(Credit: Marshall Light Studio)

What more Wagnerian reason could there be for a soprano to drop out of Die Walküre than being pregnant with twins? Lise Davidsen’s appearance as Sieglinde in Barrie Kosky’s new production for the Royal Opera House had been hotly anticipated; her imminent happy event meant that the theatre had to find a replacement. And here she is: Natalya Romaniw, the Welsh soprano whose operatic trajectory has been studded with stellar performances from Tchaikovsky’s Iolanta at Opera Holland Park and Rusalka at Garsington to Tosca herself at the ROH, plus the role of Helena in Mark-Anthony Turnage’s recent smash-hit, Festen.

‘I’m not one of these big, aspiring Wagnerian singers,’ Romaniw insists, ‘so I felt, at first, slightly fraudulent, because most people would give their right arm to sing this role.’ She had been alerted to the potential booking in January and knew it was within her capabilities, though she worried that there might not be enough time to prepare. ‘Then I thought: am I really going to say no to this opportunity, should it arise?

‘In an ideal world, I’d have been preparing this for at least six months. But even though it is a tiny bit scary, I feel very well supported and encouraged by a magnificent institution. And some of the best people in the business are on this project.’ It will be her first time working with Kosky and her second with Antonio Pappano. ‘I’m rising to the challenge the best way I can.’

Although she says that Sieglinde has come to her sooner than she imagined it might, she nevertheless sees herself as a lyric rather than a dramatic soprano. ‘I would never, ever go bigger than Sieglinde,’ she says. ‘I want always to keep it lyrical. I would never want to aim for something above my limits. And I wouldn’t ignore the Verdi repertoire, which I haven’t really touched upon yet. There’s a plethora of roles under the lyric umbrella that I haven’t explored yet, and also many I have done which I would love to repeat.’

I can’t resist mentioning that about 20 years ago, another singer told me something remarkably similar in an interview. Her name was Nina Stemme. Romaniw laughs, but sticks to her stance. ‘What I would really love,’ she confesses, ‘is a performance for Lise to sing Brünnhilde and for me to sing Sieglinde.’

Listening to her in Festen, I was mesmerised by Romaniw’s laser-focused, lit-from-within sound. She has always appeared to perform straight from the heart, with an emotional directness that grabs her audiences and holds them fast, but with the years her voice has been growing – she credits her recent pregnancy for deepening the tone – and her artistry with it.

When she made her Royal Opera House debut as Tosca in 2022, it was as a late replacement for Anna Netrebko. ‘During Covid, my agent called me and asked if I’d cover the role,’ she says, ‘but then it turned out Netrebko was no longer doing it … It was the famous Jonathan Kent production, which I’d seen many times starring people like Sondra [Radvanovsky] and Bryn [Terfel] – so that was a real moment! I had quite a lot of Toscas under my belt already and it was less intimidating to make my Covent Garden debut in a role that I’ve studied hard.’

She tackled opening night via a process of intense visualisation. ‘It takes the anxiety out of it if you can visualise every single moment first, from being in the wings to your first entrance and then how you navigate, internalising your thoughts and feelings. You’ve already mapped them out when you go on. Subsequent performances I’ve been quite nervous for, but at my debut I was thankfully very calm – which is a miracle, because it doesn’t always happen like that.’

Whatever she did, it worked. When she reprised the role last year, the Times critic Neil Fisher lavished her with praise: ‘I think Callas would give a regal blessing to Natalya Romaniw’s imperious portrayal of the title role. The Swansea soprano first donned Tosca’s frocks in this production in 2022 but now she owns the garb.’

The main musical influence in Romaniw’s family was her Ukrainian grandfather. ‘He would always be singing, playing his accordion, and back in his day he was also a Cossack dancer. He’d learned all of this with no instruction. But my mum also recognised that I loved music. I was always playing Calamity Jane, West Side Story, Fiddler on the Roof, those old musicals, and I’d always be singing and dancing. So my mum sent me for singing lessons.’

While she was preparing for ABRSM exams, it emerged that her voice was better suited to classical music than to musicals. Nevertheless, of four music college auditions she only won places at two; she thinks her lack of training in aural tests let her down. ‘And I had never seen an opera until I went to Guildhall. I was learning as I went along.’ At the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World Competition 2009 she reached the finals of the Song Prize, but she felt this opportunity was premature upon spotting the impressive CVs of other contestants. In contrast, she was just embarking on her opera course.

Indeed, Romaniw is no stranger to the school of hard knocks. In the past she has been remarkably open about the mental health issues that can result from blows to a performer’s confidence. Everything had begun well when, at home in Swansea, she took part in amateur dramatics, performing in the musicals she loved: ‘That stage gave me the courage to express myself. I remember coming to Guildhall completely fearless. I think most young performers are, because nothing has really gone wrong. There’s no expectation, there’s no pressure; those only get greater as you climb the ladder.

‘I wish I could bottle that fearlessness. I suppose I was quite cocky, without meaning to be – but I didn’t care, I would do anything, and thought that I could do everything too, without question. Sometimes I wonder where she’s gone.

‘I had too many blips, and they’re really hard to recover from. It’s so easy to just obsess about them. Rarely do other people notice these things that go wrong, but to you, they feel mammoth and you can’t stop doing the post mortem. It’s obviously ingrained in us to be our own worst enemy.’ The result, for her, was a serious phase of stage fright. ‘It was crippling. Horrible.’

Natalya Romaniw as Helena with Marta Fontanals-Simmons as Linda in Mark Anthony Turnage’s Festen 

The trouble started while she was a member of the Houston Grand Opera Studio, which she had chosen from three young artist programmes that offered her places, the others being the Met and the Royal Opera House. By then she had won both the Loveday Song Prize and First Prize at the 2012 Kathleen Ferrier Awards, and the Gold Medal at Guildhall. ‘I was just like, “What could go wrong?” And then I had to restructure my vocal technique, because I realised that I didn’t really have one.

‘That did some psychological damage, because it was like restructuring who I was, as I ploughed so much into my singing. My singing was always the constant. I found myself being very frightened to sing there, which was a shame, because I had a very good contract.’ Once, singing Micaëla in Carmen, she felt so ‘riddled with nerves’ that Ana María Martínez, in the title role, sat in the wings and told her to sing the Act 3 aria to her, reminding her that Micaëla is meant to be frightened. ‘She helped me so much!’

‘I’m pleased that I chose Houston, which wasn’t as exposed as the Met or Covent Garden. I had a good teacher there who taught me basically how to sing, and amazing vocal coaches and directors. Everyone was sympathetic and helpful. But it did take its toll on me and I remember someone saying, “Look, sweetie, if it makes you unhappy, you gotta give up”. That didn’t feel right.’ Eventually she left: ‘I really needed some space.’

She decided to work systematically on her own, which she felt restored some of her confidence. ‘In a young artists programme, you’re so dependent on people saying, “Yes, that’s good,” or “No, you must do it this way”. When there are too many cooks, it’s overwhelming. All young singers want to do is to be the best and please everyone. And you just can’t.

‘I relaxed a little bit and went very slowly, which is a good thing. I had to ease back, with my confidence growing and my singing as well. That came with being supported and encouraged by all the conductors and directors that I worked with, primarily here in the UK, people who have really helped me to grow over the years post Houston. It’s been a learning curve and a slow burn – but I think it had to be.’

Natalya Romaniw as Tosca in the Royal Opera’s 2024 production

There is no part of the UK more associated with singing than Wales, of course, and Romaniw is distressed by the plight of opera there – and elsewhere in the country – in the wake of swingeing government cuts.

‘Music was a massive part of my upbringing at home and at school, where I’d always get up and do a poem, sing a song, play the flute. Music lessons were normal. And now they’re not so normal; it’s become a luxury that schools have access to them.

‘The state of the arts is really sad. I hate what they’ve done to ENO – it was such an institution. There were changes that needed to be made, but I don’t think cutting the funding was one of them.

‘Their hands are literally tied now. And Welsh National Opera – it breaks my heart to see that they have to dwindle the chorus down. What opera can you do in that space with only 20 people in the chorus? St David’s Hall has closed too and now it’s like walking around a ghost town of somewhere that formerly boomed with arts and culture. I don’t know what to do, other than champion all these companies whenever I can.’ As for the effects of Brexit: ‘What a mess!’ But Britain is not the only place in trouble; Germany is now starting to feel the pinch. ‘I’ve just lost a contract there because a production of Andrea Chenier was cancelled.’

Today Natalya Romaniw has, in herself, reached a very different place: ‘This year has been transformational,’ she says. She is happily settled with her husband and their toddler, Tedi, and in addition to Sieglinde is preparing for landmark events next season, including her debut at La Scala in Shostakovich’s Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk (a subsidiary role, also covering the title role), and singing Festen for its co-commissioners, Finnish National Opera. I ask if she has a regime for looking after her voice. ‘Other than not getting wasted every night, no,’ she says, laughing. ‘I tend to think: happy person, happy voice.’

This featured originally appeared in the Summer 2025 issue of Opera Now – Subscribe today!