Corinne Winters Returns to Tucson for Latin-Themed Concerts
“Holtan is ecstatic about having this world-class soprano back in our midst. ‘She was such a huge hit when she was here last time, and when we reached out to her, she didn’t hesitate,’ he says.” Corinne Winters joins the Tucson Desert Song Festival for concerts, a recital, and a masterclass.
January 14, 2019
Photos by Fay Fox
American soprano Corinne Winters returns to the Old Pueblo this month for a series of appearances with the Tucson Desert Song Festival. In addition to leading a masterclass for students at the University of Arizona, Winters will perform with guitarist Adam del Monte and True Concord Voices & Orchestra in repertoire including Villa-Lobos’ Bachianas Brasileiras no. 5, before debuting her new Shades of Night recital, featuring opera arias and songs that explore literal and metaphorical interpretations of night.
Ahead of her arrival in Tucson, Corinne spoke with Tucson Lifestyle Magazine and the Arizona Daily Star.
“The recital will be a virtual album of moments to remember. Winters explains, ‘It’s called Shades of Night because it examines all the facets of night: celebration, romance, excitement, loss, and the metaphorical ‘dark night of the soul.’ Each piece, in one way or another, is about exploring what’s hidden. The pieces are beautiful and accessible, including a mix of standard works and lesser-known gems. I suggest that the audience really take in the variance in color and mood. This program is not esoteric; it’s meant to be experienced viscerally. I suspect the impact will be different for each person!’”
Read full feature in Tucson Lifestyle Magazine >
“Corinne Winters is making up for lost time this week. After a four-year absence from Tucson stages, the soprano, who has fast-become a rising star on international opera stages, is returning to the Tucson Desert Song Festival, where she is doing triple-duty.”
Corinne Winters is 'Spellbindingly Regal' in Verdi Requiem
“Winters, a slight but striking figure, excelled. She is an exquisitely expressive singer.” The Monteverdi Choir and Orchestras’ European tour of the Verdi Requiem wraps tonight at Amsterdam’s famed Concertgebouw.
October 7, 2018
Soprano Corinne Winters wraps a 9-city European tour of the iconic Verdi Requiem with the Monteverdi Choir and Orchestras tonight, in a final performance at Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw.
The tour has enjoyed critical acclaim throughout its run, with Winters earning praise for her interpretation of the soprano solo in this operatic mass for the dead.
Read reviews:
“Winters was spell-bindingly regal… Winters’ soaring soprano was persistent but beautiful, rising to her second high C without a flicker.”
Bachtrack
“The soprano had a very flexible voice, flawless, with an interesting timbre, well placed piano and forte singing that carried over the wave of the orchestra. Winters is currently one of the most famous Traviatas on the operatic stage and it was easy to hear why.”
Racjonalista.TV
“A stunning performance.”
Daily Express
“Winters has the graceful timbre of silk, and she moved as one with the Swedish mezzo-soprano Ann Hallenberg. The quartet is therefore optimal for synergy, as you hear in the Agnus Dei: warm, vocally united, faithful to the score.”
Città Nuova
“An exquisite line-up of soloists… The radiant passages for soprano and alto soloists, stunningly sung by Winters and Hallenberg, formed a highlight for the Agnus Dei…”
Adventures in Music
“Winters ascends the heights with gold-colored tones that resonate softly in the piano. How she structures the end of “Libera me” is breathtaking.”
Luzerner Zeitung
“Winters, a slight but striking figure, excelled. She is an exquisitely expressive singer.”
Quarterly Review
Corinne Winters Will Return to Santa Fe Opera to Sing Her First Leïla
Soprano Corinne Winters will join the summer 2019 production of Bizet’s The Pearl Fishers.
October 5, 2018
American soprano Corinne Winters will return to Santa Fe Opera in the summer of 2019, to sing her first performances as Leïla in a Lee Blakeley production of Bizet’s The Pearl Fishers.
Conducted by Timothy Myers, Winters will be joined by Ilker Arcayürek as Nadir and Anthony Clark Evans as Zurga.
Performances run June 29 to August 23, 2019; tickets are available via Santa Fe Opera.
Photo by Fay Fox
Amanda Majeski Sings Strauss Heroine at Santa Fe Opera
"Majeski sings this touchstone Straussian role with gleaming, resonant tone and insightful musicianship..." Amanda Majeski returns to Santa Fe Opera as the Countess in Capriccio, opposite Susan Graham's Clairon.
July 24, 2016
Image via Santa Fe Opera
““Majeski sings from the heart in a role that’s a semi-composite of the composer’s great heroines, the Marschallin and Ariadne. It’s a limpid, lucid portrayal, nowhere more distinctive than in the searching final monologue, Strauss’ most enraptured.” SANTA FE REPORTER”
Soprano Amanda Majeski returns to Santa Fe Opera as the Countess in Capriccio, the opera Richard Strauss called his "conversation piece for music." She is joined by the legendary mezzo Susan Graham, as well as bass-baritone David Govertsen, tenor Ben Bliss, and baritone Joshua Hopkins.
Conducted by Leo Hussain in a new Tim Albery production, performances run July 23 through August 19, 2016. Tickets can be purchased on the Santa Fe Opera website.
Read more reviews:
“Everything revolves around the Countess. Soprano Amanda Majeski portrays her with casual charm and sincere warmth, creating a character in control of her world and secure in her situation. Politesse is so deeply imbued in her character that she carries it without the slightest self-consciousness. Majeski’s soprano is tightly focused, her intonation is spot-on and her delivery rolls forth with conversational naturalness. Her timbre is pure, sometimes approaching a “white sound” that allows prominence to head resonance. Her vocalism harks back to a kind of singing we don’t encounter much today. If you heard her pure timbre and pristine diction on a recording, you might guess it was an opera star of the 1940s or ’50s — and a fine one. Her singing has a reined-in quality that proves apt for the portrayal she has crafted. A slight quiver enters her voice now and again, adding a quality of wistfulness. It adds to the vulnerability she allows herself to display in her touching final scene, where she recognizes that her aesthetic elegance is a barrier to her own emotional fulfillment — an acknowledgment she bares to herself alone, out of view and earshot from anyone else. [Some] had trouble being heard in a couple of climactic phrases, though not Majeski, whose tone penetrated the texture without sacrificing its beauty."
Santa Fe New Mexican
"The rising soprano Amanda Majeski sings this touchstone Straussian role with gleaming, resonant tone and insightful musicianship..."
Financial Times
"Amanda Majeski seems pre-destined to play the Countess. Her cool, secure, limpid soprano is just what Strauss had in mind when he endowed the role with lovely conversational passages, airy flights above the staff, and haunting musings on the philosophies of art and music. Ms. Majeski’s pure tone and knowing, fluid delivery harkens back to great Strauss interpreters of the last century, a direct connection to a revered roster of interpreters. Her traversal of the Countess’s last great monologue was a thing of great beauty, infinite variety, and sublime vocalization. Moreover, Majeski has a regal and poised presence, her carriage leaving no doubt that she is “royalty.” Her achievement is such that she may just be unequalled in this part at the moment."
Opera Today
“In the lead role of Countess Madeleine, Illinois soprano Amanda Majeski provided the vocal power required to complement Strauss’s soaring melodies and the elegance appropriate for the gentler music of Madeleine’s introspective moment.”
Opera Warhorses
"As the Countess, Amanda Majeski sang her long phrases with free flowing tones that kept their focus as they blossomed out over the audience. A fabulous Strauss singer whose sound recalls German sopranos of the previous era such as Elizabeth Schwarzkopf and Irmgard Seefried, she she portrayed the noble lady as a refined heiress with consummate good taste."
Bachtrack
“Amanda Majeski turns in a sparkling performance as the glamorous Parisian Countess Madeleine. [The voice] has an exceptional flexibility, easily enough to traverse the many vocal hurdles of this difficult role. She gives the final scene, a last meditation on the question of words and music, a transcendent quality.”
Albuquerque Journal
"As Strauss’ multi-faceted, somewhat enigmatic Countess, Amanda Majeski provides a poised central figure. She’s played the vulnerable aristocrat in the past—Countess Almaviva in Mozart’s Figaro. Here Majeski sings from the heart in a role that’s a semi-composite of the composer’s great heroines, the Marschallin and Ariadne. It’s a limpid, lucid portrayal, nowhere more distinctive than in the searching final monologue, Strauss’ most enraptured."
Santa Fe Reporter