Adela Zaharia

Adela Zaharia (; born 1987) is a Romanian operatic soprano. She is currently a soloist at the Deutsche Oper am Rhein, Düsseldorf. In 2017, Zaharia took first place at the Operalia, The World Opera Competition.
Early life and education.
Born in Arad, Romania, Zaharia started studying piano when she was six and later music theory. She started singing with the church and high school choir. According to Silvia Demian, former director of the Sabin Drăgoi College of Art where Zaharia studied, the soprano's "lucky star" was meeting Mariana Nicolesco during a National Music Olympiad, which she won.
Zaharia got her bachelor's degree and a master's degree, both from Gheorghe Dima Music Academy where she studied voice and piano with Marius Budoiu.
Career.
Zaharia made her debut in 2010 with the Romanian National Opera, Cluj-Napoca as Gilda in "Rigoletto", followed by Norina in "Don Pasquale", Musetta in "La bohème", and Michaela in "Carmen".
From 2012 to 2014 Zaharia was an ensemble member of the Komische Oper Berlin, where she performed as Musetta ("La bohème"), Pamina ("The Magic Flute"), Donna Anna ("Don Giovanni"), Helena ("A Midsummer Night's Dream") and Micaëla ("Carmen"). Other roles include Donna Anna ("Don Giovanni"), Norina's ("Don Pasquale") and Gilda's ("Rigoletto") repertoire. Since the 2015/16 season, Zaharia has been a member of the Deutsche Oper am Rhein, where she performed as Snow Queen in "The Snow Queen", Najade in "Ariadne auf Naxos" "Lucia di Lammermoor", Konstanze (Mozart's "The Abduction from the Seraglio"), (Mozart's "Don Giovanni") among others. In the 2017/18 season she will perform as Le Feu in "L'enfant et les sortilèges", Gilda, Lucia and Konstanze. Guest engagements include Zaharia as Pamina at the Komische Oper Berlin; Gilda in "Rigoletto" and Violetta in "La traviata" at the Los Angeles Opera.
In December 2017 she gave her debut as Lucia at the Bavarian State Opera in Munich, Germany, substituting for Diana Damrau, who withdrew due to illness. As of 2018, she continues to collaborate with Komische Oper Berlin and has been debuting on stages such as Gran Teatre del Liceu Barcelona, Bolshoi Theatre Moscow, Edinburgh International Festival and Shanghai Grand Theatre.
Additional 2017/18 season include her debut as Elisabetta in "Roberto Devereux" at the Frankfurt's Opera and Play House, her debut at the George Enescu Festival with the mad scene from Iain Bell’s "A Harlot's Progress" and a three-week tour in Japan, where she will play Pamina in "Die Zauberflote". Zaharia is also scheduled to perform with Plácido Domingo at a concert with the Jalisco Philharmonic Orchestra in Guadalajara.
Prizes.
She was a winner of the Hariclea Darclée Festival and International Voice Competition in 2012. In 2017, she won first prize and the Zarzuela Prize of the Operalia, The World Opera Competition, held that year in Astana, Kazakhstan. Euronews, in an article about Placido Domingo's Operalia 2017, praised Zaharia as being "the true revelation of the competition".