A native of Bulgaria, Svetla Vassileva boasts a wide operatic repertoire. She sang Liù in Turandot for the Los Angeles Opera, the Vienna State Opera, San Francisco Opera, and the New Israeli Opera, Violetta in La traviata in Florence and in Japan with Mehta, at Covent Garden, Verona and in Liège, Alice Ford in Falstaff in Bologna with Gatti, and the title rôle of Cendrillon at the Grand Théâtre de Genève.

Other performances have included Adina in L’elisir d’amore at Washington Opera and in Genoa, Gilda in a new production of Rigoletto at Florence’s Teatro Comunale, Mimì in La Bohème in Toulon, Micaela in Carmen at the Arena di Verona, and Desdemona in Otello at the Rome Opera and at La Scala, Milan, with Manon Lescaut and Mimì in Turin.

She has performed the rôle of Nedda in Pagliacci for the Rome Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Grand Théâtre de Genève, both the Ravenna Festival and Covent Garden opposite Plácido Domingo, Catania’s Teatro Bellini with Daniel Oren, and at the Teatro Comunale in Florence with Bartoletti. She has also filmed Pagliacci opposite Roberto Alagna.