Yvonne Kenny when she replaced, with only four days' notice, the soprano scheduled to sing in an Opera Rara concert performance of Donizetti's "Rosmonda d'Inghilterra" at the Queen Elizabeth Hall. It was a triumph and the virtually unknown Kenny became an overnight star. She made her debut at the Royal Opera House the following year, in the premiere of Hans Werner Henze's "We Come to the River", later singing in Handel operas such as: "Semele", "Alcina", "Giulio Cesare", and such Mozart operas as: "Idomeneo", "Mitridate, re di Ponto", "La clemenza di Tito", "The Abduction from the Seraglio", "The Magic Flute". She also
Ileana Cotrubaș study at the "Școala Specială de Muzică" school for the musically gifted. Cotrubaș made her stage debut with the Bucharest Opera as Yniold in Debussy's "Pelléas et Mélisande" in 1964. She subsequently expanded her repertory to include roles such as Oscar in "Un ballo in maschera", Gilda in "Rigoletto", and Blondchen in "The Abduction from the Seraglio" and began appearing in productions throughout Europe. In 1965, Cotrubaș won an important competition in 's-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands where she won first prize in opera, lieder, and oratorio. The following year, she won a radio-television competition in Munich. Those awards, together with her great