User:Anna Tomowa-Sintow

"Toscanini never had access to a voice like hers – she can sing a high C at nine in the morning." This is what Herbert von Karajan said about the star soprano with whom he had worked for 17 years. After her education in Sofia, the Bulgarian-born singer debuted at the Leipzig Opera. First in Leipzig and then at the Staatsoper in Berlin, she sang a broad repertoire: from the great lyric-dramatic roles of Verdi, Puccini and the Verismo to the German repertoire of Mozart, Wagner and Strauss. Ever since her international breakthrough in Verdi's "Requiem" in Paris, Anna Tomowa-Sintow has celebrated triumphs at all the leading opera houses and festivals in the world, and with the most prestigious conductors and soloists of our time. She worked with Herbert von Karajan for seventeen years, a collaboration that gave rise to a uniquely creative and mutually enriching oeuvre on the stage, in the concert hall and in the recording studio. Along with her success on the operatic stage, she has led a magnificent concert career, which is documented on records and film, along with the video recordings of her opera performances. Her recordings with the Berlin Philharmonic and the Vienna Philharmonic have set timeless examples. She received two Grammy awards for her recordings of Ariadne and Don Giovanni (Donna Anna). Anna Tomowa-Sintow, "Kammersängerin" of the Vienna and Berlin State Operas, is renowned for her unique artistry in both the Italian and German repertoires and is constantly further developing and deepening the different facets of these two. This is evidenced by her debuts in the 1990s: the “Ägyptische Helena”, “Norma”, Yaroslavna (Prince Igor), Sieglinde (Walküre), Santuzza (Cavalleria Rusticana), Heliane (Das Wunder der Heliane) and “Salome”. Anna Tomowa-Sintow sang another debut role for the celebrated reopening of the Gran Teatro del Liceu in Barcelona in fall 1999: her first Turandot. In the spring of 2000 she triumphed once again as Marschallin at London's Royal Opera House Covent Garden. The artist closed the millennium with the roles of Kaiserin (Die Frau ohne Schatten) at the Deutsche Oper Berlin and Maddalena (Andrea Chenier) in Spain. In 2001 she gave several concerts of the Verdi Requiem throughout Europe and special gala concerts for the Verdi year in Milan and Athens for the 10th anniversary of the Megaron. She celebrated the 35th anniversary of her stage and performing debut in a concert performance of “Aida” at the Opera in Sofia on September 23, 2001. During the same year a stamp was released in the USA with her image as Desdemona honouring the Verdi anniversary. In 2002 she went on a recital tour through Europe, amongst which Barcelona and London’s Wigmore Hall. She also gave operatic concerts and a series of performances of Verdis „Un ballo in maschera“ and „Don Carlo“, with which she was much cheered as Elisabetta in Tokyo at the end of the year. Anna Tomowa-Sintow  returned to Tokyo in February and December 2003 for gala concerts at the city's Bunka Kaikan and Suntory Hall. In 2004 she gave her debut as the Foreign Princess in “Rusalka”. In 2005 Anna Tomowa-Sintow celebrated the 80th anniversary of the opera house in Stara Zagora (her home town and the oldest opera house in Bulgaria) with a big operatic gala concert. She gave a recital and a masterclass at the Athens Concert Hall, followed by a final concert together with her students. Mrs. Tomowa-Sintow also was the soloist of the popular summer concerts of the NHK Symphony orchestra in Tokyo and Osaka (operatic arias, televised) and gave a masterclass at the Music Festival in Kirishima which she closed with a concert of the Wesedonk Lieder.