WNO Presents Angela Meade in Recital, 11/10

Washington National Opera (WNO) presents American soprano Angela Meade in recital on Saturday, November 10 at 7:30 p.m. in the Kennedy Center Terrace Theater. Accompanied by Bradley Moore on piano, Ms. Meade will perform a diverse selection of opera arias and lieder. In a special preview of her spring 2013 performances at WNO, the program will include Norma's famous aria "Casta Diva." This one-time-only performance is sold out.

Less than five years after her professional debut, Angela Meade has quickly become recognized as one of the outstanding vocalists of her generation. She is the winner of the 2012 Beverly Sills Artist Award from the Metropolitan Opera and the 2011 Richard Tucker Award. In March 2008, she joined an elite group of singers when she made her professional operatic debut on the stage of the Metropolitan Opera in the leading role of Elvira in Verdi's Ernani. She had previously sung on the Met stage as one of the winners of the 2007 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, a triumph that was documented in the film The Audition, released on DVD by Decca.

Ms. Meade's 2012-2013 season includes a trio of major debuts: with Vienna State Opera as Elena in Verdi's I vespri siciliani led by Gianandrea Noseda, with LA Opera as Donna Anna in Mozart's Don Giovanni conducted by Plácido Domingo, and with WNO in her first fully staged Norma, singing the role that catapulted her to international prominence at the Caramoor Festival in 2010. This new production also features mezzo-soprano Dolora Zajick as Adalgisa and will be conducted by Daniele Rustioni and directed by Anne Bogart.

Also this season, Ms. Meade portrays Giselda in Verdi's I Lombardi with Opera Orchestra of New York as well as Donna Anna in Cincinnati Opera's Don Giovanni. She returns to the Metropolitan Opera for her first staged Leonora in Verdi's Il trovatore and to the Pittsburgh Symphony for Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 under Manfred Honeck.

In addition to her win at the 2007 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, Angela Meade was the first singer to take first prize in both the opera and operetta categories of Vienna's prestigious Belvedere Competition, as well as the International Press Prize and the La Scala Prize chosen by its artistic administrator. In her young career she has triumphed in more than 50 vocal competitions