Praised for her “thrilling vocal color” and “sweetly winning” presence, American soprano Anya Matanovič (ma ta’ no vich) begins the 2025-2026 season with an exciting role debut as Wendy Torrance in Paul Moravec and Mark Campbell’s The Shining with Nashville Opera. She also returns to the roster of The Metropolitan Opera to cover Violetta in La traviata and Musetta in La bohème.
Last season, Ms. Matanovič joined The Met to cover Also Jess in the season opening production of Grounded, as well as Musetta in La bohème. Slovenian by heritage, she brought her dynamic interpretation of Violetta in La traviata to that country’s Opera Maribor, before performing and recording the title role in Mark Adamo’s Lysistrata with Odyssey Opera and Boston Modern Orchestra Project. Anya also debuted the role of Carrie in Anne Bogart’s anniversary production of Carousel with Boston Lyric Opera.
In the 2023-2024 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.
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). 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 Botstein, as well as joining the Lyric Opera of Chicago for the first time to cover Ginevra in Ariodante.
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.
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.
Ms. Matanovič 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.
