Alexandra Ionis

Mezzo-soprano Alexandra Ionis captivates not only through her exceptional stage presence and profound vocal expressiveness, but also through a particularly beautiful and warm timbre. As a regular guest at the Bayreuther Festspiele, the Staatsoper Berlin and the Deutsche Oper Berlin, and through regular collaborations with conductors such as Christian Thielemann, Simone Young and Kirill Petrenko, Alexandra Ionis has firmly established herself on the most important opera and concert stages.

Following her return to the Bayreuther Festspiele in summer 2026 as Siegrune in Die Walküre, Second Norn in Götterdämmerung and Fricka in the children’s opera Der Ring des Nibelungen, Ionis will be back in Bayreuth again in 2027 for her debut as Magdalene in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg under the baton of Simone Young. Furthermore, she will once again take on the role of Azucena in Il trovatore at Theater Bielefeld in the 2026/27 season and will also make her debuts as Hippolyta in the new production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream and as Prince Orlofsky in Die Fledermaus. She will furthermore sing the Mother in Hänsel und Gretel for the first time with the Berliner Philharmoniker under Kirill Petrenko and will also be heard as a soloist in concerts featuring, among other works, Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony and Rossini’s Petite Messe solennelle.

Since the 2023/24 season, Ionis has been a permanent ensemble member of Theater Bielefeld, where in recent years she has been seen, among other roles, as Azucena in Il trovatore, Mescalina in Ligeti’s Le Grand Macabre, Judith in Bartók’s Herzog Blaubarts Burg, Anaide in Leoncavallo’s Zazà, Mrs. Quickly in Verdi’s Falstaff, Katerina (Magdalena) in Martinů’s The Greek Passion, Giulietta and the Mother’s Voice in Offenbach’s Les contes d’Hoffmann, the Old Lady in Bernstein’s Candide, and the Queen of Hearts in Pierangelo Valtinoni’s Alice im Wunderland.

Further highlights of past seasons include, among others, her debut as Fricka in a concert performance of Die Walküre with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra under Simone Young; her 2024 debut at the Bayreuther Festspiele as Second Norn in Götterdämmerung and Siegrune in Die Walküre (both under Simone Young), as well as Mary and Venus in the children’s operas Der fliegende Holländer and Tannhäuser; her Schwertleite in Die Walküre in the new Ring production at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden (dir.: Dmitri Tcherniakov) under the musical direction of Christian Thielemann and Thomas Guggeis; the new production of Elektra as Third Maid (dir.: Philipp Stölzl) with the Berliner Philharmoniker under Kirill Petrenko in Baden-Baden and Berlin; Third Maid in Elektra at the Staatsoper Stuttgart; her debut as Princess Eboli in Don Carlo at the Teatro Petruzzelli in Bari; Il viaggio a Reims as Maddalena at the Deutsche Oper Berlin and the Dresdner Semperoper; Annina in Der Rosenkavalier at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden (Simone Young/André Heller); as well as Annina in Der Rosenkavalier, Ulrica in Un ballo in maschera and Marcellina in Le nozze di Figaro at Opernhaus Chemnitz.

She deepened her passion for contemporary music through productions such as Widmann’s Babylon and Reimann’s Gespenstersonate as the Mummy at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden Berlin, Britten’s Tod in Venedig under Donald Runnicles and Graham Vick at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, Berg’s Wozzeck as Margret at the Palau de les Arts in Valencia under James Gaffigan, in concert performances of Zimmermann’s Die Soldaten as Stolzius’ Mother with the Gürzenich-Orchester Köln and François-Xavier Roth (directed by Calixto Bieito) in Cologne, Hamburg and Paris, as well as in the two world premieres of Samuel Penderbayne’s Die Schneekönigin (Tischlerei der Deutschen Oper Berlin) and Subotnik (Neuköllner Oper).

She also sang in the world premiere of Péter Eötvös’ opera Sleepless at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden (with subsequent performances in Geneva and Budapest) and in the world premiere of the children’s opera Robin Hood as the Nurse (M. dall’Ongaro) at the Teatro Petruzzelli in Bari.

Her concert repertoire includes, among others, works by Rossini, Verdi, Mahler, Beethoven, Schoenberg, Shostakovich, Ravel, Tchaikovsky, Prokofiev and Rachmaninoff.

Most recently, Ionis was heard for the first time in Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra and Simone Young, as well as in Verdi’s Requiem at the Berliner Philharmonie.

The mezzo-soprano, who was born in Moldova and grew up in Berlin, studied at the Universität der Künste Berlin and at the Milan Conservatorio di musica Giuseppe Verdi, and was a member of the International Opera Studio of the Accademia nazionale di Santa Cecilia, where she received valuable guidance from, among others, Renata Scotto.

Alexandra Ionis became a scholarship holder of the Richard Wagner Society in 2018.