Susanna Phillips headlines Minnesota Opera’s “Lucia” (March 3-10)
Susanna Phillips, winner of the Metropolitan Opera’s 2010 Beverly Sills Artist Award, undertakes the title role of Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor at Minnesota Opera, opening in the first of four performances on March 3. The Alabama-born soprano has already proven herself in the role, which demands extraordinary vocal technique and acting ability. At Opera Birmingham last March, she “performed with musical assurance and dramatic confidence, filling Samford’s Wright Center with huge sound and bigger-than-life presence” (Birmingham News); while at Chicago’s Lyric Opera in October, the Tribune’s John von Rhein recognized the rare gifts she brought to the role, observing: “Such technical aplomb allied to such radiant sound is a precious commodity in a Lucia.”
He was not alone: the Chicago Sun-Times admired her “musicality and impressive vocal choices,” while the Chicago Classical Review affirmed that Phillips had “a beautiful instrument, lustrous and gleaming, and her singing was largely faultless.” STLtoday.com agreed: “It’s a beautiful voice, the coloratura was cleanly sung, and she’s a beautiful young woman; she did a phenomenal job with the Mad Scene, performed on a breathtakingly steep stairway.” All told, as the Chicago Tribune reported, “the sheer beauty of her singing earned the Ryan Opera Center alumna clamorous rounds of applause at Lyric’s first Lucia of the season.”
Opening on March 3 and running until March 10, the Minnesota Opera production also features tenor Michael Spyres as Edgardo; baritone James Westman as Enrico; and bass Ben Wager as Raimondo, with Leonardo Vordoni conducting in James Robinson’s acclaimed staging.
Other highlights of Phillips’s spring season include Mozart’s Pamina in Die Zauberflöte – one of the two Met roles with which she won the Beverly Sills Artist Award – at the Gran Teatro del Liceu Barcelona, where Phillips heads a strong cast conducted by Pablo González and directed by Joan Font (April 24-28). Spring also sees the soprano in concert: on March 31 and April 1 she joins the St. Louis Symphony under music director David Robertson for two performances of Bach’s monumental Mass in B minor.
Additional information about Susanna Phillips is available at susannaphillips.com, and a list of her upcoming engagements follows.
Susanna Phillips – spring engagements
March 3, 6, 8, & 10
St Paul, MN
Donizetti: Lucia di Lammermoor (Lucia)
Minnesota Opera
March 22, 24, & 25
Curacao, Dutch Caribbean
Coffee Concert
Avila Chamber Music Extravaganza
March 31; April 1
St. Louis, MO
Bach: Mass in B minor
St. Louis Symphony Orchestra / David Robertson
April 24, 26, & 28
Barcelona, Spain
Mozart: Die Zauberflöte (Pamina)
Gran Teatre del Liceu
susannaphillips.com
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© 21C Media Group, February 2012