Praised for her “thrilling vocal color” and “sweetly winning” presence, American soprano Anya Matanovič (ma ta’ no vich) returns to the roster of The Metropolitan Opera during the 2024-2025 season to cover Also Jess in the season opening production of Grounded, as well as Musetta in La bohème. Slovenian by heritage, she brings her dynamic interpretation of Violetta in La traviata to that country’s Opera Maribor, debuts the role of Carrie in Anne Bogart’s production of Carousel with Boston Lyric Opera, and essays her first Tosca with South Bend Lyric Opera.
The previous season, the soprano returned to the Metropolitan Opera to cover Musetta in La bohème. Additionally, she portrayed Violetta with Knoxville Opera, and sang Micäela in Carmen with Opera Santa Barbara. The 2022-2023 season saw Ms. Matanovič join The Metropolitan Opera for the first time, covering Violetta in all seventeen of the company’s performances.
Highlights of recent seasons include a variety of house and role debuts, including Bard SummerScape as Isotta in Strauss’s Die Schweigsame Frau, under the baton of Leon Bostein, as well as joining the Lyric Opera of Chicago for the first time to cover Ginevra in Ariodante. Notable company returns include: Seattle Opera as Susanna in Le nozze di Figaro; Utah Opera as Violetta and Juliette in Roméo et Juliette; and Opera Santa Barbara as Violetta, Abigail Williams in The Crucible, and Freia in Jonathan Dove’s adaptation of Das Rheingold.
Ms. Matanovič made her professional opera debut, directly from her undergraduate studies, as Mimì in the Los Angeles commercial engagement of Baz Luhrmann’s Tony Award-winning production of La bohème, and made her international opera debut as Musetta in Franco Zeffirelli’s production of La bohème with the New Israeli Opera. She has returned to Seattle Opera on numerous occasions since her time there as a young artist, including roles such as Gretel in Hansel and Gretel, Marzelline in Fidelio, Erste Dame in Die Zauberflöte and Nanetta in Falstaff. She has twice joined Santa Fe Opera, as Wanda in a new production of Offenbach's The Grand Duchess of Gerolstein and Papagena in Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte. She made her debut with the Glimmerglass Festival as Micaëla in Carmen, under the baton of David Angus.
Other notable engagements include her company and role debut as Mimi in La bohème with Opera Colorado, Anne Trulove in The Rake’s Progress and Violetta with Boston Lyric Opera, Stella in Previn’s A Streetcar Named Desire with Kentucky Opera, Mabel in Pirates of Penzance with Lyric Opera of Kansas City, Susanna in Le nozze di Figaro with Madison Opera, and New Orleans Opera as Adele in Die Fledermaus. She joined New York City Opera as Frasquita in Bizet’s Carmen, as well as productions of Massenet’s Cendrillon, La bohème, and Purcell’s King Arthur.
Her signature roles in addition to Violetta include Musetta (Arizona Opera, New Israeli Opera), Gilda (Opera Memphis, Boston Youth Symphony), Gretel (Seattle Opera, Utah Opera, Kentucky Opera, Opera Cleveland), and Pamina (Boston Youth Symphony, Crested Butte Music Festival, Utah Opera).
Ms. Matanovič is equally comfortable on the concert stage, having appeared with the Cleveland Orchestra and Cincinnati Symphony for Mendelssohn's A Midsummer Night's Dream, Qatar Philharmonic Orchestra, for Carmina Burana under Alastair Willis, North Carolina Symphony for Mozart’s Mass in C Minor, Richmond Symphony as the soprano soloist in Orff’s Carmina Burana, Eugene Concert Choir for Mozart’s Grand Mass in C Minor, Santa Barbara Symphony for Mozart’s Exsultate Jubilate and Mahler’s Symphony No. 4, Portland (OR) Chamber Orchestra, Hoku Concert Series in Hawaii, the Palm Springs Orchestra and the Music of Remembrance Concert Series in Seattle.
In addition to her training in the Seattle Opera Young Artist Program, she studied at the University of Southern California’s Thornton School of Music. Ms. Matanovič was a Regional Finalist in the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions and has been a prizewinner in competitions sponsored by such institutions as the Gerda Lissner Foundation, Opera Buffs, Leni Fe Bland, and the Sun Valley Opera.