"Elina Garanca and friends" 2025 Meet the guest soloists. Kang Wang

Iulia Maria Dan Soprano

Romanian soprano Iulia Maria Dan has captivated audiences across Europe with what the Sydney Morning Herald described as a “richly coloured, beautifully finished but still radiantly clear sound.” Her vocal elegance and dramatic depth have made her a sought-after artist on both the opera and concert stage.

In the 2024–25 season, she makes notable company debuts at the Volksoper Wien as Micaëla in Carmen (directed by Lotte de Beer), and at Teatro San Carlo di Napoli in a new production of Rusalka by Dmitri Tcherniakov. Further highlights include Desdemona in Otello at Israeli Opera and Micaëla at the Hong Kong Arts Festival. On the concert stage, she joins Marc Minkowski and Les Musiciens du Louvre for a major European tour as Rosalinde in Die Fledermaus, with performances in Baden-Baden, Barcelona, Seville, Valencia, Tenerife, and Gran Canaria.

In the 2023–24 season, Dan appeared as Micaëla at Opéra de Rouen and Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, and as the Countess in Le nozze di Figaro at Staatstheater Wiesbaden. She also sang Verdi’s Messa da Requiem with Daniele Gatti and the Munich Philharmonic, as well as with Dan Ettinger and the Israeli Opera Orchestra. At the Smetana Festival in Litomyšl, she performed a gala concert alongside Freddie De Tommaso.

Other recent operatic highlights include: – Desdemona in Otello at Oper Leipzig – The full Da Ponte Trilogy (Donna Anna, Contessa, Fiordiligi) at Ravenna Festival, Opéra Royal de Versailles, Israeli Opera, Opéra National de Bordeaux, and Gran Teatre del Liceu – Tatyana in Eugene Onegin at the Norwegian National Opera – Aminta in Il re pastore at the Verbier Festival – Title role in Manon at Oper Graz – Ofelia in Franco Faccio’s Amleto at the Bregenz Festival – Mimì in La bohème with Opera Australia on Sydney Harbour – World premiere of Stefan Wirth’s Francesca da Rimini at the Munich Opera Festival – Gilda in Rigoletto and Violetta in La traviata at the Romanian National Opera

On the concert platform, she has performed Zemlinsky’s Lyric Symphony with the Württembergische Philharmonie Reutlingen under Ariane Matiakh, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with the Orchestra Ensemble Kanazawa (Marc Minkowski), at the Verbier Festival, and with Staatstheater Kassel. Other appearances include Mozart arias at the Lviv MozArt Festival (Oksana Lyniv), Beethoven’s Cantata on the Death of Emperor Joseph II with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra (Mark Wigglesworth), and Verdi’s Requiem with the London Philharmonic Orchestra under Edward Gardner at the Royal Festival Hall.

A member of the Semperoper Dresden ensemble until 2021, her roles there included Micaëla (Carmen), Mimì and Musetta (La bohème), Gretel (Hänsel und Gretel), Donna Elvira (Don Giovanni), Fiordiligi (Così fan tutte), Tatyana (Eugene Onegin), the Countess (Le nozze di Figaro), Violetta (La traviata), and Madam Cortese (Il viaggio a Reims).

Previously, she was a soloist at Staatsoper Hamburg (2015–2017), where she sang Helena (A Midsummer Night’s Dream), Agathe (Der Freischütz), Freia (Das Rheingold), Mathilde (Guillaume Tell), and many others. She also began her career as a member of the Bayerische Staatsoper Opernstudio.

A graduate of the National University of Music in Bucharest, Iulia Maria Dan is the recipient of numerous international awards, including Most Promising Young Artist at the Hans Gabor Belvedere International Singing Competition, the Graz Opera Special Prize, the Soroptimist Prize, and distinctions from the Hariclea Darclée and Ionel Perlea International Singing Competitions.