Soprano Deborah Voigt at Reykjavík Arts Festival May 31

About the event

Deborah Voight - the leading dramatic soprano singing today

“Deborah Voigt, arguably the leading dramatic soprano singing today, has a gleaming voice that easily soars over the largest Wagnerian orchestra,” states the New York Times. She has sung leading roles in Wagner’;;;;;s Tristan und Isolde, Walküre, Fliegende Holländer, Tannhäuser and Lohengrin and in Strau'ss’;;;;;;s Ariadne auf Naxos, Die Aegyptische Helena, Elektra, Rosenkavalier, and Salome.

Voigt opens the 2008-09 season with her Metropolitan Opera role debut in the title character of Ponchielli’;;;;;;s La Gioconda, and soon after hosts the broadcast of Salome in the Met’;;;;;s Live in HD series. Her other U.S. opera engagements include her first Chicago performances as Isolde, under Sir Andrew Davis at the Lyric Opera of Chicago, beginning in January. A devotee of cabaret and Broadway classics, Voigt gives a concert at Carnegie Hall of popular and traditional Christmas and holiday music on December 16. Variety reports that her delivery is “expressively honest and her voice lustrous and creamy” as she “crosses the opera-Broadway boundary with grace and elegance.”

Deborah Voigt’;;;;;;s performances abroad include appearances in Fidelio with the Vienna State Opera on tour in Japan, and in Salome, which she will perform for the first time in Europe with the company in Vienna. She will also perform Verdi’;;;;;;s Un ballo in maschera at the Opéra National de Paris, Bastille, and early next summer gives London audiences her first local performances as Puccini’;;;;;;s Tosca at the Royal Opera House. In June, she performs a concert of opera arias by Beethoven, Wagner, and Strauss with the London Symphony Orchestra.

Highlights of last season were Voigt’;;;;;;s first Metropolitan Opera performances as Wagner’;;;;;;s Isolde, including an international Met 's Live in HD transmission, and she was the Empress in Strauss’;;;;;;s Die Frau ohne Schatten at the Lyric Opera of Chicago, the scene of her triumph the previous season in her first staged performances as Salome. Deborah Voigt has received accolades in such Italian roles as Amelia, Aida, Lady Macbeth, Tosca, and Leonora (in both La forza del destino and Il trovatore), and as Cassandre in Berlioz’;;;;;;s Les Troyens. Her discography of complete operas ranges from Tristan und Isolde to Les Troyens and Die Frau ohne Schatten. Her solo discs for EMI Classics are All My Heart – songs by American composers – and the best-selling Obsessions, with arias and scenes by Wagner and Strauss.

Voigt’;;;;;;s numerous awards and honors include first prizes in Moscow’;;;;;;s Tchaikovsky Competition and Philadelphia’;;;;;;;s Luciano Pavarotti International Voice Competition, and France’;;;;;;;s Chevalier dans l’;;;;;;;Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. She was Musical America’;;;;;;s Vocalist of the Year 2003 and received a 2007 Opera News Award for distinguished achievement in the art form.

At the Reykjavík Arts Festival recital at Háskólabíó, Concert Hall, Ms. Voight´s programme features songs by Amy Beach, Giuseppe Verdi, Richard Strauss and Ottorino Respighi, and four songs by American contemporary composer Ben Moore, ending with some of musical virtuoso Leonard Bernstein´s most popular songs. Accompanist will be Brian Zeger.

 "Deborah Voigt, arguably the leading dramatic soprano singing today, has a gleaming voice that easily soars over the largest Wagnerian orchestra.”
New York Times ‘08

 “She finally [struck] gold and [showed] the Covent Garden audience why she is rated elsewhere as one of the world’;;;;;;;s leading Strauss sopranos.”
The Telegraph ‘08

“…she seems to have found greater expressive freedom, etching words with tremendous vividness and generating an emotional charge that hits you in the solar plexus.”
The Guardian, ‘08

 “…she is magnificent. And the new compact curves look good too.”
The Times ‘08

Date: May 31 at 8 pm

Place: Háskólabíó, Concert Hall

Programme

Amy Beach

The Year’;;;;s at the Spring

Ah, Love, But a Day

I Send my Heart up to Thee

Giuseppe Verdi

          Non t’;;;;accostare

Deh, pietoso

            Brindisi # 2

            Stornello

Richard Strauss

Ich trage meine Minne, Op. 32 no. 1

Schlechtes Wetter

Lob des Leidens, Op.15, 3

Ach, Lieb, ich muss nun scheiden, Op. 21, #3

Frühlingsfeier, 56, 5

INTERMISSION

Ottorino Respighi

Contrasto

Nebbie

Notte

Ben Moore

I am in Need of Music

This Heart that Flutters

To the Virgins

Bright Cap

Leonard Bernstein

Piccola Serenata

So Pretty

            Greeting

Another Love

It’;;;;s Gotta be Bad to be Good

Somewhere

The programme is subject to change