Music Weblog

Ramón Vargas [b. 1960] is an operatic tenor from Mexico City, whose singing career began at the age of nine as a member of the boys’ choir of the Basilica of Guadalupe.  Continuing his studies in his native country, Vargas took first prize in the 1982 Carlo Morelli National Vocal Competition.  Shortly thereafter, he made his professional operatic debut in Monterrey, Mexico, in a production of Lo Speziale by G.F. Handel.  He appeared in two additional roles on Mexican stages—as Fenton in Verdi’s Falstaff, and as Don Ottavio in Mozart’s Don Giovanni—before traveling to Italy in 1986 and taking the top prize in Milan’s Enrico Caruso Tenor Competition.  That award was key in allowing him to continue his vocal studies with the school attached to the Vienna State Opera in the Austrian capital.  Vargas continues to make his home in Vienna.

For Vargas, his international operatic debut came courtesy of a cancellation, replacing Luciano Pavarotti (as Edgardo) at New York’s Metropolitan Opera in a 1992 performance of Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor.  A year later he reprised his Fenton role at La Scala in Milan, celebrating the hundredth anniversary of the premiere of Falstaff.

Vargas has risen to become one of the sought-after tenors in opera.  A list of the places where he has performed is a Who’s Who—or perhaps more accurately, a “Where It’s At”—of the most prominent venues around the world.  In addition to the aforementioned New York and Milan opera houses, Vargas has appeared at Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires, Teatro Real in Madrid, Opéra Bastille in Paris, Opera di Verona in Italy, and Covent Garden in London, among many others.

The Vargas repertoire is heavily invested in the Italian repertoire; most notably this includes works by Verdi and Donizetti.  He has performed regularly as the lead tenor in La traviata, Un ballo in maschera, Rigoletto, and Don Carlos [Verdi], plus La favorita, Maria Stuarda, Roberto Devereaux, and L’elisir d’amore [Donizetti].  Thanks to the worldwide exposure offered by the “Met in HD” series that transmits Saturday afternoon performances of the Metropolitan Opera to movie theatres on five continents, Vargas has enjoyed great popular acclaim for such performances as Rodolfo in Puccini’s La bohème [2008, opposite Angela Gheorghiu] and as Lensky in Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin [2008, opposite Renée Fleming].  His most recent HD appearance was as Don Ottavio (Don Giovanni) during the current [2011–12] Met season.

Vargas sings “Lensky’s Aria” from Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin [Met Opera, 2008]:

Ildar Abdrazakov [b. 1976] is an operatic bass born in Ufa, Russia.  He studied music and voice there at the State Institute of Arts before moving onto the professional stage at the Mariinsky Theatre (Saint Petersburg) in 1988.  He made his professional debut there as Figaro in Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro, and he has continued to perform a number of leading bass roles in that venue.  These have included Rodolfo in Bellini’s La sonnambula, Raimondo in Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor, and Calatrava in Verdi’s La forza del destino.

Abdrazakov was the grand-prize winner at several high-profile vocal competitions in the late 1990s, including the Moscow Grand Prix (Irina Arkhipova Competition) [1997], Moscow’s Glinka Competition [also 1997], and two St. Petersburg-based competitions, the Rimsky-Korsakov [1998] and the International Elena Obratsova [also 1998].

In 2001, Abdrazakov reprised his La sonnambula role at La Scala in Milan, an appearance that served to significantly raise his operatic profile beyond his native Russia.  He has become quite well known for taking on top bass roles in a number of Rossini operas, many of which have languished for years before finally enjoying a revival among major companies.  These have included the parts of Maometto II in L’assedio di Corinto, Moses in Moïse et Pharaon, Selim in Il Turco in Italia, and Mustafa in L’italiana in Algeri—the latter comprising his Metropolitan Opera debut in 2004.

In addition to performing in many of the world’s greatest opera houses—he has sung multiple times at Gran Liceu in Barcelona, Opéra Bastille in Paris, Covent Garden in London, and in Chicago, San Francisco, Washington—Abdrazakov has made several recordings that have enjoyed critical acclaim.  These include a series of previously unpublished Rossini arias (on Decca), several masses by Cherubini (on EMI Classics), and Sonnets of Michelangelo by Shostakovich (on BBC/Chandos).  His most recent triumph was as King Henry VIII in the 2011–12 Metropolitan Opera season opening production of Donizetti’s Anna Bolena, with fellow Russian Anna Netrebko in the title role.

Ildar Abdrazakov & Anna Netrebko (plus tenor Stephen Costello) in a scene from Anna Bolena [Metropolitan Opera, 2011]:

Natalie Dessay [b. 1965], a native of Lyons, France, who originally intended to become a professional dancer, has blossomed into one of the opera world’s most successful coloratura sopranos.  Her studies at the Bordeaux Conservatory—where she was deeply involved in acting as well as singing—were extraordinary by any measure, as she finished an entire five-year curriculum in twelve months.  In addition to further instruction at the Paris Opera, she took first place in two prominent vocal competitions, one sponsored by French Telecom and the other by the Vienna State Opera.

Dessay began her solo professional career as an interpreter of Mozart roles, as well as appearing in opera houses across Europe as Olympia in Tales of Hoffman by Jacques Offenbach.  She gradually took on more leading soprano roles from major French operas, such as Juliette and Manon, while also helping revive interest in other works that had faded from the public’s consciousness in recent decades.  These included Lakmé by Leo Delibes, Orphée aux Enfer by Offenbach, and Hamlet by Ambroise Thomas.

At the turn of the new century, Dessay was beginning to branch out into bel canto roles as well.  However, vocal difficulties in 2002 and 2003 resulted in her undergoing several surgical procedures that were entirely successful.  In 2001 she made her first appearance as the title character in Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor, the crème de la crème of bel canto parts, and she has since sung it at Chicago Lyric Opera [2004], at the Bastille Opera House in Paris [2006], and at the Metropolitan Opera in New York [2007–08]; the latter included a season opening performance that was shown on giant screens to the public gathered in Times Square.  She also sang the lead role in Bellini’s La Sonnambula for the Met, plus an incredibly well received La Fille du regiment—opposite Juan Diego Florez [2008]—that ably showed off her comic acting skills as well as her remarkable vocal range.

Quite a few of her operatic performances have been captured on CD and DVD, including a rarely performed French version of the Donizetti Lucie.  Additionally, Dessay has recorded a number of compilation discs.  The 2006 two-CD release, titled “Le miracle d’une voix,” has reported sold more than a quarter-million copies.

At the Vienna State Opera, Dessay performs a remarkably athletic “Salut a la France” from Donizetti’s La Fille du regiment:

Deborah Voigt [b. 1960] is an American soprano from Wheeling, Illinois.  After moving to California with her family at the age of 14, she starred in a number of high school musical productions before proceeding to study voice at Cal State–Fullerton.  Her professional career was given a significant boost in 1985, when she was named a finalist in the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions.  Voigt also took first place in two other prestigious contests, Moscow’s Tchaikovsky Competition and Philadelphia’s Pavarotti Vocal Competition.

After serving a two-year apprenticeship in the Merola Program, managed by the San Francisco Opera, Voigt’s breakout role was as the title character in the Richard Strauss opera, Ariadne auf Naxos, which she performed with the Boston Lyric Opera in 1991.  Later that same year she made her Met Opera debut in a Verdi classic, Un ballo in maschera, singing the lead female role of Amelia.  Her next appearance there was in March 1992 in another Strauss epic, Elektra, where she appeared as Chrysothemis.

Even this early in her career, Voigt was being pegged as a Wagnerian soprano, capable of singing the most taxing roles in opera that require significant stamina, a vast range, and the ability to be heard at the far reaches of the opera house, even when singing pianissimo.  She continued to explore this heavier repertoire while still performing in a number of Verdi operas, including Il trovatore (as Leonora) and La forza del destino (as yet another Leonora).

In 2004, Voight underwent much-publicized weight reduction surgery, taking her from a size 30 to about a size 14.  Thankfully the procedure did not negatively affect her singing skills.  In fact, she admits to having much more energy since the surgery, which has had the effect of improving her acting skills—one of the few criticisms she endured during her formative years on the stage.

Considered today’s reigning Wagnerian soprano, the Metropolitan Opera invested heavily in Voight by naming her to a prominent place in the four Wagner “Ring Cycle” operas that were part of the new Robert LePage stagings for the 2010–11 and 2011–12 seasons.  Over the past few years she has also appeared as Senta in The Flying Dutchman and as Isolde in Tristan und Isolde.

Voigt sings a short aria from the Richard Strauss opera, Salome, with the Verbier Festival Orchestra (Valery Gergiev, conductor) [2010]:

Dmitri Hvorostovsky [b. 1962] is an operatic baritone from Russia, born and raised in the far-flung Siberian outpost of Krasnoyarsk, the 19th century center of the Cossack movement.  He made his professional debut at the civic opera house there, singing a minor role in the Verdi opera, Rigoletto.  However, it was his success at winning vocal competitions that brought him onto the world stage, where he continues today as one of the most in-demand baritones in all of opera.

Hvorostovsky took first place in the Glinka Competition [Russia] in 1987 and also won the International Singing Competition of Toulouse [France] in 1988.  The 1989 BBC Cardiff Singer of the World competition proved to be his greatest triumph of all, where he edged out Welsh favorite son Bryn Terfel for the crystal vase and a first-place finish.  After that, the offers rolled in; he made his London recital debut later the same year, and first appeared in New York in 1990.

The first opera house outside Russia to feature Hvorostovsky in a starring role was in Nice, France, where he sang in a 1989 production of Tchaikovsky’s The Queen of Spades.  His Italian debut was at La Fenice in Venice as the title character in another Tchaikovsky opera, Eugene Onegin—a role he has performed many times since, including a highly acclaimed Metropolitan Opera appearance in 2008 alongside Renée Fleming—and his American debut came with Chicago’s Lyric Opera in 1993 in Verdi’s La traviata.

Most of the roles Hvorostovsky has preferred over the past decade have been in Verdi operas, including Renato in Un ballo in maschera, Count di Luna in Il trovatore, and the title roles in Rigoletto and Simon Boccanegra.  But he has continued to maintain strong musical contact with Russia, including a Moscow concert series titled “Dmitri Hvorostovky and Friends” that has featured him in recital with the aforementioned Fleming, plus sopranos Sumi Jo, Sondra Radvanovsky, and others.  He was also the first opera singer to headline a concert in Red Square—accompanied by a chorus and full orchestra—that was broadcast to more than 25 countries.  Hvorostovsky teamed up with Fleming again in 2009 in a DVD release that combined a visual tour of St. Petersburg with a dual recital at the Hermitage in front of a small but very appreciative audience.  Several of his CDs have included collections of Russian songs by classical composers as well as folk tunes.

Dmitri Hvorostovsky sings “Eri tu che macchiavi” from Verdi’s Un ballo in maschera to win the 1989 BBC Cardiff Singer of the World award:

Hvorostovsky & Fleming perform the Act IV duet from Verdi’s Il trovatore at the Hermitage in Saint Petersburg, Russia [2009]:

Renée Fleming [b.1959] is an operatic soprano born in Indiana, Pennsylvania, whose parents were both music teachers.  She spent most of her early years in Rochester, New York—her family moved there when she was still a child—and subsequently studied voice at the Crane School of Music, part of SUNY–Potsdam.  She later returned to Rochester for graduate studies at the Eastman School of Music.

After winning a Fulbright scholarship, Fleming worked in Europe with legendary soprano Elizabeth Schwartzkopf before returning to the States and additional studies at Juilliard.  At this point in her performing career, Fleming was dividing her time between appearing with smaller opera companies plus at the Juilliard opera center, as well as singing in jazz clubs around New York City to help cover her living expenses.  Her career took off after being named one of the Metropolitan Opera Audition winners in 1988, when she was 29.  Later that same year, Fleming made her major company debut with Houston Grand Opera, appearing as the Countess in Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro.  This is the same role that would mark her debut with the San Francisco Opera and at the Met, both in 1991.

Fleming continued to build her repertoire throughout the 1990s, expanding it to include many bel canto roles in works by Bellini, Donizetti and Rossini—the three compositional giants of that era—that included the title roles in Donizettti’s Lucrezia Borgia and Rossini’s Armida.  But she also became known for taking on an even broader range, such as appearing in John Corigliano’s world premiere of The Ghosts of Versailles at the Met [1991], in Carlisle Floyd’s Susannah with Chicago Lyric Opera [1993], in Massenet’s Hérodiade (as Salome) in San Francisco [1994], in Richard Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier (as the Marschallin) in Houston [1995], and in Gounod’s Faust (as Marguerite) in Chicago [1996].

After the turn of the new century, Fleming’s star continued to rise in the opera world, especially at the Met in New York.  Thanks to an exclusive recording contract with Decca—the first female opera singer since Marilyn Horne, 31 years earlier, to sign such a deal with that label—Fleming became perhaps the most recognizable opera performer in North America.  Particularly thanks to the influence of new general manager Peter Gelb, the Met felt comfortable enough to create revivals of long-neglected works or mount premieres of pieces never done on the Met’s stage, simply because they knew that casting Renée Fleming as the lead soprano would invariably sell out the house.  Some of these operas were Il Pirata by Vincenzo Bellini, Thais by Jules Massenet, and Rodelinda by G.F. Handel (the latter subsequently revived for the Met’s 2011–12 season).

A triple Grammy winner, Fleming’s most recent award was in 2010 for Best Classical Vocal Performance for Verismo, a CD of rarely performed Italian arias.  A number of her more recent operatic performances with the Metropolitan Opera have been captured on DVD, notably as part of the “Met in HD” cinecast series.  When she is not singing, Fleming also fulfills the role of host for many of those Saturday afternoon performances.

Performing what has become her signature aria, Fleming sings “Song to the Moon” from the opera Rusalka by Antonin Dvořák [1991]: