during her meeting with journalists in Sofia. ‎

As for the global success, she replied with her charming smile that she neither seeks nor fights for it. "I've let it come whenever it wants," the singer admitted. ‎

"For me, my success has never been just mine. It belongs to everyone else around me. That's why I work in the opera, because it's a huge machine of exceptional artists who breathe, work, live for two hours at one and the same stage. It's really unique." ‎

Vittorio Grigolo, Rolando Villazon, Piotr Beczała and Joyce DiDonato will be the stars of the second Sofia season of Intimate Voices which starts in October 2024. What's more, the event will also have its second home - the prestigious Victoria Hall in Geneva, where concerts presented for the first time in Bulgaria will be also heard. The idea for this belongs to the two children of the famous soprano - in order for them to be able to attend her projects, she organizes them where they live. And in just a few months, Sonya Yoncheva will present a new program to an audience in Germany. ‎

"I have a great deal of sympathy for Richard Strauss's Salome, but I know that at the moment I cannot perform it. So, it remains like a yearning in my soul, because Salome is so young, so energetic and erotic, which is inherent in madness, in youth, and at the same time requires such a strong and extremely experienced voice. I'm not vocally ready for her, but she remains in my dreams. I remember the words of a woman who worked with me when I was very young, she told me: "In this profession you need to learn to have patience. That is the greatest quality". There have been repertoires that I have rushed into, but it was a very well-calculated risk on my part. And I have never allowed myself to overexploit this instrument that lives in my body," admits the Bulgarian soprano. ‎