Soprano Brenda Rae Joins Verismo Roster
"Virtuosic and sensual, capable of both power and nuance.” Verismo is proud to represent coloratura sensation Brenda Rae, who makes high-profile debuts at Teatro Real Madrid, Salzburg Festival, and the Metropolitan Opera this season.
August 21, 2019
““Her ecstatic desires are expressed in streams of twittering, coloratura runs. Ms. Rae brought plush radiance and brilliant, agile singing to the showpiece.””
Verismo Communications welcomes American soprano Brenda Rae to the roster. Praised by Opera magazine as “virtuosic and sensual, capable of both power and nuance,” Rae is a regular guest at the world’s leading opera houses in a portfolio of demanding principal roles. This season she makes several high-profile debuts, including her first appearances as Adina in Daminao Michieletto’s production of L’elisir d’amore at Teatro Real Madrid, her Salzburg Festival debut as Königin der Nacht in Die Zauberflöte, and her much-anticipated Metropolitan Opera debut as Poppea in a new David McVicar production of Agrippina, to be simulcast in cinemas worldwide via Met Live in HD.
Elsewhere this season, Rae returns to Wiener Staatsoper to reprise the title role in Laurent Pelly’s production of Lucia di Lammermoor, for which the Washington Post praised her as “incandescent, creating a three-dimensional character whose fluid coloratura mirrored the passionate meanderings of her mind.” She also returns to Bayerische Staatsoper as Aminta in Barrie Kosky’s production of Die schweigsame Frau and Opera Philadelphia as the featured artist in their Festival O19 Celebration.
Future projects include her Royal Opera House Covent Garden debut as well as appearances in New York, Madrid, Vienna, Munich, Chicago, Hong Kong, Frankfurt, and Philadelphia.
Photo by Dario Acosta
Peter Konwitschny Production of La Juive, Starring Corinne Winters, Now Streaming Online
“Nothing could have prepared me for the focused intensity of Winters’ performance as Rachel…” Opera Vlaanderen’s recent run of Halévy’s La Juive is now available to view online via OperaVision.
April 6, 2019
Photo by Annemie Augustijns
The Peter Konwitschny production of Halévy’s La Juive, which recently concluded its run at Opera Vlaanderen starring soprano Corinne Winters, is now available to view via OperaVision until October 5, 2019.
Read reviews:
”Winters made a magnificent role debut as Rachel, the burnished, purple shades of her lower register gorgeous in the romance “Il va venir.” Her confrontation with Léopold, when he confesses that he is not “Samuel”, but a Christian – sizzled with disbelief and scorn across the pit…”
Bachtrack
“Nothing could have prepared me for the focused intensity of Winters’ performance as Rachel, and the remarkable strength and evenness of her middle and lower registers; the way she sang the whole role with a feeling of intensely projected line. This Rachel felt things deeply and conveyed it through the music. Konwitschny asked a lot of his Rachel, she turned suicide bomber in Act Three, but Winters certainly delivered and did so with the music, not despite it.”
Planet Hugill
“The voice of soprano Corinne Winters goes through marrow and bone… [This is] an intimate performance that crawls under the skin and asks questions about the present.”
NRC Handelsblad
“With her grand, dramatic sound, Corinne Winters shows what potential is in her voice, but also in her acting. It is Konwitschny’s style to step outside the frame of the stage, which feels uncomfortable because you are so directly addressed as an audience. But there was so much power and conviction in Winters' acting that this scene felt logical.”
Place de l’Opera
“Corinne Winters, in her role debut, delivers a powerful performance based on an unerring and penetrating timbre that is a little dark and very personal. Her aria ‘Il va venir’ is undeniably one of the evening’s high points.”
Ôlyrix
“The American Corinne Winters, in her role debut as Rachel has a wonderfully good sense of drama and timing… Winters‘ contribution is intimate, human, touchable.”
de Volkskrant
Corinne Winters Returns to Tucson for Latin-Themed Concerts
“Holtan is ecstatic about having this world-class soprano back in our midst. ‘She was such a huge hit when she was here last time, and when we reached out to her, she didn’t hesitate,’ he says.” Corinne Winters joins the Tucson Desert Song Festival for concerts, a recital, and a masterclass.
January 14, 2019
Photos by Fay Fox
American soprano Corinne Winters returns to the Old Pueblo this month for a series of appearances with the Tucson Desert Song Festival. In addition to leading a masterclass for students at the University of Arizona, Winters will perform with guitarist Adam del Monte and True Concord Voices & Orchestra in repertoire including Villa-Lobos’ Bachianas Brasileiras no. 5, before debuting her new Shades of Night recital, featuring opera arias and songs that explore literal and metaphorical interpretations of night.
Ahead of her arrival in Tucson, Corinne spoke with Tucson Lifestyle Magazine and the Arizona Daily Star.
“The recital will be a virtual album of moments to remember. Winters explains, ‘It’s called Shades of Night because it examines all the facets of night: celebration, romance, excitement, loss, and the metaphorical ‘dark night of the soul.’ Each piece, in one way or another, is about exploring what’s hidden. The pieces are beautiful and accessible, including a mix of standard works and lesser-known gems. I suggest that the audience really take in the variance in color and mood. This program is not esoteric; it’s meant to be experienced viscerally. I suspect the impact will be different for each person!’”
Read full feature in Tucson Lifestyle Magazine >
“Corinne Winters is making up for lost time this week. After a four-year absence from Tucson stages, the soprano, who has fast-become a rising star on international opera stages, is returning to the Tucson Desert Song Festival, where she is doing triple-duty.”
'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.
Corinne Winters is 'Spellbindingly Regal' in Verdi Requiem
“Winters, a slight but striking figure, excelled. She is an exquisitely expressive singer.” The Monteverdi Choir and Orchestras’ European tour of the Verdi Requiem wraps tonight at Amsterdam’s famed Concertgebouw.
October 7, 2018
Soprano Corinne Winters wraps a 9-city European tour of the iconic Verdi Requiem with the Monteverdi Choir and Orchestras tonight, in a final performance at Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw.
The tour has enjoyed critical acclaim throughout its run, with Winters earning praise for her interpretation of the soprano solo in this operatic mass for the dead.
Read reviews:
“Winters was spell-bindingly regal… Winters’ soaring soprano was persistent but beautiful, rising to her second high C without a flicker.”
Bachtrack
“The soprano had a very flexible voice, flawless, with an interesting timbre, well placed piano and forte singing that carried over the wave of the orchestra. Winters is currently one of the most famous Traviatas on the operatic stage and it was easy to hear why.”
Racjonalista.TV
“A stunning performance.”
Daily Express
“Winters has the graceful timbre of silk, and she moved as one with the Swedish mezzo-soprano Ann Hallenberg. The quartet is therefore optimal for synergy, as you hear in the Agnus Dei: warm, vocally united, faithful to the score.”
Città Nuova
“An exquisite line-up of soloists… The radiant passages for soprano and alto soloists, stunningly sung by Winters and Hallenberg, formed a highlight for the Agnus Dei…”
Adventures in Music
“Winters ascends the heights with gold-colored tones that resonate softly in the piano. How she structures the end of “Libera me” is breathtaking.”
Luzerner Zeitung
“Winters, a slight but striking figure, excelled. She is an exquisitely expressive singer.”
Quarterly Review
Corinne Winters Will Return to Santa Fe Opera to Sing Her First Leïla
Soprano Corinne Winters will join the summer 2019 production of Bizet’s The Pearl Fishers.
October 5, 2018
American soprano Corinne Winters will return to Santa Fe Opera in the summer of 2019, to sing her first performances as Leïla in a Lee Blakeley production of Bizet’s The Pearl Fishers.
Conducted by Timothy Myers, Winters will be joined by Ilker Arcayürek as Nadir and Anthony Clark Evans as Zurga.
Performances run June 29 to August 23, 2019; tickets are available via Santa Fe Opera.
Photo by Fay Fox
Kicking off The 2018/19 Season
This season will take Verismo artists to stages and orchestra pits around the world, including those of the Metropolitan Opera, Carnegie Hall, Kennedy Center, Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, San Francisco Opera, Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Los Angeles Opera, Canadian Opera Company, Opera Philadelphia, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Bayerische Staatsoper, and Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw.
September 5, 2018
The 2018/19 season will take Verismo artists – including the opera singers, conductor, and string quartet highlighted below – from Istanbul and Amsterdam to New York and London, as they make important role and house debuts and renew connections with favorite collaborators.
Jamie Barton, Mezzo
Sara in Roberto Devereux
San Francisco Opera
September 8-27, 2018
*role debut
Azucena in Il trovatore
Bayerische Staatsoper
October 7-17, 2018
Mezzo Soloist in Verdi Requiem
Royal Opera House Covent Garden
October 23, 2018
Azucena in Il trovatore
Lyric Opera of Chicago
November 17-December 9, 2018
Sister Helen Prejean in Dead Man Walking
Atlanta Opera
February 2-10, 2019
*role debut
Fricka in Das Rheingold
Metropolitan Opera
March 9-May 6, 2019
Recital with Kathleen Kelly
Renée Fleming VOICES
Kennedy Center
March 23, 2019
Fricka in Die Walküre
Metropolitan Opera
March 25-May 7, 2019
*March 30 simulcast in cinemas via Met Live in HD
Jezibaba in Rusalka
San Francisco Opera
June 16-28, 2019
Photo by Stacey Bode
Photo by Gabriel Gastelum
Christopher Allen, Conductor
Ne Quittez Pas
Opera Philadelphia
September 22-30, 2018
Candide
New England Conservatory
October 23-24, 2018
The Barber of Seville
Michigan Opera Theatre
November 10-18, 2018
Bel Canto Trio
70th Anniversary Tour
November-December 2018
Recital with Joshua Guerrero
December 2018
An American Original
Atlanta Symphony Orchestra
January 10-12, 2019
Rising Stars Concert
Lyric Opera of Chicago
April 2019
The Marriage of Figaro
Opera Theatre of St. Louis
May 25-June 29, 2019
Corinne Winters, Soprano
Soprano Soloist in Verdi Requiem
Monteverdi Choir & Orchestra
2018 European Tour
September 16 – Wroclaw, Poland
September 18 – London, UK
September 20 – Pisa, Italy
October 30 – Lucerne, Switzerland
November 1 – Vienna, Austria
November 2 – Budapest, Hungary
November 4 – Munich, Germany
November 5 – Luxembourg, Luxembourg
November 7 – Amsterdam, Netherlands
Tatiana in Eugene Onegin
Michigan Opera Theatre
October 13-21, 2018
Soloist in Bachianas Brasileiras
True Concord | TDSF
January 18-20, 2019
Rachel in La Juive
Opera Vlaanderen
March 10-April 6, 2019
*role debut
Soloist in Les nuits d'été
Borusan Istanbul Philharmonic Orchestra
April 11, 2019
Soloist in García Lorca: Muse and Magician
New York Festival of Song
April 24, 2019
Photo by Fay Fox
Photo by Fay Fox
Russell Thomas, Tenor
Roberto in Roberto Devereux
San Francisco Opera
September 8-27, 2018
*role debut
Manrico in Il trovatore
Bayerische Staatsoper
October 7-17, 2018
Manrico in Il trovatore
Lyric Opera of Chicago
November 17-December 9, 2018
Tenor Soloist in Das Lied von der Erde
Dallas Symphony
January 10-13, 2019
Tito in La clemenza di Tito
Los Angeles Opera
March 2-24, 2019
Otello in Otello
Canadian Opera Company
April 27-May 26, 2019
*staged role debut
Otello in Otello
Deutsche Oper Berlin
June 8-20, 2019
Fry Street Quartet
As One
Album Recording
September 10-13, 2018
The Crossroads Project: Rising Tide
Indiana University Cinema
October 4, 2018
Bartok String Quartets: Complete Cycle
Utah State University
November 6-8, 2018
Earthbound
NOVA Chamber Music Series
January 20, 2019
FSQ @ USU Series
February 5, 2019
FSQ @ USU Series
March 5, 2019
The Crossroads Project: Rising Tide
Shepherd University
April 17, 2019
The Crossroads Project: Rising Tide
Longwood Gardens
April 18, 2019
Photo by Andrew McAllister
Turn The Spotlight Foundation to Mentor Arts Leaders
Turn The Spotlight’s mission is to identify, nurture, and empower leaders, and in turn, illuminate the path to a more equitable future in the arts. The foundation was created to pair top-tier mentors with exceptional women, people of color, and other equity-seeking groups in the arts.
July 31, 2018
Lumos Fellows Elena Uriote and Melissa White. Photo by Daniel Cavazos
Today, twenty-one arts leaders and activists announce the launch of Turn The Spotlight, a foundation created to pair top-tier mentors with exceptional women, people of color, and other equity-seeking groups in the arts. Beth Stewart, a New York City-based arts entrepreneur and classical music publicist, will lead the foundation, which is supported by an Advisory Board of arts world luminaries, including soprano Julia Bullock, journalists Anne Midgette and Celeste Headlee, conductors Lidiya Yankovskaya and Nicole Paiement, stage director Francesca Zambello, classical music publicist Mary Lou Falcone, arts advocates Monica Yunus and Camille Zamora, and women’s rights advocate Amanda Mejia.
“We believe that systemic change is crucial,” said Turn The Spotlight Founder Beth Stewart. “We also believe that one-on-one mentoring can have real impact, particularly in an industry in which so many professionals are freelancers working outside an established institutional framework. Our mission is to identify, nurture, and empower leaders, and in turn, illuminate the path to a more equitable future in the arts.”
Stewart has recruited ten industry-leading mentors from a wide range of artistic specialties, including Emmy Award-winning documentarian Kristin Atwell Ford, producer/director Avery Willis Hoffman, Metropolitan Opera mezzo-soprano Jamie Barton, and composer Kamala Sankaram. They will join arts activists Alysia Lee, Rebecca McFaul and Anne Francis Bayless, sopranos Heidi Melton and Corinne Winters, and designer Jessica Jahn in mentoring the foundation’s fellows during the 2018/19 season.
“Nearly all of our first cohort of Lumos Fellows have founded organizations, produced or commissioned new work. Each has a distinctive voice and clear personal mission, and they are committed to using their art to strengthen their communities. We believe these versatile and inventive arts leaders and activists are the way forward,” said Stewart.
The 2018/19 Lumos Fellows will collaborate on a striking breadth of projects, ranging from building community investment in arts entrepreneurship to developing a line of gender non-binary swimwear, and confronting personal violence through performance. The Fellows include vocalist Lucy Dhegrae, founder of the Resonant Bodies Festival, director/producer Jamil Jude, founder of The New Griots Festival, violinist and Fulbright Scholar Teagan Faran, who studies how music can strengthen community togetherness, and composer Frances Pollock, whose music examines social issues through collaboration outside traditional academic circles.
Emerging classical singers Rehanna Thelwell, Felicia Moore, and Anush Avetisyan, costume designer Sueann Leung, and DC Strings Artistic Director Andrew Lee will round out the first cohort, along with violinists Elena Urioste and Melissa White, whose company Intermission was founded to teach musicians yoga techniques to support the demanding physicality and emotional undertaking of performance.
At the conclusion of the mentorship season in May, one Lumos Fellow will be chosen by the Spotlight Advisory Board to receive the Hedwig Holbrook Prize, to include $5,000 and a website designed by Stewart’s PR firm, Verismo Communications.
“It’s my hope that this prize, named in honor of the late soprano Jennifer Holbrook, will represent a galvanizing force in one fellow’s life each season,” said Stewart. “I expect each of our Lumos Fellows to emerge from this experience with a clearer vision of the path of his or her personal mission, and a deeper well of fuel to get there.”
Though the organization’s day-to-day operations will be focused on individual mentorship, Turn The Spotlight leaders hope that their cumulative efforts will contribute to addressing inequity across sectors of the arts industry.
“The classical music industry continues to lag woefully behind when it comes to diversity, especially in leadership positions within larger-budget organizations,” said conductor Lidiya Yankovskaya, founder of the Refugee Orchestra Project and the only female Music Director in the top 50 opera companies in the United States. “Turn the Spotlight is providing the essential mentorship and support those from marginalized groups require in order to reach high-level career goals. I am thrilled to be part of this vital resource for deserving artists across the field.”
“The arts provide the prism through which we can first envision, and then build, a better and more just world,” added Camille Zamora, co-founder of Sing for Hope and a leading voice in the artist-as-citizen movement. “Turn The Spotlight is poised to do exactly what the name suggests: refocus the illuminating power of the arts.”
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.
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
Heidi Melton's Valhallantines for the New York Phil
Heidi Melton turned Wagnerian wit into Valhallantines for the New York Phil's Instagram account.
February 14, 2018
In collaboration with Verismo, soprano Heidi Melton created a series of #Valhallantine posts for her takeover of the New York Philharmonic's Instagram account on Valentine's Day.
In honor of epic and awkward romances, The Ring Cycle-themed poems ranged from limericks and haiku to "roses are red" verses, utilizing Melton's deep knowledge of the Wagnerian repertoire.
Melton's performance as Sieglinde that evening earned critical notice, with The New York Times praising her as "a radiant soprano... Singing with bloom and richness, Ms. Melton was a tender, vulnerable Sieglinde.” Bachtrack was impressed by her "warm and gleaming voice...acted with insight and wisdom," while the New York Classical Review raved, "Soprano Heidi Melton proved nearly ideal as Sieglinde. She brought a rich voice to the role, showing smooth tenderness through most of the act, but was capable of thrilling energy, as well."
Learn more about Heidi Melton >
New HeidiMelton.com Launch
"The Wagnerian voice we have been waiting for since Flagstad and Nilsson." This season, American dramatic soprano Heidi Melton sings Brünnhilde and Sieglinde in performances of Wagner's Ring Cycle at the New York Philharmonic, Dallas Symphony, and Badisches Staatstheater Karlsruhe.
December 20, 2017
Verismo Communications announces the launch of a new website for dramatic soprano Heidi Melton, who has been hailed as “the Wagnerian voice we have been waiting for since Flagstad and Nilsson” (La Presse), with a voice that is “big, gleaming and tonally resplendent” (San Francisco Chronicle).
In the 2017/18 season, Melton makes a role debut as Brünnhilde in a new production of Götterdämmerung at Badisches Staatstheater Karlsruhe followed by performances of the complete Ring Cycle later in the spring. Ms. Melton also returns to the New York Philharmonic as Sieglinde in Act 1 of Die Walküre and with the Dallas Symphony as Brünnhilde in a complete concert performance of Die Walküre, both conducted by Jaap van Zweden. She sings Mahler’s Symphony No. 8 as the Second Soprano with Tonkünstler Orchester and Andres Orozco-Estrada in Vienna. In New York City, she sings a recital for the George London Foundation at the Morgan Library.
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
Corinne Winters Is The Bee's Knees in San Diego's Art Deco Traviata
"As moving and vocally compelling as I have ever experienced...” Winters makes her San Diego Opera debut as Verdi's tragic heroine in a Marta Domingo production.
April 24, 2017
Photo by Katarzyna Woronowicz
““Sublime singing and acting...Winters showed why she’s one of the world’s top interpreters of the role. Her voice is creamy, delicate and flexible in the coloratura role, but she also brings a raw authenticity to her acting.””
Soprano Corinne Winters continues her 2017 trio of La traviatas with her debut at San Diego Opera. She is joined in Marta Domingo's art deco production by tenor Jesús Garcia and baritone Stephen Powell, with David Agler conducting.
The production runs through April 30; tickets can be purchased via San Diego Opera.
Read more reviews:
“Corinne Winters, who has made Violetta her signature role, gives a marvelous performance. She sparkles in the darker moments. Her high notes are magnificent; she is able to project her pianissimos perfectly, even in a recumbent position. Impressive technique, and a smooth, creamy, effortless sound throughout. When Winters is paired with velvety-voiced baritone Stephen Powell, magic ensues.”
Times of San Diego
"Corinne Winters gave an engrossing rendition of her role. Winters’ interpretation showed the audience both the public glamor of the celebrated nineteenth century courtesan and the private tragedy. Winters’ vocal and physical acting in the ensuing acts made her Violetta truly memorable. When she sang that love and understanding had come far too late, many audience members were in tears as the opera ended."
Opera Today
“It proved to be an auspicious San Diego debut for Corinne Winters in the title role. Her bright, lithe soprano jumped through all of the role’s coloratura hoops, yet it displayed warmth and body for her more lyrically sustained vocal confessions. Her incisive dramatic instincts energized every encounter, and her final act death scene was as moving and vocally compelling as I have ever experienced in this opera.”
San Diego Story