September 24th, 2008
DEBORAH VOIGT WILL SING HER FIRST STATESIDE “GIOCONDA”
TONIGHT AT THE METROPOLITAN OPERA
After wowing international audiences in the Met’s high-def simulcast of Tristan und Isolde last spring, Voigt will host the Met’s Salome on-screen all over the world on October 11, and participate in a March 15 Gala celebrating two anniversaries: the Met’s 125th and Placido Domingo’s 40th with the company.
Deborah Voigt jump-starts her new season on September 24 with her first American performance as Ponchielli’s ballad-singing La Gioconda, with her home company in New York City. Gioconda is Voigt’s 15th role at the Met, and one of seven major roles she will perform on three continents this season. 2008-09 will also feature her in a star turn at Carnegie Hall just in time for the holiday season and several recitals.
One of the world’s foremost dramatic sopranos, Deborah Voigt cherishes the arduous part of the Venetian Gioconda. “It’s such an iconic role – she’s deeply conflicted, but a very human character,” she says. “If ever there was an ironic name for a character, ‘Gioconda’ – the cheerful one – is it! She suffers and she’s miserable throughout the entire opera!”
Ms. Voigt comments further:
“Gioconda is at heart a joyful young woman, but since she’s constantly dealing with terrible situations involving people she loves and people she hates, she’s torn between jealous rage and her faith and natural goodness. Expressing these violently conflicting emotions is the central challenge of the role. From a musical standpoint, Gioconda gets plenty of fabulous music to sing. It’s a big, rich, juicy role: I love it, and I’m happy to be singing it again. Incidentally, this opera was performed during the Met’s inaugural season in 1883. So it’s especially rewarding to sing it here in my "home house” during the Met’s 125th-anniversary season.”
Voigt’s role debut as the lovelorn Gioconda at Barcelona’s historic Liceu three seasons ago was dubbed “an unqualified success” by the influential Spanish monthly Ópera Actual. A DVD of that performance has earned international praise, including Opera magazine’s summing-up:
“Deborah Voigt brings such a generous blend of grandeur and detail … Handsome and graceful of presence, she convinces as a woman of extremes, adoring both her saintly mother and the undeserving Enzo, detesting the evil of Barnaba and finally reaching the end of her tangled tether in Act 4.”
The Met has scheduled four additional performances of Ponchielli’s verismo showcase after the first tonight: on Sep 27, Oct 2, 6, & 9, all beginning at 8:00 pm. Daniele Callegari, who conducted Ms. Voigt’s Barcelona performances of La Gioconda, herewith makes his Met debut.
For more on Deborah Voigt’s engagements,
go to the Engagements page.
September 24th, 2008
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