Soprano Lisette
Oropesa wins the Met’s 2019 Beverly Sills Artist Award
New York, NY (May 7,
2019)—The Metropolitan Opera has named sopranoLisette Oropesa as the winner of
the 14th annual Beverly Sills Artist Award. The $50,000 award is given to
extraordinarily gifted singers with rising Met careers. Given in honor of the
legendary American soprano Beverly Sills, the award was established in 2006 by
an endowment gift from the late Agnes Varis, a managing director on the Met’s
Board of Directors.
Oropesa will sing
two leading roles in the Met’s 2019–20 season: the title role in Massenet’s
Manon and Violetta in Verdi’s La Traviata.
She began her career at the Met as a winner of the 2005 Metropolitan
Opera National Council Auditions, and then spent three seasons in the company’s
Lindemann Young Artist Development Program. She made her Met debut in 2006 as a
Woman of Crete in Mozart’s Idomeneo, and has gone on to make her mark in more
than 100 memorable performances of such roles as Susanna in Mozart’s Le Nozze
di Figaro, Gilda in Verdi’s Rigoletto, Nannetta in Verdi’s Falstaff, Sophie in
Massenet’s Werther, and Woglinde and the Woodbird in Wagner’s Der Ring des
Nibelungen. Earlier this season, she was also named the winner of the 2019
Richard Tucker Award.
“I am tremendously grateful to be named this
year’s recipient of the Beverly Sills Artist Award,” Oropesa said. “This award
honors one of the great American icons of opera. Growing up, I idolized Beverly
Sills for her lovable personality, her unmatched stage presence, and her
extraordinary singing. I have the privilege of performing two of her most
distinguished roles next season at the Met—may her inspiration live on for many
more years to come.”
The Sills Award was
created to help further the careers of rising stars by providing additional
funding for vocal coaching, language study, travel costs, and other
professional expenses. Sills, who died in 2007, was well known as a supporter
and friend to developing young artists, and this award continues her legacy as
an advocate for important emerging singers. The 35-year-old Oropesa follows an
outstanding list of previous winners: baritone Nathan Gunn in 2006,
mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato in 2007, tenor Matthew Polenzani in 2008, bass
John Relyea in 2009, soprano Susanna Phillips in 2010, mezzo-soprano Isabel
Leonard in 2011, soprano Angela Meade in 2012, tenor Bryan Hymel in 2013, tenor
Michael Fabiano in 2014, baritone Quinn Kelsey in 2015, soprano Ailyn Pérez in
2016, mezzo-soprano Jamie Barton in 2017, and soprano Nadine Sierra in 2018.
About Lisette Oropesa
Lisette Oropesa was
born in New Orleans, Louisiana, to Cuban parents, and played the flute for 12
years before she began her studies in vocal performance at Louisiana State
University. After winning the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions in
2005, she entered the Met’s Lindemann Young Artist Development Program. She
sang her first major role, Susanna in Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro, at the Met
at the age of 22, and has sung more than 100 performances with the company in
many different roles since. She has appeared in concert halls and opera stages
all over the world since graduating from the Met’s young artist program in
2008, and has become one of the most celebrated singers of her generation.
Known for her liquid legato and seamless technique, stylistic integrity,
precise coloratura, and superlative acting, she excels in music by Mozart and
the bel canto composers, as well as the French repertoire. She is also regarded
for her inspiring personal story—she is a devoted runner who has completed six
marathons and is an advocate for health and fitness.
In the fall of 2018,
she starred as Marguerite de Valois in a new production of Meyerbeer’s Les
Huguenots at the Paris Opera, and sang Adina in Donizetti’s L’Elisir d’Amore
immediately after. She then sang Gilda in a new production of Verdi’s Rigoletto
at the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma, and made role and house debuts in the title
role of Handel’s Rodelinda at the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona and
Isabelle in Meyerbeer’s Robert le Diable at La Monnaie in Brussels. In the
United States, she revisited the role of Norina in Donizetti’s Don Pasquale at
Pittsburgh Opera. Next, she will make her debut at La Scala as Amalia in a new
production of Verdi’s I Masnadieri. The production tours to the Savonlinna Festival
over the summer. Immediately following, she sings the role of Violetta in
Verdi’s La Traviata in Athens and Verona.
She returns to the
Metropolitan Opera in the opening week of the 2019–20 season in the title role
of Massenet’s Manon, and in February portrays Violetta at the Met for the first
time. She sings Ophélie in Thomas’s Hamlet with Washington Concert Opera, and
heads back to Paris Opera to make her role debut as Rosina in Rossini’s Il
Barbiere di Siviglia. In spring 2020, she sings the title role of Donizetti’s
Lucia di Lammermoor at Bavarian State Opera, followed by Violetta at the Teatro
Real in Madrid. She has solo concerts planned in Switzerland, Brazil, and her
hometown of New Orleans.
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