Deborah Voigt’s spring/summer 2011
Deborah Voigt is “riding high,” as the Wall Street Journal says, and her string of engagements this spring and summer further showcases her range as one of today’s top vocal performers. Underscoring her cultural status, the American soprano will take the spotlight in a talk at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art on May 10. She continues her much talked-about debut run as Brünnhilde in the Metropolitan Opera’s new production of Die Walküre through May 14, with the final performance to be beamed around the world via the popular “Met in HD” series. Moving from Wagner to show tunes, she stars at Carnegie Hall in “Something Wonderful: An Evening of Broadway with Deborah Voigt” on May 19, a benefit concert with the Collegiate Chorale. She returns to one of the extreme challenges of the soprano repertoire in Schoenberg’s Erwartung with the New York Philharmonic on June 9-11. Following a concert of opera arias at the Ravinia Festival with Christoph Eschenbach and the Chicago Symphony on July 9, it’s back to Broadway fare as she stars as Annie Oakley in Annie Get Your Gun at the Glimmerglass Festival, from July 16 to August 21. She closes out her summer season with a concert at the Cape Town Opera in South Africa with tenor Johan Botha on August 27, and a gala concert in Hanover. Germany on September 3.
Met Museum Talk
On May 10, the Metropolitan Museum of Art presents Voigt in conversation with lecturer-writer and WQXR radio personality Nimet Habachy, in the Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium. Their discussion, about the art of the dramatic soprano, will range from Voigt’s Brünnhilde at the Met to her triumph as the pistol-packing Minnie this season in centenary productions of Puccini’s La fanciulla del West, as well as her portrayal of another Wild West heroine in the upcoming Annie Get Your Gun at Glimmerglass. Click here for event information.
Die Walküre: “Met in HD”
On May 14, the Met’s all-star Walküre will be beamed live to movie theaters around the world in the hit “Met in HD” series. Voigt stars in the Robert Lepage production alongside Bryn Terfel as Wotan, Stephanie Blythe as Fricka, Jonas Kaufmann as Siegmund, and Eva-Maria Westbroek as Sieglinde, with James Levine conducting. Voigt’s celebrated Met portrayals of Wagner heroines have included Sieglinde in Die Walküre, Elisabeth in Tannhäuser, Isolde in Tristan und Isolde, and Senta in Der fliegende Holländer. In her role debut as Brünnhilde last month, she was taking on “a role that reduces even great divas to shrieks,” as Manuela Hoelterhoff pointed out on Bloomberg News. Yet Mike Silverman of the Associated Press found her portrayal both subtle and convincing: “She sang with clearly focused tone … and a surprisingly ample lower register. . . . Dramatically, Voigt made a most winning warrior maiden. She looked terrific with flowing red hair, and acted with conviction and nuance.” Olivia Giovetti, reviewing the opera on WQX-Aria, WQXR’s opera blog, described how Voigt “blossomed” during the evening: “Vocally and dramatically Voigt’s Brünnhilde matures in front of our eyes, making her fate all the more affecting.” Click here for more info on “Met in HD.”
“An Evening of Broadway” at Carnegie Hall
On May 19 at Carnegie Hall, the soprano will show her great affection for the Broadway tradition by starring in a benefit concert for the Collegiate Chorale entitled “Something Wonderful: An Evening of Broadway with Deborah Voigt.” She will sing standards by the likes of George Gershwin, Jerome Kern, Stephen Sondheim and Rodgers & Hammerstein alongside baritone Paulo Szot and the American Symphony Orchestra under Ted Sperling. Click here for more event information.
Schoenberg’s Erwartung with the New York Philharmonic
On June 9, 10 and 11, at Lincoln Center’s Avery Fisher Hall, Voigt will sing Arnold Schoenberg’s Erwartung with the New York Philharmonic under David Robertson. The composer described his Expressionist monodrama (the title translating as “Expectation”): “In Erwartung, the aim is to represent in slow motion everything that occurs during a single second of maximum spiritual excitement, stretching it out to half an hour.” Voigt describes it as “probably one of the most difficult pieces I have in my repertoire.” In the past, Voigt has sung the work with such distinguished conductors as Daniel Barenboim and James Levine. Click here for more event information.
Annie Get Your Gun at Glimmerglass
From July 16 to August 21, at the Glimmerglass Festival in Cooperstown, NY, it’s back to Broadway fare for Voigt, as she portrays Annie Oakley in Irving Berlin’s ever-popular musical Annie Get Your Gun. Based on the real-life romance of Oakley and Frank Butler, the show contains some of Irving Berlin’s best-known tunes: “Anything You Can Do I Can Do Better,” “I Got Lost in His Arms,” “There’s No Business Like Show Business.” The musical will be performed at Glimmerglass in the grand tradition, with full orchestra and unamplified voices. Voigt, who will be the festival’s first Artist-in-Residence, explains: “Fifty or 60 years ago, these big, classic American musicals were originally scored with very large orchestras, and there was certainly no sound amplification. It will be exciting to sing Annie this way, and I’m certain that our audiences will find it very satisfying to hear the orchestra and the singing performed the way it was intended.” The production, directed by Francesca Zambello, who is also the new Artistic and General Director of Glimmerglass, sees Voigt paired with the Frank Butler of Rod Gilfry. Click here for event information.
More praise for Voigt’s Brünnhilde
Voigt’s Brünnhilde has been warmly received by the press. In The New York Times, Anthony Tommasini wrote: “I have seldom heard the role sung with such rhythmic accuracy and verbal clarity. From the start, with those go-for-broke cries of ‘Hojotoho,’ she sang every note honestly. She invested energy, feeling and character in every phrase… A compelling and creditable Brünnhilde.” In New York magazine, Justin Davidson noted that “Voigt gives Brünnhilde a steely joy,” and Huffington Post’s CultureGrrl blogger was moved to tears by her performance: “You could never take your eyes off Deborah, even when she was silently listening, because of the emotional intensity of her portrayal. I found Voigt’s interpretation of Brünnhilde, as a playful, willful and ultimately disobedient and disowned daughter, to be so moving and convincing that tears streamed down my face when Wotan regretfully took his leave of her in the last act, saying that she would never see him again.”
Deborah Voigt’s spring and summer 2011:
May 5, 9 & 14m
New York, NY
Metropolitan Opera
Wagner: Die Walküre (Brünnhilde; role debut)
New production by Robert Lepage; conducted by James Levine
May 14 performance will be shown in the Met: Live in HD series
May 10
New York, NY
Metropolitan Museum of Art
Discussion about the art of the dramatic soprano, with Nimet Habachy
May 19
New York, NY
Carnegie Hall
“Something Wonderful: An Evening of Broadway with Deborah Voigt”
Concert and spring benefit with the Collegiate Chorale
Featured guest artist Paulo Szot
American Symphony Orchestra / Ted Sperling
May 21
Great Barrington, MA
2011 Mahaiwe Gala
The Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center
Recital with Brian Zeger, piano
May 23
New York, NY
“Monday at the Plaza With James – A Tribute to James Lapine”
New York Theatre Workshop Benefit Event
June 9-11
New York, NY
Avery Fisher Hall
Schoenberg: Erwartung
New York Philharmonic / David Robertson
July 9
Ravinia, IL
Arias from Fidelio, Salome and more
Ravinia Festival
Chicago Symphony Orchestra/Christoph Eschenbach
July 16
Cooperstown, NY
Irving Berlin: Annie Get Your Gun (Annie; role debut)
Glimmerglass Festival
Additional performances: July 18m, 22, 24m, & 30;
August 2m, 4, 6m, 9m, 12, 15m, 18, 20m, & 21m
July 29
Cooperstown, NY
Deborah Voigt benefit concert – “Voigt Lessons”
Glimmerglass Festival
Additional performances: August 7 & 14
August 27
Capetown, South Africa
Concert with Johan Botha
Capetown Opera
September 3
Hanover, Germany
Gala concert (details TBA)
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