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Natalya Romaniw and Brendan Gunnell in The Bartered Bride at Garsington (2019). Photo: John Snelling
Of the directors she’s worked with, she singles out for praise Martin Lloyd-Evans, her

mentor at Guildhall, who also directed her at Holland Park in The Jewels of the

Madonna and Montemezzi’s L’Amore Dei Tre Re.

She also enjoyed working with Paul Curran at Garsington on Smetana’s comedy The

Bartered Bride. “It was so much fun, but there was hard work going on behind the

scenes. I’m very proud to have been part of that.”

What roles are she currently looking at? “I’ve been listening to Mascagni’s Cavalleria

Rusticana. It was one of the first operas I was involved in as a chorus member, so I

know it very well, and one day I’d like to sing Santuzza. Another role I’m interested in is

Puccini’s Suor Angelica, and later on Verdi’s Aida. The farthest I’d stretch to is Sieglinde

in Wagner’s Die Walküre.”

Romaniw’s voice is undoubtedly world-class, with a depth of bright, clear and

empowered tone that sets the spine tingling: it can be heard clearly on her first album,

Arion: Voyage of a Slavic Soul, a collection of Russian and Czech songs just released.