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The American soprano, Anna Christy, was born in Chicago, Illinois and raised in Pasadena, California. She spent her summers in Tokyo, Japan, at her mother’s family home, and is fluent in Japanese. She attended Polytechnic School in Pasadena and was a founding member of the Los Angeles Children’s Chorus. She is a graduate of Rice University and the University of Cincinnati, College-Conservatory of Music. Selected by New York City Opera, she is the recipient of the Martin E. Segal Award presented annually to nominees by two of Lincoln Center's twelve resident arts constituents. She is also the recipient of a Richard Tucker Music Foundation Career Grant, the ARIA Award, Sullivan Foundation Grant, a Richard F. Gold Grant and the Shouse Debut Artist Award from Wolf Trap Opera.
Praised by the New York Times as “nimble of voice, body and spirit,” Anna Christy continues to impress and delight audiences with an extraordinary blend of sparkling voice, powerful stage presence, and innate musicality. She made her role debut as Gilda in Christopher Alden’s production of Rigoletto at the English National Opera. She was also seen at the Lyric Opera of Kansas City as Adele in Die Fledermaus and Susanna in W.A. Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro at Central City Opera. She made a triumphant debut in her signature role of Cunegonde in Leonard Bernstein's Candide at the Tanglewood Festival with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. She began the 2012-2013 season as Cleopatra in a new production of George Frideric Handel’s Julius Caesar at English National Opera, followed by concerts of Ravel’s L’enfant et les sortilèges and Igor Stravinsky's Le rossignol with Charles Dutoit and the NHK Symphony in Tokyo. She returned to the Metropolitan Opera as Lisette in the Nicholas Joel production of Puccini’s La rondine and Toronto audiences heard her as Lucia in the highly-acclaimed David Alden production of Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor. She closed the season as Emily Webb in Ned Rorem’s Our Town with Central City Opera, followed by performances of Le feu, La princesse and Le rossignol in Ravel’s L’enfant et les sortilèges at the Saito Kinen Festival with Seiji Ozawa conducting.
Anna Christy has been seen as Olympia in Les contes d’Hoffmann at Lyric Opera of Chicago, followed by her role debut as Zerbinetta in Ariadne auf Naxos. She has also appeared as Olympia in Les contes d’Hoffmann at the Metropolitan Opera, Tytania in Benjamin Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream at Lyric Opera Chicago and the English National Opera. She returned to Santa Fe Opera as Kitty in the highly-acclaimed production of Menotti’s The Last Savage. She has performed Blonde in W.A. Mozart's Die Entführung aus dem Serail with the San Francisco Opera and sang the title role in Lucia di Lammermoor at English National Opera. She appeared as Oscar in Verdi’s Un ballo in maschera at both the Paris Opera and at the Royal Opera House-Covent Garden. She was Cunegonde in Robert Carsen’s production of Candide at English National Opera with further debuts at Teatro alla Scala and at Théâtre du Châtélet in the same production. Other opera credits include Lisette in La rondine with the San Francisco Opera, Adele in Die Fledermaus in Japan conducted by Seiji Ozawa, and Bianca in Rossini’s Bianca e Falliero with the Washington Concert Opera. She also appeared as Oscar in Un ballo in maschera with San Francisco Opera and as Constance in Robert Carsen’s production of Francis Poulenc's Dialogues des Carmélites at the Lyric Opera of Chicago conducted by Andrew Davis. In addition, she made her debut at Opéra de Lille as Cleopatra in G.F. Handel's Giulio Cesare conducted by Emmanuelle Haïm and directed by David McVicar.
On the concert stage, Anna Christy has been a featured soloist the New York City Opera Gala “American Voices” and portrayed Angela in a semi-staged version of Kurt Weill’s The Firebrand of Florence with The Collegiate Chorale at Carnegie Hall. She has performed Candide with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, Carmina Burana with the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra, Gustav Mahler's Symphony No. 4, Candide, and Die Entführung aus dem Serail with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra at the Ravinia Festival. Other concert engagements have included appearances with the Philadelphia Orchestra, National Symphony Orchestra, Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, New York Festival of Song, and solo recitals in Japan.
Anna Christy made her Metropolitan Opera debut as Papagena in Julie Taymor’s new production of W.A. Mozart's Die Zauberflöte conducted by James Levine followed by Hortense in the world premiere of Tobias Picker's An American Tragedy. Two more debuts followed with appearances as Muffin in the world premiere of William Bolcom's A Wedding at the Lyric Opera of Chicago and with Opera Theatre of Saint Louis as Zemire in Zemire et Azor. Other important engagements for her include her San Francisco debut as Angel More in The Mother of us All conducted by Donald Runnicles and directed by Christopher Alden; Marzelline in a concert version L.v. Beethoven's Fidelio with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra under Michael Tilson Thomas; Zerlina in W.A. Mozart's Don Giovanni with the Los Angeles Opera; and Mrs. Nordstrom in A Little Night Music and Annabelle in The Glass Blowers with New York City Opera. She made her Santa Fe Opera debut as Jiang Ching in the world premiere of Madame Mao and later returned as Celia in W.A. Mozart's Lucio Silla.
Last season (2015-2016), Anna Christy was seen as Morgana in G.F. Handel's Alcina with Harry Bicket and The English Concert on tour in London, Madrid, Vienna, and New York. She made New York City recital debut at Pace University’s “Voce at Pace” series and was seen with Baroque ensemble Les Vents Atlantiques as Cleopatra in Giulio Cesare at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam (April 2015). In the summer of 2015, she returned to Santa Fe Opera as Marie in La fille du régiment (July-August 2015). In the 2016-2017 season, she will be seen as Sophie in the Metropolitan Opera’s production of Werther (February-March 2017). She returns to Japan for performances of L’enfant et les sortilèges with Seiji Ozawa (September 2016) and sings Carmina burana with Marin Alsop and the Baltimore Symphony. At home in Denver, she will sing Lucia di Lammermoor with Opera Colorado (May 2017) and will then reprise her performances of Morgana in David Alden’s production of Alcina at Santa Fe Opera (July-August 2017), a role she sang to great acclaim at Teatro Real in Madrid (October-November 2015) and Opéra National de Bordeaux. She returned to the Bayerische Staatsoper as Constance in Diades Carmélites (January-February 2016) and celebrated the 60th Anniversary of Central City Opera as Baby Doe in The Ballad of Baby Doe (July-August 2016). She returned to Japan to sing Adele in Die Fledermaus with Seiji Ozawa to open the new opera house in Kyoto.
Anna Christy currently resides with her husband and children in Colorado. |
