Lidiya Yankovskaya Delivers 'Strong WNO Debut'
“Yankovskaya does a terrific job as a conductor of this score bringing out the many colors and styles of music with her thirteen musicians who prove game to the challenge.” Lidiya Yankovskaya makes her Washington National Opera debut leading the world premiere of Kamala Sankaram’s Taking Up Serpents.
January 16, 2019
Photo by Scott Suchman
Conductor Lidiya Yankovskaya has just made her house debut at Washington National Opera, leading the world premiere of Kamala Sankaram’s Taking Up Serpents, an opera set in the American South that explores religious traditions and family.
Read reviews:
“Russian conductor Lidiya Yankovskaya made a strong WNO debut at the podium, skillfully bringing together the disparate sounds in the pit.”
Washington Classical Review
“The most interesting parts were Sankaram’s atmospheric orchestrations, brought out by Lidiya Yankovskaya in the pit.”
The Washington Post
“Her orchestrations, performed by a fully game Washington National Orchestra under the direction of Lidiya Yankovskaya in her WNO debut, emphasize the unease of Kayla's reluctant return home to her estranged family. The orchestra not only creates unusual noises with bassoons minus the mouthpieces, but there is also what may be the first use in opera of the children's toy called the whirly tube, those ribbed plastic hoses that emit an otherworldly sound when swung around.”
Broadway World
“Sankaram also has integrated some curious contemporary instrumentation for a small orchestra, including electric and acoustic guitar, a drum set, water phone, and, most delicious of all, “whirly tubes” with their mysterious sound and snakelike waving. Lidiya Yankovskaya does a terrific job as a conductor of this score bringing out the many colors and styles of music with her thirteen musicians who prove game to the challenge.”
DC Theatre Scene
“Conductor Lidiya Yankovskaya ably shaped the score: Its spare orchestration is built on string drones and slithering glissandos and colored with punchy special effects, such as the whirly tubes that make a soft, creepy hooting sound, associated with Kayla’s memories, and the glockenspiel that plays as her father brands her as a sinful daughter of Eve and that later accompanies her triumphant assertion, ‘I am the light.’”
Wall Street Journal
Snakes on A Stage: Lidiya Yankovskaya in Washington Post
“What makes an American opera? Many of the support programs designed to promote new work create the somewhat amusing spectacle of American artists such as Kamala Sankaram, whose father is from South India, or the opera’s conductor, Lidiya Yankovskaya, whose family emigrated from Russia when she was 9, compressing themselves into someone else’s ‘American’ template.” Ahead of her house debut at Washington National Opera, the conductor spoke with Anne Midgette about the world premiere of Taking Up Serpents.
January 6, 2019
Ahead of her Washington National Opera debut conducting the world premiere of Kamala Sankaram’s Taking Up Serpents, conductor Lidiya Yankovskaya spoke with the Washington Post about new music, speaking in tongues, and reconciling personal experience with an opera’s subject matter.
Performances will be at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. on January 11 and 13; tickets can be purchased via WNO.
What makes an American opera? Companies across the country seem to be perpetually asking this question. The Metropolitan Opera is said to have turned down Rufus Wainwright’s opera “Prima Donna” on the grounds that it was in French and therefore not an American opera. Other companies turn to Hollywood — the Minnesota Opera has presented operatic versions of “The Shining” and “The Manchurian Candidate” — or book adaptations — the San Francisco Opera has offered “Dolores Claiborne” (based on the Stephen King novel) and “The Bonesetter’s Daughter” (based on the Amy Tan novel). Many of the support programs designed to promote new work create the somewhat amusing spectacle of American artists such as Sankaram, whose father is from South India, or the opera’s conductor, Lidiya Yankovskaya, whose family emigrated from Russia when she was 9, compressing themselves into someone else’s “American” template.
“Going into this opera, that worried me,” Yankovskaya says. “It’s much more difficult to express something you’re not intimately familiar with yourself. But then, of course, I’m not intimately familiar with what it’s like to be a courtesan in Europe,” which hasn’t stopped her from conducting “La traviata.”
VerismoComm Welcomes Lidiya Yankovskaya to Roster
“One of the hottest young conductors forging a path in the world of opera today… Lidiya Yankovskaya is the future of opera.” As Music Director of Chicago Opera Theater, Lidiya is the only woman to hold that title in a multimillion-dollar opera company in the United States.
November 5, 2018
Verismo Communications is proud to welcome Russian-American conductor Lidiya Yankovskaya to the roster. As Music Director of Chicago Opera Theater, Yankovskaya is the only woman to hold that title in a multimillion-dollar opera company in the United States.
Under her leadership, COT has established the Vanguard Initiative, a three-pronged investment in new opera that includes a two-year residency for emerging opera composers. Committed to developing the next generation of artistic leaders, she also serves on the Advisory Board of Turn The Spotlight, a foundation dedicated to illuminating the path to a more equitable future in the arts.
Yankovskaya is Founder and Artistic Director of the Refugee Orchestra Project, which proclaims the cultural and societal relevance of refugees through music, and has brought that message to the United Nations and hundreds of thousands of listeners around the world.
In the 2018/19 season, Ms. Yankovskaya leads the Chicago premieres of Tchaikovsky’s Iolanta and Heggie’s Moby-Dick at COT, the world premiere of Kamala Sankaram’s Taking Up Serpents at Washington National Opera, and the world premiere of Ricky Ian Gordon’s Ellen West at Opera Saratoga. She conducts Grétry’s Belgian rarity Zémire et Azor at Carnegie Mellon University, workshops Justin Chen’s The Life and Death(s) of Alan Turing at COT and Paola Prestini’s Edward Tulane at Minnesota Opera, and makes her Mobile Symphony debut in Carmina Burana. She also debuts at Trinity Wall Street, leading the New York premiere of Laura Schwendinger’s Artemisia, and returns to New York’s National Sawdust to close her season with the Hildegard Competition Concert, which features the work of emerging female, trans, and nonbinary composers.
Jamie Barton's Princess Eboli Is 'The Star of The Evening' in WNO Don Carlo
"Even in a cast as extraordinarily strong as this one, Barton rises above. Her "O don fatale" elicited one of those magical operatic moments where time stops..." Jamie Barton makes her American role debut as Princess Eboli in a new Tim Albery production in Washington, D.C.
March 7, 2018
Photo by Scott Suchman
““Even in a cast as extraordinarily strong as this one, Barton rises above. She radiates such boisterous joy in singing that it’s impossible not to be taken under her spell. She alternates lines of exquisite bel canto lyricism and then shoots declamatory passages like laser beams into the upper tiers of the opera house. Her “O don fatale” elicited one of those magical operatic moments where time stops, and at the end of her final phrase you realize you forgot to breathe.””
Mezzo Jamie Barton makes her American role debut as the scheming Princess Eboli in a new Tim Albery production of Verdi's Don Carlo at Washington National Opera.
Led by conductor Philippe Auguin, the legendary cast – including Russell Thomas in the title role, Leah Crocetto as Elisabetta, Quinn Kelsey as Rodrigo, Eric Owens as King Philip, and Andrea Silvestrelli as the Grand Inquisitor – performs at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts through March 17, 2018, with tickets available via WNO.
Read reviews:
“The star of the evening, elevating the mezzo role of Princess Eboli from vengeful femme fatale to a wounded but sympathetic courtier, both perpetrator and victim of the palace’s sexual intrigue. Her Veil Song was coy and sultry, and the showstopping “O don fatale” was a magnificent study…”
Washington Post
"Jamie Barton seized on every opportunity, vocal and theatrical, offered by the role of Eboli. She unleashed her ripe mezzo with enough power to push you back in your seat, but she also drew you in with the communicative animation and depth of her phrasing."
Opera News
“Barton dominated the stage on her every appearance. You quickly realized how immensely powerful her instrument could be, but her vocal agility and dynamic range amazed the most.”
Bachtrack
“Wows in power and agility. Most impressive was the deft control she possessed over such a force that was wielded as a conduit of artistry rather than brutality. A joy from start to finish."
MD Theatre Guide
"Barton used her brazen chest voice, elemental in power, to dominate the stage with arrogant spite, as steady and beautiful in ensembles as in solos."
Washington Classical Review
“A tour de force of musicality and emotionality [that] rightly deserved the thunderous applause it received.”
DC Theatre Scene
“Perhaps the biggest ovation of the evening came for Jamie Barton as Eboli after her aria “O Don Fatale.” In this passage, this incredible artist let her voice blast through the hall with unsurpassed vibrancy and control. Every moment was gloriously sculpted.”
Operawire
Jamie Barton Lands on Front Page of Wall Street Journal
Barton featured in "How Bugs Bunny and ‘Kill the Wabbit’ Inspired a Generation of Opera Stars."
May 20, 2016
““He picks up the wabbit and he thinks, ‘Oh, no, I’ve actually killed it.’ This is the wonderful thing about opera. It’s the musical embodiment of the whirlwind of emotions of human beings, right?” JAMIE BARTON”
Jamie Barton, along with three Washington National Opera Ring colleagues, appeared on the front page of this weekend's Wall Street Journal, discussing the influence of Bugs Bunny's 'What's Opera, Doc.' Barton was also featured in an accompanying video on the WSJ website.
Amanda Majeski to Debut at Washington National Opera on 2016/17 Opening Night
"Dignified and moving...a great showcase for her rich, resonant soprano." Amanda Majeski will bring her acclaimed Countess to The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C.
March 8, 2016
Amanda Majeski will make her Washington National Opera debut as the Countess in Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro on opening night of the 2016/17 season.
The Kennedy Center production will complete a trilogy of opening night Figaro performances for Majeski, a run that began at the Metropolitan Opera in 2014 and continued at the Lyric Opera of Chicago in 2015.
Majeski will be joined by Lisette Oropesa as Susanna, Joshua Hopkins as Count Almaviva, Ryan McKinny as Figaro, and Aleksandra Romano as Cherubino, under the baton of James Gaffigan in a Peter Kazaras production.
Performances will run September 22 – October 2, 2016, with the September 24 performance simulcast to Nationals Stadium for the popular M&M’S Opera in the Outfield event.
Photo by Todd Rosenberg