Hot on the heels of the sold out, critically acclaimed Summer Season 2008, Opera New Jersey announces that internationally-renowned opera star Ruth Ann Swenson will star in their February 2009 production of Die Fledermaus! Ms. Swenson will sing the leading role of Rosalinde for the first time in her career in this production, to be performed in Princeton, New Brunswick and Morristown.
One of the leading sopranos of our day, Ms. Swenson has won critical and public accolades internationally on all the world's major opera stages including the Metropolitan Opera, San Francisco Opera, Chicago Lyric Opera, Opera National de Paris, Royal Opera Covent Garden, Berlin State Opera, Grand Theatre de Geneve, Hamburg State Opera, Bavarian State Opera, among many others. She is praised as an artist with an instrument of uncommon warmth and beauty matched by dazzling technical abilities.
Ms. Swenson has collaborated and performed with many of the brightest stars of the music world, including Placido Domingo, James Levine, Marilyn Horne, Zubin Mehta, Luciano Pavarotti, Christoph von Dohnayi, Michael Tilson Thomas, Julius Rudel, Roberta Alagna, Samuel Ramey and Thomas Hampson.
"This is a major coup for Opera New Jersey and we are honored to have an artist of Ruth Ann Swenson's caliber appear in one of our productions," exclaimed Scott Altman, General Artistic Director. Opera New Jersey brings major international talent throughout the state in the Winter Opera Season, providing residents the chance to see world-class talent on local New Jersey stages.
New York Times Music Critic Anthony Tommasini declared that "…for sheer beauty of sound and purity of tone Ruth Ann Swenson can not be topped…. Ms. Swenson sang exquisitely, with flawlessly executed roulades and runs, effortless high notes and unerring pitch." Music Critic David Patrick Stearns proclaimed that "Ruth Ann Swenson has progressed from being one of opera's great voices to one of its finest singing actresses."
Additional casting will be announced in the coming weeks. -- www.opera-nj.org
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