ADRIANA FESTEU — CONNAUGHT ARTISTS

ADRIANAFESTEU.COM MEZZO-SOPRANO

ADRIANA FESTEU

Mezzo-soprano Adriana Festeu is a versatile performer of opera, lieder and oratorio.

Her operatic roles include Rosina Il Barbiere di Siviglia and Charlotte Werther at the Romanian National Opera in Cluj, the Komponist in Strauss’s Ariadne auf Naxos in London for New Palace Opera and Royal Academy Opera, as well as Cenerentola, Calbo Maometto secondo, Megacle L’Olimpiade, Rustena La verità in cimento (all Garsington Opera, cover), Marianna Il signor Bruschino, Lucilla La scala di seta (British Youth Opera); Isolier Le Comte Ory (Opera South); Xerxes (Longborough Opera, cover); Endimione La Calisto, Komponist Ariadne auf Naxos (Royal Academy Opera); Fidalma Il matrimonio segreto, Marcellina Le nozze di Figaro, Zerlina Don Giovanni (Romanian National Opera); Candida Emilia di Liverpool (European Opera Centre).

As a recitalist and oratorio soloist, Adriana has performed in venues including St. Martin-in-the-Fields, King’s Place, Wilton’s Music Hall, Gloucester Cathedral, St. David’s Cathedral, Bridgewater Hall and Cité de la Musique (Paris). Her song cycle performances include Mahler Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen and Kindertotenlieder, Respighi Il tramonto, Enescu Sept chansons de Clément Marot, Dvořák Cigánske melódie and Korngold 5 Lieder, Op. 38. Adriana recorded Romanian art songs for the BBC Radio 3 dramatisation of Bram Stoker’s Dracula, and was invited back to record Greek songs for The Oresteia: The Libation Bearers and most recently The Mysteries of Udolpho.

Adriana trained at the Royal Academy of Music gaining her Masters with Distinction on the Opera Course. Subsequently she embarked on a performance-led PhD at the Academy, researching voice classification. She completed her thesis, Exploring Zwischenfach: Understanding Vocal Classification and Its Professional Significance in 2016. Since then, Adriana is continuing to present her research at various conferences. She is currently Head of Year and Lecturer at the Royal Academy of Music and she is also Principal Lecturer in Classical Voice at Leeds Conservatoire. In 2010 Adriana co-founded Opera Prelude, a charity that delivers lecture-recitals and masterclasses at the Cadogan Hall and throughout the UK. Adriana is grateful to the AHRC, International Opera Awards and Opera Prelude for their support throughout her studies and career.

PRESS

“But there was a star - Adriana Festeu as Carmen. She has an attractive smoky voice with a thrilling top but occasional edginess at the bottom, particularly at first. She really looked and acted the part. Her diction was exemplary and she was the only singer who seemed to enjoy and work with the dialogue. She has real potential as a singing actor.”

BIZET, CARMEN - MICHAEL DEMPSEY, OPERA MAGAZINE
“…the introduction of Festeu is the highlight, with a brilliant rendition of “Habanera”.

SAM BUTLER, STAGE WON
“The Suzuki of Adriana Festeu is ideal, a model of restraint and concern”

OPERA AND ME, BLOG
“The only exception to this was the mezzo Adriana Festeu who played Butterfly’s maid, Suzuki. She fully embraced her role the whole time and had a beautiful voice.”

PUCCINI, MADAME BUTTERFLY - MICHAEL TANNER, THE OBSERVER
“The sharp linguistic and enunciative abilities of Romanian mezzo Adriana Festeu are as impressive as her singing. Accompanied by Nico de Villiers, she launched “Leeds Lieder+ From Europe to America – A Day of Song” in the morning at Leeds University’s Clothworkers Hall with “Songs My Mother Taught Me”. She dealt very convincingly with Dvořák’s Gypsy Songs in Czech, followed by 5 Lieder, Op. 38 by Korngold in English, and George Enescu’s Sept Chansons de Clément Marot in French. She ranged easily from the subtle to the strident, from the jaunty to the bloodthirsty. Her version of the melancholy “A les je tichý kolem kol” (“The forest is quiet all around”), contrasted powerfully and dramatically with the song which followed: “Když mne stará matka zpívat” (“When my old mother taught me to sing”). And her climactic flourish at the end of the final gypsy song, which asks whether a hawk would be happy in a cage of pure gold, was very much in accord with the spirit of the collection (which gives a heavily romanticised view of the largest ethnic minority in Europe). She entered wholeheartedly into the spirit of Korngold’s “Old English Song” as well, which is about hacking out the spleens of Spanish sailors and seeing their corpses bobbing on the tide. She beamed a wide, disarming smile at us before tackling Shakespeare’s “My Mistress’ Eyes” and moving on to the seven Enescu songs, with their classical allusions and light humour.”

LEEDS LIEDER FESTIVAL - RICHARD WILCOCKS, BACHTRACK
“...Adriana Festeu made a good impression. She is almost the finished article, with attractive dark mezzo tone and incisive delivery.”

ROSSINI - IL SIGNOR BRUSCHINO, MIKE REYNOLDS, MUSICAL CRITICISM
“The thankless mezzo role of Marianna, involving much serving of drinks with only a few notes as a reward, was enhanced with a good sense of comic timing by Adriana Festeu.”

ROSSINI - IL SIGNOR BRUSCHINO, KIRSTY YOUNG, OPERA TALENT
“... I was nonetheless impressed with Adriana Festeu’s sensitive account. There was a gorgeous warmth in her voice and involvement in her performance. The body language was all there and she pushed herself to her exact emotional limit - there was never a waver in her voice but I am sure I saw her brush a tear from her eye as she quit the platform. Her audience were left nearer to the edge - a significant achievement.”

MAHLER - KINDERTOTENLIEDER - SERENA FENWICK, MUSICAL POINTERS

ADRIANAFESTEU.COM MEZZO-SOPRANO

PRESS

“…the introduction of Festeu is the highlight, with a brilliant rendition of “Habanera”.

“The Suzuki of Adriana Festeu is ideal, a model of restraint and concern”

“The only exception to this was the mezzo Adriana Festeu who played Butterfly’s maid, Suzuki. She fully embraced her role the whole time and had a beautiful voice.”

“...Adriana Festeu made a good impression. She is almost the finished article, with attractive dark mezzo tone and incisive delivery.”

“The thankless mezzo role of Marianna, involving much serving of drinks with only a few notes as a reward, was enhanced with a good sense of comic timing by Adriana Festeu.”

MARI WYN WILLIAMS

DEBORAH HUMBLE