→ download→ german version Romelia Lichtenstein, born in Sofia, grew up in Rostock and sang at the age of nine years in the role of Erster Knabe in Mozart's „Die Zauberflöte”. After an apprenticeship as children's nurse she studied vocals at the Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy Conservatoire in Leipzig, Germany. In her first engagement at the Opera House in Chemnitz, Germany the extraordinary widerange spectrum of her soprano voice was already apparent, where she sang Rosina in Rossini's „Il Barbiere di Siviglia”, Sandrina in Mozart's „Gärtnerin aus Liebe” and the three female roles in „Hoffmanns Erzählungen” by Offenbach. She won the First Prize at the Competition of Young Opera Singers in Gera, Germany and the Mozart Prize at the International Competition Francisco Viñas in Barcelona, Spain.
The roles in operas by Mozart were an essential part of her years at the Leipzig Opera. Under the musical line of conductors such as Michail Jurowski, Lothar Zagrosek and Stefan Soltesz she sung Zerlina in „Don Giovanni”, Fiordiligi in „Cosi fan tutte”, Pamina and Queen of the Night in „Die Zauberflöte”, as well as Mimì in Peter Konwitschny's noteable production of Puccini's „La Bohème”. Her comedic talent and her work with directors such as István Szabó, John Dew and Anthony Pilavachi enabled Romelia Lichtenstein to mature into a singer of high dramatic intensity and charisma.
1998 she continued expanding her vocal abilities at the Halle Opera with an extraordinary debut as Madama Butterfly, a role for which she has been nominated as best opera singer of the year in the german magazine OPERNWELT. Many demanding opera roles followed making Romelia Lichtenstein an impressive personality in musical theater. She created roles at the Semperoper in Dresden, Germany and at the opera houses of Graz, Wiesbaden, Weimar and Metz.
In 2006/2008, Romelina Lichtenstein, as a mentor, passed on her experience to scholarship holders of the Jürgen Ponto Foundation and since then she has been providing other advisory services. In 2012 the city of Halle named her „Kammersängerin” in appreciation for her outstanding artistic merits.
Particularly significant for her vocal development was the encounter with the music of George Frideric Handel. During the international Handel Festivals in Halle – Handel‘s birthplace – she created leading and title roles, including Romilda in „Serse”, Florinda in „Rodrigo”, Gismonda in „Ottone”, the sorceress Alcina, Berenice, Medea in „Teseo”, and Metella in „Lucio Cornelio Silla”. At the Comic Opera in Berlin she sang Merab in „Saul“ and Miriam in the operas collage „Die Plagen” at the Handel Festival in Karlsruhe. Her interpretation of Elisa in „Tolomeo” can be experienced on a complete recording of Alceste in „Admeto” encountered on DVD. She often worked with baroque specialists such as Marcus Creed, Howard Arman, Michael Schneider and Hermann Max. At the Halle Opera alone, she performed fifteen Handel roles. Her final one there was „Agrippina” - even for her farewell to the stage in 2026, the 2016 Handel Prize winner dazzled with vocal expressiveness and captivating comedic flair.
She managed the unusually lucky step of expansion into the Italian Dramatic Opera – as the opera critics widely noticed. She sang Violetta in „La Traviata” at the opera houses Göteborg, Bremen and Stockholm in the presence of the Swedish Royal Family. Since 2006 she has been very successful in the title roles of Bellini's „Norma” and of Donizetti's „Lucia di Lammermoor” and as „Lucrezia Borgia”. With devotion and brilliance she mastered the roles of Abigaile in „Nabucco” and Leonora in „La forza del destino” and in „The Troubadour”. Verdi was, next to Handel, the second focus in Romelia Lichtenstein‘s work.
During her thirty-year tenure at the Halle Opera, Romelia Lichtenstein sang the roles of Leonora in Verdi’s „La forza del destino”, Amelia in „Un ballo in maschera”, and Lady Macbeth, as well as the soprano part in a production of Verdi’s „Messa da Requiem”. She delivered compelling performances in the title roles of Puccini’s „Tosca” and Francesco Cilea’s „Adriana Lecouvreur”, and as Sélica in Meyerbeer’s „L’Africaine”. She appeared in Mozart operas — singing Despina in „Così fan tutte”, Elvira in „Don Giovanni”, and the Countess in „The Marriage of Figaro” — and performed the title role in Offenbach’s „La Grande-Duchesse de Gérolstein” with tremendous verve. In 2022, she sang the major role of Ulana in a production of Ignacy Jan Paderewski’s lyrical drama „Manru” at the Halle Opera; the performance was broadcast live and released on CD. She continued her successful career with the role of the Marschallin in Richard Strauss’s „Der Rosenkavalier”.
Romelia Lichtenstein is also in great demand as a concert singer. She has sung in works such as Mozart's „Requiem”, Haydn's „Die Schöpfung”, Britten's „War Requiem” and Schostakowitsch's XIV Symphony – at concert halls like the Berliner Philharmonie, Musikverein Wien, Liederhalle Stuttgart as well as in Madrid and Warsaw. Enoch zu Guttenberg has engaged her for Beethoven's „Missa Solemnis” at the Music Festival of Santander and for Verdi's „Requiem” at the Rheingau Music Festival. In 2002 the CD „Giob” (an oratorio by Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf) was awarded with the Prize of the German Record Critics. In the Clara Schumann commemorative year 2019 Romelia Lichtenstein denies the vocal part in performances of a historical concert of 1869 in Zwickau, Leipzig, Magdeburg. The evening „Sehnsuchtsorte” in 2021 with works by Franz Schubert, Robert and Clara Schumann and Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy confirmed her immense talent as a song interpreter.
→ Eine Agrippina mit Melania-Trump-Effekt, in: concerti, 06/2025
→ Der Sopran im Ballett, in: Die Deutsche Bühne, 2023
→ CD Manru, Oper von Ignaz Paderewski, 2022
→ Porträt in: ORPHEUS international, 2011
→ Aus Kritiken