Sona Ghazarian
The Austro-Armenian soprano Sona Ghazarian (Queen) was born in Beirut in 1945 and initially studied psychology at the American University of Beirut, prior to turning to studying singing (in her native city as well as at the Accademia Musicale Chigiana in Siena and the Accademia di Santa Cecilia in Rome). In 1972, she moved to the Vienna State Opera, to which she remained loyal until the 1990s and where she celebrated triumphs above all as Violetta in Verdi’s La Traviata. In 1973, she held her debut as Barbarina in Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro at the Salzburg Festival. She later performed Blonde in Il Seraglio and Marzelline in Beethoven’s Fidelio. She held her debut at the New York Met in 1987 as Adina in Donizetti’s L'elisir d'amore. After ending her active career, she has worked and still works as a singing teacher in Vienna. She has also appeared as an actress on Austrian television, e.g. in Der Leihoper with Alfred Böhm and Hans Holt in 1988.
