Vivica Genaux

Vivica Genaux

Mezzo-soprano Vivica Genaux is consistently lauded as one of the pre-eminent interpreters of Baroque and bel canto music. She continues to balance her appearances in the U.S. and abroad with operatic engagements, concerts and recitals in new venues and countries, as well as returns to sites of previous audience and critical triumphs.

This Alaska native has a repertoire of some 46 roles. Ms. Genaux’s professional stage debut was with the Florentine Opera in October 1994 as Isabella in L’italiana. She subsequently sang the role with numerous companies, including the Opéra National de Paris, San Francisco Opera and Turin’s Teatro Regio, among others. Rosina (Il barbiere di Siviglia) is her most performed role, having sung it with twenty-one companies including: the Wiener, Deutsche and Bayerische Staatsopers; Metropolitan, De Nederlandse, Washington National and Dallas Operas; and at the Dresden Festival. She has played Angelina (La cenerentola) with twenty-two companies including the: Semperoper, Opera Orchestra of New York (at Carnegie Hall), Santiago’s Teatro Municipal, New Israeli Opera, the Japan Opera Foundation, and the Grand Théâtre de Genève. Among her other bel canto credentials are the trouser parts of: L’assedio di Corinto, La donna del lago, Lucrezia Borgia, Bianca e Falliero, Alahor in Granata, La gazza ladra, Semiramide, and I Capuleti ed i Montecchi. In the Baroque and early-Classical repertoires her Handel roles are the most varied and numerous, encompassing everything from fearless generals to ruthless goddesses, from impetuous young men to love-sick maidens disguised in male attire, from caped Crusaders to the most nefarious of villains and finally to allegorical visions: Il Trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno, Alcina, Ariodante, Arminio, Giulio Cesare, Semele, and Rinaldo. She has also labored to help widen the appreciation for the works of Hasse.

Past concert and recital engagements include: the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, Concentus Musicus Wien, Concerto Köln, Les Talens Lyriques, Venice Baroque Orchestra, Les Violons du Roy, Orchestre National de France, Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse, the BBC Proms, the Münchner Kammerorchester, New York Chamber Symphony, Orchestra of St. Luke’s, New York Festival of Song, the Wiener Konzerthaus, Moscow’s Tchaikovsky Concert Hall, Teatro Real in Madrid, Barcelona’s Gran Teatre del Liceu, Herbst Theater in San Francisco and Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall.

Ms. Genaux’s growing discography and videography include releases from Harmonia Mundi, Oehms Classics, Virgin Classics, Naïve, Almaviva, and Agora. She has received Grammy nominations for “Pyrotechnics – Vivaldi Opera Arias” and “Arias for Farinelli”, and was featured on the Grammy-nominated recording of Vivaldi’s opera Bajazet.

More information:

October 2011 Program: Arias for Farinelli