| 2007
Winner of NY City Opera's Christopher Keene Award
2004 Florentine Opera’s 1st Marie Z. Uihlein Artist Fund Awardee
1999 ARTIST of the YEAR of Dresden Music Festival
Charismatic Alaska-born mezzo-soprano
VIVICA GENAUX continues to be praised for her extraordinary performances
on the world's great musical stages, not only for the technical command
and beauty of her distinctive voice, but also for her compelling character
portrayals. She is consistently hailed as one of today's foremost interpreters
of the music of the Baroque and bel canto eras. During the course of
the season the total performances of her three most popular Rossini
ladies (Rosina, Angelina and Isabella) reaches more than two hundred.
Her interest in and performances of the music of these periods continue
to grow. During the 2007-08 season, she balances her appearances in
the U.S. and abroad, crisscrossing the Atlantic on several occasions,
for operatic engagements, concerts and recitals in new venues, as well
as returns to sites of previous audience and critical acclaim. Ms. Genaux
adds three new roles to her pantheon of characters, one each by D. Scarlatti,
Vivaldi and Rossini. Her operatic repertoire now encompasses thirty-three
characters, twenty-three of which are trouser-parts.
She makes a role and orchestra debut in San Sebastián, Spain
as Nerone in Domenico Scarlatti's Ottavia restituita al
trono with the Cappella de la Pietá de' Turchini,
and then travels to New York for the first of three area appearances
this season. With frequent compère Craig Rutenberg at the piano,
she offers a recital of Haydn, Viardot, Rossini and Serrano songs as
part of the Tannery Pond Concerts in New Lebanon, New York. Venice's
La Fenice beckons for a Company debut under their auspices at the Teatro
Malibran, as Irene in Vivaldi's Bajazet, which
is quickly becoming a staple of her repertoire. She has performed this
Vivaldi work in many countries throughout the world with Fabio Biondi
and his Europa Galante. Ms. Genaux revisits the United States for her
fifth engagement at the Minnesota Opera, as Isabella in
L'italiana in Algeri. Paris beckons for a private concert
of Vivaldi and Handel arias at the Salle Gaveau for her first collaboration
with Jean-Christophe Spinosi and the Ensemble Matheus.
As 2008 begins she is found at the Grand Théâtre de Genéve,
another Company debut, as the mistreated Angelina in Cenerentola.
She is heard for the first time with the Orchestre National
du Capitole de Toulouse , reunited with Mo. Spinosi, in a concert performance
of Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice. The mezzo then
heads East to Istanbul for her initial appearance in that country in
a Handel and Hasse concert, with Maestro Attilio Cremonesi and La Cetra,
reprising the repertoire they performed at their acclaimed concert at
the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées last season. Another
Biondi/Europa Galante Bajazet takes place
in Madrid . Her second role debut of the season, Falliero, in Rossini's
Bianca e Falliero, marks her first engagement
with Washington Concert Opera, which will be a reunion with the Company's
Music Director, Antony Walker, who conducted her greatly acclaimed New
York City Opera debut in Semele last season.
She and Maestro Walker are paired again immediately when she returns
to Pittsburgh Opera for Bellini's I Capuleti ed i Montecchi.
Ms. Genaux has previously been heard with the Company in Cenerentola,
as well as in recital. France is again on the schedule when she sings
a Recital in the Royal Chapel at Versailles, with Carlos de Aragon as
her accompanist. She renews her association with the Metropolitan Opera
for her third engagement with the Company, as she brings her charming
Rosina to their series of Parks Concerts. The third of her New York-area
engagements is at Caramoor, marking her eighth affiliation with this
popular summer festival. She previously appeared there in four operas
in its 'Bel Canto' series paired with long-time mentor Will Crutchfield,
as well as in three concerts of diverse song literature: Rossini, Chopin,
various Cuban composers. Her season concludes with her final new role,
Antiope, in the recently resurrected Vivaldi opus Ercole
sul Termodonte, with Mo. Biondi and Europa Galante in
Brussels for a Virgin Classics recording (her sixth on the label).
Highlights of the 2006-07 season included: the aforementioned New York
City Opera debut in Semele, as well as a Gala
concert for the Company; Neocle in Rossini's L'assedio di
Corinto with Baltimore Opera; Barbiere
at the Dallas Opera; a Benefit Concert for her debut with Atlanta Opera,
and a recital with Craig Rutenberg for Minneapolis' Schubert Club. Ms.
Genaux was paired often with an array of early music maestri and ensembles:
Fabio Biondi/Europa Galante (Bajazet in Bilbao);
Attilio Cremonesi/La Cetra (Handel/Hasse concerts - Théâtre
des Champs-Elysées & Dresden Festival); Christophe Rousset/Les
Talens Lyriques - (Ariodante - Paris/London/Madrid);
Federico Maria Sardelli/Orchestra Barocca Modo Antiqua (recording of
Vivaldi's L'Atenaide); Concerto Köln
(RheinVokal Festival/Bad Ems); and Bernard Labadie/Les Violons du Roy
(Hasse concerts - Santiago de Compostela/Concertgebouw/Rheingau Festival).
Miss Genaux's professional stage debut was as Isabella/L'italiana
with the Florentine Opera in October 1994, which she subsequently sang
with four other companies, including the Opéra National de Paris
and San Francisco Opera. Rosina/Barbiere is her most
performed role (twenty-one companies including: the Wiener, Deutsche
and Bayerische Staatsopers; De Nederlandse and Washington National Operas;
and the Dresden Festival). She has played Angelina/Cenerentola
with seventeen companies including the: Théâtre des Champs-Elysées,
Semperoper, Opera Orchestra of New York (at Carnegie Hall), Santiago's
Teatro Municipal and the New Israeli Opera. Among her other bel canto
credentials are the trouser parts of: Malcolm/La donna del
lago (Caramoor); Orsini/Lucrezia Borgia (Caramoor); Hassem
in the Donizetti rarity Alahor in Granata
( Granada ); Pippo/La gazza ladra (Caramoor);
Arsace/Semiramide and Romeo/I
Capuleti (both for Minnesota Opera). In the Baroque and
early-Classical repertoires her Handel roles are the most varied and
numerous, encompassing everything from fearless generals to ruthless
goddesses: from impetuous young men to love-sick maidens disguised in
male attire; from caped Crusaders to the most nefarious of villains:
Bradamante/Alcina (Paris); Title Role/Ariodante
(Dallas, San Diego); Title Role/Arminio (Solothurn,
Sienna, Concertgebouw); Title Role/Giulio Cesare
(Washington); Sesto/Giulio Cesare (San Diego);
and Title Role/Rinaldo (Montpellier, Innsbruck).
She has also labored lovingly to help widen the appreciation for the
works of Hasse, both in her many concerts and on stage: Marc'Antonio/Marc'Antonio
e Cleopatra ( Paris , Brussels ) and Selimo/Solimano
(Berlin , Dresden ). Additionally, she has made a strong impact as:
Title Role/Il ritorno d'Ulisse ( Munich -
3 engagements); Title Role/Vivald's Giustino (Solothurn);
Irene/Bajazet (Vienna , Yokohama , Montpellier
); Teologia in A. Scarlatti's La Santissima Trinità
( Palermo , Lyon, Paris); and Orfeo in Gluck's Orfeo ed
Euridice (Los Angeles ).
Included among her many notable concert and recital engagements have
been: extensive tours with the Akademie für Alte Musik, Europa
Galante, Les Violons du Roy, and the Orchestre National de France; festival
appearances in Prague, Lanaudière, Montpellier, San Remo and
Ravello; performances with the Münchner Kammerorchester, New York
Chamber Symphony and New York Festival of Song; as well as engagements
in her native Alaska (Anchorage, Fairbanks and Juneau), at the Wiener
Konzerthaus, Teatro Real in Madrid, Barcelona�s
Gran Teatre del Liceu, Herbst Theater in San Francisco and Carnegie
Hall's Weill Recital Hall.
Several future recording projects are planned as Ms. Genaux's discography
continues to grow steadily. Due for release in France in September,
and in other parts of Europe and the United States shortly thereafter,
is the world premiere recording of Vivaldi's L'Atenaide,
with Federico Maria Sardelli leading the Orchestra Barocca Modo Antiqua
on the Naïve label. For Virgin Classics her most recent CDs include:
Handel/Hasse Arias and Cantatas (2006), with Bernard Labadie and Les
Violons du Roy, which has received consistent kudos; the lavishly praised,
Grammy-nominated Biondi/Europa Galante Bajazet (2005);
La Santissima Trinità (Biondi/Europa Galante) released
in 2004; and, in 2003, her first solo CD on the label, "'Bel Canto
Arias", featuring works by Rossini and Donizetti, with John Nelson
conducting the Ensemble Orchestral de Paris. harmonia mundi produced
two Baroque releases that have garnered tremendous critical and popular
accolades: Handel's Rinaldo, in 2003, conducted
by René Jacobs; and, in 2002, the Grammy-nominated "Arias
for Farinelli", also with Maestro Jacobs. Arminio,
recorded live in 2001, released on Virgin Classics, led by Alan Curtis,
won the 2002 International Handel Prize. Other live recordings include:
Alahor in Granata on the Almaviva label; "Rossiniana,"
released by Agora with the Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano Giuseppe Verdi;
and "An Evening of Arias and Songs by Gioacchino Rossini,"
with accompanist Martin Dubé. Additionally, a DVD documentary,
"A Voice out of the Cold" has been widely seen on television
world-wide.
In 2007 the New York City Opera honored Ms. Genaux with their Christopher
Keene Award."Fracture," her first film, in which she made
a cameo appearance, was released globally in Spring of the same year
and is now available on DVD.
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