The young American soprano Sara Jakubiak has tackled the standards: the Countess in Le nozze di Figaro, Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni, Mimi in La bohème. But she also has an unconventional streak, appearing on a Naxos collection of Charles Ives's offbeat songs. This season she makes her New York City Opera debut as Dede in A Quiet Place, Leonard Bernstein's final work for the stage. Once panned, the opera is now getting a second chance in its overdo New York premiere in October and November.
(Lisa-Marie Mazzucco)
Visit the web site of Andrew Bidlack and you’ll find the expected publicity photos from Mozart and Verdi productions, many with the San Francisco Opera where he held the prestigious Adler Fellowship. But look closely and you'll also find Bidlack on the field beside the San Francisco 49ers cheerleaders. Yes, the tenor has a sideline specialty singing the national anthem. This fall, however, he's the nobleman Baron Lummer in Strauss’ Intermezzo at New York City Opera (his debut) as well as an appearance in Bach’s Christmas Oratorio at Carnegie Hall on December 23.
(Corey Weaver)
The young American tenor Nicholas Phan has been on a fast track lately: he made his local mark appearing with the New York Festival of Song and in a well-received recital debut at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 2009 (Opera News praised his “admirably ductile tenor”). Half-Greek and half-Chinese, Phan has a special knack for English art songs, and on November 12 he performs a recital of Britten and Purcell at Carnegie Hall. That same month he tackles the tenor role in Carmina Burana with the San Francisco Symphony.
(Balance Photography)
Palermo, Italy-born mezzo-soprano Ginger Costa-Jackson is only 23 but she’s already graduated from the Metropolitan Opera's Lindemann Young Artist Development Program and appeared in multiple Met productions. This month she’s singing in the Gotham Chamber Opera’s production of El Gato Con Botas ("Puss in Boots"), the 1947 children's opera by the Catalan composer Xavier Montsalvatge. The New York Times noted that Costa-Jackson “gave voice to Puss with her silvery and dark-hued mezzo-soprano, which she wielded with feline flair.”
(costajackson.com)
Some singers explode onto the scene. The tenor Paul Appleby has taken a measured but steady approach, appearing over the past few seasons with the New York Festival of Song. WQXR listeners got a chance to hear the recent Juilliard graduate when he sang selections by Grieg, Britten and Roussel in a recent edition of Wings of Song, a recital series co-hosted by Elliott Forrest and Marilyn Horne. A winner of the 2009 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, Appleby gives a recital at Alice Tully Hall on November 30.
(Hen Howard)
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Trinidadian soprano Jeanine De Bique was one of two soloists for Jacques Lacombe's debut as music director of the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra last month. (The other soloist was Joshua Bell.) De Bique showed her range in selections by Bellini, Mozart, Gounod, and Gershwin. A Manhattan School of Music graduate and winner of the Young Concert Artists auditions, she also recently sang a Mahler Eighth with the New York Philharmonic and began a residency at the Basel Opera in Switzerland.
(Andrew Chiciak)