Soprano Angela Meade Returns to the Met for Starry Revival of Verdi’s Ernani, Reprising Her Signature Role of Elvira (March 20-April 11)
“Ms. Meade’s Elvira showed what an uncommonly gifted artist is capable of. Her voice is plush and penetrating, the power coming effortlessly from the richness of her sound.” — New York Times
Soprano Angela Meade – fresh from her New York Philharmonic debut in Verdi’s Requiem earlier this year – returns to the Metropolitan Opera to reprise her signature role of Elvira in Verdi’s Ernani from March 20 to April 11. The starry revival features the soprano alongside Plácido Domingo as Don Carlo, with James Levine conducting. Meade famously made her professional operatic debut as Elvira at the Met in 2008, when she stepped in at the eleventh hour and took the opera world by storm; she also brought Verdi’s character to life for the 2012 revival that was seen worldwide in the Met’s Live in HD series. The youngest singer ever presented on the cover of the “Diva Issue” of Opera News (Nov 2014), Meade has a voice described by the magazine as “a true Verdian spinto, full of complex shadings but ringing freely.”
In the midst of rehearsals at the Met, Meade said: “Returning to Ernani is like a homecoming. It takes me back to the amazing memories of my debut and my first experience with the Live in HD series as well. When I was growing up, James Levine and Plácido Domingo were already titans in the world of opera. To work with them both is an inspiration and a privilege. Sometimes I look around and pinch myself that these people are my colleagues now. It’s a wonderful feeling to be able to collaborate with these amazing musicians.”
Meade’s early 2015 has been auspicious, even beyond her New York Philharmonic debut under Alan Gilbert in Verdi’s Requiem (in which she “soared commandingly,” according to the New York Times). Her star turn last year in the Richard Tucker Music Foundation’s annual gala concert was broadcast in January via PBS’s Live From Lincoln Center. She also sang at New York’s Morgan Library in January, sharing the bill of a George London Recital with baritone Nicholas Pallesen, a fellow winner of the George London prize.
During Meade’s upcoming run in the Met’s Ernani, she will sit down with Opera News editor-in-chief F. Paul Driscoll for a sold-out March 24 installment of “The Singers’ Studio” at Lincoln Center to discuss her recent and upcoming roles. At the Met, Meade has sung many leading roles beyond Elvira, including the title characters of Bellini’s Norma and Donizetti’s Anna Bolena, the latter in David McVicar’s production; Leonora in Verdi’s Il Trovatore; Alice Ford in Verdi’s Falstaff (broadcast internationally via Live in HD); and the Countess in Jonathan Miller’s production of Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro. On March 22, Meade emcees the Metropolitan Opera’s National Council Auditions Grand Finals Concert. Her own triumph in that event came in 2007, with the process leading up to it chronicled in the documentary film The Audition.
The rest of Meade’s season includes an Academy of Vocal Arts gala concert at Philadelphia’s Kimmel Center (March 27) and Verdi’s Requiem in Spain (April 26), as well as June sessions in Manchester, England, for an Opera Rara recording of Donizetti’s Le duc d’Albe.
Angela Meade: upcoming engagements
March 20, 23, 26, 31; April 4, 8, 11
New York, NY
Metropolitan Opera / James Levine
Verdi: Ernani
Angela Meade (Elvira); Francesco Meli (Ernani); Plácido Domingo; Dmitry Belosselskiy
Production: PierLuigi Samaritani
March 22
New York, NY
Metropolitan Opera House
Metropolitan Opera’s National Council Auditions Grand Finals Concert
Angela Meade, emcee and guest artist
March 24
New York, NY
Opera News – The Singers’ Studio
Rose Building, Lincoln Center
A Conversation with Angela Meade (sold out)
- Paul Driscoll, Opera News Editor-in-Chief discusses her recent & upcoming roles
March 27
Philadelphia, PA
Academy of Vocal Arts
Kimmel Center – Verizon Hall
Gala concert featuring AVA alumni & resident artists
April 26
Oviedo, Spain
Verdi: Requiem
June 7-14
Manchester, UK
Opera Rara recording sessions
Donizetti: Le duc d’Albe (Helene d’Egmont)
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© 21C Media Group, March 2015
