Refugee Orchestra Project Makes Successful UK Debut
“Lidiya Yankovskaya has a passion for the new and for the neglected. She’s here for a Refugee Orchestra concert, she’s the Music Director of Chicago Opera Theater, and a whole host of other things that make me feel deeply inadequate.” Ahead of ROP’s London debut, Artistic Director Lidiya Yankovskaya got the word out.
September 4, 2019
““The richness, variety and depth of music that has come out of immigrant and refugee communities is immense. I hope our audiences see that refugees have come from many places throughout our history, and any of us could find ourselves in the position of desperately needing help.””
The Refugee Orchestra Project has just made its UK Debut under the leadership of its founder and artistic director Lidiya Yankovskaya. The Russian-American maestra made several important media appearances in London, including features on BBC Radio 3 In Tune, Newsday, The American Magazine, and Classical Music Magazine.
Photo by Nick Rutter
“‘In these divisive times, vocal support of refugees has become critical – and musicians are uniquely well-positioned to address this issue,’ explains Yankovskaya. ‘Our art form crosses linguistic and cultural boundaries, and so much of what we do is rooted in collaboration.’”
Moby-Dick Is 'Masterfully Led' by Lidiya Yankovskaya
“Musical mastery that turns both this massed ensemble and superb orchestra, conducted by Lidiya Yankovskaya, into forces of nature in their own right.” The Chicago premiere of Heggie’s Moby-Dick is led by Music Director Lidiya Yankovskaya.
April 30, 2019
Photo by Michael Brosilow
Conductor Lidiya Yankovskaya has just led the Chicago premiere of Jake Heggie and Gene Scheer’s operatic adaptation of Melville’s epic novel Moby-Dick. The production, acknowledged by Chicago Reader as “a major undertaking for Chicago Opera Theater and one of its best ever,” has earned particular acclaim for Yankovskaya’s leadership in the pit.
Read reviews:
“But the ultimate star here was the production itself, a tour de force for Chicago Opera Theater with many moving parts. Conductor and COT music director Lidiya Yankovskaya brought forth brilliantly colored accompaniment from the orchestra, where the most exciting musical action takes place. The chorus, too, proved resplendent, onstage and off.”
Chicago Tribune
“…An ideal cast who can act their roles with impressive style, as well as sing them with authority and exemplary diction. Lidiya Yankovskaya, COT’s young and exceptionally talented music director, elicits all the feverish beauty of the score from her superb orchestra, and from the male chorus that is more than three dozen strong.”
WTTW News
“A defining success in the history of the company... Perhaps most memorable is a gentle, affecting meditation on the sea as night slowly changes to morning. This section and the rest of the score are handsomely realized by the Chicago Opera Theater’s pit orchestra, masterfully led by music director Lidiya Yankovskaya, who never allows the momentum to flag.”
Chicago Sun-Times
“A winning operatic experience with stimulating music and touching portrayals, all against the backdrop of an epic sea story. COT has assembled a large cast and a good-sized orchestra who all contribute to an astonishing night at the opera. Lidiya Yankovskaya, COT’s music director, got things off to a propitious start on opening night at the Harris Theater for Music and Dance on Thursday, with orchestral sound that began quietly, establishing a mood of eeriness and hinting at the adventure and danger to come. All night long the sound from the pit was glorious, from playful allurings to leviathanic threats.”
Hyde Park Herald
“A powerful experience, well worth chasing down. COT music director Lidiya Yankovskaya conducts a 60-piece orchestra. This co-production with four other opera companies is a major undertaking for COT and one of its best ever.”
Chicago Reader
“Highly recommended – it’s rare to hear a more hauntingly beautiful and stylistically varied score… Chicago Opera Theater’s Music Director Lidiya Yankovskaya masterfully conducted the 60-member orchestra through Heggie’s score.”
Around The Town Chicago
“The enthralling immediacy of story and song is musical mastery that turns both this massed ensemble and superb orchestra, conducted by Lidiya Yankovskaya, into forces of nature in their own right. COT’s labor of love abounds in thinking thrills, unforgettable stage tableaux, and monumental energy that always rises to Melville’s occasions.”
Stage and Cinema
“Lidiya Yankovskaya built on her strong debut last November leading Tchaikovsky’s Iolanta. She kept the momentum surging through the two long acts, balancing the principals, chorus and large orchestra with consummate skill and putting across all of the ingenuity, audacity and startling beauty of Heggie’s remarkable score.”
Chicago Classical Review
“Moby Dick was masterfully conducted by Lidiya Yankovskaya. Under her baton the 60 piece orchestra played beautifully with a sumptuous sound. The positive influence of Ms. Yankovskaya’s direction continues to impress in a business which is highly competitive for better orchestra players. The commitment to excellence from COT is to be commended.”
Buzz Center Stage
“Heggie opens the score with an almost quiet contemplation of the sea, which you too might admire even more when the orchestra under Conductor Lidiya Yankovskaya pours out turbulent storms. Every once in a while there is a fleeting phrase in the score with almost déjà vu familiarity of an aria Pavarotti might have sung, or even a show tune, but before this writer could register the when/where, it would be washed away by other musical currents rising in a new wave… It is the muscular male chorus – sometimes center stage and sometimes off stage—that perhaps most impresses. If the Soviet Army Chorus were unleashed to sing a wider range of melodies that weren’t all about military conquest and glory, one imagines they might sound just like this.”
Picture This Post
“Chicago Opera Theater music director Lidiya Yankovskaya led a first-class cast, a 60-piece orchestra, and an agile 38-member chorus in the service of this demanding opera. “Moby-Dick” doesn’t sound Italian at all, but it loves singers the way Verdi operas do, and Yankovskaya conveyed its Verdi-like sense of tension and forward motion, knowing where to dwell and reflect, how long to cower, when to pounce, how to switch gears and get on with it.”
Chicago on The Aisle
Lidiya Yankovskaya Delivers 'Strong WNO Debut'
“Yankovskaya does a terrific job as a conductor of this score bringing out the many colors and styles of music with her thirteen musicians who prove game to the challenge.” Lidiya Yankovskaya makes her Washington National Opera debut leading the world premiere of Kamala Sankaram’s Taking Up Serpents.
January 16, 2019
Photo by Scott Suchman
Conductor Lidiya Yankovskaya has just made her house debut at Washington National Opera, leading the world premiere of Kamala Sankaram’s Taking Up Serpents, an opera set in the American South that explores religious traditions and family.
Read reviews:
“Russian conductor Lidiya Yankovskaya made a strong WNO debut at the podium, skillfully bringing together the disparate sounds in the pit.”
Washington Classical Review
“The most interesting parts were Sankaram’s atmospheric orchestrations, brought out by Lidiya Yankovskaya in the pit.”
The Washington Post
“Her orchestrations, performed by a fully game Washington National Orchestra under the direction of Lidiya Yankovskaya in her WNO debut, emphasize the unease of Kayla's reluctant return home to her estranged family. The orchestra not only creates unusual noises with bassoons minus the mouthpieces, but there is also what may be the first use in opera of the children's toy called the whirly tube, those ribbed plastic hoses that emit an otherworldly sound when swung around.”
Broadway World
“Sankaram also has integrated some curious contemporary instrumentation for a small orchestra, including electric and acoustic guitar, a drum set, water phone, and, most delicious of all, “whirly tubes” with their mysterious sound and snakelike waving. Lidiya Yankovskaya does a terrific job as a conductor of this score bringing out the many colors and styles of music with her thirteen musicians who prove game to the challenge.”
DC Theatre Scene
“Conductor Lidiya Yankovskaya ably shaped the score: Its spare orchestration is built on string drones and slithering glissandos and colored with punchy special effects, such as the whirly tubes that make a soft, creepy hooting sound, associated with Kayla’s memories, and the glockenspiel that plays as her father brands her as a sinful daughter of Eve and that later accompanies her triumphant assertion, ‘I am the light.’”
Wall Street Journal
Snakes on A Stage: Lidiya Yankovskaya in Washington Post
“What makes an American opera? Many of the support programs designed to promote new work create the somewhat amusing spectacle of American artists such as Kamala Sankaram, whose father is from South India, or the opera’s conductor, Lidiya Yankovskaya, whose family emigrated from Russia when she was 9, compressing themselves into someone else’s ‘American’ template.” Ahead of her house debut at Washington National Opera, the conductor spoke with Anne Midgette about the world premiere of Taking Up Serpents.
January 6, 2019
Ahead of her Washington National Opera debut conducting the world premiere of Kamala Sankaram’s Taking Up Serpents, conductor Lidiya Yankovskaya spoke with the Washington Post about new music, speaking in tongues, and reconciling personal experience with an opera’s subject matter.
Performances will be at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. on January 11 and 13; tickets can be purchased via WNO.
What makes an American opera? Companies across the country seem to be perpetually asking this question. The Metropolitan Opera is said to have turned down Rufus Wainwright’s opera “Prima Donna” on the grounds that it was in French and therefore not an American opera. Other companies turn to Hollywood — the Minnesota Opera has presented operatic versions of “The Shining” and “The Manchurian Candidate” — or book adaptations — the San Francisco Opera has offered “Dolores Claiborne” (based on the Stephen King novel) and “The Bonesetter’s Daughter” (based on the Amy Tan novel). Many of the support programs designed to promote new work create the somewhat amusing spectacle of American artists such as Sankaram, whose father is from South India, or the opera’s conductor, Lidiya Yankovskaya, whose family emigrated from Russia when she was 9, compressing themselves into someone else’s “American” template.
“Going into this opera, that worried me,” Yankovskaya says. “It’s much more difficult to express something you’re not intimately familiar with yourself. But then, of course, I’m not intimately familiar with what it’s like to be a courtesan in Europe,” which hasn’t stopped her from conducting “La traviata.”
'Gutsy, Political, and Hypnotising' Ayre Launches Against the Grain Records
“Miriam Khalil’s performance on this album shows her to be more than a singer: she is an elemental force.” Against the Grain Records releases a stunning new recording of Osvaldo Golijov’s Ayre by a soprano native to many of the cultural threads.
December 7, 2018
Against The Grain Theatre, Toronto's visionary chamber opera company, is known for electric performances that act as "a bracing wake-up call to the spirit" (The Globe and Mail). That daring candor is now being channeled via its new in-house recording label, which launches today with a live recording of Osvaldo Golijov's "ecstatically beautiful...radical and disorienting" song cycle Ayre (The New Yorker).
Ayre blends traditional and electronic instruments with elements of Byzantine chant, Sephardic lullabies, Sardinian protest songs, and Arabic, Hebrew, and Christian texts. Praised by Gramophone as "an intoxicating, endlessly haunting mixture of styles and musical cultures," the technically exacting song cycle has become a signature piece for AtG Founding Member Miriam Khalil.
According to Against the Grain Founder and Artistic Director Joel Ivany, the preservation of such transformative works was a major motivator in the establishment of the theatre's in-house label. "At AtG, we have made it our mandate to create fresh and daring experiences for our audiences – and with this new facet of our work, we're now able to capture and share moments of our acclaimed limited production runs."
"Against the Grain is thrilled to be able to share the immediacy and emotion of this live performance, recorded at the breathtaking Ismaili Center in Toronto, with a broader audience," he said. "Ayre is an extraordinary and unforgettable adventure."
Hear the album >
Praise for Miriam Khalil’s performance:
“The fluidity on display in Khalil’s smallest ornaments is also apparent on the largest scale in her approach to the entire work. Ayre’s eclectic sources can feel blocky in their juxtapositions, like buildings from different eras of a city thrown up with no compromise or eye to overall aesthetic cohesion. In Khalil’s rendition, the impression is more of a lived-in landscape, one where tree and grass and hill and oasis have melded together into an intricate network, no one part fully extricable from any of the others. In this way, she makes Ayre feel like a piece for our time…”
–National Sawdust Log
“Khalil's 2016 performances in Toronto - which make up Ayre Live - offer an energy and understanding that make hers a new definitive interpretation of the work.”
–Schmopera
“Titled after the Old Spanish word for “song,” Ayre is so relentless in its storytelling that it’s almost exhausting – another emotional wave we can surely ride alongside Khalil, who sings the challenging work with her whole body. Few singers have the stamina or the stylistic palette that Khalil employs throughout Ayre, and it’s even more impressive when one remembers this is a live recording.”
–The Globe and Mail
“Miriam Khalil’s performance on this album shows her to be more than a singer: she is an elemental force. There are no missteps here as each song is performed with dramatic depth, a nuanced understanding of the range of emotions and tones required by poetry and music.”
–Opera Wire
“Khalil, who speaks fluent Arabic and even grew up singing some of the songs Golijov chose, performs this cycle with a personal understanding that makes this recording a mature iteration of the work. As an opera singer, Khalil spends her voice generously in Golijov’s stretchy, hovering soprano lines. And unlike an opera singer, she sets few limits on how she uses her instrument. She begins the cycle with a sound that’s close to a Western classical voice, one that could translate into a recital of songs by Debussy or Schubert; but over Golijov’s expansive arc, she moves her voice into the technically risky sound worlds of chest voice and nasal production. As the styles intertwine, it’s astonishingly organic to hear her womanly, spinning vibrato hover over an electronic beat that is totally danceable.”
–The Globe and Mail
Praise for Against the Grain Records:
“The album is a bold way for Against the Grain to inaugurate its status as a record label. Ayre is not opera, and it's perhaps not even representative of what AtG has become most widely known for - namely, its 21st-century-spun "transladaptations" of traditional operas by Mozart and Puccini. Yet for the launching of Against the Grain Records, to lead with Ayre is to lead with a strong message of putting art and diversity first – without compromising on quality.”
–Schmopera
“With Ayre Live, Against the Grain Theatre has christened its new record label with a piece that evades definition, a game in which artistic director Joel Ivany excels. The recording is a nod to the opera collective’s roots, with its spotlight on founding member Khalil, but more importantly, it’s something that will make it into my daily playlist. It’s too bold for background music, too tough to forget after even just one listen.”
–The Globe and Mail
“Toronto-based chamber opera company Against the Grain Theater has launched a new record label. I can’t think of better start to such a venture than this recording of Osvaldo Golijov’s song cycle, “Ayre.” The work captures some of the company’s central ideals: beauty, relevance, and innovation.”
–Opera Wire
Yankovskaya and Winters Are December Artists of The Month
Musical America describes Yankovskaya as “friendly and fearsomely articulate" while the New York Festival of Song interviews Winters on self-care, favorite rep, and mentoring with Turn The Spotlight.
December 3, 2018
Photos by Kate Lemmon and Fay Fox
Conductor Lidiya Yankovskaya and soprano Corinne Winters are each “Artist of the Month” honorees for December.
Musical America describes Yankovskaya as “friendly and fearsomely articulate" while the New York Festival of Song interviews Winters on self-care, favorite rep, and mentoring with Turn The Spotlight.
Lidiya Yankovskaya Leads 'A Flexible And Richly Idiomatic' Iolanta
“Yankovskaya’s supple command of musical shape and dramatic continuity was never in doubt.” Chicago Opera Theater Music Director Lidiya Yankovskaya leads the Chicago premiere of Tchaikovsky’s final opera.
November 18, 2018
Photo by Michael Brosilow
Russian-American conductor Lidiya Yankovskaya recently led the Chicago premiere of Iolanta, Tchaikovsky’s final opera, at Chicago Opera Theater.
Though Yankovskaya was appointed Music Director of COT in 2017, the 18/19 season opener marked her debut in the orchestra pit. Critics praised her leadership, citing it as a new beginning for Chicago Opera Theater.
Read reviews:
“Yankovskaya…led a flexible and richly idiomatic account of this score. She showed clear sympathy with her compatriot’s music—keeping the music flowing through the unbroken 90 minutes, balancing deftly to bring out Tchaikovsky’s woodwind accents, and building lyric climaxes to resplendent payoffs.”
–Chicago Classical Review
“All follow Maestra Yankovskaya with ease, and she brings the piece to full flower…For anyone who has had recent doubts about the vitality of opera, it’s a pure tonic.”
–Chicagoland Musical Theatre
“Maestra Yankovskaya’s debut in the pit was promising and gratifying. She brought out all the pathos and grandness in the lush score, without ever overpowering the singers, quite an accomplishment in an intimate theater with such an exposed orchestra pit.”
–Buzz Center Stage
“Conducted by Lidiya Yankovskaya in her company debut, [this is] a production that is as dazzling as it is emotionally and musically complex. Led by Yankovskaya, the orchestra’s music buoys each character’s journey.”
–Picture this Post
“Under the baton of Lidiya Yankovskaya, Tchaikovsky’s score became transcendent. With the thorough preparation of the score and empathy with the composer (both having Russian roots and then Western influences), she lovingly guided the singers and orchestra through every ebb and flow of the music, shifting from tenderness to passion, while keeping the pace of the opera moving ahead.”
–Opera Wire
“COT is going in the right direction. This show marks a new beginning for COT, especially with Lidiya Yankovskaya. The music-making was at such a high level, and the singing was so committed and engaged. I felt like I was hearing this opera for the first time – that this is fresh, this is new, and this is something I need to pay attention to.”
–Opera Box Score
“Lidiya Yankovskaya’s rapid rise among U.S.-based conductors of her generation seems to be driven as much by her exceptional talent as her eagerness to take on ambitious, out-of-the-way artistic projects. On Saturday, the 32-year-old Russian-American maestro made her official debut…conducting a fringe-repertory piece that’s close to her heart and place of origin: Tchaikovsky’s Iolanta. Yankovskaya’s supple command of musical shape and dramatic continuity was never in doubt. One can only hope COT’s new music director – a staunch champion of Russian opera in the 22 years since she arrived on these shores – will favor Chicago with more Russian rarities in the not-too-distant future.”
–Musical America
Christopher Allen Offers 'Artistic Salvation' in Ne Quittez Pas
“Pianist Christopher Allen proved a thrilling collaborator, finding orchestral colors in his virtuosic playing.” Conductor Christopher Allen returned to his first love, the piano, to partner Patricia Racette in his Opera Philadelphia debut.
September 30, 2018
Photos by Dominic M. Mercier
““At equal partnership with Racette is Music Director and Pianist, Christopher Allen. His playing of Poulenc’s writing is superb. From the first tones of Poulenc’s Intermezzo No. 3 to the final sounds of the opera, each and every note was played with such clarity, command, and tenderness, that the audience is left unaware of the immense difficulty of the music.””
Christopher Allen has made a critically acclaimed Opera Philadelphia debut, in an unusually multi-faceted role as music director, pianist, and actor for Ne Quittez Pas. The program, a re-imagining of Poulenc’s La voix humaine for Opera Philadelphia’s Festival O18, starred Patricia Racette in a production by James Darrah.
Read reviews:
“Voix Humaine is heard here accompanied by an excellent solo pianist, Christopher Allen… To their credit, though, the performers (including pianist Allen, who deserves some kind of MVP award) commit fully to Darrah’s vision.”
Parterre Box
“Pianist Christopher Allen had a wonderful feel for Poulenc's alternating sweetness and acid, and I often wished Darrah had granted both him and Nelson the simple visual quiet of a small white spotlight.”
Philadelphia Inquirer
“Yet in the hands of Racette and her gifted accompanist, Christopher Allen, I never came close to cringing. The production uses a piano reduction in place of full orchestra, which Allen dispatches with real feeling for Poulenc’s melodious writing…”
Broad Street Review
“[Racette’s] partner in music-making, pianist Christopher Allen proved a thrilling collaborator, finding orchestral colors in his virtuosic playing.”
Opera Today
“I'd say that more is less, except for the elegant piano performances by Music Director Christopher Allen, which I found quite pleasing.”
Broadway World
“…Poulenc songs with the impeccable collaboration of pianist/music director Christopher Allen, creating a hauntingly penetrating sound in the cavernous cabaret. This romp through music, poetry, and devilish insanity…made the first act of Ne Quittez Pas into a revelatory vehicle for the musical talents of Christopher Allen and Edward Nelson. The second half is the actual Jean Cocteau play, La voix humaine… Christopher Allen did a masterful job with the score.”
Philly Life & Culture
“There’s nobility, too, in the soprano Patricia Racette’s…masterly performance, and Christopher Allen’s responsive piano collaboration…”
The New York Times
“The piano accompaniment, performed by Christopher Allen…made its pain especially intimate.”
Wall Street Journal
“Music Director and pianist Christopher Allen offered artistic salvation from beginning to end, including his rendition of Poulenc’s Intermezzo no. 3 during the opening scene…”
Bachtrack
“…Christopher Allen’s ability to hold it all together despite whatever was transpiring on stage, all the while playing magnificently.”
Seen and Heard International
Two Verismo Artists Profiled in Musical America
Over the past decade, Musical America has had an incredible knack for featuring "New Artists of the Month" who go on to big things. This month's follow-up on 25 of these still-rising stars includes conductor Christopher Allen and soprano Corinne Winters.
June 26, 2018
Photos by Gabriel Gastelum and Fay Fox
““Every month for nearly ten years, Musical America has featured a New Artist on our home page: someone with a special talent that, for the most part, hasn’t yet been ‘discovered’... We were right, as we were with all of the 25 we check on in this issue.””
Musical America followed up with conductor Christopher Allen, who was originally profiled as "New Artist of the Month" in July 2015 and "seems to be everywhere these days," and soprano Corinne Winters, profiled in January 2012, for whom "Violetta has become such an integral part of [her] operatic trajectory."
Corinne Winters Interviewed on Italian Radio
"L'italiano è la lingua più bella del mondo!" Soprano Corinne Winters joined SBS Italian Radio to discuss her love for the Italian language and the juicy roles of the Italian operatic repertoire.
May 4, 2018
““Italian is the most beautiful language in the world!””
After wowing audiences in her Australian debut in La traviata at Opera Australia, American soprano Corinne Winters spoke with SBS Italian Radio, in an interview with Carlo Oreglia.
Photo by Fay Fox
Corinne Winters Makes Australian Debut
“Winters glides, she soars with a magnificence of coloratura that is merely the theatrical expression of a wholly consistent characterisation, sometimes coolly self-possessed in the face of tightly controlled desire, sometimes enraptured, sometimes very convincingly at the edge of despair. This is a very contemporary Violetta – musically flawless but with a convincing and enshrouding self-possession…” Corinne Winters brings her signature role to Opera Australia in the beloved Elijah Moshinsky production of La traviata in Melbourne.
April 17, 2018
““A commanding, sometimes cool, sometimes rent Violetta from the American soprano Corinne Winters…””
American soprano Corinne Winters makes her Australian debut in the beloved Moshinsky production of La traviata at Opera Australia. Conducted by Carlo Montanaro, La traviata runs through May 11. Tickets can be purchased via Opera Australia.
Photo by Jeff Busby
Read more reviews:
"The ideal vehicle for introducing a star soprano... The Opera Australia debut of American Corinne Winters was rapturously received. Winters brings an abundance of knowledge to her signature role. She is as much an actor who sings as an operatic star. Her ease and fluidity on the stage allow her to relax into the character and focus on many elements which breathe life into a character. Ms. Winters’ dark and rich vocal tone handled with ease the many vigorous demands Verdi makes of his protagonist. This was a captivating portrait which drew well-deserved applause."
ConcertoNet
"Warm and expressive, ultimately catching fire during Violetta’s demise in the final act..."
Bachtrack
"Riveting performances... As Violetta lies distraught and dying, Winters comes into her full strength, giving a genuinely moving performance. Singing Violetta’s lament, “Addio, del passato,” Winters in full control and is seen and heard at her best."
Man in Chair
"Winters was at her best as the ailing Violetta of Act III, capturing the despair and desperation of a dying woman with affecting authenticity, her voice pale and pianissimo."
Canberra Times
"Winters’s vocal range and emotive portrayal of Violetta were on display and it was impossible not to be entranced."
The Plus Ones
"Winters worked the festivities vivaciously in creamy-rich voice as Violetta... Stirred by emotion and pondering if Alfredo could be the one when left alone singing “È strano! ... Ah, fors’è lui,” Winters bloomed marvellously. It was the emotional emphatic bursts on single phrases that genuinely crowned her performance."
Herald Sun
“The rich sound and particular texture of Winters' voice is unique. A powerful actor, her final act was especially potent with her voice often floating with sustained fragility.”
ArtsHub
“A commanding, sometimes cool, sometimes rent Violetta from the American soprano Corinne Winters… It is hard to fault Winters. She glides, she soars with a magnificence of coloratura that is merely the theatrical expression of a wholly consistent characterisation, sometimes coolly self-possessed in the face of tightly controlled desire, sometimes enraptured, sometimes very convincingly at the edge of despair. This is a very contemporary Violetta – musically flawless but with a convincing and enshrouding self-possession that rises to meet the implicit tragedy with which Verdi, almost against the odds, transfigures melodrama into tragedy.”
The Saturday Paper
Corinne Winters Is 'On The Couch' With Australian Arts Review
"It’s easy to jump on the bandwagon, but daring to be oneself, especially when it means standing alone, is real bravery..." Ahead of her Opera Australia debut as Violetta in the beloved Moshinsky La traviata, Winters speaks with Australian Arts Review.
April 13, 2018
““It’s easy to jump on the bandwagon, but daring to be oneself, especially when it means standing alone, is real bravery... Inspired people uplift others, creating a domino effect that has the power to change the world.””
Ahead of her Australian debut in the beloved Moshinsky production of La traviata at Opera Australia, American soprano Corinne Winters spoke with Australian Arts Review.
Conducted by Carlo Montanaro, La traviata runs through May 11. Tickets can be purchased via Opera Australia.
Photo by Fay Fox
'Think You Hate Opera? Corinne Winters Wants To Change That'
"Opera changes people on a molecular level. The unamplified voice is a frequency that changes them. Maybe my particular frequency, my particular aesthetic, won't move everybody – but it could move someone." Corinne Winters speaks with Spectrum in Australia’s The Age newspaper.
April 10, 2018
Photo by Fay Fox
““Opera changes people on a molecular level. The unamplified voice is a frequency that changes them. Maybe my particular frequency, my particular aesthetic, won’t move everybody – but it could move someone.” ”
Ahead of her Australian debut in the beloved Moshinsky production of La traviata at Opera Australia, American soprano Corinne Winters spoke with Spectrum in Australia's The Age newspaper. Conducted by Carlo Montanaro, La traviata runs through May 11. Tickets can be purchased via Opera Australia.
All Who Wander Wins 2018 BBC Music Magazine Vocal Award
“No one who has heard Jamie Barton in action is in any doubt about the American mezzo-soprano’s gifts. She boasts an expansive, robust vocal sound, tinged with richly varied colors, and she deploys it with a distinctive combination of heroic power and tender intimacy. So the splendors of her debut release don’t exactly come as a surprise. But that hardly diminishes the joy of listening to Barton’s expressive, full-throated performances.” Jamie Barton's debut solo album has won the Vocal Category of the 2018 BBC Music Magazine Awards.
April 6, 2018
““The long wait for Jamie Barton’s debut recital disc was worth every minute. Barton is wonderfully idiomatic in Dvořák and Sibelius, and she and her pianist give a performance of Mahler’s Rückert Lieder that is up there with the greatest.””
Jamie Barton's debut album, released on Delos Music, has won the 2018 BBC Music Magazine Vocal Award. Accompanied by pianist Brian Zeger, All Who Wander features lush, romantic melodies by Mahler, Dvorak, and Sibelius. All Who Wander was also nominated for an International Classical Music Award in the Vocal Recital category, and was one of six Solo Vocal albums shortlisted by Gramophone for their Classical Music Awards.
Photo courtesy of BBC Music Magazine
Corinne Winters Featured in Limelight Magazine
“Beautiful tone draws people in, but primal emotion breaks hearts – an easy thing to forget after years of higher education and trying to ‘get it right.’” Ahead of her Opera Australia debut, Winters appears in Australia’s Limelight Magazine.
April 6, 2018
Photo by Fay Fox
““Beautiful tone draws people in, but primal emotion breaks hearts – an easy thing to forget after years of higher education and trying to ‘get it right’.””
Ahead of her Australian debut in the beloved Moshinsky production of La traviata at Opera Australia, American soprano Corinne Winters spoke with glossy, print, and digital cultural outlets in Sydney and Melbourne.
Conducted by Carlo Montanaro, La traviata runs through May 11. Tickets can be purchased via Opera Australia.
Role Leads to the Soul: Corinne Winters in Herald Sun
"There are times in life where there just isn't a question that it's the right next step to take. With opera and my husband it has felt like that – like I didn't have a choice. It's that strong of a pull." Corinne Winters speaks with the Herald Sun, ahead of her debut with Opera Australia as their La traviata in Melbourne.
April 1, 2018
““There are times in life where there just isn’t a question that it’s the right next step to take. With opera and my husband it has felt like that – like I didn’t have a choice. It’s that strong of a pull.””
Ahead of her Australian debut in the beloved Moshinsky production of La traviata at Opera Australia, American soprano Corinne Winters spoke with the Herald Sun.
Conducted by Carlo Montanaro, La traviata runs through May 11. Tickets can be purchased via Opera Australia.
Photo by Fay Fox
Jamie Barton's Debut Album Nominated for BBC Music Magazine Awards
"Some of the most beautiful recordings I have ever heard. Anyone who loves the human voice should own this." All Who Wander is up for a BBC Music Magazine Award in the Vocal category.
January 25, 2018
Jamie Barton's debut album, released on Delos Music, has been nominated for a BBC Music Magazine Award in the Vocal category for 2018. Voting is open until February 19 at www.classical-music.com/awards.
All Who Wander has also been nominated for an International Classical Music Award in the Vocal Recital category, and was one of six Solo Vocal albums shortlisted by Gramophone for their Classical Music Awards.
Accompanied by pianist Brian Zeger, All Who Wander features lush, romantic melodies by Mahler, Dvorak, and Sibelius.
““Jamie Barton seems now to be the equal of any dramatic mezzo before the public. The great element which has enabled her rise to stardom is, of course, her voice-large, rich, fully controlled. She is one of the few singers who can delight an audience simply by the sheer beauty of her voice. Nowhere is this beauty more evident than here.
She and Zeger communicate exactly the proper mood of each song, whether boisterous and fun-loving or quiet and reflective. Barton produces some exquisite soft singing, with amazingly steady sustained tones [and] she emphasizes the drama of the situation with great variations in dynamics, from her beautiful soft singing to exciting forte passages.
But it is the opening section of Mahler songs that makes this recording stand alone – Ms. Barton’s glorious sound reinforcing the emotions surely felt by any sensitive listener. These are some of the most beautiful recordings I have ever heard. Anyone who loves the human voice should own this.””
Jamie Barton is 'La favorite' of Madrid Audiences, Critics
"An interpretation with personality, quality, variety of expression, authority in the extremes of the registers, and daring assurance..." Jamie Barton makes her role debut as La favorite in Teatro Real Madrid's bicentennial gala.
November 2, 2017
Photo by Javier del Real
Mezzo Jamie Barton made her Teatro Real Madrid debut in the theater's bicentennial celebration gala, singing her first Léonor in La favorite alongside tenor Javier Camarena.
Read reviews:
“Jamie Barton and Javier Camarena were the two triumphant protagonists last night. Camarena roused the audience, as did Leonor’s aria “O mon Fernand,” in which Barton achieved the high point of the night, in an interpretation with personality, quality, variety of expression, authority in the extremes of the registers, and daring assurance. The cabaletta finished with bravura, where before there was smooth introspection and always potent expressive concentration.”
ABC Cultura
“Jamie Barton stole the show with top-notch singing and vibrant acting. Her sumptuous mezzo is based on a solid centre, with fresh colours and a beautiful, quick vibrato, crowned with powerful high notes. She does not just live off these natural gifts but she strives for technical excellency, displaying very nuanced and contrasted phrasing, always coloured by a rich palette and by exciting chest notes. She excelled in all her duos, trusting her good form and a deep knowledge of the role. In the ecstatic “O mon Fernand” she showed how well she can control her voice with extraordinary piano singing and smooth legato. Marietta Alboni now has a worthy heiress.”
Bachtrack
“Debuting with an already fully developed interpretation, the justly deserved standout among the vocal cast was the American mezzo-soprano, Georgia native Jamie Barton, who offered a magnificent Leonor. A big voice – meaty, with generous volume and extensive range, and velvety. It’s also delicate, with an attractive timbre and impeccable placement, and a homogeneous lined-up sound. Likewise, the American singer is a great vocalist, possessing a good singing technique, dominating legato singing, dynamics, and style. All this was on stupendous display in her interpretation of Leonor’s grand scena in the second act, “Oh mon Fernand” and the subsequent cabeletta, in which she sang a high C the size of a house, that filled the theater and contributed to the celebration by adding to the theater’s history one of those memorable sounds that are heard there from time to time. A magnificent vocal performance.”
Codalario
“In the titular role, the mezzo-soprano Jamie Barton displayed a whole paragon of virtues: a big, extensive, and homogeneous voice, with a meaty round timbre, an interpretation with character, technical support, and perfect stylistic accuracy. Her Leonor had personality, magnetism, and moments of unparalleled vocal intensity, like her brilliant and vibrant cabaletta. She dominates the smooth singing just as she does the more vigorous passages and this double debut – with the role and at the Teatro Real – was a complete success for her. In her singing there is control, color, and temperament. Without a doubt, it’s a voice to follow – though certainly young, it has much to say.”
Platea Magazine
“The American mezzo Jamie Barton is the center of the action with a juicy and clear voice, in charge of attracting and engrossing the others.”
El Mundo
“Oren highlighted the extraordinary quality of the cast, led by Barton y Camarena.”
El Sombrario
"In Madrid we had the debut of Javier Camarena in the role, as well as the presence of mezzo-soprano Jamie Barton as Léonor. Both were excellent, though one must acknowledge that La Favorita del Re was also the audience’s ‘favorita’. Jamie Barton, who was making her debut in Madrid, has a wide and very beautiful voice, well-handled and expressive, and an outstanding top register. Her Léonor was superb from start to finish, and her interpretation of ‘O mon Fernand’ and the subsequent cabaletta were the highlights of the concert. She represents the continuation of the great tradition of American mezzo-sopranos, following in the footsteps of Marilyn Horne and Dolora Zajick. There’s really no comparison to Jamie Barton in this role today..."
Seen and Heard International
“Camarena and Barton carry the opera on their backs. She is a young diamond…and will do wonders in this and other roles. Her Leonor will surely be well-placed as the next in the line of those created by Stignani, Barbieri, Simionato, Cossotto, Verrett and Horne. The opposite of the usual, her voice shines most in the extreme registers of her range than in the middle voice, and in her much applauded debut at the Real – and in this particular opera – she has left an unbeatable impression.”
El Pais
Corinne Winters Digs Deep in New Daniel Kramer La Traviata
"No one could ask for more from the role: a Traviata who delivers glittering coloratura runs as well as intimate lyrical passages, extroverted self-expression, and bitterest pain with magnificent touching intensity.” Winters makes her Theater Basel debut as Violetta in a new co-production with English National Opera.
October 22, 2017
Photo by Sandra Then
““No one could ask for more from the role: a Traviata who delivers glittering coloratura runs as well as intimate lyrical passages, extroverted self-expression, and bitterest pain with magnificent touching intensity.””
Soprano Corinne Winters makes her Theater Basel debut in a new Daniel Kramer production of La traviata.
The production runs intermittently through February 25, 2018; tickets can be purchased via Theater Basel.
Photo by Sandra Then
Read more reviews:
“The star of the evening is soprano Corinne Winters, who in the lead role wholly convinced as both actor and vocalist… Winters shapes her role of Violetta Valery to the end, with differentiated vocals for every turn of phrase. Winters is a woman with the beauty of a Catherine Zeta-Jones and the voice of a young Anna Netrebko. She makes use of the enormous range of this part with all her facets and shades. Her Violetta is frivolous, girlish, in love, humiliated, and eerily strong. She pulls off the coloratura in the cabaletta 'Sempre libera' and moves us with consummate dynamics in the romance 'Addio del passato.'”
O-Ton
"Victim and driving force in one: Corinne Winters, Zürich’s memorable Mélisande, here in her signature role. She does not belong to the league of twittering sopranos who so often inhabit this role. No, her's is a lyric soprano without all of the extraneous high notes – a voice that actually sings the suffering, a vocal actress who intones her own requiem."
Badische Zeitung
Photo by Sandra Then
“The American Corinne Winters filled her role with vocal refinement and touching intensity – in the end, the entire audience lay at her feet without reserve.”
Aargauer Zeitung
“Corinne Winters gives a poignant Violetta. She does not rely on high, long-held top notes, but on emotion. It flows best in the third act - many a patron wiped a tear from his cheek.”
Der Neue Merker
“With Corinne Winters, the Theater Basel has an outstanding protagonist who gives this Violetta dignity and depth. Even in the dazzling first act, for which the stage designer Lizzie Clachan has built a round mirror hall in the art deco style, this attractive, doomed upper-class courtesan – in the midst of bodices, wigs and suspenders, in her slit white silk dress – is never vulgar. In the second act, she resembles a Madonna when she squeezes her bedspread like a cloak, and, kneeling on the ground, sings her love for Alfredo. Corinne Winters, in her multi-faceted interpretation, always returns to this intimate, warm tone. Her perfectly rounded dark timbre soprano can also harden in order to shine in the fortissimo outbursts above the full orchestra. In his opulent production, Daniel Kramer sets the stage on optical luster and strong contrasts. In the last act, the evening also gains a scenic appeal. Here Violetta dug her own grave. One last time Corinne Winters is entrancing with her compelling artistry, before this lover, carried by the warm orchestral sound, goes without quarrel to death.”
Neue Zürcher Zeitung