Maria
Papaioannou
Opera Singer
Soprano
About Me
Lyric-dramatic soprano born in Cyprus. She graduated the Hellenic Conservatory of Athens under mezzo soprano Yolanda Di Tasso. She continued studying principal operatic roles for the lyric-dramatic soprano repertoire with the renowned baritone Vassilis Yiannoulakos. She subsequently studied major roles with prominent conductors and opera soloists.
She sang in festivals and opera houses in Cyprus, Greece (Athens), Austria (Wien), Germany (Bonn), Bulgaria (Sofia, Varna), Serbia (Belgrade), Mexico (Sonora, Hermosillo, Veracruz, Xalapa), Italy (Rome, Terni, Narni, and Tolentino). She gave recitals in many countries, representing Cyprus in national festivals.
In 1994 she was recruited at the Opera of Bonn by its artistic director Gian Carlo del Monaco, where she sang in the world-premiere production of the contemporary opera Der Ewige Frieden, under conductor Dennis Russell Davies and stage director Jurgen Tanchina. This opera was also performed at the Festwochen Festival in Vienna.
Throughout her career, she performed in numerous opera productions with the Maly Symphony Orchestra of Moscow, the Opera of Bonn, the Chamber Orchestra of the Okinawa Prefectural University of Arts, the State Opera of Varna, the Blagoevgrad State Opera Theatre, the Burgas State Opera Theatre in Bulgaria, the Abai State Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre, the Teatro della Reforma in Veracruz, Mexico, the Belgrade National Opera Theatre, the National Opera of Greece and the Cyprus State Chamber Orchestra.
During the last decade she has been performing regularly as the leading guest soprano at the Belgrade National Opera Theatre in various opera productions (Tosca, Un Ballo in Maschera, Il Trovatore, Ι Pagliacci, Cavalleria Rusticana, Madama Butterfly).
In 2007 she performed "Leonora" in Il Trovatore at the Paphos Aphrodite Festival, with the Abai State Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre.
In 2009, she performed at the FAOT International Festival in Mexico. The following year she made her début as "Cio Cio San" in a production of Madama Butterfly in Veracruz, Mexico.
The Cypriot composer Costas Cacoyannis wrote for her modern arias, as well as a musical score, which was the main theme for the Greek movie "Road to Ithaca".
In 2011, the Cypriot composer Alkinoos Ioannides wrote for her a score for the purpose-made role of "Semeli" in the ancient Greek tragedy "Bacchae", by Euripides, produced by the National Theatre of Cyprus.
During the last few years she has been singing in Italy at various venues, including Rome at a concert for the international meeting "Rome Metaphysics" and at a concert for Cyprus organised in Villa Borghese. She also performed "Leonora" in Il Trovatore at Castello della Rancia, Tolentino, and "Aida" in Aida e la Mummia de Ramose performed in Narni Teatro Comunale.
Over the years she sang in different film and theatre productions which were broadcasted on television and shown at selected cinematic venues both in Cyprus and abroad.
She was one of the pioneers for the promotion of operatic music in Cyprus, an effort that resulted in the foundation of the Cyprus Opera Society, which she is still the artistic directress of. In that capacity she has been organising and performing in concerts and opera productions in Cyprus.