Cornelia Oncioiu Mezzo-soprano

Cornelia Oncioiu was born in Romania and earned her state diploma at the Timisoara Conservatory of Music in 2002. She won first prizes at the Ionel Perlea, Nicolae Bretan, Sabin Dragoi and Hariclea Darclée international singing competitions, the Grand Prix at the Eugenia Moldoveanu Competition and the Special Prize at the Neue Stimmen Competition in Germany. She made her performance debut in Romania. Between 2002 and 2004, she was a soloist at the Paris Opera’s Centre de Formation Lyrique and performed in several productions at the Bastille Studio and Bastille Amphitheatre. She sang the role of the Governess in Philippe Fénelon’s Le Chevalier imaginaire with the Radio France Philharmonic Orchestra, Janáček’s Glagolitic Mass with the Orchestre de Paris under the direction of Pierre Boulez at the Théâtre Mogador, Il viaggio a Reims (Modestina) in Monte Carlo, Romeo and Juliet (Gertrude) in Tours, Eugene Onegin (Olga) in Metz, The Rape of Lucretia (Bianca) at the Théâtre de l’Athénée in Paris, Rigoletto (Giovanna) at the Chorégies d’Orange, the Théâtre du Capitole in Toulouse and the Dutch National Opera in Amsterdam, Handel’s La Resurrezione (Cleofe) at the Bastille Amphitheatre, Madame Butterfly (Suzuki) and Rusalka (a Dryad) in Geneva, Pelléas et Mélisande (Geneviève) at the Nantes Opera, the Angers Opera and the Toulon Opera; Suzuki at the Teatro Municipal in Santiago, Chile and the Marseille Opera, and Fidalma (Il matrimonio segreto) at the Lorraine Opera.
She has made frequent guest appearances at the Paris Opera singing in a variety of productions including Dialogues des carmélites, Elektra, War and Peace, Giulio Cesare, The Diary of One Who Disappeared, Louise, Da gelo a gelo (a world premiere production by Salvatore Sciarrino), Parsifal, Rigoletto, Die Zauberflöte, Madama Butterfly (Suzuki), La Sonnambula, Les Contes d’Hoffmann (the Mother), L’Italiana in Algeri, Suor Angelica, Francesca da Rimini, L’Enfant et les sortilèges, La Cenerentola, Lucia di Lammermoor, La Traviata, and Il Barbiere di Siviglia (Berta). She also took part in the world premiere production of Maudits les innocents with the students of the CNSMDP’s composition class in December 2014 at the Paris Opera’s Bastille Amphitheatre.