Alexandrina Pendatchanska

Biography

Was born in Sofia in a family of renowned Bulgarian musicians. She started her piano studies at 5 and graduated from the National School of Music with piano and singing. Her vocal teacher was her mother — the internationally acclaimed soprano Valerie Popova.
Pendatchanska made her debut at 17 and at age of 19 she had won the “Antonin Dvorak” Singing Competition, the International Vocal Competition in Bilbao and the UNISA singing competition in Pretoria.

She was 19 when she made her debut as Lucia di Lammermoor in Bilbao. After that she was The Queen of the Night (Cape Town), Ophelie (Monte Carlo, Vienna), Lucia (Torino, Trieste), Gilda (Welsh National Opera, Monte Carlo) followed by La Traviata (Trieste, Hamburg, Frankfurt), Esclarmonde (Torino), Adalgisa (Roma Teatro dell’Opera), Aspasia (Torino), Parisina (Wexford, Lugano Italian Swiss Radio).

In the seasons 1997-2009 Miss Pendatchanska appeared as Elisabetta in Roberto Devereux (Torino, Naples), Ermione (Santa Fe), Donna Anna (Lausanne, Houston, Lisbon, Prague), Adina (Pesaro), Donna Elvira (Washington), La Straniera (Catania), Vitellia (Santa Fe), Suor Angelica (Lucca), Verdi’s Luisa Miller and Lucrezia Contarini of I Due Foscari (Naples), Rossini’s Semiramide in Paris Theatre des Champs-Elysées, Ermione and La Donna del Lago in New York, Madama Cortrse (Viaggio a Reims) in Bruxelles La Monnaie, Fiorilla (Il Turco in Italia) in München Bayerische Staatsoper and Berlin Staatsoper Unter den Linden, Verdi’s Luisa Miller in Deutsche Oper Berlin, as well as Mozart’s Donna Elvira (Don Giovanni) in Paris Theatre des Champs-Elysées, Opera National de Lyon, Baden-Baden, Vitellia (La clemenza di Tito) in Teatro Real de Madrid, Copenhagen and Opera National de Lyon, Elettra (Idomeneo) in Bruxelles La Monnaie.

Since 2003 Miss Pendatchanska has been actively collaborating with René Jacobs both in the opera stages and in concerts. In European tours with Freiburger Barockorchester conducted by René Jacobs she sang Vitellia (La clemenza di Tito), Donna Elvira (Don Giovanni), Elettra (Idomeneo), Fiordiligi (Cosi fan tutte), Arminda (La Finta Giardiniera), Alcina (Orlando Paladino) in Bruxelles Palais des Beaux-Arts, Cologne Philharmonie, Paris Theatre des Champs-Elysées, Berlin Konzerhaus, Paris Salle Pleyel, Edinburgh International Festival, Teatro Real de Madrid, etc. Internationally acclaimed recordings for Harmonia Mundi followed these successful tours. La Clemenza di Tito (2006) won two Grammy nominations for Best Classical album and Best Opera recording, Don Giovanni (2007) was Gramophone Editor’s choice, Idomeneo (2009) — The Diamant of Opera Magazine, Agrippina (2011) — BBC Music Magazine Awards 2012 — Opera Award Winner. Miss Pendatchanska’s discography also includes Glinka’s Life for the Tzar (Antonida) for Sony, Rachmaninov’s The Bells for Decca, Donizetti’s Parisina D’Este for Dynamics, Sartorio’s Giulio Cesare for ORF — Diapason Decouverte, Terradellas’ Sesostri for RCOC Records — Gramophone Editor’s choice, as well as two aria recitals. Her performances as Elisabetta (Roberto Devereux), Lucrezia Contarini (I due Foscari), Donna Elvira (Don Giovanni), Alcina (Orlando Paladino) and in Petite Messe Solennelle are available on DVD.

Miss Pendatchanska’s oratorio repertoire, among others, include Verdi’s Messa di Requiem, Rossini’s Stabat Mater, Petite Messe Solennelle, Honegger’s Le roi David, etc., which she has performed with orchestras such as Gewandhaus Leipzig, The Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra, L’ Orchestra del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, L’Orchestra dell’ Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della RAI, Russian National Orchestra. Miss Pendatchanska has also collaborated with some outstanding period instruments ensembles such as Freiburger Barockorchester, Akademie fur Alte Musik, Concerto Köln, Ensemble Matheus, Complesso Barocco. She has been conducted by Riccardo Chailly, Myun-Wyun Chung, Charles Dutoit, Adam Fischer, Eliahu Inbal, Jesus Lopos-Cobos, Nello Santi, Bruno Bartoletti, Carlo Rizzi, Maurizio Benini, Bruno Campanella, Ivor Bolton, Daniel Oren, Vladimir Spivakov, René Jacobs, Vladimir Jurowski.

Highlights of the last seasons enlist Maria Stuarda (Elisabetta) — Toronto and Munich, Agrippina — Berlin Staatsoper, La Finta Giardiniera (Arminda) — Theater an der Wien, Pagliacci (Nedda) — Vienna Staatsoper, Les vêpres siciliennes (Helene) — Napoli San Carlo, Telemaco (Circe) — Theater an der Wien.

In 2011 she made her Bolshoi Theatre debut as Gorislava (Ruslan and Lyudmila).