Alex Penda

Soprano Alex Penda, also known as Alexandrina Pendatchanska, was born in Sofia, and made her stage debut as Violetta in La traviata when she was 17. At the age of 19 she had won several singing competitions, and had her international breakthrough as Lucia in Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor in Bilbao.

Her vast vocal range brought her to a repertoire that enlist more then 60 roles which reaches from baroque operas by Monteverdi and Handel over belcanto and Verdi up to the dramatic roles of Wagner and Strauss.

Spring 2017 she made her debut as Lady Macbeth in l’Opera Grand Avignon, and have continued to perform this role in several French operahouses like in Reimes and Limoges. In 2017 she also gave an astonishing debut in the title role of Puccini’s Tosca in her hometown Sofia, and season 2019/20 she also sang Tosca at Deutsche Oper am Rhein in Düsseldorf. At La Monnaie in Brüssel 2018 she sang Santuzza in Cavalleria Rusticana for the first time, and at Theater an der Wien she has performed as Poppea (Monteverdi) as well as Elettra (in Mozart’s Idomeneo).

Alex Penda has also contributed on several recordings, among them Handel's Agrippina with René Jacobs and Akademie für Alte Musik for Harmonia Mundi, which received a Grammy nomination for Best Opera Recording.

Update: Autumn 2020 Alex Penda visited Bergen National Opera for the first time, as the fierceful Lady Macbeth in Verdi's opera Macbeth, but due to the Covid-19-situation, this production had to be cancelled short time before the premiere.