Contemporary Interpretations of Leonora in "Il Trovatore"

Listen to some of the sopranos from the last decade to take on the challenging role of Leonora in Verdi's Il Trovatore. Following are samples of the difficult aria "D'amor sull'ali rosee" by a few well-known artists, as well as some new contenders:







BONUS: Renée Fleming singing "Tacea la notte" after the jump.

Dora Award Opera Nominations Announced in Toronto

OUTSTANDING PRODUCTION
Prima Donna (Luminato)
Orfeo ed Euridice (Canadian Opera Company presents Lyric Opera of Chicago)
Nixon in China (Canadian Opera Company presents a Co-production of Opera Theatre of St. Louis, Chicago Opera Theatre, Opera Colorado, Houston Grand Opera, Minnesota Opera and Portland Opera)
La Cenerentola (Canadian Opera Company presents a Co-production of Houston Grand Opera Association, Welsh National Opera, Gran Teatre del Liceu and Grand Théâtre de Genève)
Death in Venice (Canadian Opera Company presents The Aldeburgh Festival, Opéra National de Lyon, Bregenz Opera and Prague State Opera)


OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCE
Sondra Radvanovsky (Aida /Canadian Opera Company)
Lawrence Zazzo (Orfeo ed Euridice/Canadian Opera Company presents Lyric Opera of Chicago)
Jane Archibald (Ariadne auf Naxos/Canadian Opera Company presents Welsh National Opera Production)
Alan Oke (Death in Venice/Canadian Opera Company presents The Aldeburgh Festival, Opéra National de Lyon, Bregenz Opera and Prague State Opera)

The Dora Mavor Moore Award (also known as the Dora Award) is an award presented annually by the Toronto Alliance for the Performing Arts which honours theatre, dance, and opera productions in Toronto. Named after Dora Mavor Moore, who helped establish Canadian professional theatre, the award was established on December 13, 1978. Each winner receives a bronze statue made from the original by John Romano. [Source, Source]

MET Sirius XM Radio Tonight: "Die Walküre"

Listen to the Metropolitan Opera perform Wagner's Die Walküre live tonight at 6:30 PM EST on Sirius XM radio. Intermission guests: Sondra Radvanovsky, David Daniels, Tyne Daly and Robert Dean Smith.

Sondra Radvanovsky Profiled by the New York Times

La Diva Radvanovsky in New York
(Photo: Vivien Schweitzer/NYTimes)

The soprano, who makes her return to the David McVicar production of Il Trovatore this evening at the Metropolitan Opera, gives an interview to the New York Times about the long road it has been to success in the world's greatest opera houses. She describes the difficulty of administrators not really "getting" her unique voice and how hard she has worked to prove she is one of the leading Verdi sopranos of this generation. She discusses her relationship with the Peter Gelb and how her early involvement with MET - winning the National Council Auditions and being a member of the Lindemann Young Artist Program - never secured her hiring by the house for large roles. Through determination and hard work, she showed fellow colleagues like Plácido Domingo and Dmitri Hvorostovsky that she had not only the vocal goods but the stage craft to rank among the best. In discussing her own unique voice the article states, "Ms. Radvanovsky admires Maria Callas, because 'she paid attention to the text and the music and was willing to make an ugly sound, if the text and music called for it,' she said. 'She was one of the best storytellers ever.' She compares her voice to Callas’s in the sense that audiences 'love it or hate it.'" [Source]

Happy Birthday: Sondra Radvanovsky

"Mercé dilette amiche" I Vespri Siciliani

Soprano Sondra Radvanovsky was born in Berwyn, Illinois, on April 11, 1969. She lived and attended high school in Richmond, Indiana, a small city which, despite its size, had its own opera company. She started her career early, at the age of 11, and has been taught by several well-known teachers including Martial Singher, Ruth Falcon and Diana Soviero (current). She studied at the University of Cincinnati's College Conservatory of Music, Tanglewood Music Center and the Metropolitan Opera’s Lindemann Young Artist Development Program. In 1995 she was a winner of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. Her dynamic stage presence and stunning vocal gifts have firmly established her as one of the leading stars on the international stage today. Her rich vibrato and expressive timbre have captivated the attention of audiences and critics alike, drawing praise from The New York Times, The Times (UK), and the San Francisco Chronicle, among many others. She is widely esteemed as one of the prominent Verdian sopranos of her

"Tu che le vanita" Don Carlo

generation. The extraordinary versatility of her voice lends itself to a remarkable range of repertoire. She possesses the unusual flexibility demanded in such roles as Donna Anna in Don Giovanni and the title role of Lucrezia Borgia, but the power and intensely plaintive quality of her sound allow her to include in her repertoire more dramatic characters such as Tatiana in Eugene Onegin and the title role of Rusalka. Many of her most memorable performances have come in the classics of the 19th century Italian repertoire, especially the iconic soprano roles of Giuseppe Verdi. In addition to her signature role of Leonora in Il trovatore, Ms. Radvanovsky's Verdi repertoire includes Elvira in Ernani, the title role of Luisa Miller, and Lina in Stiffelio, as well as Elisabetta in Don Carlo and Elena in I vespri Siciliani in both their French and Italian versions. In addition to
Verdi, Ms. Radvanovsky has had triumphs in verismo repertoire, including Puccini's Manon Lescaut, conducted by Ricardo Chailly, and Suor Angelica, in a production by

"Era desso il figlio mio" Lucrezia Borgia

noted film director William Friedkin. She has appeared as Roxanne in Alfano's Cyrano de Bergerac numerous times opposite the great Plácido Domingo, in new productions at La Scala, Covent Garden, the Met, and other theaters (a DVD from the Palau des Arts in Valencia was published on the Naxos label). This season, Ms. Radvanovsky sings the title role of Tosca at the Metropolitan Opera after receiving accolades for her debut performances at Opera Colorado. In addition to Tosca, another major appearance at the Met this season will be a reprisal of Leonora in David McVicar's acclaimed production of Il trovatore, which will be transmitted live as a part of the Met's internationally syndicated HD broadcast series. Ms. Radvanovsky will have important role debuts as two of Verdi's heroines, Aïda at the Canadian Opera Company and Amelia in Un ballo in maschera at the Lyric Opera of Chicago. Other highlights include Il trovatore at the Arena di Verona and Elena in I vespri siciliani at the Teatro Regio di Torino. Ms. Radvanovsky has performed in every

"Ernani, Ernani involami" Ernani

major opera house in the world, including Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Paris Opera, Teatro alla Scala, Vienna State Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, San Francisco Opera, Los Angeles Opera and numerous others. Her home theater is the Metropolitan Opera, where she began her training in the late 1990s. After performances in smaller roles there, Ms. Radvanovsky came to attention as Luisa in Luisa Miller, and was singled out as a soprano to watch by critics and the public alike. Ms. Radvanovsky's first solo recording, Verdi Arias, was released last season on the Delos label. About the disc, NPR's "All Things Considered" host Tom Huizenga remarked, "She blew me away…the voice is really big…yet she knows how to harness all that power!" A second disc, Verdi Opera Scenes, with acclaimed baritone Dmitri Hvorostovsky, was recorded live in Russia and will be released in the 2010-11 season. On the concert platform, Ms. Radvanovsky has performed Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the Verbier Festival Orchestra, both with James Levine. She has sung Rossini's Stabat Mater with the Orchestra of the Age of

"D'amor sull'ali rosee" Il Trovatore

Enlightenment and Verdi's Requiem with the Pittsburgh Symphony, the Chicago Symphony with David Zinman, the Vienna Symphony Orchestra with Fabio Luisi, and at the Cincinnati May Festival with James Conlon. She currently lives with her husband near Toronto, Canada. [Source, Source]

BONUS CLIP:

"Un bel di vedremo" Madama Butterfly

Teatro Regio di Torino Launches New "I Vespri Siciliani"

As previously discussed, the diva taking over the role of Elena in this avante-garde Verdi opera is Sondra Radvanovsky. La Stampa has a gallery featuring great photos from the production. Two more shots after the jump.