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The Portuguese soprano, Ana Quintans, finished her studies in sculpture in 1998. She then started studying singing at the Conservatory of Lisbon with José Manuel Araujo. She graduated from the Workshop La Musique des Mémoires with the French composer Claire Renard at the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation and attended master-classes by Jill Feldman, Mercè Obiol, Sarah Walker, Ketil Haugsand, Tom Krause, Verena Wachter, Chiara Banchini, Graham Johnson, Elisabete Matos and Ameral Gunson. From 2002 to 2004, she visited the Summer School for Young Singers OPERAPLUS in Belgium where she won the Vera Rozna Scholarship Award (2003) and the Temple Square Concert Award (2004). In 2005-2006 she graduated from the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation and studied at the Flanders Opera Studio in Gent.
Ana Quintans is known for her playful lightness in voice and movement as well as for her touching and profound interpretation of characters. Her operatic repertoire includes Amore in L′Incoronazione di Poppea, Argie in Les Paladins, Belinda and Second Witch in Dido and Aeneas, Atalanta in Serse, Pamina and First Lady in W.A. Mozart's Die Zauberflöte, Lisetta in Il mondo della Luna by Avondano, Scoiattolo in Il scoiattolo in gamba by Nino Rota, Lion and Bird in Fables by Ned Rorem. She worked with opera directors such as Andreas Homoki, Barry Kosky, Bernard Sobel, Carlos Wagner and Deborah Warner. Among the conductors she worked with count Ivor Bolton, William Christie, Michel Corboz, Alan Curtis, Cesario Costa, Leopold Hager and Marc Minkowski.
Ana Quintans sang at the Opéra de Lyon, the Festival Musicatlantico, Festival Culturel Européen de Rouen, Wiener Festwochen, Teatro Sao Luiz, Festival Ambronay, Teatro Lethes, Centro Cultural de Belém, the Flanders Opera, Festival de Musique Ancienne de Lyon, Leighton House Museum, Auditorium Stravinsky, Fundacao Calouste Gulbenkian and the Cité de la Musique. She sang the role of Peaseblossom in a production of Purcell′s The Fairy Queen at the Landestheater Bregenz and the role of Second Witch with Les Arts Florissants under William Christie in Vienna, Amsterdam and Paris as well as the title role in L“Incoronazione di Poppea at the Stadttheater Klagenfurt.
As concert soloist Ana Quintans sang in Te Deum and Judicium Salomonis (Charpentier), Salve Regina (Giovanni Battista Pergolesi) Stabat Mater (Scarlatti), Gloria (Antonio Vivaldi), Messiah (George Frideric Handel/W.A. Mozart), Mass in c-minor, Exsultate Jubilate and Requiem by W.A. Mozart, Requiem by Gabriel Fauré, Choral Fantasy by L.v. Beethoven. She appeared regularly in recitals with the pianists José Brandao and Hein Boterberg.
Recent engagements have included a tour of Dido and Aeneas with Les Arts Florissants in the USA, Russia and Spain, Drusilla in L“Incoronazione di Poppea at the Teatro Real, the Salle Pleyel and the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Clizia in G.F. Handel“s Teseo at the Théâtre des Champs Elysées, Felix Mendelssohn“s Lobgesang with the Orquesta Sinfónica de RTVE in Madrid and various recitals. Furthermore she sang in Dalina in Ariodante with Il Complesso Barocco under Alan Curtis in Bucarest and Turin and in a production of Cavalli“s L“Egisto with Le Poème Harmonique at the Opéra Comique and Opéra Rouen. She made a highly acclaimed debut at the Festival d“Aix-en-Provence in the role of Jonathas in Charpentier's David et Jonathas with Les Arts Florissants under William Christie, a production also presented at the Edinburgh International Festival, the Théâtre de Caen, Opéra Comique in Paris and the BAM in New York. She sang the title role in De Almeida“s Ippolito at the Festival d“Ambronay and the Casa da Musica in Porto and in concerts with Les Musiciens du Louvre Grenobleunder Marc Minkowski. Last summer (2013) she made her debut at the Glyndebourne Festival in Rameau“s Hippolyte et Aricie.
Projects in 2013-2014 season included Gluck“s Armide under Ivor Bolton at the Netherlands Opera and the role of Amor in Orfeo ed Euridice with Les Musiciens du Louvre Grenoble under Marc Minkowski at the Mozartwoche in Salzburg and at the MC2 in Grenoble, as well as in concert in Madrid. With the same orchestra she also sang J.S. Bach“s B minor Mass (BWV 232). Under Vincent Dumestre and Le Poème Harmonique she performed the role of Belinda in Dido and Aeneas at the Opéra de Rouen and the Opera Royal de Versailles (also on DVD) and in numerous concerts in France, Portugal (Gulbenkian) and Belgium (Dido and Aeneas).
Last season (2014-2015) she made her debut as Ilia in W.A. Mozart's Idomeneo at the Flanders Opera and in Les Indes Galantes at the Bavarian State Opera. Future projects include Angel in Jephtha in Amsterdam, Acis and Galatea at the Gulbenkian Foundation and Elisa in Cavalli“s Ipermestra at Glyndebourne, where she will also make her debut in the role of Despina in W.A. Mozart's Cosi fan tutte..
CD Recordings include Charpentier's Judicium Salomonis (Vera Mater) and Motet pour une longue offrande with William Christie and Les Arts Florissants for EMI/Virgin Classics, Gabriel Fauré's Requiem with the Sinfonia Varsovia conducted by Michel Corboz, issued by the label Mirare. Furthermore she recorded the title role of De Almeida“s La Spinalba and Luis Tinoco“s Round Time, both for the Naxos Label. Her performances of Drusilla in L“Incoronazione di Poppea from Madrid and Jonathas in David et Jonathas at the Festival d“Aix-en-Provence can be seen on DVD. Other DVD's include Dido and Aeneas - Didon et Énée (2009), and Hippolyte et Aricie (2013), both under William Christie. A solo CD with aria“s of Albinoni with the Concerto de“ Cavalieri under Marcello de Lisa was released on the label Deutsche Harmonia Mundi. |
