Kate Aldrich To Sing Title Role Of The Met's CARMEN 4/28, 5/1

Kate Aldrich will sing the title role of Carmen on April 28 and May 1, replacing Angela Gheorghiu who has withdrawn from those performances. Gheorghiu issued the following statement: "To make so important a debut as Carmen, I want to be as prepared dramatically as I am musically. Therefore, I will postpone my role debut until a later date when I can work intensely with the Richard Eyre production."

Gheorghiu will appear as scheduled in her acclaimed portrayal of Violetta in La Traviata beginning March 29.

Aldrich made her Met debut as Maddalena in Rigoletto in 2006. She has sung Carmen at the Bavarian State Opera in Munich and the Deutsche Opera in Berlin and is scheduled to sing it later this year in Pittsburgh and Chicago. The American mezzo-soprano has sung at many other leading opera houses and festivals, including the San Francisco Opera, Salzburg Festival, Hamburg State Opera, Los Angeles Opera, and Washington National Opera. She makes her La Scala debut as Rosina in IL Barbiere di Siviglia later this year.

Carmen, conducted by Alain Altinoglu, also stars Jonas Kaufmann as Don José, Maija Kovalevska as Micaëla, and Mariusz Kwiecien as Escamillo. The production, which premiered earlier this season to critical and public acclaim, is by Richard Eyre.

"Carmen is about sex, violence, and racism‹and its corollary: freedom," says Olivier Award-winning director Richard Eyre. "It is one of the inalienably great works of art. It's sexy, in every sense. And I think it should be shocking." Olga Borodina and Angela Gheorghiu share the iconic title role, opposite Brandon Jovanovich and Jonas Kaufmann as the obsessed Don José. Maija Kovalevska sings Micaëla. Teddy Tahu Rhodes and Mariusz Kwiecien alternate as the matador Escamillo.

 

To post a comment, you must register and login.