2011-2012 Season

The dazzling, vocally distinctive, theatrically engaging mezzo-soprano VIVICA GENAUX continues to garner kudos for her compelling performances on the world's great musical stages, not only for her extraordinary technique and the beauty of voice, but also for her vibrant character portrayals. She is consistently lauded as one of the pre-eminent interpreters of Baroque and bel canto music and continues to explore new avenues in this area.

This season, with a particular emphasis on the music of the 18th-Century Venetian master Antonio Vivaldi, Ms. Genaux continues to balance her appearances in the United States and abroad with operatic engagements, concerts and recitals in new venues and countries, as well as returns to sites of previous audience and critical triumphs. She adds three characters from rarely-heard works to her repertoire, two by Vivaldi (Gilade in Il Farnace and Epitide in L'oracolo in Messenia), as well as one by J.C. Bach (Tamasse in Zanaïda), bringing her total to forty-six roles, twenty-nine of which are en travesti. She sings one of her signature parts, Isabella in L'italiana in Algeri, and performs concerts with a host of the leading period instrument ensembles. Her discography is augmented with a Baroque duo program (her first for Sony) and Vivaldi's L'oracolo for Virgin Classics.

The mezzo commences the 2011-12 season with two debut performances at the Musikfest Bremen (September): the initial one is a Hasse/Handel concert, which is to be recorded by Sony, in her first collaboration with the ensemble Cappella Gabetta. Next, in Locarno, as part of Switzerland's Le Settimane Musicali, is the first of many performances throughout Ms. Genaux's season in which she participates in concert presentations of Vivaldi's Il Farnace with Diego Fasolis leading I Barocchisti (September). Other Farnaces take place that month at the festivals in Bremen and Ambronay (the latter, also a debut), and for her company debut at the Opéra de Lausanne (December). Interspersed amongst these are her role debut as Tamasse in a concert performance of the recently-rediscovered Zanaïda by Johann Christian Bach at Paris' Cité de la Musique (September), marking her premier pairing with Opera Fuoco, led by David Stern; she has a quartet of dates as Isabella for her first engagement by the Asociación Asturiana de Amigos de la Ópera in Oviedo, Spain (October); concerts at San Francisco's Herbst Theater and elsewhere in the Bay-area for a new collaboration with Nicholas McGegan and the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra (October); she is a guest artist for the German AIDS Foundation's benefit concert on the stage of the Deutsche Oper Berlin (November); and an all-Vivaldi concert introducing her to audiences of Prague's Strings of Autumn Festival (November).

The Alaskan-born mezzo-soprano begins her new year in the company of one of her most frequent musical partners, Europa Galante and their leader, Fabio Biondi. They perform another Vivaldi-rarity in concert, with Ms. Genaux taking on the role in Epitide in L'oracolo in Messenia, for the first time, initially in Caen, France and then at Vienna's Konzerthaus, with the latter serving as the venue of the Virgin Classics recording (January). The same musical forces then embark on a six-city U.S. tour presenting Vivaldi arias, as featured in Pyrotechnics, their 2009 Grammy©-nominated recording, at Los Angeles' Walt Disney Concert Hall, in Las Vegas, Tucson, Denver, at Carnegie (Zankel) Hall, and in Kansas City as part of the Harriman-Jewell series (January/February). She makes her debut in Luxembourg at their Philharmonie in a program of 18th- and 19th-century repertoire (February). The Farnace team reassembles in Strasbourg and Mulhouse for a fully-staged production by Lucinda Childs for France's Opéra National du Rhin (May-June). In between the runs in the two Alsatian cities, the artists journey to Amsterdam's Concertgebouw for another concert presentation (June). To conclude the season she makes her International Gluck Opera Festival debut in a concert featuring opera arias by Gluck and his near-contemporaries, W.A. Mozart and the Czech composer, Josef Mysliveček.

Among the highlights of her 2010-11 season were operatic performances at the Deutsche Staatsoper and Salzburg Whitsun Festival in Handel's Aci, Galatea e Polifemo, led by René Jacobs, and L'italiana in Algeri at the Opéra National de Paris and Wiener Staatsoper. Concert presentations of other large-scale vocal works included Leonardo Leo's oratorio Sant'Elena al Calvario in Cracow with Mo. Biondi and Europa Galante, the Rossini Stabat Mater under Myung-Whun Chung at the Saint-Denis Festival, as well as two events at the Wiener Konzerthaus: Meyerbeer's Emma di Resburgo with the Kammerorchester moderntimes_1800 and Handel's Il trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno with Concerto Copenhagen. With the latter ensemble, both in Copenhagen and Vienna, she also performed a tribute to the famed Baroque diva and muse, Faustina Bordoni, featuring arias by Handel and Hasse. With Concerto Köln she presented a different Bordoni tribute in Herne, Germany, as well as further Handel/Hasse concerts in Germany (Cologne, Halle, Schwetzingen & Potsdam), France (Strasbourg, Montpellier, Brive-la-Gaillarde & Vendée) and also for her debut at Copenhagen's Tivoli Festival. With Kammerorchester Basel she performed Rossini works in Paris, Versailles and Lucerne. She also sang with Andrew Litton and the hr-Sinfonieorcheter in Wiesbaden, performed a U.S. recital for Tannery Pond Concerts in the Berkshires, and gave a command performance in Brussels for the government of Belgium.

Ms. Genaux's professional stage debut was with the Florentine Opera in October 1994 as Isabella in L'italiana. She subsequently sang the role with numerous companies, including the Opéra National de Paris, San Francisco Opera and Turin's Teatro Regio, among others. Rosina/Il barbiere di Siviglia is her most performed role, having sung it with twenty-one companies including: the Wiener, Deutsche and Bayerische Staatsopers; Metropolitan, De Nederlandse, Washington National and Dallas Operas; and at the Dresden Festival. She has played Angelina/Cenerentola with twenty-two companies including the: Semperoper, Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, Opera Orchestra of New York (at Carnegie Hall), Washington Concert Opera, Teatro Municipal de Santiago, New Israeli Opera, Japan Opera Foundation, and the Grand Théâtre de Genève. Among her other bel canto credentials are the trouser parts of: Title Role/Tancredi (Vienna/Budapest); Neocle/L'assedio di Corinto (Baltimore); Malcolm/La donna del lago (Caramoor); Orsini/Lucrezia Borgia (Caramoor/Minnesota Opera); Falliero in Bianca e Falliero (Washington Concert Opera); Hassem in Donizetti's Alahor in Granata (Seville); Pippo/La gazza ladra (Caramoor); Arsace/ Semiramide (Minnesota & Caramoor) and Romeo/I Capuleti ed i Montecchi (Minnesota/ Pittsburgh). 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 and finally to allegorical visions: Il Piacere/Il Trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno (Madrid/Vienna); Bradamante/Alcina (Paris); Title Role/Ariodante (Dallas/San Diego); Polinesso/Ariodante (Paris/London/ Madrid/Vienna); Title Role/Arminio (Solothurn/Siena/Amsterdam); Title Role/Giulio Cesare (Washington); Sesto/Giulio Cesare (San Diego); the dual roles of Juno and Ino/Semele (Les Talens Lyriques in Paris, and London and The New York City Opera); and the Title Role/Rinaldo (Montpellier/ Innsbruck). She has also labored lovingly to help widen the appreciation for the works of Johann Adolf Hasse, both in her many concerts and on stage: Piramo/Piramo e Tisbe (Salzburg/Montpellier); Marc'Antonio/Marc'Antonio e Cleopatra (Paris/Brussels) and Selimo/Solimano (Berlin/ Dresden). Additionally, she has made a strong impact as: Penelope/Il ritorno d'Ulisse (Munich–three engagements); Title Role/Vivaldi's Giustino (Solothurn); Irene/Bajazet (Vienna/Yokohama/Montpellier/Venice/Cracow/Paris/Madrid/Metz); Antiope/ Ercole sul Termodonte (Cracow/Vienna/Paris); Teologia in Alessandro Scarlatti's La Santissima Trinità (Palermo/Lyon/Paris); Nerone in Domenico Scarlatti's Ottavia restituita al trono (San Sebastián); Orfeo in Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice (Los Angeles); and in a pair of Haydn roles - Costanza in L'isola disabitata (Bamberg) and Ernesto in Il mondo della luna (Vienna).

Included among her many notable past concert and recital engagements have been those with: the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, La Cetra, Collegium Apollineum, Il Complesso Barocco, Concentus Musicus Wien, Concerto Copenhagen, Concerto Italiano, Concerto Köln, Europa Galante, Freiburger Barockorchester, hr-Sinfonieorchester, Kammerorchester Basel, Kammerorchester moderntimes_1800, Les Paladins, Les Talens Lyriques, Venice Baroque Orchestra, Les Violons du Roy, Orchestre National de France, Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France and at the BBC Proms; festival appearances in: Rome, Prague, Ludwigsburg, Halle, Schwetzingen, St. Denis, Lanaudière, Montpellier, San Remo, Antibes, Ravello and Caramoor; performances with: the Münchner Kammerorchester, New York Chamber Symphony, Orchestra of St. Luke's, New York Festival of Song, in her native Alaska (Anchorage, Fairbanks and Juneau), at the Wiener Konzerthaus, London's Barbican Center, Moscow's Tchaikovsky Concert Hall, Teatro Real in Madrid, Barcelona's Gran Teatre del Liceu, on a South American tour (São Paulo/Rio de Janeiro/Montevideo and Buenos Aires), Herbst Theater in San Francisco and Carnegie Hall's Weill Recital Hall, as well as on French TV on "Les Victoires de la Musique" and Eve Ruggieri's "Musique au cœur 5 étoiles".

Ms. Genaux's discography/videography continues to grow steadily. The two previously-mentioned record¬ings to be made in 2011-12 are set for release within the following season: the Handel/Hasse duet disc with Cappella Gabetta on Sony; and Vivaldi's L'oracolo in Messenia, with Fabio Biondi and Europa Galante on Virgin Classics. Her most recent releases include: the 2010 Oehms Classics CD of Hasse's Sanctus Petrus et Sancta Maria Magdalena, led by Michael Hofstetter from the 2008 Ludwigsburger Schlossfestspiel; a DVD of the Vienna production of Il mondo della luna, led by Nikolaus Harnoncourt on the Unitel Classica/C Major label (2010); and the Virgin Classics CD of Vivaldi's Ercole sul Termodonte (2010/11), conducted by Fabio Biondi leading Europa Galante, with a cast that includes Diana Damrau, Joyce DiDonato, Philippe Jaroussky and Rolando Villazón. Ercole was given a 2011 Echo Klassik Prize for "Opera Recording of the Year (17th-/18th-Century)", marking the mezzo's third such Echo award for her work with the Biondi/Europa Galante team, preceded by "Pyrotechnics – Vivaldi Opera Arias" (Virgin, 2009), which also received a 2010 Grammy© nomination for "Best Classical Vocal Performance," and by Bajazet (Virgin, 2005), which won the Echo Klassik award in 2006, as well as a Grammy©-nomination. Among other recently released CDs are the world-premiere recording of Vivaldi's L'Atenaide, with Federico Maria Sardelli leading the Orchestra Barocca Modo Antiqua on the Naïve label, as well as Virgin Classics' "Handel/Hasse, Arias and Cantatas" (2006), with Bernard Labadie and Les Violons du Roy; La Santissima Trinità (Biondi/Europa Galante) released in 2004; and, in 2003, her first solo disc 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 recordings, both conducted by René Jacobs, which have garnered copious critical and popular accolades: Handel's Rinaldo, in 2003 and the Grammy©-nominated "Arias for Farinelli" in 2002. 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. A documentary, "A Voice out of the Cold," has been seen on television world-wide. "Fracture," her first film, in which she made a cameo appearance, was released internationally in the Spring of 2007 and is now available on DVD.

In May 2008 Pittsburgh Opera honored Ms. Genaux with their Maecenas Award and the previous year she garnered the New York City Opera’s Christopher Keene Award.  She is also the recipient of other distinctions: the Premio “Opera CD Classics – Città di Mondovi” and the Florentine Opera’s Marie Z. Uihlein Artist Prize.  She has also been recognized by several other musical organizations, including the Fort Worth, Baltimore and Palm Beach Operas.  In 1997 she won a prestigious ARIA Award, and was lauded as the “1999 Artist of the Year” by the Dresden Music Festival.  She makes her home in Motta di Livenza and studies with Claudia Pinza, continuing her long-time association with EPCASO (Ezio Pinza Council of American Singers of Opera).

Updated July 28, 2011