Page 51 - Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Coverage Book 2023-24

42 the Bulgarian soprano is on top of her game, her fabulously cultured voice and touching

portrayals of all the usual ill-fated or ill-treated 19th-century heroines in demand everywhere

from Vienna to New York.

But she also has her own production company. She has just launched an arts magazine. Last

year she wrote a book, Fifteen Mirrors, in which she links 15 operatic roles to her views on life,

the universe and modern womanhood. “We are in danger of losing our beautiful fragility,” she

declares.

Meanwhile, she continues to release concept albums, the latest of which, provocatively, is

titled The Courtesan. And, she assures me, she is also a “pretty cool mother” to a nine-year-old

son and five-year-old daughter. She and her Venezuelan husband, Domingo Hindoyan (the chief

conductor of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic), bring them up in Switzerland, speaking five

languages. “I teach them Bulgarian, they learn English because we travel so much, and at home
we speak French and a bit of Spanish,” she explains. “Except when my husband and I have a

fight. Then we speak Italian.”

Better vocabulary for a flaming row? “Definitely more colourful,” Yoncheva says with a giggle.

“It used to be our secret language. Unfortunately my son now understands it too well. Maybe it
means we fight too much.”

Her production company is called SY11. Even I can work out the SY bit, but why 11? “I started
the company during Covid. Everything had stopped in Bulgaria and I wanted to do something

for people in Plovdiv, where I was born. None of the arts institutions was working. The only

way to do a concert was start my own company. So I created it in maybe 24 hours. I was told the

company must have a number in its title. I thought, what’s my favourite number? Eleven.

Originally I thought that might be symbolic. We would put on 11 shows, then stop.”

Four years on, it’s still going strong. Does it give Yoncheva more control of her career? “Kind

of,” she says. “As a singer you’re never really in control. My company continues because it still
has a mission. If it makes money from my CDs, I reinvest the profits in new projects that help

Bulgarian cultural life. We have promoted voice and piano recitals that never happened before

there, with people such as Joyce DiDonato and Freddie De Tommaso.