Rebirth

Description

La Soprano star Sonya Yoncheva calls for rebirth with her new album.
The spring 2020 lockdown allowed Sonya Yoncheva and conductor Leonardo García Alarcón to create the album they had envisioned for 10 years. Rebirth is a message of hope but also the exploration of an idea: that silence and inactivity are the best prelude to creative renewal. Sonya Yoncheva's fourth album for Sony Classical covers more than five centuries of music, ranging from traditional songs to pop, including strong arias from the 17th-century operatic repertoire. From the dawn of Opera with music by Monteverdi, the album traces a thematic journey starting from Italy with Cavalli, his student Stozzi, and heir Stradella, all the way to England with Dowland, Gibbons, and Ferrabosco – whose motet Hear me, O God uses the same four-note theme as Like an Angel Passing Through My Room by the pop group ABBA. In addition to works inspired by Spanish or Latin American dances, Yoncheva offers a traditional song from Bulgaria, her home country. The media received her interpretation of this program extremely well during the Salzburg Festival in August 2020, writing that “this music moves to tears” (APA) while the Frankfurter Allgemeine described her interpretation of the traditional Bulgarian song Zableinano mu agunce as “an unforgettable emotional experience.” Rebirth was recorded in the concert hall of La Chaux-de-Fonds, with Alarcón and his ensemble Cappella Mediterranea, during the first European lockdown, and the acoustics gave the impression of playing “inside a vast lute,” the conductor explained. Sonya Yoncheva was named “Artist of the Year” by the readers of Opéra Magazine in 2019 and is regularly invited by the world's leading opera houses.