Amanda Forsythe
Encyclopedia
Amanda Forsythe is an award winning American light lyric soprano who is particularly admired for her interpretations of baroque music
and the works of Rossini. Forsythe has received continued critical acclaim from many publications including Opera News
, The New York Times
, The Wall Street Journal
and the Boston Globe.
. She entered Vassar College
in 1994 where she initially studied Marine Biology
. Forsythe graduated from Vassar in 1998 with a degree in music and went on to graduate studies in vocal performance at the New England Conservatory of Music
. While there she was a student of Mary Ann Hart and Susan Clickner. Ironically, Forsythe was not accepted into the conservatory's opera
workshop program so the soprano ended up seeking performance opportunities elsewhere while continuing to study at NECM. Forsythe ended up performing in a production of Cavalli
's Giasone
at Harvard University
. This production impacted Forsythe's life positively in both professional and personal ways. The opera introduced her to her husband, conductor Edward Elwyn Jones
(they met while doing this opera and married in the summer of 2005) and Martin Pearlman
, the director of Boston Baroque
. Pearlman came to one of the opera's performances and was so intrigued by Forsythe's performance that he asked her to come and audition. Forsythe has subsequently been cast in numerous productions with the company.
In 2003, she was the winner of the George London Foundation Awards and the second place winner of the Liderkranz Foundation competition. Forsythe received an honorable mention in the 2005 Walter W. Naumburg Foundation
Awards. She was also a vocal fellow at Tanglewood Music Center
for two summers and has apprenticed at Chicago's Ravinia Festival and the Caramoor Festival. At Tanglewood, she originated the role of young Margarita in the world premiere of Osvaldo Golijov
's Ainadamar
and replaced Dawn Upshaw
in the lead role for one performance.
In the 2002-2003 season, Forsythe performed the role of Cleopatra in Handel
's Giulio Cesare in Egitto with Hudson Opera Theatre. She also performed the role of Amore in Monteverdi's Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria
with Boston Baroque.
In the 2003-2004 season, Forsythe performed Bach
's Wedding and Coffee Cantatas and the role of Oberto in Handel's Alcina
with Boston Baroque.
She also made her debut at the Caramoor Festival in two productions created by the Handel and Haydn Society
. These included the role of Cendrillon in Pauline Viardot's Cendrillon
, and as Un Trojano in Gluck's Paride ed Elena
.
In the 2004-2005 season, Forsythe performed the role of Serpina in Pergolesi
's La serva padrona
with Boston Baroque.
In the 2005-2006 season, Forsythe made her debut with Opera Boston
and Opera Unlimited as the Angel in Peter Eötvös
's Angels in America
. She also sang various roles in Boston Baroque's production of Purcell
's The Fairy-Queen
, including the role of the Chinese woman who sings the famous aria "Hark how the echoing air".
In the 2006-2007 season, Forsythe made her debut at the Boston Early Music Festival
performing the role of Aglaure in the North American premiere of Lully
's Psyché. She also recorded the role in the landmark first recording of this opera. In addition, she sang the role of Vagaus in Boston Baroque's production of Vivaldi's oratorio
Juditha triumphans
. She also sang Handel's Messiah
with the Charlotte Symphony
and Apollo's Fire
.
In the 2007-2008 season, Forsythe made her European debut singing Corinna in Rossini's Il viaggio a Reims
at the Rossini Opera Festival
in Pesaro
. She also made her debuts at the Grand Théâtre de Genève
and the Bayerische Staatsoper as Dalinda in Handel's Ariodante
, and returned to Opera Boston to perform the role of Iris in Handel's Semele. She also reprised the role of Young Margarita in Osvaldo Golijov's Ainadamar with the Calgary Philharmonic. In addition, Forsythe will perform Mahler's 2nd Symphony with the Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional de Mexico and will also make her debut at La Fenice
in a concert of Rossini arias.
In the 2008-2009 season, Forsythe is scheduled to sing Rosalia in Rossini's L'equivoco stravagante
and in a recital with Joyce DiDonato
at the Rossini Opera Festival
. She will also perform the role of Atalanta in Handel's Xerxes
with Boston Baroque, Venus in Blow
's Venus and Adonis
at the winter Boston Early Music Festival
, Barbarina in Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées
, and Ellenia in Christoph Graupner
's Antiochus und Stratonica at the summer Boston Early Music Festival. Adittionally, Forsythe will appear in concerts with the Netherlands Radio Symphony Orchestra, Apollo's Fire: the Cleveland Baroque Orchestra, Orquesta Sinfónica de Tenerife
, and at the Festival Casals.
Ms. Forsythe can be heard as Minerve and La Grande Pretresse on the Boston Early Music Festival recording of Lully's Thésée
, a nominee for the 50th Grammy awards.
Forsythe has also performed at the Harvard Early Music Society and with the Masterworks Chorale
, the Los Angeles Philharmonic
, the Rhode Island Philharmonic, the Florestan Project, the Omaha Symphony
, the Hartford Symphony
, the Louisiana Philharmonic
, and the Boston Chamber Music Society
among other organizations.
Baroque music
Baroque music describes a style of Western Classical music approximately extending from 1600 to 1760. This era follows the Renaissance and was followed in turn by the Classical era...
and the works of Rossini. Forsythe has received continued critical acclaim from many publications including Opera News
Opera News
Opera News is an American classical music magazine. It has been published since 1936 by the Metropolitan Opera Guild, a non-profit organization located at Lincoln Center which was founded to support the Metropolitan Opera of New York City...
, The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
, The Wall Street Journal
The Wall Street Journal
The Wall Street Journal is an American English-language international daily newspaper. It is published in New York City by Dow Jones & Company, a division of News Corporation, along with the Asian and European editions of the Journal....
and the Boston Globe.
Early life and education
Amanda Forsythe was born in 1976 in New York City and grew up on Roosevelt IslandRoosevelt Island
Roosevelt Island, known as Welfare Island from 1921 to 1973, and before that Blackwell's Island, is a narrow island in the East River of New York City. It lies between the island of Manhattan to its west and the borough of Queens to its east...
. She entered Vassar College
Vassar College
Vassar College is a private, coeducational liberal arts college in the town of Poughkeepsie, New York, in the United States. The Vassar campus comprises over and more than 100 buildings, including four National Historic Landmarks, ranging in style from Collegiate Gothic to International,...
in 1994 where she initially studied Marine Biology
Marine biology
Marine biology is the scientific study of organisms in the ocean or other marine or brackish bodies of water. Given that in biology many phyla, families and genera have some species that live in the sea and others that live on land, marine biology classifies species based on the environment rather...
. Forsythe graduated from Vassar in 1998 with a degree in music and went on to graduate studies in vocal performance at the New England Conservatory of Music
New England Conservatory of Music
The New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, Massachusetts, is the oldest independent school of music in the United States.The conservatory is home each year to 750 students pursuing undergraduate and graduate studies along with 1400 more in its Preparatory School as well as the School of...
. While there she was a student of Mary Ann Hart and Susan Clickner. Ironically, Forsythe was not accepted into the conservatory's opera
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
workshop program so the soprano ended up seeking performance opportunities elsewhere while continuing to study at NECM. Forsythe ended up performing in a production of Cavalli
Francesco Cavalli
Francesco Cavalli was an Italian composer of the early Baroque period. His real name was Pietro Francesco Caletti-Bruni, but he is better known by that of Cavalli, the name of his patron Federico Cavalli, a Venetian nobleman.-Life:Cavalli was born at Crema, Lombardy...
's Giasone
Giasone
Giasone is an opera in three acts and a prologue with music by Francesco Cavalli and a libretto by Giacinto Andrea Cicognini. It was premiered at the Teatro San Cassiano, Venice on 5 January 1649, during carnival. Giasone was "the single most popular opera of the 17th century"...
at Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
. This production impacted Forsythe's life positively in both professional and personal ways. The opera introduced her to her husband, conductor Edward Elwyn Jones
Edward Elwyn Jones
Edward Elwyn Jones is a Welsh conductor and organist.-Life and work:Jones studied music at Cambridge University, where he was Organ Scholar of Emmanuel College. He was also the conductor of three university orchestras...
(they met while doing this opera and married in the summer of 2005) and Martin Pearlman
Martin Pearlman
Martin Pearlman is an American conductor, harpsichordist, composer, and early-music specialist. In the1973-74 season, he founded Boston Baroque , the first permanent period-instrument orchestra in North America...
, the director of Boston Baroque
Boston Baroque
Boston Baroque is the oldest continuing period instrument orchestra in North America. It was founded in 1973 by the American harpsichordist and conductor, Martin Pearlman to present concerts of the Baroque and Classical repertoire on period instruments, drawing on the insights of the historical...
. Pearlman came to one of the opera's performances and was so intrigued by Forsythe's performance that he asked her to come and audition. Forsythe has subsequently been cast in numerous productions with the company.
In 2003, she was the winner of the George London Foundation Awards and the second place winner of the Liderkranz Foundation competition. Forsythe received an honorable mention in the 2005 Walter W. Naumburg Foundation
Walter W. Naumburg Foundation
The Walter W. Naumburg Foundation sponsors competitions and provides awards for young classical musicians in North America. It was founded in 1925 by Walter Wehle Naumburg, a wealthy amateur cellist and son of noted New York music patron and philanthropist Elkan Naumburg. Elkan Naumburg, owner of...
Awards. She was also a vocal fellow at Tanglewood Music Center
Tanglewood
Tanglewood is an estate and music venue in Lenox and Stockbridge, Massachusetts. It is the home of the annual summer Tanglewood Music Festival and the Tanglewood Jazz Festival, and has been the Boston Symphony Orchestra's summer home since 1937. It was the venue of the Berkshire Festival.- History...
for two summers and has apprenticed at Chicago's Ravinia Festival and the Caramoor Festival. At Tanglewood, she originated the role of young Margarita in the world premiere of Osvaldo Golijov
Osvaldo Golijov
Osvaldo Noé Golijov is a Grammy award–winning composer of classical music.-Biography:Osvaldo Golijov was born in and grew up in La Plata, Argentina, in a Jewish family that had emigrated to Argentina in the 1920s from Romania and Russia.Golijov has developed a rich musical language, the result of...
's Ainadamar
Ainadamar
Ainadamar means "Fountain of Tears" in Arabic, and is the first opera by Argentinian composer Osvaldo Golijov. The libretto is by American playwright David Henry Hwang. It premiered in Tanglewood on August 10, 2003. After major revisions, the new version premiered at the Santa Fe Opera on July 30,...
and replaced Dawn Upshaw
Dawn Upshaw
Dawn Upshaw is an American soprano described as "one of the most consequential performers of our time" by the Los Angeles Times. The recipient of several Grammy Awards and Edison Prize-winning discs, Upshaw is at home both in opera and art song, and in repertoire from Baroque to contemporary...
in the lead role for one performance.
Career
Forsythe made her professional debut in 2001 as Proserpina/Ninfa in Monteverdi's L'Orfeo with Boston Baroque.In the 2002-2003 season, Forsythe performed the role of Cleopatra in Handel
HANDEL
HANDEL was the code-name for the UK's National Attack Warning System in the Cold War. It consisted of a small console consisting of two microphones, lights and gauges. The reason behind this was to provide a back-up if anything failed....
's Giulio Cesare in Egitto with Hudson Opera Theatre. She also performed the role of Amore in Monteverdi's Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria
Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria
Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria is an opera in a prologue and five acts , set by Claudio Monteverdi to a libretto by Giacomo Badoaro. The opera was first performed at the Teatro Santi Giovanni e Paolo in Venice during the 1639–1640 carnival season...
with Boston Baroque.
In the 2003-2004 season, Forsythe performed Bach
Bạch
Bạch is a Vietnamese surname. The name is transliterated as Bai in Chinese and Baek, in Korean.Bach is the anglicized variation of the surname Bạch.-Notable people with the surname Bạch:* Bạch Liêu...
's Wedding and Coffee Cantatas and the role of Oberto in Handel's Alcina
Alcina
Alcina is an opera seria by George Frideric Handel. Handel used the libretto of L'isola di Alcina, an opera that was set in 1728 in Rome by Riccardo Broschi, which he acquired the year after, during his travels in Italy...
with Boston Baroque.
She also made her debut at the Caramoor Festival in two productions created by the Handel and Haydn Society
Handel and Haydn Society
The Handel and Haydn Society is an American chorus and period instrument orchestra based in Boston, Massachusetts. Founded in 1815, it remains one of the oldest performing arts organizations in the United States.-Early history:...
. These included the role of Cendrillon in Pauline Viardot's Cendrillon
Cendrillon (Viardot)
Cendrillon is a chamber comic opera with dialogue in three acts by Pauline Viardot based on the story of Cinderella. The work, for a cast of seven with piano orchestration, premiered in Viardot's Paris salon on 23 April 1904, when she was 83, and was published later that year...
, and as Un Trojano in Gluck's Paride ed Elena
Paride ed Elena
Paride ed Elena is an opera by Christoph Willibald Gluck, the third and final of his Italian reformist works, following Orfeo ed Euridice and Alceste. Like its predecessors, its libretto was written by Ranieri de' Calzabigi. The opera tells the story of the events between the Judgment of Paris and...
.
In the 2004-2005 season, Forsythe performed the role of Serpina in Pergolesi
Giovanni Battista Pergolesi
Giovanni Battista Pergolesi was an Italian composer, violinist and organist.-Biography:Born at Iesi, Pergolesi studied music there under a local musician, Francesco Santini, before going to Naples in 1725, where he studied under Gaetano Greco and Francesco Feo among others...
's La serva padrona
La serva padrona
La serva padrona is an opera buffa by Giovanni Battista Pergolesi to a libretto by Gennaro Antonio Federico, after the play by Jacopo Angello Nelli. The opera is only 45 minutes long and was originally performed as an intermezzo between the acts of a larger serious opera...
with Boston Baroque.
In the 2005-2006 season, Forsythe made her debut with Opera Boston
Opera Boston
Opera Boston is an opera company in Boston, Massachusetts. It specializes in innovative repertoire and rarely heard works, along with opera education and outreach programs designed to bring opera education to children, in schools and after-school programs throughout the Boston area.Its home base is...
and Opera Unlimited as the Angel in Peter Eötvös
Peter Eötvös
Péter Eötvös is a Hungarian composer and conductor.Eötvös was born in Odorheiu Secuiesc/Székelyudvarhely, Szeklerland, Transylvania . He studied composition in Budapest and Cologne. From 1962, he composed for film in Hungary. Eötvös played regularly with the Stockhausen Ensemble between 1968 and...
's Angels in America
Angels in America
Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes is the 1993 Pulitzer Prize winning play in two parts by American playwright Tony Kushner. It has been made into both a television miniseries and an opera by Peter Eötvös.-Characters:...
. She also sang various roles in Boston Baroque's production of Purcell
Henry Purcell
Henry Purcell – 21 November 1695), was an English organist and Baroque composer of secular and sacred music. Although Purcell incorporated Italian and French stylistic elements into his compositions, his legacy was a uniquely English form of Baroque music...
's The Fairy-Queen
The Fairy-Queen
The Fairy-Queen is a masque or semi-opera by Henry Purcell; a "Restoration spectacular". The libretto is an anonymous adaptation of William Shakespeare's wedding comedy A Midsummer Night's Dream. First performed in 1692, The Fairy-Queen was composed three years before Purcell's death at the age...
, including the role of the Chinese woman who sings the famous aria "Hark how the echoing air".
In the 2006-2007 season, Forsythe made her debut at the Boston Early Music Festival
Boston Early Music Festival
The Boston Early Music Festival is a music festival held every two years in Boston, Massachusetts, USA, for all people interested in historical music performance....
performing the role of Aglaure in the North American premiere of Lully
Jean-Baptiste Lully
Jean-Baptiste de Lully was an Italian-born French composer who spent most of his life working in the court of Louis XIV of France. He is considered the chief master of the French Baroque style. Lully disavowed any Italian influence in French music of the period. He became a French subject in...
's Psyché. She also recorded the role in the landmark first recording of this opera. In addition, she sang the role of Vagaus in Boston Baroque's production of Vivaldi's oratorio
Oratorio
An oratorio is a large musical composition including an orchestra, a choir, and soloists. Like an opera, an oratorio includes the use of a choir, soloists, an ensemble, various distinguishable characters, and arias...
Juditha triumphans
Juditha triumphans
Juditha triumphans devicta Holofernis barbarie translated as Judith triumphant over the barbarians of Holofernes, Vivaldi catalogue number RV 644, is an oratorio by Antonio Vivaldi, the only survivor of the four that he is known to have composed...
. She also sang Handel's Messiah
Messiah (Handel)
Messiah is an English-language oratorio composed in 1741 by George Frideric Handel, with a scriptural text compiled by Charles Jennens from the King James Bible and the Book of Common Prayer. It was first performed in Dublin on 13 April 1742, and received its London premiere nearly a year later...
with the Charlotte Symphony
Charlotte Symphony Orchestra
The Charlotte Symphony Orchestra is an American orchestra based in Charlotte, North Carolina. As the largest and most active professional performing arts organization in the central Carolinas, the Charlotte Symphony plays approximately 100 performances each season and employs 100 professional...
and Apollo's Fire
Apollo's Fire
Apollo's Fire, The Cleveland Baroque Orchestra is a popular and critically acclaimed period-instrument ensemble specializing in early music based in Cleveland, Ohio. The ensemble unites a select pool of early music specialists from throughout North America and Europe...
.
In the 2007-2008 season, Forsythe made her European debut singing Corinna in Rossini's Il viaggio a Reims
Il viaggio a Reims
Il viaggio a Reims, ossia L'albergo del giglio d'oro is an operatic dramma giocoso, originally performed in three acts, by Gioachino Rossini to an Italian libretto by Luigi Balocchi, based in part on Corinne, ou L'Italie by Mme de Staël.Rossini's last opera in the Italian language Il viaggio a...
at the Rossini Opera Festival
Rossini Opera Festival
The Rossini Opera Festival is an opera festival held in August of each year in Pesaro, Italy, the birthplace of the opera composer Gioachino Rossini....
in Pesaro
Pesaro
Pesaro is a town and comune in the Italian region of the Marche, capital of the Pesaro e Urbino province, on the Adriatic. According to the 2007 census, its population was 92,206....
. She also made her debuts at the Grand Théâtre de Genève
Grand Théâtre de Genève
Grand Théâtre de Genève is an opera house in Geneva, Switzerland.As with many other opera houses, the Grand Théâtre de Genève is both a venue and an institution. The venue is a majestic building, towering over Place Neuve, officially opened in 1876, partly destroyed by fire in 1951 and reopened in...
and the Bayerische Staatsoper as Dalinda in Handel's Ariodante
Ariodante
Ariodante is an opera seria in three acts by Handel. The anonymous Italian libretto was based on a work by Antonio Salvi, which in turn was adapted from Canti 5 and 6 of Ludovico Ariosto's Orlando Furioso...
, and returned to Opera Boston to perform the role of Iris in Handel's Semele. She also reprised the role of Young Margarita in Osvaldo Golijov's Ainadamar with the Calgary Philharmonic. In addition, Forsythe will perform Mahler's 2nd Symphony with the Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional de Mexico and will also make her debut at La Fenice
La Fenice
Teatro La Fenice is an opera house in Venice, Italy. It is one of the most famous theatres in Europe, the site of many famous operatic premieres. Its name reflects its role in permitting an opera company to "rise from the ashes" despite losing the use of two theatres...
in a concert of Rossini arias.
In the 2008-2009 season, Forsythe is scheduled to sing Rosalia in Rossini's L'equivoco stravagante
L'equivoco stravagante
L'equivoco stravagante is an operatic dramma giocoso in two acts by Gioachino Rossini to an Italian libretto by Gaetano Gasbarri. It was Rossini's first attempt at writing a full two-act opera.-Performance history:...
and in a recital with Joyce DiDonato
Joyce DiDonato
Joyce DiDonato is an award-winning American operatic mezzo-soprano particularly admired for her interpretations of the works of Handel, Mozart, and Rossini...
at the Rossini Opera Festival
Rossini Opera Festival
The Rossini Opera Festival is an opera festival held in August of each year in Pesaro, Italy, the birthplace of the opera composer Gioachino Rossini....
. She will also perform the role of Atalanta in Handel's Xerxes
Serse
Serse is an opera seria in three acts by George Frideric Handel. It was first performed in London on 15 April 1738. The Italian libretto was adapted by an unknown hand from that by Silvio Stampiglia for an earlier opera of the same name by Giovanni Bononcini in 1694...
with Boston Baroque, Venus in Blow
John Blow
John Blow was an English Baroque composer and organist, appointed to Westminster Abbey in 1669. His pupils included William Croft, Jeremiah Clarke and Henry Purcell. In 1685 he was named a private musician to James II. His only stage composition, Venus and Adonis John Blow (baptised 23 February...
's Venus and Adonis
Venus and Adonis (opera)
Venus and Adonis is an opera in three acts and a prologue by the English Baroque composer John Blow, composed in about 1683. It was written for the court of King Charles II at either London or Windsor. It is considered by some to be either a semi-opera or a masque, but The New Grove names it as the...
at the winter Boston Early Music Festival
Boston Early Music Festival
The Boston Early Music Festival is a music festival held every two years in Boston, Massachusetts, USA, for all people interested in historical music performance....
, Barbarina in Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées
Théâtre des Champs-Élysées
The Théâtre des Champs-Élysées is a theatre at 15 avenue Montaigne. Despite its name, the theatre is not on the Champs-Élysées but nearby in another part of the 8th arrondissement of Paris....
, and Ellenia in Christoph Graupner
Christoph Graupner
Christoph Graupner was a German harpsichordist and composer of high Baroque music who lived and worked at the same time as Johann Sebastian Bach, Georg Philipp Telemann and George Frideric Handel.-Graupner's life:Born in Hartmannsdorf near Kirchberg in Saxony, Graupner received his first musical...
's Antiochus und Stratonica at the summer Boston Early Music Festival. Adittionally, Forsythe will appear in concerts with the Netherlands Radio Symphony Orchestra, Apollo's Fire: the Cleveland Baroque Orchestra, Orquesta Sinfónica de Tenerife
Orquesta Sinfónica de Tenerife
The Orquesta Sinfónica de Tenerife is an orchestra in the city of Santa Cruz de Tenerife on the island of Tenerife in the Canary Islands. The Tenerife Symphony Orchestra is considered one of the best symphony orchestras in Spain.The symphony orchestra was first opened in 1970. It is presently the...
, and at the Festival Casals.
Ms. Forsythe can be heard as Minerve and La Grande Pretresse on the Boston Early Music Festival recording of Lully's Thésée
Thésée
Thésée is an opera with music by Jean-Baptiste Lully and a libretto by Philippe Quinault based on Ovid's Metamorphoses first performed at Saint-Germain-en-Laye on 11 January 1675.-Roles:-Synopsis:...
, a nominee for the 50th Grammy awards.
Forsythe has also performed at the Harvard Early Music Society and with the Masterworks Chorale
Masterworks Chorale
Masterworks Chorale is a choral ensemble based in San Mateo, California.-About Masterworks Chorale:Masterworks Chorale is one of the oldest choruses in Northern California. Founded in 1964 by Galen Marshall , and currently conducted by Dr...
, the Los Angeles Philharmonic
Los Angeles Philharmonic
The Los Angeles Philharmonic is an American orchestra based in Los Angeles, California, United States. It has a regular season of concerts from October through June at the Walt Disney Concert Hall, and a summer season at the Hollywood Bowl from July through September...
, the Rhode Island Philharmonic, the Florestan Project, the Omaha Symphony
Omaha Symphony Orchestra
The Omaha Symphony Orchestra is a community-based orchestra performing numerous concerts annually in Omaha, Nebraska and throughout the region. Originally established in 1921, the orchestra has continued yearly.-About:...
, the Hartford Symphony
Hartford Symphony Orchestra
The Hartford Symphony Orchestra is an American orchestra based in Hartford, Connecticut.-External links:* - Official site*...
, the Louisiana Philharmonic
Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra
The Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra is an American orchestra based in New Orleans, Louisiana. It is the only full-time, professional orchestra in the Gulf South. The music director is Carlos Miguel Prieto....
, and the Boston Chamber Music Society
Boston Chamber Music Society
The Boston Chamber Music Society is an American organization of musicians located in Boston, Massachusetts and dedicated to the performance and promotion of chamber music. The organization performs works from the Baroque era to the present day and is a member of Chamber Music America...
among other organizations.
Opera roles
- Aglaure, PsychéPsychéPsyché is an opera in a prologue and five acts composed by Jean-Baptiste Lully to a libretto by Thomas Corneille adapted from Molière's original play for which Lully had composed the intermèdes...
(LullyJean-Baptiste LullyJean-Baptiste de Lully was an Italian-born French composer who spent most of his life working in the court of Louis XIV of France. He is considered the chief master of the French Baroque style. Lully disavowed any Italian influence in French music of the period. He became a French subject in...
) - Amenaide, TancrediTancrediTancredi is a melodramma eroico in two acts by composer Gioachino Rossini and librettist Gaetano Rossi, based on Voltaire's play Tancrède...
(Rossini) - Amore, Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patriaIl ritorno d'Ulisse in patriaIl ritorno d'Ulisse in patria is an opera in a prologue and five acts , set by Claudio Monteverdi to a libretto by Giacomo Badoaro. The opera was first performed at the Teatro Santi Giovanni e Paolo in Venice during the 1639–1640 carnival season...
(MonteverdiClaudio MonteverdiClaudio Giovanni Antonio Monteverdi – 29 November 1643) was an Italian composer, gambist, and singer.Monteverdi's work, often regarded as revolutionary, marked the transition from the Renaissance style of music to that of the Baroque period. He developed two individual styles of composition – the...
) - Angel, Angels in America (Peter EötvösPeter EötvösPéter Eötvös is a Hungarian composer and conductor.Eötvös was born in Odorheiu Secuiesc/Székelyudvarhely, Szeklerland, Transylvania . He studied composition in Budapest and Cologne. From 1962, he composed for film in Hungary. Eötvös played regularly with the Stockhausen Ensemble between 1968 and...
) - Atalanta, XerxesSerseSerse is an opera seria in three acts by George Frideric Handel. It was first performed in London on 15 April 1738. The Italian libretto was adapted by an unknown hand from that by Silvio Stampiglia for an earlier opera of the same name by Giovanni Bononcini in 1694...
(HandelGeorge Frideric HandelGeorge Frideric Handel was a German-British Baroque composer, famous for his operas, oratorios, anthems and organ concertos. Handel was born in 1685, in a family indifferent to music...
) - Barbarina, The Marriage of FigaroThe Marriage of FigaroLe nozze di Figaro, ossia la folle giornata , K. 492, is an opera buffa composed in 1786 in four acts by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, with Italian libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte, based on a stage comedy by Pierre Beaumarchais, La folle journée, ou le Mariage de Figaro .Although the play by...
(MozartWolfgang Amadeus MozartWolfgang Amadeus Mozart , baptismal name Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart , was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music...
) - Cendrillon, CendrillonCendrillon (Viardot)Cendrillon is a chamber comic opera with dialogue in three acts by Pauline Viardot based on the story of Cinderella. The work, for a cast of seven with piano orchestration, premiered in Viardot's Paris salon on 23 April 1904, when she was 83, and was published later that year...
(Pauline Viardot) - Cleopatra, Giulio Cesare in EgittoGiulio CesareGiulio Cesare in Egitto , commonly known simply as Giulio Cesare, is an Italian opera in three acts written for the Royal Academy of Music by George Frideric Handel in 1724...
(Handel) - Corinna, Il viaggio a ReimsIl viaggio a ReimsIl viaggio a Reims, ossia L'albergo del giglio d'oro is an operatic dramma giocoso, originally performed in three acts, by Gioachino Rossini to an Italian libretto by Luigi Balocchi, based in part on Corinne, ou L'Italie by Mme de Staël.Rossini's last opera in the Italian language Il viaggio a...
(Rossini) - Dalinda, AriodanteAriodanteAriodante is an opera seria in three acts by Handel. The anonymous Italian libretto was based on a work by Antonio Salvi, which in turn was adapted from Canti 5 and 6 of Ludovico Ariosto's Orlando Furioso...
(Handel)
- Ellenia, Antiochus und Stratonica (Christoph GraupnerChristoph GraupnerChristoph Graupner was a German harpsichordist and composer of high Baroque music who lived and worked at the same time as Johann Sebastian Bach, Georg Philipp Telemann and George Frideric Handel.-Graupner's life:Born in Hartmannsdorf near Kirchberg in Saxony, Graupner received his first musical...
) - Iris, Semele (Handel)
- Proserpina, L'Orfeo (Monteverdi)
- Rosalia, L'equivoco stravaganteL'equivoco stravaganteL'equivoco stravagante is an operatic dramma giocoso in two acts by Gioachino Rossini to an Italian libretto by Gaetano Gasbarri. It was Rossini's first attempt at writing a full two-act opera.-Performance history:...
(Rossini) - Serpina, La serva padronaLa serva padronaLa serva padrona is an opera buffa by Giovanni Battista Pergolesi to a libretto by Gennaro Antonio Federico, after the play by Jacopo Angello Nelli. The opera is only 45 minutes long and was originally performed as an intermezzo between the acts of a larger serious opera...
(PergolesiGiovanni Battista PergolesiGiovanni Battista Pergolesi was an Italian composer, violinist and organist.-Biography:Born at Iesi, Pergolesi studied music there under a local musician, Francesco Santini, before going to Naples in 1725, where he studied under Gaetano Greco and Francesco Feo among others...
) - Un Trojano, Paride ed ElenaParide ed ElenaParide ed Elena is an opera by Christoph Willibald Gluck, the third and final of his Italian reformist works, following Orfeo ed Euridice and Alceste. Like its predecessors, its libretto was written by Ranieri de' Calzabigi. The opera tells the story of the events between the Judgment of Paris and...
(GluckChristoph Willibald GluckChristoph Willibald Ritter von Gluck was an opera composer of the early classical period. After many years at the Habsburg court at Vienna, Gluck brought about the practical reform of opera's dramaturgical practices that many intellectuals had been campaigning for over the years...
) - Venus, Venus and AdonisVenus and Adonis (opera)Venus and Adonis is an opera in three acts and a prologue by the English Baroque composer John Blow, composed in about 1683. It was written for the court of King Charles II at either London or Windsor. It is considered by some to be either a semi-opera or a masque, but The New Grove names it as the...
(John BlowJohn BlowJohn Blow was an English Baroque composer and organist, appointed to Westminster Abbey in 1669. His pupils included William Croft, Jeremiah Clarke and Henry Purcell. In 1685 he was named a private musician to James II. His only stage composition, Venus and Adonis John Blow (baptised 23 February...
) - Young Margarita, AinadamarAinadamarAinadamar means "Fountain of Tears" in Arabic, and is the first opera by Argentinian composer Osvaldo Golijov. The libretto is by American playwright David Henry Hwang. It premiered in Tanglewood on August 10, 2003. After major revisions, the new version premiered at the Santa Fe Opera on July 30,...
(Osvaldo GolijovOsvaldo GolijovOsvaldo Noé Golijov is a Grammy award–winning composer of classical music.-Biography:Osvaldo Golijov was born in and grew up in La Plata, Argentina, in a Jewish family that had emigrated to Argentina in the 1920s from Romania and Russia.Golijov has developed a rich musical language, the result of...
)