Stefania Toczyska, mezzo soprano

Stefania Toczyska, born in Poland, has performed at the world’s most renowned opera houses. She sang with Montserrat Caballé, José Carreras, Placido Domingo and Luciano Pavarotti at opera houses such as Metropolitan Opera New York, Royal Opera House London, Wiener Staatsoper, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Opéra National de Paris, Bayerische Staatsoper, Hamburgische Staatsoper and San Francisco Opera.

Toczyska finished her singing studies summa cum laude while at the same time already winning prizes in international singing competitions. She gave her opera debut in 1972 at Baltic Opera in Gdansk in the opera The Haunted Manor by Moniuszko, and shortly after returned for the main part of Carmen - from here on there was no stopping her: After successful performances in Samson and Delilah (especially produced for her) in 1975 and Donizetti’s La Favorita in Gdansk, Warsaw and Bremen in 1978, Austria’s Wiener Staatsoper/Vienna State Opera became her artistic home base.

She gave her American debut at San Francisco Opera in 1979 as Laura in La Gioconda next to Renata Scotto and Luciano Pavarotti, her London debut at Covent Garden followed in 1983 as Amneris in Aida. 1998 then was the year of her debut at the Metropolitan Opera New York, singing the role of Marfa in Mussorgsky’s Khovanshchina. The media was delighted: “The debut of the night, however, was that of Stefania Toczyska…Miss Toczyska, as Marfa, displayed a mezzo-soprano large enough to fill the Metropolitan without strain”. Numerous performances at Metropolitan Opera were to follow in productions like Aida, Il Trovatore, La Gioconda, Boris Godunov, Rusalka, Un ballo in maschera and Adriana Lecouvreur.

Her repertoire includes amongst others the roles of Amneris/Aida, Carmen/Carmen, Azuceny/Troubadour, Eboli/Don Carlos, Ulrica/Un ballo in maschera, Dulcinea/Don Quichotte, Laura/La Gioconda, Marina/Boris Godunov and Marfa/Khovanshchina.

Stefania Toczyska has increasingly been focussing on operatic character roles for some time; accordingly she has been and continues to be performing the roles of Amme/Boris Godunov, Larina/Eugen Onegin, the grandmother in Prokofjev’s The Gambler, Old Buruya in Jenufa, Countess in Pique Dame, Contessa de Coigny in Andrea Chenier, Mamma Lucia/Cavalleria rusticana a.o. at internationally renowned opera houses such as Lyon, Toulouse, Monte Carlo, Staatsoper Berlin, Scala di Milano, Opéra National de Paris, Nedelandse Opera Amsterdam,  Chorégies d’ Orange as well as Liceu in Barcelona  with conductors such as G. Prêtre, D. Barenboim, M. Jansons and others.

Several recordings complement her achievements: For the Philips label she recorded the role of Azucena in Il Trovatore with Katia Ricciarelli, José Carreras and Yuri Mazurok under Sir Colin Davis, a role that was also taken live from the Münchner Nationaltheater for the Orfeo label with Julia Varady and Dennis O’Neill directed by Giuseppe Sinopoli, whilst Prokofiev’s War and Peace was recorded with Galina Vishnevskaya under Mstislaw Rostropovich. Most recently, she recorded a DVD at Gran Teatro del Liceu, singing the part of The Nurse in a Boris Godunov production conducted by Sebastian Weigle and directed by Willy Decker.

- kr 08/10 -