DEBORAH VOIGT GIVES HER COMPANY DEBUT AS WAGNER’S ISOLDE AT THE METROPOLITAN OPERA ON MONDAY, MARCH 10, WITH FIVE ADDITIONAL PERFORMANCES, INCLUDING A WORLDWIDE HIGH-DEF VIDEO TRANSMISSION ON MARCH 22
THESE ARE THE FIRST COMPLETE PERFORMANCES OF WAGNER’S TRISTAN UND ISOLDE BY THE REIGNING DIVA OF WAGNER-STRAUSS ROLES SINCE HER THRILLING 2003 ROLE DEBUT AT THE VIENNA STATE OPERA
VOIGT ALSO RETURNS TO CARNEGIE HALL IN MARCH FOR PERFORMANCES OF STRAUSS’S FOUR LAST SONGS AND BARBER’S ANDROMACHE’S FAREWELL WITH MICHAEL TILSON THOMAS AND
THE SAN FRANCISCO SYMPHONY
When Deborah Voigt was invited by the Vienna State Opera to sing her first Tristan und Isolde in 2003, she did not hesitate to accept. But she decided not to plan any further performances until after the run was complete, at the end of the year. Now, nearly five years after her triumphant debut performances in Vienna, Deborah Voigt takes on the iconic role for her first time at New York’s Metropolitan Opera in six performances beginning Monday, March 10. Canadian tenor Ben Heppner, Voigt’s frequent stage and concert partner, will be Tristan to her Isolde, joined by a cast of seasoned Wagnerians under the baton of James Levine.
Wagner lovers and Voigt fans around the world will be delighted, no doubt, by the fact that the performance on Saturday, March 22 will be broadcast live in high definition to theaters as part of the Met’s popular series of HD transmissions.
The eyes and ears of the music world were on Deborah Voigt for that first Vienna Isolde, and she earned hands-down undivided accolades – including a 22-minute standing ovation reported as breaking news by CNN. The New York Times review said:
“Ms. Voigt sang with such confidence and vocal ease you would have thought the role had long been in her repertory. In this intimate 1,700-seat house … her sound sliced through Wagner’s thick orchestration. Yet she preserved the lyrical beauty and sumptuous colorings that have made her such a cherished artist in the Strauss and Verdi repertory.”
Not long after, Deutsche Grammophon issued a live recording taken from the performances, which was also widely acclaimed. Associated Press reported, “Voigt is in command throughout the nearly four-hour-long performance. She brings a melting tone to the gentle passage that opens Act 2, nails the high C's in the love duet that follows, and soars above the orchestra in the climactic ‘Liebestod’.” Most recently, Deborah Voigt reprised a favorite Richard Strauss role at Lyric Opera of Chicago: the Empress in Die Frau ohne Schatten. Like Isolde, the Empress must sing music covering the entire dramatic-soprano range, and “slice through thick orchestration.” Opera News reported from Chicago that she “soared through the Empress’s early coloratura passages with liquid grace, later riding the fiendish dramatic line with ample power and effective use of chest resonance.”
During the four years since her last Vienna Isolde, Deborah Voigt has taken on several new roles, including Strauss’s Marschallin in Der Rosenkavalier, Ponchielli’s Gioconda, and Maddalena di Coigny in Giordano’s Andrea Chénier. She has also reprised a handful of key Italian roles, such as Tosca, Amelia (Un Ballo in maschera), and Leonora (La Forza del destino). One of the greatest responses – from critics and audiences – received by the Illinois-born soprano in her career was for her first staged Salome, in October 2006, at Lyric Opera of Chicago. The Chicago Tribune wrote: “Her singing was gleaming and voluptuous, its power and warm, womanly vocal quality undiminished … Voigt poured out the grueling final scene in a mad exultation of opulent, radiant tone.” During the current season at the Met, Voigt also reprised perhaps her most famous Wagner role to date: Sieglinde in Die Walküre, a role that Voigt has long cherished.
Most recently Voigt joined James Levine and the Met Orchestra at Carnegie Hall, prompting this commentary from the New York Times: “Deborah Voigt did glorious battle with the final scene of Richard Strauss’s Salome. ... This is a soprano of penetrating power and clarity.”
Voigt returns to Carnegie Hall on Wednesday, March 12, where she will perform both Strauss’s Four Last Songs and Samuel Barber’s Andromache’s Farewell with the San Francisco Symphony and Michael Tilson Thomas.
For more on Deborah Voigt’s engagements, go to the Engagements page.
February 21st, 2008
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