Romanian soprano Angela Gheorghiu has withdrawn from the opera "Faust" by Gounod, which will premiere this fall at the prestigious Metropolitan Opera in New York. The Romanian soprano was replaced by Russian Marina Poplavskaya.  The withdrawal was due to artistic reasons, according to the New York Times. Angela Gheorghiu's manager Jack Mastroianni said that the soprano cannot remain in the cast of the show whose action was moved from the nineteenth century to the First World War.

The withdrawal from “Faust” comes just a week after Angela Gheorghiu decided not to appear in “Romeo and Juliet”, also staged at the Metropolitan Opera, citing health issues. Angela Gheorghiu graduated from the Conservatory of Bucharest and is considered one of the most valuable voices of the world opera scene. She debuted in 1992, at the Royal Opera House stage in London, in “La Bohème”.

The soprano has won numerous awards and was named artist of the year in 2001 and 2010, at the Classical Brit Awards. Read our Famous Romanians article on Angela Gheorghiu here. More about Angela Gheorghiu on her website.

Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com