Deborah Voigt
August 4, 1960 - Chicago (United States)
About
Deborah Voigt is one of the world’s leading dramatic sopranos, internationally revered in the operas of Wagner and Richard Strauss. She is also noted for her portrayals of such popular Italian operatic parts as Tosca, Aida, Amelia in Un ballo in maschera, and Leonora in La forza del destino. An active recitalist and performer of Broadway standards, Voigt has an extensive discography, and has given many enthusiastically-received master classes. She is known for the singular power and beauty of her voice, and for her winning personality and stage presence.
Voigt’s 2009-10 season begins and ends with Puccini. She opens the Lyric Opera of Chicago season as Tosca, and gives her role debut as Minnie in La fanciulla del West (The Girl of the Golden West) in her long-awaited return to San Francisco. Other opera season highlights include Arnold Schoenberg’s Gurrelieder, with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra under Mariss Jansons; two of her signature roles –Chrysothemis in Strauss’s Elektra and Senta in Wagner’s Fliegende Holländer – at the Met; and Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde at Barcelona’s Gran Teatre del Liceu. Next summer, she repeats her highly regarded Salome at Switzerland’s Verbier Festival with Valery Gergiev and at Japan’s Saito Kinen Festival with Seiji Ozawa.
Last season, Voigt added Ponchielli’s La Gioconda to her Met repertory, and she sang her first Chicago Isolde at Lyric Opera under Sir Andrew Davis. She also sang Amelia in Verdi’s Ballo in Maschera at the Opéra National de Paris, and joined Barbara Cook in concert at California’s Orange County Performing Arts Center. Two seasons ago Voigt returned to Lyric Opera of Chicago as the Empress in a new production of Die Frau ohne Schatten. In the same season she added Isolde to her Met repertory, with one performance transmitted live in HD to cinemas worldwide. She also returned to the Royal Opera House Covent Garden in the title role of Strauss’s Ariadne auf Naxos.
Deborah Voigt has received accolades in such Italian roles as Amelia, Aida, Lady Macbeth, Tosca, and Leonora (in both La forza del destino and Il trovatore), and as Cassandre in Berlioz’s Les Troyens. Her discography of complete operas ranges from Tristan und Isolde to Les Troyens and Die Frau ohne Schatten. Her solo discs for EMI Classics are All My Heart (songs by American composers) and the best-selling Obsessions, with arias and scenes by Wagner and Strauss.
A devotee of Broadway and American song, Voigt has given acclaimed performances of popular fare, including benefit concerts for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS and New York Theatre Workshop. In 2004 she sang “America the Beautiful” on NBC’s broadcast of Macy’s Independence Day fireworks show, and she took part in Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade.
Voigt’s numerous awards and honors include first prizes in Moscow’s Tchaikovsky Competition and Philadelphia’s Luciano Pavarotti International Voice Competition, and France’s Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. She was Musical America’s Vocalist of the Year 2003 and received a 2007 Opera News Award for distinguished achievement in the art form.