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| Annamaria Popescu, mezzo-soprano... | |
b i o g r a p h y...........back to roster....up September 2007 Ever since her sensational 1994 debut on short notice in Berlioz’s Les Troyens with Sir Colin Davis and the London Symphony Orchestra, Canadian-born mezzo-soprano Annamaria Popescu has established herself as a force on opera stages around the world. Comfortable in both the mezzo and contralto idiom, she has been praised for her "dark and velvety voice" (Montreal Gazette), "a svelte, penetrating contralto, by turns bubbly-urbane and stricken," according to The Financial Times. Following her success in London, she was soon invited to La Scala which now has become the anchorpoint of her career, appearing in twelve productions ever since with such conductors as Riccardo Muti, Vladimir Jurowski, Myung-Whun Chung and Carlo Rizzi. Season 2007/08 introduces her as Frugola in Puccini’s Il tabarro at La Scala under the baton of Riccardo Chailly. She also participates in an evening of opera arias at the International Festival Cesky Krumlov where she performs with the Prague Radio Symphony, and an opera gala with the Johnstown Symphony, before she returns to l’Opéra de Montreal, this time as Suzuki in Madama Butterfly, a role she also sings for her debut at the Puccini Festival in Torre del Lago. During past seasons at La Scala, where she made her European stage debut in 1996 as Anna in Les Troyens, Popescu has since portrayed Mme Dangeville in Adriana Lecouvreur (recorded for DVD), Page in Salome, Pierotto in Linda de Chamounix, Meg in Falstaff, and Olga in Eugene Onegin, a role she recreated at l’Opéra de Montreal and the Florentine Opera. Suzuki is one of her signature roles, having performed it not only in three different productions at La Scala, but also at the Teatro Sao Carlos in Lisbon, the Teatro Bellini in Catania, Palacio de Festivales de Cantabria, and in Madrid. Other recent opera engagements include Roggiero/Isaura in Tancredi with the Frankfurt Opera, Charlotte in Werther at Pacific Opera, Stéphano in Roméo et Juliette at the Teatro Massimo in Palermo, Erika in the French premiere of Barber’s Vanessa at the Théâtre de Metz and collaborations with Charles Dutoit and the Montreal Symphony as Mother in Stravinsky’s Mavra and La Mère in L’enfant et les Sortilèges, respectively. Equally in demand for concert repertoire, Popescu sang Stravinsky’s Les Noces, Berceuses du chat, and Pribaoutky with the Montreal Symphony under Charles Dutoit for a Radio Canada broadcast. She performed Tipett’s Crown of the Year with Andrew Davis and the Toronto Symphony and the composer’s Mask of Time with Sir Colin Davis and the London Symphony Orchestra. She was also a soloist in Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with the LSO under Michael Tilson Thomas and the Houston Symphony under Christoph Eschenbach. In addition, she was heard in repertoire ranging from the Bach oratorios, to Rossini’s Stabat Mater and Petite Messe Solennelle, to Mahler’s Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen and Kindertotenlieder as well as his symphonies, to Schnittke’s Faust Cantata. She has collaborated with British pianist Howard Shelley on a recording of the complete songs by Rachmaninov, which was released on Chandos to critical acclaim. For CBC Records, she has recorded the Garden of the Heart by R. Murray Schaffer, conducted by Mario Bernardi, and is shown as Fenena on DVD in a live recording of Nabucco at the Teatro Carlo Felice in Genoa. Born in Montreal, Popescu now makes her home in Milan. Her studies have taken her to McGill University in Montreal, the Academy of Vocal Arts in Philadelphia and the Atelier Lyrique de l’Opéra de Montréal. |