American soprano Kathryn Lewek’s 2024-25: role debuts in Nashville Carmen & Colorado Bohème; signature role in Magic Flute at Met & Berlin State

(September 2024) — American soprano Kathryn Lewek continues to expand her range with role debuts in two classic operas this season, giving her first performances as Micaëla in Nashville Opera’s season-opening staging of Carmen (Sep 26 & 28) and making her house and role debuts as Musetta in Opera Colorado’s La bohème (Feb 22–March 2). As today’s reigning Queen of the Night, she also headlines productions of The Magic Flute at both the Berlin State Opera (Nov 14–21) and New York’s Metropolitan Opera, where she reprises her star turns in Julie Taymor’s abridged holiday treatment of the opera (Dec 12–Jan 4) and Simon McBurney’s celebrated full-length production (March 23–April 26). These engagements follow the soprano’s recent triumph at the Salzburg Festival, where she proved herself the “ideal protagonist” (Financial Times) of Les contes d’Hoffmann. As the New York Times puts it, “Singing like Lewek’s is what the magic of opera is all about.”

Role debuts in Nashville Carmen & Colorado La bohème

Last season, Lewek made title role debuts in Roméo et Juliette at Ohio’s Toledo Opera and in Laurent Pelly’s new treatment of Lakmé at Opéra de Nice, where OperaWire declared: “Lewek’s performance … was extraordinary and augurs for her setting a new standard for this iconic role.”

Now the soprano makes two new role debuts, singing opposite her husband, tenor Zach Borichevsky – a top prizewinner at Plácido Domingo’s Operalia Competition – in both operas. To open Nashville Opera’s season, she sings her first Micaëla in John Hoomes’s production of Bizet’s Carmen, under Dean Williamson’s leadership (Sep 26 & 28). Next, early next year, she makes her house and role debuts as Puccini’s Musetta in Opera Colorado’s La bohème. Directed by Kristine McIntyre, this will feature George Manahan on the podium (Feb 22–March 2).

The Magic Flute at Berlin State Opera & the Met

Lewek is today’s reigning Queen of the Night. Since making her first appearance as Mozart’s antiheroine in 2011, she has sung the formidably challenging role more than 300 times with leading companies worldwide. This season, she graces three productions of The Magic Flute, starting this fall at the Berlin State Opera. There she stars alongside René Pape in August Everding’s staging of the opera, which reconstructs the 1816 set design featuring the Queen’s iconic starry sky (Nov 14–21).

Lewek then returns to New York’s Metropolitan Opera, where she has performed the part a record-breaking 64 times, for two very different treatments. Over the holiday season, she revisits the abridged, family-friendly staging of the opera by Tony Award winner Julie Taymor (Dec 12–Jan 4), before rejoining Simon McBurney’s uproarious full-length production under the baton of Evan Rogister next spring (March 23–April 26). After McBurney’s Flute bowed at the Met last year, Bachtrack’s five-star review concluded: “It is hard to imagine a more satisfying and magical operatic experience than this intriguing and inventive production.” Of the soprano’s own performance, the New York Times marveled:

“Lewek was utterly enthralling, emitting richly glowing bursts of notes like a collapsing star in ‘O zittre nicht.’ She careered around the stage in a wheelchair during ‘Der Hölle Rache,’ bringing thrilling drama to a coloratura showpiece so fiendish that sopranos are lucky to get through it when they’re standing stock still.”

As the New Yorker’s Alex Ross has noted, Lewek “executes this stratospherically difficult role better than anyone alive.”

Connecticut concerts

To complete her 2024-25 season, Lewek reunites with Borichevsky in spring concerts for the Danbury Concert Association (March 16) and Westport’s Fairfield County Chorale (March 29) in Connecticut. The couple regularly performs together, recently streaming a special concert to benefit the United Nations World Food Program.

Recent Salzburg success

Lewek’s upcoming engagements follow on the heels of her company role debut as all Four Heroines in Mariame Clément’s new production of Offenbach’s Les contes d’Hoffmann at this past summer’s Salzburg Festival. A tour-de-force of singing, acting, and storytelling that marked the first time in 42 years that an American singer had undertaken all four roles at the Austrian festival, Lewek’s performance was a bona fide triumph. Naming her its “Artist of the Week,” OperaWire declared:

“The night was ruled by Kathryn Lewek. … Never before have I heard a lyric voice with such refinement and care. … Lewek’s tone, full and rich, achieves moments of high dramatic tension without compromising the elegance of her sound.”

Opera Scene affirmed: “In each of the stories Lewek excelled, showing that her vocal litheness was matched by dramatical ability.” “Salzburg’s new production raises a difficult opera to a new level of cohesion for our times. And it’s a fun ride,” wrote the UK’s Financial Times, which concluded:

“In Kathryn Lewek, who sings all of Hoffmann’s women, Clément has found an ideal protagonist – strong, charismatic and with both secure coloratura of bell-like purity and a warm, seductive lower range. This doll is nobody’s plaything; this woman is an artist on the hunt for equality.”

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Kathryn Lewek: 2024–25 engagements
Sep 26 & 28
Nashville, TN
Nashville Opera
BIZET: Carmen (Micaëla; role debut)

Nov 14, 16 & 21
Berlin, Germany
Berlin State Opera
MOZART: The Magic Flute (Queen of the Night)

Dec 12, 13, 15, 18, 21, 27 & 28; Jan 2 & 4
New York, NY
Metropolitan Opera
MOZART: The Magic Flute (Queen of the Night)

 Feb 22, 25, 27 & 28; March 2
Englewood, CO
Opera Colorado
PUCCINI: La bohème (Musetta: house and role debuts)

March 16
Danbury, CT
Danbury Concert Association
Concert with Zach Borichevsky, tenor

March 29
Westport, CT
Fairfield County Chorale
Concert with Zach Borichevsky, tenor

March 23 & 28; April 1, 4, 7, 9, 12, 16, 19, 23 & 26
New York, NY
Metropolitan Opera
MOZART: The Magic Flute (Queen of the Night)