Deborah Voigt

Deborah Voigt is one of the worlds leading dramatic sopranos, internationally revered in the operas of Richard Wagner and Richard Strauss. She is also noted for her portrayals of such popular Italian operatic parts as Tosca, Aida, Amelia in Un ballo in maschera, and Leonora in La forza del destino. An active recitalist and performer of Broadway standards, Voigt has an extensive discography, and has given many enthusiastically-received master classes. Through her performances and television appearances, she is known for the singular power and beauty of her voice, as well as for her winning personality and stage presence.

Voigts 2009-10 season begins and ends with Puccini. She opens the Lyric Opera of Chicago season in the title role of Tosca, and gives her role debut as Minnie in La fanciulla del West (The Girl of the Golden West) in her long-awaited return to San Francisco Opera in June. The early autumn sees Voigt in Munich singing the daunting soprano role in Arnold Schoenbergs Gurrelieder, with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra under its music director, Mariss Jansons. Between her two big Puccini engagements, Deborah Voigt returns to her home company, the Metropolitan Opera, in two of her signature roles as Chrysothemis in Strausss Elektra and Senta in Wagners Fliegende Holl”nder (The Flying Dutchman) and to Barcelonas Gran Teatre del Liceu in another, Wagners Tristan und Isolde. Next summer, she repeats her highly regarded Salome first at Switzerlands Verbier Festival under conductor Valery Gergiev, and then at Japans Saito Kinen Festival with Seiji Ozawa, who conducted her Salome concert debut with the Boston Symphony at Tanglewood.

Last season, Voigt added Ponchiellis La Gioconda to the long list of operas she has performed at the Met, and she sang her first Chicago Isolde at Lyric Opera under Sir Andrew Davis. She also sang Amelia in Verdis Ballo in Maschera at the Op™ra National de Paris, and after their huge success together at an earlier Hollywood Bowl appearance in a joint concert with Barbara Cook at Californias Orange County Performing Arts Center. Three seasons ago Voigt gave her role debut as Maddalena in Umberto Giordanos Andrea Ch™nier in Barcelona; the following season she returned to Lyric Opera of Chicago as the Empress in a new production of Die Frau ohne Schatten. Also in the 2007-8 season she added Isolde to her Met repertoire, with one performance transmitted live in HD to cinemas worldwide. The New York Times wrote: She set the tone for the performance with her clear, incisive, and intelligent singing. She also hosted another of the hugely popular international transmissions in The Met: Live in HD series, and returned to the Royal Opera House Covent Garden as the Prima Donna in Strausss Ariadne auf Naxos.

Voigts wide-ranging repertoire also includes starring roles (several of which she has recorded) in Strausss Egyptian Helen, Der Rosenkavalier, and Friedenstag; Wagners Lohengrin, Tannh”user and Die Walk¬re; and Berliozs Troyens.

Deborah Voigts two popular solo recordings for EMI Classics are both critical successes. The Washington Post praised the discerning eye behind the adventurous choice of repertoire for All My Heart, with pianist Brian Zeger, and noted that it was performed by a voice outstanding not only for tone and power but for interpretive subtlety and emotional nuance. Voigts earlier disc, Obsessions, presents scenes and arias from operas by Wagner and Strauss. Gramophonesreview of the Billboard top-five bestseller states: The arias highlight Voigts extraordinary ability to soar effortlessly and luminously above the orchestra with her trademark rich, lustrous, never hard or brittle voice. Her recording of Strausss Egyptian Helen was also a Billboard bestseller, and was named one of the best CDs of the year by Opera News. A live recording of the 2003 Vienna State Opera Tristan und Isolde, in which Voigt made her headlining role debut, was released by Deutsche Grammophon.

A devotee of Broadway and American song, Deborah Voigt has given acclaimed performances of popular fare, including benefit concerts for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS and New York Theatre Workshop. Voigt ... comes to pop-singing naturally. ... If this were 1970, she would probably be given her own network variety show, raved Opera News. She sang three concerts with Barbara Cook and Dianne Reeves at the Hollywood Bowl and made an exciting debut in Lincoln Centers long-running American Songbook series, singing Broadway and popular standards. Variety reported: Deborah Voigt, perhaps the foremost dramatic operatic soprano of the day ... [is] 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.

Millions of viewers heard Voigt sing America the Beautiful on NBCs nationwide broadcast of Macys Independence Day fireworks show in 2004, and later that year they witnessed her majestic ride down Broadway in Macys Thanksgiving Day parade.

Deborah Voigt studied at California State University at Fullerton. She was a member of San Francisco Operas Merola Program, and won both the Gold Medal in Moscows Tchaikovsky Competition and First Prize at Philadelphias Luciano Pavarotti Vocal Competition. Voigt is a Chevalier dans lOrdre des Arts et des Lettres, and was Musical Americas Vocalist of the Year 2003. In 2007 she won an Opera News Award for distinguished achievement, and in 2009 she received an Honorary Doctorate from the University of South Carolina.

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