Deborah Voigt
Widely acknowledged as the preeminent dramatic soprano, Deborah Voigt is inarguably one of the most esteemed interpreters of the dramatic opera roles of Richard Strauss and Richard Wagner.
Following her personal and artistic triumph as Strauss’s Salome [Click HERE to hear Voigt’s Salome], Voigt returned to the her home town’s Lyric Opera of Chicago to sing the Empress in a new production of Strauss’s Die Frau ohne Schatten [Click HERE to hear the Empress sings], a role she has made her own internationally. After her very successful début with her home company, the Metropolitan Opera, in Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde [Click HERE to hear the Love Duet of Deborah Voigt and Ben Heppner], conducted by James Levine in 2008 – her first Isoldes since her headlining portrayals at the Vienna State Opera in 2003, Voigt sung the same role with the Lyric Opera of Chicago in Jan 2009 and received high acclaims as “today’s Isolde of choice” by the Chicago Tribune. [Click HERE to see more reviews]
In the 2009/10 season, Voigt sings Puccini’s Tosca to open the season of the Lyric Opera of Chicago. The renowned Wagnerian soprano will also sing the mystical Senta in one of the composer’s most engaging works, Der fliegende Holländer and one of the most demanding roles in the entire repertoire - Strauss’s Elektra with the Metropolitan Opera.
Voigt has made her mark on both the operatic and concert stages in a remarkably varied repertoire. She has appeared at Barcelona’s historic Gran Teatre del Liceu as Maddalena in Umberto Giordano’s Andrea Chénier and Ponchielli’s La gioconda, the Met as one of her favourite parts, Sieglinde in Wagner’s Die Walküre, led by Lorin Maazel, the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden for the title role in Strauss’s Ariadne auf Naxos, the San Francisco Opera as Amelia in Verdi’s Un Ballo in Maschera and such distinguished festivals as the Edinburgh Festival and BBC Proms.
Voigt’s first EMI Classics solo CD, Obsessions, presents scenes and arias from operas by Wagner and Strauss. Released in April 2004, the Billboard top-five bestseller earned superlative comments like the one in Gramophone: “The arias highlight Voigt’s extraordinary ability to soar effortlessly and luminously above the orchestra with her trademark rich, lustrous, never hard or brittle voice.” Her recording of Strauss’s Egyptian Helen was also a Billboard bestseller, and named one of the Best CDs of 2003 by Opera News. A live recording of the 2003 Vienna State Opera Tristan und Isolde in which Voigt made her headlining role début was released by Deutsche Grammophon.
Deborah Voigt studied at California State University at Fullerton. She was a member of San Francisco Opera’s Merola Program, and won both the Gold Medal in Moscow’s Tchaikovsky Competition and First Prize at Philadelphia’s Luciano Pavarotti Vocal Competition. She is a Chevalier of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres and was MusicalAmerica’s Vocalist of the Year 2003. She received the 2007 Opera News Award for distinguished achievement.
Back