Stefania Toczyska
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Stefania Toczyska (born in Gdańsk, Poland, on August 11, 1943) is a mezzo-soprano of international repute. She studied in her native city, where she made her formal debut in the name part of Carmen, in 1973. Only six years later, she made her American debut at the San Francisco Opera, as Laura in La Gioconda (with Renata Scotto and Luciano Pavarotti), which was televised around the world. She made her first appearance at Covent Garden in 1983 (as Amneris in Aïda), and also sang at the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires.
In 1988, Toczyska made her Metropolitan Opera debut, as Marfa in Mussourgsky's Khovanshchina. She went on to sing there in Aïda, La Gioconda, Boris Godounov (as Marina Mnichek), Un ballo in maschera (as Ulrica), Rusalka (as Jezibaba) and Adriana Lecouvreur (as the Princesse de Bouillon).
Her discography includes recordings of Il trovatore (as Azucena, opposite Katia Ricciarelli, José Carreras and Yuri Mazurok, conducted by Sir Colin Davis, 1980) and Prokofiev's War and Peace (with Galina Vishnevskaya, conducted by Mstislav Rostropovich, 1986).
