ANDREA ROST has emerged as one of the most compelling lyric sopranos of her day. The Hungarian-born singer achieved international prominence in less than a decade after graduating from the Budapest Music Conservatory in 1989, winning acclaim for her performances in leading roles with the Vienna State Opera, La Scala, the Royal Opera House at Covent Garden, the Paris Opera, the Metropolitan Opera and the Salzburg Festival.

In 1997 Sony Classical released Rost's first solo recording, Le delizie dell'amor, featuring arias from bel canto, Verdi, and Puccini operas, with Sir Charles Mackerras conducting the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. It marks the beginning of the soprano's exclusive association with Sony Classical. During the summer of 1997, she reunited with Mackerras for a landmark recording of Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor, based on the composer's autograph manuscript of the score. Sony Classical released the recording in summer 1998. Rost can also be heard in the live Sony Classical recording of Verdi's Rigoletto from La Scala, with Riccardo Muti conducting.

In 1997, she returned to La Scala twice, for Le nozze di Figaro and for La traviata, where she had opened the previous season as Pamina in Die Zauberflöte (all three appearances there were under the direction of Riccardo Muti). She also starred in the first modern performance of Donizetti's Elisabetta for London's Royal Opera, conducted by Carlo Rizzi at the Royal Festival Hall; returned to Japan for La traviata; and sang Rossini's Stabat Mater with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra in Munich. In the summer of 1998 she performed in concert with the Vienna Philharmonic and Muti in Salzburg, and then in Graz and Zurich - in Schumann's Das Paradies und die Peri - with Nikolaus Harnoncourt. Most recently she was enthusiastically acclaimed for both her appearance at the Hollywood Bowl (singing arias by Mozart, Lehár, and J. Strauss) and her La traviata debut with Zurich Opera.

She has also appeared at Covent Garden as Susanna and Violetta, and at the Paris Opera as Susanna, Lucia, and Gilda. At the Salzburg Festival she has participated in new productions of La traviata with Muti, Die Frau ohne Schatten with Sir Georg Solti, and L'incoronazione di Poppea with Harnoncourt.

In concert performances Andrea Rost enjoyed her first great success with Mozart's Mass in C minor under the baton of Helmuth Rilling in 1987. Two years later she won the Mirjam Helin Competition in Helsinki. After graduating the same year from the Budapest Music Conservatory, she became a member of the Hungarian State Opera company. Her debut at the Budapest Opera in the role of Juliette in Gounod's Romeo et Juliette was highly acclaimed by public and critics alike.