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P R O F I L E S | L Y R I C O P E R A O F C H I C A G O
22
|
February 8 - March 13, 2016
SOPHIE KOCH
(
Octavian – Feb. 8-20
)
Previously at Lyric Opera
:
Charlotte/
Werther
(2012-13).
Widely celebrated as
Octavian, the French
mezzo-soprano
has
performed this role with great success in Baden-
Baden, Vienna, London, Paris, Barcelona,
Dresden, Munich, and at the 2014 and 2015
Salzburg Festival. Later this season Koch will
reprise her Octavian at La Scala and also
portray Venus/
Tannhäuser
at Covent Garden.
Equally renowned as Strauss’s Composer
(Baden-Baden-DVD, Vienna, Paris, Dresden,
Munich), Koch has also won acclaim in roles
as stylistically diverse as Massenet’s Cléopâtre
(Paris, Salzburg), Bellini’s Adalgisa (Paris,
Nice), Mother Marie/
Dialogues des Carmélites
(London, Paris, Nice), Selika/
L’africaine
(Berlin), and Adriano/
Rienzi
(Salzburg). Other
successes in her repertory include Genièvre/
King Arthur
, Marguerite/
La Damnation de
Faust
, the title role/
Alceste
, and Giulietta/
Les contes d’Hoffmann
(all in Paris), as well as
Wagner’s Fricka (Paris), Brangäne (Covent
Garden, BBC Proms, Schleswig-Holstein
Music Festival), and Waltraute (Paris). Since
her 2005 role debut as Massenet’s Charlotte
in Berlin, the mezzo-soprano has been closely
associated with
Werther
, a triumph for her on
CD and in Paris (DVD), Munich, London,
Madrid, Vienna, Brussels, and in her recent
Metropolitan Opera debut. Her varied
discography includes solo discs of German and
French art songs, as well as Mahler’s
Symphony
No. 8
and the world premiere of Laurent
Petitgirard’s opera
The Elephant Man
. On
DVD she starts opposite Renée Fleming in
Der
Rosenkavalier
and
Ariadne auf Naxos
(both in
Baden-Baden), and opposite Jonas Kaufmann
in
Werther
(Opéra National de Paris).
ALICE COOTE
(
Octavian – March 4-13
)
Previously at Lyric Opera:
Four roles since 2001-02,
most recently Composer/
Ariadne auf Naxos
(2011-
12); Dejanira/
Hercules
(2010-11); Orlofsky/
Die
Fledermaus
(2006-07).
The renowned English mezzo-soprano’s
triumphs in Strauss internationally include
both
Der Rosenkavalier
(Los Angeles, London,
Vienna, New York, Geneva, Munich) and
Ariadne auf Naxos
(Lyric, Munich, London,
Paris, Toronto). She is a favorite at many
of the world’s great opera houses, including
– in addition to those already mentioned
– San Francisco Opera, Frankfurt Opera,
and the Salzburg Festival. Coote’s repertory
encompasses not only trouser roles of
Monteverdi, Gluck, Mozart, Massenet, and
Strauss, but also such diverse female roles
as Poppea, Carmen, Charlotte, Donizetti’s
Léonor, and Berlioz’s Marguerite. A major
Handel interpreter, she is celebrated for
Alcina
(Stuttgart, Edinburgh, San Francisco, Paris,
Vienna),
Giulio Cesare
(Metropolitan Opera,
Paris),
Ariodante
(English National Opera),
Orlando
(Covent Garden), and
Hercules
(Lyric, London, Vienna, Paris, Toronto).
A highly sought-after recitalist worldwide,
she has also earned great successes with the
major orchestras of London, Boston, New
York, and Amsterdam. Highlights this season
include a recital for London’s prestigious
Temple Music series and Britten’s
Phaedra
at Saffron Hall in Essex. In 2013 Coote sang
her first performance of Schubert’s
Winterreise
at St. Petersburg’s “Stars of the White
Nights” Festival, subsequently returning
for Schumann’s
Frauenliebe und Leben
and
Dichterliebe
. The mezzo’s discography
includes a Handel aria recital, numerous song
recitals, Elgar’s
The Dream of Gerontius,
and
major works of Monteverdi, Brahms, and
Mahler. DVD appearances include
Alcina,
L’incoronazione di Poppea
,
Lucrezia Borgia
, and
Hänsel und Gretel
.
AMANDA MAJESKI
(
The Marschallin
)
Previously at Lyric Opera:
Nine roles since 2009-10,
most recently Countess
Almaviva/
The Marriage of
Figaro
(2015-16); Marta/
The Passenger
(2014-15);
Vitellia/
La clemenza di
Tito
(2013-14).
A Ryan Opera Center alumna, the Illinois-
born soprano made her acclaimed role debut
as the Marschallin last season in Claus Guth’s
new
Rosenkavalier
production in Frankfurt,
where she has also portrayed Rusalka, Goose-
Girl/Humperdinck’s
Königskinder
(CD)
,
and
Vreli/Delius’s
A Village Romeo and Juliet.
Majeski opened the current Lyric season as
Mozart’s Countess Almaviva, which she has
performed to high acclaim at the Metropolitan
Opera (debut) and in St. Louis, Dresden,
Glyndebourne, and most recently Oviedo.
Highlights of the soprano’s upcoming
performances include Countess Madeleine/
Capriccio
(Santa Fe Opera) and Eva/
Die
Meistersinger von Nürnberg
(Glyndebourne).
Majeski scored one of her first major career
successes at Chicago Opera Theater as
Mozart’s Vitellia, subsequently singing that
role in Madrid and at Dresden’s Semperoper,
where she has also been heard in
Capriccio
and as Handel’s Alcina. Other roles include
Marguerite/
Faust
(Zürich, Washington),
Blanche/
Dialogues des Carmélites
(Pittsburgh),
Lisa/
La sonnambula
(Detroit), Ottone/
Griselda
(Santa Fe), and Donna Elvira/
Don Giovanni
(Philadelphia). Concert highlights include her
New York solo recital debut (Carnegie Hall’s
Weill Recital Hall, 2014). A graduate of the
Curtis Institute of Music and Northwestern
University, Majeski was a member of San
Francisco Opera’s Merola Program, the
Gerdine Young Artist Program in St. Louis,
and the Steans Institute at Ravinia. Among her
numerous awards and honors are First Prize in
the Palm Beach Opera Vocal Competition and
a Sara Tucker Study Grant.
CHRISTINA
LANDSHAMER
(
Sophie
)
American debut
The German soprano,
who made her American
debut with the Pittsburgh
Symphony Orchestra last
December, will debut
with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra
later this season. Following initial guest
performances at the Stuttgart State Opera,
Landshamer sang at Strasbourg’s Opéra
National du Rhin (Marzelline/
Fidelio
),
Berlin’s Komische Oper (Susanna/
The
Marriage of Figaro
), Vienna’s Theater an der
Wien (Clarice/Haydn’s
Il mondo della luna
under Nikolaus Harnoncourt, DVD), Paris’s
Thétre du Chatelet (staged
Messiah
), the
Salzburg Festival (Guardian of the Threshold/
Die Frau ohne Schatten
, Frasquita/
Carmen
),
the Baden-Baden Festival (Najade/
Ariadne auf
Naxos
), and the 2014 Glyndebourne Festival
(Almirena/
Rinaldo
). The soprano made her
much-praised role debut as Pamina/
The
Magic Flute
at the Netherlands Opera (new
production, DVD) and sang the same role at
Bavarian State Opera in 2015. She has recently
portrayed Ännchen/
Der Freischütz
at Dresden’s
Semperoper (DVD) and at Paris’s Théâtre des
Champs-Elysées. A highly sought-after concert
singer, Landshamer works regularly with major
conductors such as Thomas Hengelbrock,
Christian Thielemann, Sir Roger Norrington,
and Alan Gilbert. Landshamer’s CDs include
Haydn’s
The Seasons
and
The Creation
under
Philippe Herreweghe, Mendelssohn’s
Hymn of
Praise
with the BR Symphony Orchestra under
Pablo Heras-Casado, and
Carmen
under Sir
Simon Rattle. Among her DVDs are Bach’s
St.
Matthew Passion
and Mahler’s
Symphony No.
4
, both with the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig
under Riccardo Chailly. In spring 2016 her
first
lieder
CD with songs by Ullmann and
Schumann will be released.