Opera Without Borders! Why Viktoriia Zadvorna Refuses to Choose Between Italy and the World
The soprano behind Anjo da Música speaks through Verdi and Puccini, crossover and rock arrangements - and now prepares to make Italy a new point of departure. What happens when an opera singer…
Opera Without Borders! Why Viktoriia Zadvorna Refuses to Choose Between Italy and the World
The soprano behind Anjo da Música speaks through Verdi and Puccini, crossover and rock arrangements - and now prepares to make Italy a new point of departure.What happens when an opera singer stops treating genre, geography and even the idea of "home" as fixed categories? In Viktoriia Zadvorna's case, the answer is a career that moves from classical opera to crossover, from European stages to Brazil, and from interpreting centuries-old repertoire to writing music of her own. Italy sits at the centre of that story, but not in the obvious way. Zadvorna is preparing for a new Italian chapter after years in which the country was already present in her artistic life. She remembers being drawn to Italian music from childhood - not only opera, but songs, regional melodies, temperament and the emotional directness she heard in the culture. Later, as a professional soprano, the connection became technical and intellectual through vocal schooling, language and the study of Italian repertoire. That repertoire is extensive: Vivaldi, Monteverdi, Pergolesi, Caccini, Rossini, Donizetti, Verdi, Puccini and Bellini. Zadvorna says she can return to this music endlessly and still discover something new. Her direct contact with the tradition included practical masterclasses with Bonaldo Giaiotti and competitions and masterclasses in Sicily. But the element she values most is not virtuosity for its own sake. Italian vocal tradition, as she understands it, insists that technique serve expression. A singer may possess range, control and beauty of tone, but without language, breath, feeling and narrative, the result remains empty. The phrase has to live.
That principle helps explain why Zadvorna's artistic interests move far beyond a conventional operatic profile. She performs crossover and contemporary material and sings music from The Phantom of the Opera, Cats and Jesus Christ Superstar. Her repertoire also includes Con te partirò, Canto della Terra, Nella Fantasia, Sogni and Adagio. In one of her more unexpected projects, operatic arias are reimagined in rock arrangements with symphony orchestra. Does that risk irritating opera purists? Zadvorna's answer is effectively: why should curiosity be a problem? Classical technique remains the foundation. Experimentation does not erase it. Instead, crossover can offer a first doorway into the sound of a trained operatic voice, potentially leading listeners toward the classical repertoire itself. For her, the survival of classical music depends in part on its willingness toenter a conversation with new audiences. The same openness appears in the way she thinks about national traditions. Italy matters deeply to her, including through a part of her family history, but she resists turning roots into boundaries. Music may originate in Italy, Ukraine, Germany or Brazil, she argues, yet great music eventually exceeds the place where it began. Her own biography has repeatedly demonstrated that idea. Zadvorna started professionally in Ukraine as a soloist with the Donetsk Philharmonic and worked in theatres in Donetsk and Kyiv. Brazil then opened a dramatically different chapter, with performances at Teatro Bradesco in São Paulo and Teatro Pedro II in Ribeirão Preto and work with the orchestra of the USP music academy. She has also performed in Germany, Poland, Austria, France and elsewhere. Brazil left another mark: the name Anjo da Música, Portuguese for "Angel of Music." It emerged there through her relationship with audiences rather than as a manufactured stage name. Zadvorna kept it, and it remains attached to her artistic identity today, including her official Instagram account @anjovik_zdv_opera.official. If Brazil taught her the power of an openly emotional audience, European concert halls offered a different kind of attention. She describes European listeners as sometimes more reserved on the surface but exceptionally sensitive to detail. Neither response is superior. What interests her is the exchange - the way a room can change the same performer and the same music. Her project Splendore Italiano - Der Glanz der italienischen Seele is perhaps the clearest expression of that exchange. Performed in Germany with a string ensemble, the programme is dedicated entirely to Italy. Its ambition is atmospheric as much as musical: Zadvorna wanted the audience to leave feeling that, for a few hours, it had travelled to Italy. In her view, culture becomes truly alive when it travels. Now the direction of travel is reversing. After presenting Italian culture abroad, she wants to arrive in Italy with more than Italian music. Her goal is also to introduce Italian listeners to music that helped shape her and to works from other European traditions. Italy, in other words, is not meant to become a closed destination. It is intended to become a base for continued exchange. Zadvorna is also developing the creative side of her identity. Her portfolio includes original songs and instrumental music. For an interpreter, she says, much of artistic life is spent entering worlds created by others. Composition changes the relationship: instead of interpreting someone else's thought, the artist reveals part of her own. Her plans for Italy are therefore deliberately broad. She wants to perform with orchestras and chamber ensembles, give solo programmes, participate in opera productions and develop crossover work. She also hopes to continue discovering the music of different Italian regions, whose dialects, melodies and emotional languages she regards as essential to understanding the country's cultural variety. The real test, however, will be the Italian audience. Zadvorna is conscious that performing Italian music abroad is different from singing it for listeners who grew upinside the language and culture. She approaches that encounter with excitement and respect, hoping not simply to introduce herself but to build a genuine relationship. For years, Italy travelled with Viktoriia Zadvorna through arias, songs, language, concert programmes and family stories. Now she is moving toward Italy herself. The striking part is that she does not see this as choosing one country over the rest of the world. She sees it as creating a new point from which the journey can continue.
That repertoire is extensive: Vivaldi, Monteverdi, Pergolesi, Caccini, Rossini, Donizetti, Verdi, Puccini and Bellini. Zadvorna says she can return to this music endlessly and still discover something new. Her direct contact with the tradition included practical masterclasses with Bonaldo Giaiotti and competitions and masterclasses in Sicily. But the element she values most is not virtuosity for its own sake. Italian vocal tradition, as she understands it, insists that technique serve expression. A singer may possess range, control and beauty of tone, but without language, breath, feeling and narrative, the result remains empty. The phrase has to live. 
