Tomowa-Sintow began studying piano at age six. At sixteen she won a national singing competition. She later attended the
National Conservatory of Sofia, where she studied voice with Professor Georgi Zlatev-Tcherkin and soprano Katia Spiridonowa and graduated with diplomas in voice and piano, making her stage debut, for her master class finals, as Tatiana in
Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin. Upon graduation, she joined the Opera Studio of the
Leipzig Opera, where, in 1967, she made her professional debut as Abigaille in Verdi's
Nabucco. While with this company she built up her repertoire with the leading roles in Puccini's
Madama Butterfly and
Manon Lescaut; Verdi's
La traviata,
Il trovatore, and
Otello; Mozart's
Don Giovanni; Strauss's
Arabella; and
Werner Egk's
Die Zaubergeige. For many of these roles she studied with the company's music director, Professor Paul Schmitz, who had studied with Richard Strauss. In 1972, she was invited to join the
Deutsche Staatsoper Berlin, where she was named
Kammersängerin during her very first year. In Berlin she continued to expand her repertoire with leading roles in Mozart's
The Marriage of Figaro and
Così fan tutte, Verdi's
Aida, Puccini's
Tosca, Tchaikovsky's
Eugene Onegin, Wagner's
Tannhäuser and
Lohengrin, and Strauss's
Ariadne auf Naxos and
Der Rosenkavalier. She is also a
Kammersängerin of the
Vienna State Opera. In 1973, Tomowa-Sintow auditioned for conductor Herbert von Karajan for the upcoming world premiere of
Carl Orff's
De temporum fine comœdia at the
Salzburg Festival. He hired her immediately, and for the next sixteen years, the two worked frequently together in opera houses, concert halls, and recording studios around the world. Karajan called Tomowa-Sintow "the greatest talent I have encountered over the past years." From 1973 through 1991, Tomowa-Sintow was a permanent guest of the Salzburg Festival. With that maestro, she recorded
Le nozze di Figaro (1978),
Lohengrin (opposite
René Kollo and
Dunja Vejzovic, 1976–81) and
Der Rosenkavalier (with
Agnes Baltsa and
Janet Perry, 1982). Tomowa-Sintow made her
San Francisco Opera debut in 1974, as Donna Anna in
Don Giovanni; her
Covent Garden debut in 1975, as Fiordiligi in
Così fan tutte; her
Metropolitan Opera debut in 1978 and her
Lyric Opera of Chicago debut in 1980, both as Donna Anna; and her
La Scala debut in 1982, as Elsa in
Lohengrin. Her recording of
Ariadne auf Naxos with
James Levine and the
Vienna Philharmonic won the 1988
Grammy Award for Best Opera Recording. ==Discography==