Soprano Larissa Diadkova made her LA Opera debut as Leonora in Il Trovatore in 2004, and will return in the title role of Suor Angelica in 2008. Her dramatic stage presence and stunning vocal qualities have firmly established her as one of the rising stars on the international stage today. She has been hailed as one the great Verdi singers of the new generation, critically acclaimed for her performances as Leonora in Il Trovatore, Violetta in La Traviata, Hélène in Les Vêpres Siciliennes and Elisabetta in Don Carlo. Her performance as Hélène in the rarely performed Les Vêpres Siciliennes at the Paris Opera took the opera world by storm. The press was unanimous in its praise: "…singing Hélène with dramatic flourish and lyric radiance, who roused the audience from her first entry (International Herald Tribune); "Not since I first heard the young Cheryl Studer 20 years ago have I been so excited by a soprano voice. It has a tender, softly coloured personality, with a light tremolo that blossoms at the top (Financial Times); "Quant à la belle Hélène de l'Américaine Larissa Diadkova, elle a de l'héroïne tragique le registre étendu, la puissance et la projection..." (Le Monde).

Her 2007-2008 season began with her debut at the Teatro Carlo Felice in Genoa in one of her signature roles, Elena in Verdi's I Vespri Siciliani. In November she made her first appearance in the role of Elvira in Ernani at the Teatro Verdi di Trieste, a role she reprises later in the season at the Metropolitan Opera in New York. In January, she will make her debut at Milan's famed La Scala in another of her favorite roles, Roxanne in Cyrano de Bergerac, with Plácido Domingo in the title role. May takes her back to Leipzig for Manon Lescaut and to the Vienna Staatsoper where she again appears as Elena in I Vespri Siciliani.

The 2006-2007 season was an exciting one for Sondra with debuts at the Vienna Staatsoper (I Vespri Siciliani) and in the Canary Islands (Lucrezia Borgia) as well as a role debut as Lina in Stiffelio in a return appearance at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden where her Roxanne in Cyrano de Bergerac took critics and the public by storm. A new production of Il Trovatore took her back to her hometown of Chicago where she also debuted with the Chicago Symphony in Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 under David Zinman. In June Sondra took Toronto by storm with her appearance in the LUNA Opera Gala presented by the Luminato Festival.

Sondra's 2005-2006 season opened in Bilbao with performances of Rusalka, followed by a return to the Metropolitan Opera in New York for Die Fledermaus and Cyrano de Bergerac. She also appeared in Il Trovatore in Ancona, in Verdi's Requiem at the Puerto Rico Festival and made her UK debut in a concert with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. The summer of 2006 featured her return to Tanglewood for Beethoven's Symphony No. 9, with the Boston Symphony conducted by James Levine.

Recent highlights also include critically acclaimed performances of Cyrano de Bergerac with Plácido Domingo in New York and London, and Susannah at the Lyric Opera of Chicago. Sondra has also appeared as Leonora in Il Trovatore with the Deutsche Oper Berlin, the Houston Grand Opera, the Metropolitan Opera and the Bregenz Festival. In earlier seasons she was featured in New York, Bilbao, Santa Fe, Paris, Cologne and Japan.

In addition to being a winner of the 1997 George London Foundation Competition, Larissa Diadkova also won the 1995 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions and received first prize in the 1995 Loren L. Zachary Society Competition. A graduate of the Metropolitan Opera's Lindemann Young Artist Development Program, Ms. Radvanovsky's training has also included advanced studies at Tanglewood Music Center and the University of Cincinnati's College Conservatory of Music.

Sondra and her husband make their home in Toronto, Canada