SUPERSTAR SOPRANO DEBORAH VOIGT OPENS LINCOLN CENTER’S “AMERICAN SONGBOOK” SERIES ON WEDNESDAY JANUARY 23 AT 7:30 PM AND 9:30 PM
RECITAL IS FIRST IN SERIES OF NOTABLE ENGAGEMENTS FOR VOIGT IN NEW YORK CITY AS SHE PREPARES FOR CONCERTS WITH SAN FRANCISCO SYMPHONY AND MET ORCHESTRA, BOTH AT CARNEGIE HALL, AND TWO WAGNER PRODUCTIONS AT THE METROPOLITAN OPERA, INCLUDING HER FIRST MET ISOLDE
“There are certain singers who you just can’t help but love ... Deborah Voigt is one of them, at the top of her field but shunning diva attitude and trappings.” — Chicago Sun-Times
Deborah Voigt begins the New Year with a busy schedule of concert, recital and opera performances across the country throughout January. A highlight will no doubt be her return to the gorgeous Allen Room at the Time Warner Center in New York City, where she will open Lincoln Center’s annual series of “American Songbook” concerts on Wednesday, January 23 with performances at 7:30 PM and 9:30 PM. Ted Sperling and his ensemble will be her musical partners, as they were for her first Lincoln Center American Songbook concert two seasons ago. Highlights of this year’s recital include numbers by Jerome Kern, Kurt Weill, and Stephen Sondheim and salutes to two songstresses whose work has always been a source of inspiration to her: Barbara Cook and Julie Andrews.
Like many American singers, Deborah Voigt grew up listening to and loving the sounds of church music and popular American songs coming out of Broadway, tin-pan alley, movies and the radio. She always admired musical theater singers and aspired to join them on Broadway, until an astute voice teacher pointed out that her talent prescribed an operatic career – indeed, a career of the dramatic soprano variety. Voigt has lived up to that forecast, becoming one of the world’s undisputed leading sopranos in roles of the “two Richards”: Wagner and Strauss.
But critics have always enjoyed her performances of popular music. Two seasons ago the Boston Globe’s classical music critic wrote:
“Voigt proved especially skillful in adapting her operatic instrument to cabaret and show material. She was overwhelming in ‘Losing My Mind’ from Follies because she planned it so well and felt it so deeply; Sondheim's ribald ‘I Never Do Anything Twice’ was hilarious because she didn't overdo it.”
And Variety, covering her first “American Songbook” concert at Lincoln Center, stated:
“Profoundly aware that each song has a story to tell, her delivery is expressively honest and her voice lustrous and creamy. Voigt crosses the opera-Broadway boundary with grace and elegance, harboring a strength reserved for special moments. She is also in the possession of a devilish sense of humor, which was delightfully used to frame a lyric with a naughty smile.”
Brian Kellow reported on Deborah Voigt’s winning way with popular song a few seasons ago in Opera News:
“Headlining ‘Debbie’s Gotta Let Go!,’ a benefit for New York Theatre Workshop...[Voigt sang] a beautifully chosen program of pop music, including ‘Anyone Can Whistle,’ ‘Losing my Mind,’ a stunning ‘Can’t Help Lovin’ Dat Man’ and a jubilant ‘I Love a Piano,’ in which she played four hands with her accompanist… Voigt...comes to pop singing naturally. She creates each musical mood so perfectly and demonstrates such show-biz savvy that it makes me wish she had more opportunities to perform this kind of material. If this were 1970, she would probably be given her own network variety show; let’s hope that Conan O’Brien and David Letterman have her on soon.”
Performances at the Met and at Carnegie Hall
Voigt’s “American Songbook” recital is the first in a series of high-profile engagements for the superstar soprano in New York City in the coming week and months. At the Metropolitan Opera, Voigt will reprise a favorite Wagner role as well as sing a new Wagner role for the first time in New York. Beginning on January 28, Voigt will perform one of her signature roles, Sieglinde in Wagner’s Die Walküre. Maestro Lorin Maazel returns to the Met for the first time since 1963 to conduct this work, the most popular of the four “Ring” operas. Shortly after her Sieglinde performances, Voigt achieves another career milestone at the Met when she sings her first New York performances as Isolde in Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde. One of her frequent colleagues, tenor Ben Heppner, joins Voigt for eight performances under the baton of James Levine from March 10 – 28. The March 22 performance will be broadcast in high definition to theaters worldwide. Voigt made her Isolde role debut in May 2003 in Vienna, and made headlines around the world for the 20-minute standing ovation she received (she reprised the role there in late 2003).
In addition to these performances, Voigt will sing with two great American orchestras at Carnegie Hall this winter. With the Met Orchestra she will sing the final scene from Richard Strauss’s Salome; long-time collaborator James Levine will conduct the concert on Sunday, February 17. With the San Francisco Symphony under the direction of Michael Tilson Thomas, she will sing Richard Strauss’s Four Last Songs and Barber’s Andromache’s Farewell on Wednesday, March 12.
A complete list of Deborah Voigt’s engagements for winter and spring 2008 follows.
Deborah Voigt: winter/spring 2008 engagements
Jan 9, 10, 12 & 13: R. Strauss: Four Last Songs and Barber: Andromache’s Farewell with San Francisco Symphony/Michael Tilson Thomas
Jan 16: “An American Songbook” recital at Royce Hall, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA
Jan 18: Master class (Brian Zeger) at Emory University, Atlanta, GA
Jan 19: Recital with Brian Zeger at Emory University, Atlanta, GA
Jan 23: Opens Lincoln Center’s “American Songbook” series with performance at 7:30 PM in The Allen Room (5th floor of the Time Warner Center at Broadway and 60th St.)
Jan 28; Feb 2, 6 & 9: Wagner: Die Walküre (Sieglinde) at the Metropolitan Opera / Lorin Maazel
Feb 15: Recital with Brian Zeger at University of Connecticut, Storrs
Feb 17: R. Strauss: Salome (Final Scene) with Met Orchestra / James Levine at Carnegie Hall, NYC
March 12: R. Strauss: Four Last Songs and Barber: Andromache’s Farewell with San Francisco Symphony/Michael Tilson Thomas at Carnegie Hall, NYC
March 10 - March 28: Wagner: Tristan und Isolde at the Metropolitan Opera/James Levine
(first Met performances as Isolde); March 22 will be broadcast in high definition to theaters worldwide.
April 27 - May 14: Wagner: Siegfried (Brünnhilde – career role debut) at the Vienna State Opera/Franz Welser-Möst
Jun 13 – July: R. Strauss: Ariadne auf Naxos (Ariadne) at London’s Royal Opera/Mark Elder
For more on Deborah Voigt’s engagements, go to the Engagements page.
January 3rd, 2008
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