Superstar Angela Gheorghiu, the most glamorous and gifted opera singer of our time (New York Sun), was born in the small Romanian town Adjud. From early childhood it was obvious that she will become a singer, her destiny was music. She attended the Music High School in Bucharest and graduated from the National University of Music Bucharest. She studied with the remarkable music teacher Mia Barbu. Ms. Gheorghiu’s magnificent voice and dazzling stage presence have established her as a unique international opera superstar.
She made her international debut in 1992 at Covent Garden as Mimì in La bohème and in the same year made debuts at the Metropolitan Opera in New York and at the Vienna State Opera. It was at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden that she first sang her much acclaimed Violetta in La traviata in 1994, when for the first and last time in television and operatic history the BBC cleared out its schedules to broadcast the opera live. Since her Royal Opera debut she has appeared at the world’s leading opera houses and concert halls around the world, her repertory including Mimì in La bohème, Violetta in La traviata, Juliette (Roméo et Juliette), Nedda (Pagliacci), Adina (L’elisir d’amore), Amelia in Simon Boccanegra, Liù (Turandot), Micaëla (Carmen), Charlotte in Werther, Magda in La rondine, Marguerite in Faust, Tosca and Adriana Lecouvreur.
She has recorded widely for EMI/Warner Classics and Decca and has received numerous international artistic honours, including La Médaille Vermeille de la Ville de Paris, Officier de l'ordre des Arts et des Lettres and Chevalier de l'ordre des Arts et des Lettres from the French government, the Nihil Sine Deo decoration from King Michael I of Romania, the European Cultural Award for Music and the Victoire d'Honneur Award.
In the history of opera, Angela Gheorghiu shines as a rare phenomenon: not only a singer/actress with an exceptional vocal technique and profound dramatic and musical intelligence, but also a magnetic communicator who penetrates the hearts and minds of a panoramic spectrum of audiences. She has brought the very highest values of operatic art to a vast worldwide community on an unusually broad scale, and continues to do so.