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ARTIST PROFILES
Mercédès/
Carmen
.
Other recent engagements
include performances at the Kennedy Center and
with the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, Opera
Orchestra of New York, and The Master Chorale
of South Florida. Bridges is a two-time winner of
the Metropolitan Opera National Council District
Auditions. Among her other awards are the 2012
Marian Anderson Award, first prize in the
Leontyne Price Foundation Competition, and the
Legacy Award in the National Opera Association
Competition.
J’nai Bridges is sponsored by an
Anonymous Donor.
American soprano
CHRISTINE GOERKE
opens the current Lyric Opera season starring in
the title role/
Elektra
,
her company debut. One
of today’s foremost dramatic sopranos, she tri-
umphed singing her first Elektra last year in
Madrid,
having
previously
portrayed
Chrysothemis in
Elektra
in Washington,
Florence, and at Japan’s Saito Kinen Festival.
Since then she has earned renown in other
German roles that include Strauss’s Ariadne and
Wagner’s Ortrud (both in Houston, the former
also at La Scala), Brünnhilde/
Die Walküre
(
Auckland), and Leonore/
Fidelio
(
Philadelphia).
Goerke first attracted attention in the title
role/
Iphigénie en Tauride
at Glimmerglass Opera,
which she reprised at New York City Opera and
also recorded. Her astounding versatility extends
to Handel (Armida
/
Rinaldo
and title role/
Alcina,
New York City Opera), Mozart (Vitellia/
La
clemenza di Tito
,
Opéra National de Paris, plus
the Mozart/da Ponte operas in Tokyo), Bellini
(
title role/
Norma
,
Seattle, Philadelphia), Verdi
(
Princess Eboli/
Don Carlos
,
Houston), Poulenc
(
Mme. Lidoine/
Dialogues of the Carmelites
,
Metropolitan Opera), and Britten (Female
Chorus/
The Rape of Lucretia
,
Glimmerglass
Opera, Opera Theatre of Saint Louis;
Ellen/
Peter Grimes
,
Saito Kinen Festival and
Florence’s Maggio Musicale Fiorentino).
American tenor
BRANDON JOVANOVICH
has scored major successes at Lyric Opera as
Boris/
Katya Kabanova
(
debut), Don José/
Carmen
,
and Bacchus/
Ariadne auf Naxos
(
which
he also sung at Boston Lyric Opera). Don José is
a signature role for Jovanovich, with triumphs in
his debuts at both the Metropolitan Opera and
Glyndebourne, as well as in performances in
Barcelona, Antwerp, Washington, and Palm
Beach. Other starring roles include Don Carlos
(
Houston), Hoffmann (La Scala), Pinkerton
(
Stuttgart, Dallas, San Francisco, Santa Fe),
Cavaradossi (Bordeaux, Seattle, Nice, Bregenz),
and Werther (Lille). Jovanovich won significant
international praise as Siegmund/
Die Walküre
in
San Francisco Opera’s recent
Ring
cycle. His vast
repertoire ranges from
Norma
(
Trieste),
Cavalleria rusticana
(
Houston), and
Il tabarro
(
San Francisco) to
Jenůfa
(
Munich),
Rusalka
(
Glyndebourne, CD),
Peter Grimes
(
Naples), and
Braunfels’s
Die Vögel
(
Los Angeles). Other for-
midable roles in contemporary opera include
Bocconion/
The Mines of Sulphur
(
Glimmerglass
Opera, CD), Sergei/
Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk
(
Austin), Bill/
Flight
(
U.S. premiere, St. Louis),
and Levin/
Anna Karenina
(
Miami world pre-
miere, St. Louis, CD). Jovanovich is a past recip-
ient of both the Richard Tucker Award and the
ARIAAward.
Alabama-born soprano
SUSANNA PHILLIPS
,
a Ryan Opera Center alumna, returns to Lyric
Opera this season in her role debut as Stella/
A
Streetcar Named Desire.
She was widely hailed
last season for the title role/
Lucia di
Lammermoor
at Lyric, where she had previously
sung six roles, among them Adina, Rosalinde
(
student matinees), and Juliette. Last spring
Phillips made her first appearances in Europe,
singing Pamina/
Die Zauberflöte
(
Barcelona) and
the Countess/
Le nozze di Figaro
(
Bordeaux). She
has also earned acclaim at the Metropolitan
Opera (
The Magic Flute
and
La bohème,
the lat-
ter including a 2011 tour to Japan), Santa Fe (four
works of Mozart), Dallas (
Figaro
),
Boston (
Don
Giovanni
,
A Midsummer Night’s Dream
),
and
Minnesota (Keiser’s
Croesus
).
The soprano
ascended to prominence in 2005, winning the
Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions,
the Operalia competition, the MacAllister
Awards, and the George London Competition.
She has been welcomed by the CSO, Lincoln
Center’s Mostly Mozart Festival (2011 live PBS
telecast), New York Pops (Carnegie Hall debut),
Marlboro Music Festival, Baltimore Symphony,
and Royal Stockholm Philharmonic; and in
recital at Alice Tully Hall, Weill Recital Hall, and
Washington’s Vocal Arts Society.
