2007-2008 Season

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 continues 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 Pietà 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 Genève, 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/Vivaldi’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 inSeptember, and in other parts of Europe and the United States shortly thereafter, is the world premiere recording of Vivaldi’sL’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.