Hei-Kyung Hong
Encyclopedia
Hong Hei-Kyung is a South Korean-American
operatic lyric soprano
.
Hong studied at Yea Won Music School in Seoul
and through scholarships went to the United States alone at age 15 to study at the Juilliard School of Music in New York
and its American Opera Center. While at Juilliard, she appeared in a number of productions with the American Opera Center. At the Juilliard School of Music she also participated in the master classes of Tito Gobbi
, Elizabeth Schwarzkopf, Walter Legge
, and Gerard Souzay
. She later studied voice privately with Shirlee Emmons
. In addition, she was one of four young singers invited to attend Herbert von Karajan's opera classes at the 1983 Salzburg Festival.
In 1981, she sang professionally for the first time when composer Giancarlo Menotti invited her to perform at the Spoleto Festival in Italy and Charleston, South Carolina. At first, she used the stage name "Suzanne Hong" because Kurt Adler of Juilliard suggested she use a name that could easily be pronounced by English speakers. However, Hong quickly reverted back to her given Korean name after the Spoleto Festivall; she said that all her friends in the Juilliard School of Music persuaded her to use 'her own beautiful Korean name'.
As a winner of the 1982 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, she made her Metropolitan Opera
debut as Servilia in Mozart's opera La Clemenza di Tito on 17 November 1984. Beginning with minor roles such as Celestial Voice in Don Carlo, Virgin in Samson and Barbarina in Le Nozze di Figaro, she got to sing the major role for the first time at the Met - Mimì in La Bohème on 7 January 1987. Since then, she gradually moved into main roles such as Susanna in Le Nozze di Figaro, Adina in L'Elisir d'Amore, and Gilda in Rigoletto. Since mid-1990s she has sung more lyric roles like Liù in Turandot and Countess Almaviva in Le Nozze di Figaro.
Like many non-Italian and non-German singers, she has not been tied to operas of specific languages; her repertoire includes Italian(Verdi, Puccini, Donizetti), German(Handel, Mozart, Beethoven, Wagner) and French(Bizet, Gounod, Offenbach). But Mozart possesses the most important part in her repertoire; beside three roles in Le Nozze di Figaro - Countess Almaviva(29 performances), Susanna(10 performances) and Barbarina(8 performances), she has sung Zerlina in Don Giovanni(29 performance), Despina in Così Fan Tutte(14 performances), Servilia in La Clemenza di Tito(11 performances), Pamina in Die Zauberflöte(9 performances), and Ilia in Idomeneo(9 performances). Among the roles she has sung(but not at the Met), there are the title role of Massenet's Manon, Musetta in La Bohème, Tatyana in Eugene Onegin, and Leila in Les Pêcheurs de Perles.
Although the Met has been her main stage since her debut, after giving birth to her third child she has begun to sing in Europe, too. She has sung at various opera houses including the Royal Opera House of Covent Garden in London(as Mimì and Liù), Wiener Staatsoper(as Mimì), Bayerische Staatsoper in München(as Mimì), L'Opéra de la Bastille in Paris(as Liù, Countess Almaviva, Micaëla in Carmen), Arena di Verona(as Micaëla), Opera di Roma(as Liù). On 28 January 2003, she made her debut at Teatro alla Scala di Milano as Musetta in La Bohème. She returned to La Scala as Liù in Turandot(January 2004) and Mimì in La Bohème(June 2005).
On 4 June 2006, she sang Violetta in La Traviata at the Met, becoming the first Asian soprano who has ever sung Violetta at the Met. And on 1 March 2007, she sang Eva in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg at the Met for the first time. Until May 2010, her most frequent-sung role at the Met is Mimì in La Bohème(59 performances), followed by Liù in Turandot(33 performances), Micaëla in Carmen(31 performances) and Countess Almaviva in Le Nozze di Figaro(29 performances).
Her orchestral repertoire is as broad as her operatic experience. She has sung Bach with Trevor Pinnock and the Montreal Symphony, and the late conductor and composer Giuseppe Sinopoli wrote his Lou Salome Suite for her, which they premiered together with the New York Philharmonic. She has appeared with the Boston Symphony, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Chicago Symphony, the Philadelphia Orchestra, and many others under conductors such as Charles Dutoit, Mariss Jansons, Seiji Ozawa, André Previn, and Lorin Maazel, with whom she sang the Final Scene from Strauss' Daphne for the Bayerische Rundfunk.
Hong is a Christian
, whose faith began in her family with her grandparents, who were elders at a Presbyterian church in the South Korean city of Gwangju.
Hong was on the cover of the June 2007 issue of Opera News
magazine.
Her husband was diagnosed with cancer in December 2007 and died in July 2008 of cancer. Having cancelled her whole schedule since the time of his diagnosis to take care of him, she was away from the stage for two years in mourning. But finally she came back to the stage of the Met as Violetta in La Traviata on 13 April 2010. In 2010/11 season of the Met, she sang two parts of French operas - Micaëla in "Carmen" and Juliette in "Roméo et Juliette". She currently lives in Queens
, New York
with her three children.
Hei-kyung Hong's career at the Met (updated until 14 March 2011)
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Giacomo Puccini
Giuseppe Verdi
Geroges Bizet
Richard Wagner
Ludwig van Beethoven
George Frederick Handel
John Corigliano
Jacques Offenbach
Gaetano Donizetti
Charles Gounod
She also sang at 4 concerts and 2 gala Performances at the Met.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
operatic lyric soprano
Lyric soprano
A lyric soprano is a type of operatic soprano that has a warm quality with a bright, full timbre which can be heard over an orchestra. The lyric soprano voice generally has a higher tessitura than a soubrette and usually plays ingenues and other sympathetic characters in opera. Lyric sopranos have...
.
Hong studied at Yea Won Music School in Seoul
Seoul
Seoul , officially the Seoul Special City, is the capital and largest metropolis of South Korea. A megacity with a population of over 10 million, it is the largest city proper in the OECD developed world...
and through scholarships went to the United States alone at age 15 to study at the Juilliard School of Music in New York
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
and its American Opera Center. While at Juilliard, she appeared in a number of productions with the American Opera Center. At the Juilliard School of Music she also participated in the master classes of Tito Gobbi
Tito Gobbi
Tito Gobbi was an Italian operatic baritone with an international reputation.-Biography:Tito Gobbi was born in Bassano del Grappa and studied law at the University of Padua before he trained as a singer. Giulio Crimi, a well-known Italian tenor of a previous generation, was Gobbi's teacher in Rome...
, Elizabeth Schwarzkopf, Walter Legge
Walter Legge
Harry Walter Legge was an influential English classical record producer, most notably for EMI. His recordings include many sets later regarded as classics and reissued by EMI as "Great Recordings of the Century". He worked in the recording industry from 1927, combining this with the post of junior...
, and Gerard Souzay
Gérard Souzay
Gérard Souzay was a French baritone singer, regarded as one of the very finest interpreters of mélodie in the generation after Charles Panzéra and Pierre Bernac.-Background and education:...
. She later studied voice privately with Shirlee Emmons
Shirlee Emmons
Shirlee Emmons was an American classical soprano, voice teacher, and author on vocal pedagogy. She began her career in the early 1940s as a concert soprano, eventually becoming one of the original singers in the Robert Shaw Chorale in 1948. She branched out into opera in the 1950s; performing...
. In addition, she was one of four young singers invited to attend Herbert von Karajan's opera classes at the 1983 Salzburg Festival.
In 1981, she sang professionally for the first time when composer Giancarlo Menotti invited her to perform at the Spoleto Festival in Italy and Charleston, South Carolina. At first, she used the stage name "Suzanne Hong" because Kurt Adler of Juilliard suggested she use a name that could easily be pronounced by English speakers. However, Hong quickly reverted back to her given Korean name after the Spoleto Festivall; she said that all her friends in the Juilliard School of Music persuaded her to use 'her own beautiful Korean name'.
As a winner of the 1982 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, she made her Metropolitan Opera
Metropolitan Opera
The Metropolitan Opera is an opera company, located in New York City. Originally founded in 1880, the company gave its first performance on October 22, 1883. The company is operated by the non-profit Metropolitan Opera Association, with Peter Gelb as general manager...
debut as Servilia in Mozart's opera La Clemenza di Tito on 17 November 1984. Beginning with minor roles such as Celestial Voice in Don Carlo, Virgin in Samson and Barbarina in Le Nozze di Figaro, she got to sing the major role for the first time at the Met - Mimì in La Bohème on 7 January 1987. Since then, she gradually moved into main roles such as Susanna in Le Nozze di Figaro, Adina in L'Elisir d'Amore, and Gilda in Rigoletto. Since mid-1990s she has sung more lyric roles like Liù in Turandot and Countess Almaviva in Le Nozze di Figaro.
Like many non-Italian and non-German singers, she has not been tied to operas of specific languages; her repertoire includes Italian(Verdi, Puccini, Donizetti), German(Handel, Mozart, Beethoven, Wagner) and French(Bizet, Gounod, Offenbach). But Mozart possesses the most important part in her repertoire; beside three roles in Le Nozze di Figaro - Countess Almaviva(29 performances), Susanna(10 performances) and Barbarina(8 performances), she has sung Zerlina in Don Giovanni(29 performance), Despina in Così Fan Tutte(14 performances), Servilia in La Clemenza di Tito(11 performances), Pamina in Die Zauberflöte(9 performances), and Ilia in Idomeneo(9 performances). Among the roles she has sung(but not at the Met), there are the title role of Massenet's Manon, Musetta in La Bohème, Tatyana in Eugene Onegin, and Leila in Les Pêcheurs de Perles.
Although the Met has been her main stage since her debut, after giving birth to her third child she has begun to sing in Europe, too. She has sung at various opera houses including the Royal Opera House of Covent Garden in London(as Mimì and Liù), Wiener Staatsoper(as Mimì), Bayerische Staatsoper in München(as Mimì), L'Opéra de la Bastille in Paris(as Liù, Countess Almaviva, Micaëla in Carmen), Arena di Verona(as Micaëla), Opera di Roma(as Liù). On 28 January 2003, she made her debut at Teatro alla Scala di Milano as Musetta in La Bohème. She returned to La Scala as Liù in Turandot(January 2004) and Mimì in La Bohème(June 2005).
On 4 June 2006, she sang Violetta in La Traviata at the Met, becoming the first Asian soprano who has ever sung Violetta at the Met. And on 1 March 2007, she sang Eva in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg at the Met for the first time. Until May 2010, her most frequent-sung role at the Met is Mimì in La Bohème(59 performances), followed by Liù in Turandot(33 performances), Micaëla in Carmen(31 performances) and Countess Almaviva in Le Nozze di Figaro(29 performances).
Her orchestral repertoire is as broad as her operatic experience. She has sung Bach with Trevor Pinnock and the Montreal Symphony, and the late conductor and composer Giuseppe Sinopoli wrote his Lou Salome Suite for her, which they premiered together with the New York Philharmonic. She has appeared with the Boston Symphony, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Chicago Symphony, the Philadelphia Orchestra, and many others under conductors such as Charles Dutoit, Mariss Jansons, Seiji Ozawa, André Previn, and Lorin Maazel, with whom she sang the Final Scene from Strauss' Daphne for the Bayerische Rundfunk.
Hong is a Christian
Christian
A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...
, whose faith began in her family with her grandparents, who were elders at a Presbyterian church in the South Korean city of Gwangju.
Hong was on the cover of the June 2007 issue of 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...
magazine.
Her husband was diagnosed with cancer in December 2007 and died in July 2008 of cancer. Having cancelled her whole schedule since the time of his diagnosis to take care of him, she was away from the stage for two years in mourning. But finally she came back to the stage of the Met as Violetta in La Traviata on 13 April 2010. In 2010/11 season of the Met, she sang two parts of French operas - Micaëla in "Carmen" and Juliette in "Roméo et Juliette". She currently lives in Queens
Queens
Queens is the easternmost of the five boroughs of New York City. The largest borough in area and the second-largest in population, it is coextensive with Queens County, an administrative division of New York state, in the United States....
, New York
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
with her three children.
Hei-kyung Hong's career at the Met (updated until 14 March 2011)
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
- Le Nozze di Figaro : Countess Almaviva(29 performances), Susanna(10 performances), Barbarina(8 performances)
- Don Giovanni : Zerlina (29 performances)
- Così Fan Tutte : Despina (14 performances)
- La Clemenza di Tito : Servilia (11 performances)
- Die Zauberflöte : Pamina (9 performances)
- Idomeneo : Ilia (9 performances)
Giacomo Puccini
- La Bohème : Mimì (59 performances)
- Turandot : Liù (33 performances)
- Gianni Schicchi : Lauretta (5 performances)
Giuseppe Verdi
- Don Carlo : Celestial Voice (26 performances)
- La Traviata : Violetta (11 performances)
- Rigoletto : Gilda (7 performances) / Beside the 7 performances, she sang in 1 performances for Act 1 only
Geroges Bizet
- Carmen : Micaëla (31 performances)
Richard Wagner
- Das Rheingold : Freia (10 performances)
- Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg : Eva (4 performances)
Ludwig van Beethoven
- Fidelio : Marzelline (12 performances)
George Frederick Handel
- Samson : Virgin (8 performances)
- Giulio Cesare : Cleopatra (1 performance)
John Corigliano
- The Ghosts of Versailles : Rosina (6 performances)
Jacques Offenbach
- Les Contes d'Hoffmann : Antonia/Stella (4 performances)
Gaetano Donizetti
- L'Elisir d'Amore : Adina (3 performances)
Charles Gounod
- Roméo et Juliette : Juliette (6 performances)
She also sang at 4 concerts and 2 gala Performances at the Met.