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New York City Opera’s
Spring Gala: An Evening with
Deborah Voigt, May 16 at Central Park Boathouse,
Celebrates Company’s Bright Future
“Deborah Voigt is the only diva who might carry on Beverly
Sills’ role as ‘opera cheerleader’ in America.” ― The New
York Times
New York City Opera celebrates the success of the company’s
hugely successful 2011-12 season with New York’s civic
leaders on Wednesday, May 16, with its Spring Gala: An
Evening with Deborah Voigt. The sparkling event will take
place at the historic Loeb Central Park Boathouse in
Manhattan and feature cocktails and gondola rides on the
lake, as well as a formal dinner and dancing to the Jazz Age
sounds of the Grammy Award-winning Vince Giordano &
the Nighthawks.
The spring gala will celebrate the revitalization of NYC
Opera, and will support the company’s mission: to create
innovative productions of new and classic work, to reach a
wide audience with affordable ticket prices, and to bring
music into the lives of thousands of students each year
through education programs in New York City’s public
schools. George Steel, NYC Opera’s General Manager and
Artistic Director, says:
“For this year’s spring gala, we’ve created a classic New
York night in the heart of the city: Central Park in the
full, magnificent bloom of spring as the backdrop for sunset
cocktails, a fabulous meal, and even gondola rides on the
lake. We’re thrilled to have as the star of the event
Deborah Voigt – one of today’s greatest American voices, and
an exemplary advocate for the arts. It will be the perfect
way for the company to celebrate a groundbreaking season,
and the city’s best and brightest have already stepped
forward to support NYC Opera on this sensational evening.”
The centerpiece of the evening will be a private concert by
Deborah Voigt. Hailed as one of opera’s top dramatic
sopranos – excelling in Wagner, Strauss, Verdi and Puccini –
Voigt is also renowned as a performer of Broadway tunes,
jazz standards and popular songs. Opera News has written:
“Deborah Voigt comes to pop singing naturally. She creates
each musical mood so perfectly and demonstrates such
show-biz savvy.… If this were 1970, she would probably be
given her own network variety show.” Accompanying Voigt at
the piano will be Tony Award-winning theater artist and NYC
Opera Artist Council member Ted Sperling. Voigt says:
Whether you sing or listen to opera in this
great city, we all benefit by the wonderful work that New
York City Opera has done throughout the years for this art
form we all love. NYC Opera is truly a New York institution,
and I’m very excited to sing at its spring gala, which this
year takes place at one of my favorite – and certainly one
of the most romantic – places in the city: the Central Park
Boathouse. It’s going to be a wonderful night.
New York City Opera’s Spring Gala: An Evening with Deborah
Voigt
When: Wednesday, May 16, 2012 – 6:30pm: cocktails;
7:30pm: dinner and performance; 9:30pm: dancing.
Where: Loeb Central Park Boathouse in Central Park, entrance
at 72nd St & Fifth Ave
Performance: soprano Deborah Voigt and pianist Ted Sperling
Beneficiary: New York City Opera
Table and ticket levels: Leadership tables: $100,000;
Platinum tables $75,000; Gold tables: $50,000; Silver
tables: $25,000; Bronze tables $12,500; and Young Patron
tables: $5,000; tickets: $10,000, $5,000, $2,500, $1,250
(limited availability)
Gala leadership: Caroline and Paul Cronson, Michael and Mary
Gellert,
Julia and David H. Koch, Mark and Lorry Newhouse, Susan and
Elihu Rose, Annaliese Soros,
Alice and Tom Tisch, Charles R. Wall
Attire: Cocktail attire
Gala sponsors: American Airlines, Bellavista, Cesari fine
wines of Verona
To purchase tickets or for more information: Call the New
York City Opera Special Events office at 646-758-9469.
About New York City Opera
Imaginative, adventurous, and accessible, New York City
Opera continues its mission to make great opera available to
a modern, wide-reaching audience. For more than 60 years,
the company has stayed true to its original promise:
introducing generation after generation of young singers who
are stars in the making, bringing the public exciting new
works and compelling, fresh interpretations of classics,
acting as a champion for American composers and performers,
and ensuring that opera can be a part of every New Yorker’s
life.
The company is building tomorrow's audiences through its
work in arts education. NYC Opera Education students meet
with NYC Opera Teaching Artists and other theater
professionals in their classrooms, go behind the scenes to
see how productions come together, and watch world-class
performances on NYC Opera’s stage. In 2011-12, NYC Opera
Education has served nearly 3,000 students in 19 New York
City schools, as well as in Westchester, New Jersey, and
Long Island.
The 2011-12 season
During the 2011-2012 season, New York City Opera embarked on
a new era, presenting four operas in venues throughout New
York City, and creating a living presence in Brooklyn, the
Upper West Side, Harlem, and – with the Spring Gala –
Central Park. These world-class venues are curated specially
for the productions they house, giving audiences and
performers a compelling new way to experience live opera,
and bringing the art form directly into the neighborhoods
New York City Opera serves.
About Deborah Voigt
Deborah Voigt is one of the world’s leading dramatic
sopranos, internationally revered for her performances 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
she has given many enthusiastically received master classes.
She is known for the singular power and beauty of her voice,
as well as for her winning personality and stage presence.
Voigt’s 2011-12 season began with a gala
performance for the New York Philharmonic broadcast on
public television’s Live From Lincoln Center series. Soon
after, she made much-anticipated role debuts as Brünnhilde
in Wagner’s Siegfried and Götterdämmerung, the final two
installments of the Metropolitan Opera’s new production of
Der Ring des Nibelungen. In April and May, Voigt will sing
Brünnhilde in performances of three complete Ring Cycles at
the Met. Among other highlights for Voigt are a Broadway
concert at Washington National Opera; solo recitals in
Mexico City and Sydney, Australia; and concerts with the
Montreal Symphony, Minnesota Orchestra and Melbourne
Symphony Orchestra. Throughout the season, Voigt will make
further appearances as both performer and host in the
ever-popular Met Live in HD series. Other recent highlights
for Voigt include her company debut with the Washington
National Opera as Richard Strauss’s Salome, as well as her
role debut as Minnie in Puccini’s La fanciulla del West at
three opera houses over a nine-month period: San Francisco
Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago and the Metropolitan Opera.
Last summer she won praise as Annie Oakley at the
Glimmerglass Festival in Cooperstown, headlining in Irving
Berlin’s beloved Annie Get Your Gun; she also starred in
Voigt Lessons, a one-woman show developed by Voigt with
playwright Terrence McNally and director Francesca Zambello.
Voigt has received accolades for such Italian roles as
Amelia, Aida, Lady Macbeth, Tosca and Leonora, as well as
Cassandre in Berlioz’s Les Troyens. Her discography of
complete operas includes Tristan und Isolde, Die Frau ohne
Schatten and Les Troyens. 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
gives 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 took part in Macy’s Thanksgiving Day
parade. She has also been profiled in many national media
outlets, such as CBS’s 60 Minutes, Good Morning America and
Vanity Fair.
Voigt’s awards and honors include first
prizes in Moscow’s Tchaikovsky Competition and the Luciano
Pavarotti International Voice Competition, as well as
France’s Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. She
was Musical America’s Vocalist of the Year in 2003, won a
2007 Opera News Award for distinguished achievement, and
received an Honorary Doctorate from the University of South
Carolina in 2009. Known to Twitter fans as a “dramatic
soprano and down-to-earth diva,” Voigt was named by the Los
Angeles Times as one of the top 25 cultural tweeters to
follow. She is writing a memoir scheduled for publication by
HarperCollins in 2013.
www.nycopera.com
www.facebook.com/nycopera
https://twitter.com/#!/nycOpera
www.deborahvoigt.com
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