view in browser Spring NewsletterRigoletto in Los Angeles and Lucia di Lammermoor in Madrid!  Click the image to view the video newsletter. Welcome to my Spring 2018 Newsletter!  Iâm so excited to bring you some updates on whatâs going on this upcoming season, as well as some highlights from the past few months.  It was wonderful to be a part of OrphĂ©e et Eurydice at L.A. Opera, which was a lovely production in conjunction with the Joffrey Ballet.  It was fun being in rehearsals with the dancers and being inspired by their craft.  We then visited some cities in the Pacific Northwest for the spring holidays, all of which were really special and beautiful.  Soon I will head back to Los Angeles to perform Gilda in Rigoletto with Juan Jesus Rodriguez in the title role, and Arturo Chacon-Cruz as the Duke, as well as my good friends Morris Robinson as Sparafucile and Ginger Costa-Jackson as Maddalena!  I know we will have a blast!  Then I have the honor of getting to sing Lucia at the Teatro Real in Madrid for 8 performances.  The cast is also marvelous, with Javier Camarena as Edgardo, and Artur Rucinski as Enrico.  David Aldenâs production looks so intriguing and I canât wait to be a part of it.  Itâs also of course, very exciting to get to work with Maestro Daniel Oren for the first time.  We hope you can join us at one of our upcoming shows! |
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Upcoming Performances RigolettoLA Opera Gilda Itâs more than just a cornerstone of opera repertoire; itâs also one of the most heartfelt of all stage works. RIGOLETTO is the unforgettable tale of a fatherâs rage, a daughterâs shame and a self-centered ruler who thinks he can get away with anything. Several of Verdiâs best-known tunes accentuate this timeless tragedy of sacrifice, betrayal and revenge. The powerful and arresting staging by Mark Lamos features striking scenic perspectives and elaborate period costumes. May 12, 16, 19 Dorothy Chandler Pavilion Philadelphia, PA |
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 Lucia di LammermoorTeatro Real Lucia A genuine paradigm of Italian romantic opera, LUCIA DI LAMMERMOOR is the most successful and well known in the extensive list of lyric dramas by Gaetano Donizetti. From the outset, the work was admired for the way its music communicated emotions and was not only a succession of vocal fireworks. This opera opened the doors of Paris for the composer from Bergamo and it was the only piece which remained part of the repertory before the DONIZETTI RENAISSANCE that as of the 1950âs, would consecrate the composer forever. June 22, 25, 28  and  July 01, 04, 07, 10, 13 Teatro Real Madrid, Spain |
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FeaturesNew Release! Aux filles du désertRelease  Digital Only (Spotify, iTunes, Bandcamp, etc)
A womanâs love is like a desert. Aux filles du dĂ©sert comes from one of the most moving lines in Bizetâs song âAdieux de lâhĂŽtesse arabe.â This song is about an Arabic woman, who has spent a bit of time with a man who was a wandering traveler, and passed through her harem. I feel so much sadness, longing, and bitterness in the text of her goodbye to him; it feels as though she is trapped and her love for him was a temporary escape, and she very much wanted him to stay in this exotic placeâŠa place where he could have been served, cared for, and loved. For him at least, this would have been a luxury, though for her it is more likely a place of sacrifice and servitude. She tells him to never forget the daughters of the desert, the sweet voiced sisters who dance barefoot on the dunes. The way this poem is set by Bizet is masterful, and I can picture the very place in my mind whenever I sing it. |
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Adieux de l'hĂŽtesse arabe - Georges BizetVideo In addition to recording tracks for my Tucson Desert Song Festival recital, I also made a music video of Adieux de l'hĂŽtesse arabe from Georges Bizet! Michael Borowitz accompanies on the piano.  |
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Talking Euridice with LA OperaInterview I had a great chat with LA Opera about my upcoming performance of Orfeo ed Euridice!  âThese two roles couldnât be more different,â Oropesa told LA Opera earlier this month. âGilda pretty much sits an octave higher [than Eurydice] the whole time. And she has a very different journey than Eurydice. Gilda is a more rounded out character, and the story is more dramatic and intense. Orpheus is about an emotional process that is very intimate, and Rigoletto is more about a series of events that causes a tragedy, rather than beginning with one.â |
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Q&A with Seen and Heard InternationalInterview Seen and Heard International was very kind to ask me a few questions for their new series of interviews that they are starting. Of course, I was very happy to oblige! Here's a snippet: How do you expect you voice to change as years pass?I hope that with careful planning and good technique and healthy habits, my voice can last many more years. But you never really know. Anything can have an effect on your voice and its colours. I hope to grow into my lyric sound but donât think Iâll be singing Aida any time soon! |
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ReviewsLeonard Bernsteinâs 1949 âTwo Love Songsâ tell of a love that is stronger than life and can weld two souls together so that they sing a single melody. Oropesaâs butter cream tones were completely unified with Borowitzâs shimmering melodic strains. She finished the first half of the recital with an exquisite rendition of the âVocaliseâ that Camille Saint-Saens wrote on a visit to Egypt in 1901. It is a wonderful text-free song that allows the coloratura to use some of her most intricate and difficult maneuvers. For Oropesa, it was a piĂšce de rĂ©sistance. â Maria Nockin  âąÂ  Opera Today
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Dressed in white with a billowing cape as the deceased Eurydice, Lisette Oropesa looked and moved like one of the dancers. Her sounds were liquid silver and she seemed to be an amazingly graceful creature from another world. She sang through a veil at times, but it never marred the focus of her sound. My only thought was that her part was too short. â Maria Nockin  âąÂ  Broadway World
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Orpheusâs beloved wife Eurydice is soprano Lisette Oropesa, whose sumptuous voice is one I want to hear again and again. Luckily she is scheduled to return to LA Opera in May as Gilda in Verdiâs Rigoletto. She makes an amazing Eurydice and moves so beautifully that she appears to be one of the dancers instead of an opera diva. â David Gregson  âąÂ  Opera West
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Lisette Oropesaâs first appearance in the fields of Elysium took many by surprise as she had some fairly detailed choreography that involved quite a bit of sprinting about the stage and manipulating an extremely long silk cloak. She accomplished all with a dancerâs grace and precision. Accordingly, when she opened her mouth and began to sing there was a quiet ripple of surprise in the theater. Oropesa dazzled with a crystalline tone and even support from top to bottom. She rendered grace notes with ease, sang a tender line, and brought a beautiful elegance to Eurydiceâs despairing âFortune ennemieâ in the last act. She returns to us in May for Verdiâs Gilda and I for one am looking forward to it. â Patrick Mack  âąÂ  Parterre
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Reflections I always say spring is a season of change, but really, itâs no different from any other season in that respect, as I feel like Iâm always changing and growing.  These past few years have gone by so quickly, Iâm actually starting to have more clarity in my life because of it.  Things are coming into focus faster, and I have a much firmer grasp on who I am as an artist and where Iâm going. But of course, things are never the same from one season to the next.  Every production feels brand new, every role feels like a new experience too, even if itâs one I have sung before.  Not to get ahead of ourselves here, but in 2018-2019 Iâll be debuting 4 new roles, and revisiting others that I have not sung in years.  It will be a season like no other and I canât wait to delve into it and just enjoy the swim.  As a sweet little blue fish once told me, just keep swimming. |
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