The scene is straight out of a romantic novel: a beautiful young singer is about to give one of the most important solo performances of her career. Standing beside her is a tall, dark stranger, poised to conduct the orchestra. Their eyes lock and their hearts begin to race as the music starts to swirl around them. Love is in the air. And of course, Reader, she marries him.

Sonya Yoncheva is one of opera’s most distinguished sopranos these days, but back in 2009, when our story begins, she was a 28-year-old voice student at Geneva’s Music Conservatoire, where she met her future husband, conductor Domingo Hindoyan, while giving an orchestral recital for her Master’s degree. ‘It’s so ironic,’ says Yoncheva. ‘We’d been studying and rehearsing in the same building in Geneva for six years, but we never met except on the very last day, when I was doing my final exam.’

Was it really love at first sight? ‘There was an immediate connection,’ Hindoyan recalls, ‘but we were young, and commitment was the last thing on our minds. In fact, we didn’t meet again for almost five years.’

Soprano Sonya Yoncheva was sprung to fame after winning the 2010 Operalia competition (photo: Victor Santiago)

So the wedding bells had to wait while there was serious career-building to be done, with Yoncheva in the fast lane. Winning first prize in the prestigious Operalia competition in 2010 opened the doors to an international career. Casting directors took note of an exceptionally versatile soprano with great vocal beauty, stage presence and intelligence, along with a repertoire that ranges effortlessly from Handel to Puccini. In 2013, she was catapulted into the limelight when she stepped last-minute into the role of Gilda in Verdi’s Rigoletto at the Metropolitan Opera.

In the same year came another life-changing moment, this time in Berlin at an audition for the role of Violetta in Verdi’s La traviata. Conducting for the audition was the charming young man who had made such an impression on her at her finals recital in Geneva. Domingo Hindoyan had been quietly learning his craft as assistant to Daniel Barenboim at Berlin’s Staatsoper. This time things progressed with almost indecent haste – they weren’t about to lose each other again. Within a year, they were married and had had their first child.

Why the hurry? ‘You know, we are artists, musicians, and to be honest we don’t think too hard about why we do what we do,’ Hindoyan laughs. ‘We’re motivated by love and passion in our careers. And we apply that same passion to our relationships. So we just went for it!’

Domingo Hindoyan conducting the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, where he is chief conductor (photo: John Millar)

The world of music is famously littered with broken marriages between great artists unable to find the right work/life balance. How does this couple manage the practicalities? ‘Of course there has to be a level of organisation, to make time to meet and be together,’ says Hindoyan. ‘But when you’re young, you’re really not conscious of all the difficulties that artists face in their life. For us it was just important to be together. We needed to be together. The logistics came later.’

With the arrival of their son Matteo (now 10) and, five years later, their daughter Sofia, working out the practicalities and responsibilities of marriage became important. The pair have set up home just outside Geneva, a city that has in fact been part of their lives for the past 25 years. ‘It’s such a good base for us,’ says Yoncheva. ‘It’s an international hub – we can fly to most places around the world for our careers. More than that, it’s a safe place for our kids, with good schools, and it’s easy for me to get home to Bulgaria, and for Domingo to go back and forth to Liverpool.’

Hindoyan was appointed chief conductor of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra in 2021. It’s a long way from Caracas, where he was born into a mixed Venezuelan/Armenian family, and where he studied violin, playing in the inspirational El Sistema Orchestra. The stability of having a permanent post in Liverpool has allowed him to programme annual concerts with his wife, exploring rare repertoire that has so far included the La Canzone di Ricordi by Giuseppe Martucci (known as the ‘Italian Brahms’) and Chausson’s rapturous Poème de l’amour et de la mer (available on Medici TV). In May this year, Hindoyan and Yoncheva appeared together with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic in ‘A Celebration of Puccini’, a composer close to both their hearts.

The bond between them gives these Liverpool performances a special emotional energy and depth which is drawing in audiences beyond the usual classical music crowd. You can sense it even behind the scenes, in the the filmed introductions to their concerts (see YouTube) where there is a cosy, informal ease that makes you feel like an eavesdropper.

Yoncheva and Hindoyan celebrate 10 years of marriage in July (photo: Victor Santiago)

How blurred do the boundaries between life and art become when they work together? Yoncheva is candid in her response: ‘Making music is the same as making love – lots of musicians feel it. It’s a very intimate act. You may not know each other in real life, but when you go on stage you have to be totally open and naked – to show something of what is inside you. With Domingo, when we first made music together, there was sense that we already knew each other.’

For Hindoyan, his wife provides a deep well of inspiration from which he constantly draws: ‘Forget about being just a singer – Sonya is an extremely skilled, talented and instinctive musician. Her phrasing is always right, all the analysis is always right, and I learn a lot from that. Vocally there’s a universe of knowledge that I’m imbibing. It’s not something that I can articulate – in fact it happens often passively. I’m just absorbing the way she breathes and expresses herself. I get spoilt, because I have this extraordinary voice living with me at home and I see how fast she learns and how logical everything is… Then I expect that from everybody I work with.’

Yoncheva says that she was aware, before she met Domingo, of the ‘famous wars between maestros and singers – especially operatic divas.’ But living with a conductor made her aware of the great responsibilities that lie on their shoulders. ‘They really are the epicentre of everything going on stage and backstage and everywhere. And they hold this responsibility in their arms and their bodies – I feel it in Domingo.’

In spite of their mutual admiration, the couple rarely work together. Hindoyan explains that this is a matter of policy: ‘From the beginning of the relationship, we had to decide are we to make music together or not? Should we become the “Celebrity Soprano-Conductor Sensation” and go around the world together in that way. Our decision at the time was a big “No”. We should have separate careers and respect each other’s path. So we have never imposed ourselves on each other.’

‘We don’t work together automatically,’ Yoncheva adds. ‘And when we do work together these days, it’s often based on whether our children are on school holidays so they can be with us. So it’s not just the two of us together, but all four of us together.’

Family life is never going to be ‘normal’ when your parents are international celebrity artists. ‘It’s not always easy for a kid to understand what their parents do as classical musicians,’ says Yoncheva. ‘They basically want mummy and daddy at home and with them. So it’s important for them to know why we’re not at home. We try to bring music into our kids’ lives and take them to our performances whenever we can, so that they know what Domingo and I are really all about. I’m often amazed at their reaction. It’s very hard to keep children quiet, but when they have a massive sound coming from an orchestra, or when they hear me singing an opera, they’ll sit still for three hours, no problem. And at the end of a performance, the first loud cheers we often hear are from our kids!’

Both Yoncheva and her husband are passionate advocates of the vital role that music should play in childhood and education. Hindoyan has brought his life-changing experiences with Venezuela’s El Sistema to the RLPO’s ‘In Harmony’ programme which works with underprivileged children across Liverpool. He sees music as a vital part of learning self-discipline, good mental health and resilience, providing an antidote to the all-consuming tyranny of social media: ‘When I was growing up in Venezuela, I had less temptation from screens and I’d spend hours on my violin. These days, people’s concentration span is so much shorter. For kids to sit down and study for two to three hours on an instrument seems like a huge commitment to them. We need much more engagement from the parents and from schools.’

Yoncheva meanwhile has an official campaigning role for children’s education through her work as Bulgaria’s Children’s Ambassador for Unicef. ‘The impact of music on life begins before most of us know,’ she says. ‘When I was nine months pregnant, I attended a concert with Barenboim playing a piano concerto, and I could feel Matteo responding in a very lively way in my womb! The role that music education has in so many children’s life is principally psychological in its impact. It’s important to give children an experience of communicating which doesn’t belong to words or to numbers, but to the imagination.’

The experience of lockdown had a profound and largely positive affect on both Hindoyan and Yoncheva – not just because they got to spend precious time at home with their young children, but because it gave them the mental space to consolidate their values and their musical futures. Yoncheva began to develop projects through her production company SY11 Events, which brings stellar names from the opera world to Bulgaria, including Joyce DiDonato, Piotr Beczała, Vittorio Grigolo and Rolando Villazón. The focus is on popular programmes attracting large, diverse audiences to the historic town of Plovdiv, where Yoncheva was born. Coming soon will be the couple’s first complete opera recording together for the SY11 label: Puccini’s Tosca, based on a live performance that took place in Plovdiv in June. London audiences can hear her as Puccini’s heroine (one of her all-time favourite roles) when she appears as Tosca at the Royal Opera in July.

Since lockdown ended, the couple’s schedule has become insane. Sitting them down in the same place at the same time for this interview was incredibly elusive. In the days before we met, one or the other could be found performing in Japan, the Middle East and almost every major European cultural capital. April saw Yoncheva’s first visit to Venezuela to perform with Hindoyan in Caracas – and a chance to interact with her husband’s family in their home for the first time.

The pair have come through their first decade as a married couple with flying colours. You can help them celebrate by raising a glass on their wedding anniversary on 25 July. Seeing them interacting together, the relationship seems solid, physically close, and full of each other’s praises. Can it really all be so rosy? ‘Oh, don’t think for a second that we agree on everything!’ laughs Domingo. And Yoncheva readily concurs: ‘We disagree all the time! And that’s the beauty of our relationship. We argue about each and every thing, from raising our children to the finer points of musical interpretation. But that’s normal and it’s healthy, because though we tend to disagree in the beginning, when we bring our opinions together and really talk things through, we are able to construct something rather beautiful.’ 

This article originally appeared in the Autumn 2024 issue of Opera Now. Never miss an issue – subscribe today