|
|
 |
Rachelle Durkin
Soprano |
Australian soprano Rachelle Durkin has just performed Gilda with Opera South Australia and recently sang Donna Anna and Angelica in Orlando for Opera Australia. Last spring she was back at the Metropolitan Opera this past spring as the lead soprano in Glass' Satyagraha in which she was "vocally impressive and thrillingly dominates an act two ensemble with her repeated series of pushbutton high-lying phrases." This past winter she was with Opera Australia in the title role of Alcina. Her previous performances there as Alcina produced glowing reviews.
| A winner of the 2001 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, Ms. Durkin joined the Metropolitan Opera's Lindeman Young Artists Development Program. She made her Metropolitan Opera debut as the First Handmaiden in Sly and has |
|
|
| subsequently appeared as Clorinda in La Cenerentola, Young Girl and Naked Virgin in Moses und Aaron, Barena in Jenufa, Teresa in Benvenuto Cellini, Konstanze in Die Entführung aus dem Serail, Masha in Pique Dame, Elvira in L'Italiana in Algeri, and First Flower Maiden in Parsifal, which she performed at the Salzburg Festival as part of the Met tour with Maestro Levine. |
| Recently, Ms. Durkin has performed a variety of repertoire including Armida in Rinaldo in Sydney, Countess Almaviva in Le Nozze di Figaro with Opera Australia, Donna Anna in Don Giovanni in Perth and with the Lyric Opera of San Antonio, Cunegonde in Candide with the Bellingham Festival of Music, Clorinda in Cenerentola with the Metropolitan Opera, and her Carnegie Hall debut as the soprano soloist in Handel's Messiah. |
| Other recent acclaimed portrayals include Corinna in Chicago Opera Theater's production of Il Viaggio a Reims, about which the Chicago Tribune exclaimed, "Ms. Durkin.... juggled the men in her life as easily as she juggled Rossini's virtuoso vocal writing; her gleaming soprano made a noble effect in the poetess' final eulogy." She also performed Donna Anna in Opera Queensland's production of Don Giovanni, and a Gala Concert with Jose Carreras in Perth entitled Opera Under the Stars. |
| Ms. Durkin is also a distinguished oratorio artist with repertoire ranging from the early works of Handel, Bach, Mozart, and Beethoven to the more recent works of Bernstein, Gershwin, and Sondheim. She has appeared with the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, Sydney Symphony Orchestra, the New Choral Society of Central Westchester, the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, the West Australian Symphony Orchestra, the Baroque Consort, the Perth Pops Orchestra, as well as the Philharmonic Orchestra of Western Australia. |
| Ms. Durkin's recordings include recitals for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation in their "Sunday Live" and "Young Australia" programs, and she has also been heard in the Metropolitan Opera Broadcast of Sly, in ABC Radio National Broadcasts with the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra and in Lieder Recitals, and has appeared twice on A&E's "Breakfast with the Arts". |
| Continuing in 2008-09 for Ms. Durkin is Konstanze with Hawaii Opera Theater, concerts with the Melbourne Symphony, Cosi in Sydney and is back at the Metropolitan for Cenerentola. In 2010 she is Amina in Sonnambula in Western Australia and the Countess in a new Nozze di Figaro with Opera Australia. |
|
|
