at The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
Anna Caterina Antonacci, soprano/mezzo & Donald Sulzen, piano
A recital for VOCAL ARTS DC, with music by Fauré, Hahn, Cilea, Mascagni, Tosti, Respighi, and Refice.
TO BUY TICKETS: CLICK HERE
or call 202-467-4600
Tickets may be also purchased in person at the Kennedy Center Box Office.
Special offer for IIC subscribers: $25(reg. $45) – Please call 202-467-4600 and mention source code VADC25
PLEASE NOTE: special offer ONLY available via telephone.
“The wonderful Antonacci portrays the sensual, witty, doomed anti-heroine with devastating truthfulness…”
The Times, June 2009
LOCATION
Terrace Theater
The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
2700 F Street, NW Washington, DC 20566
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Embracing both soprano and mezzo-soprano roles, Anna Caterina’s extraordinary vocal timbre and great acting skills have enabled her to perform many works from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries including Monteverdi, Purcell, Handel, Gluck, Paisiello and Mozart. An acclaimed interpreter of Rossini, she has sung both buffo and serio roles, and has had equal success with Bellini, Donizetti, Verdi, Bizet, Massenet, and Stravinsky.
Since the 2003/04 season, she has concentrated on the dramatic soprano repertory and scored notable personal successes as Cassandre in Les Troyens with Sir John Eliot Gardiner at the Théâtre du Châtelet, Elettra in Idomeneo for the Netherlands Opera and the Maggio Musicale in Florence, and Marschner’s Hans Heiling in Cagliari. Her engagements have included L’incoronazione di Poppea with Jacobs at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées and Palais Garnier in Paris. She also sang Alceste in Parma and at the Salzburg Festival, Medea in Toulouse and the Chatelet Paris and Vitellia in La Clemenza di Tito at the Grand Théâtre in Geneva and the Palais Garnier Opera de Paris. In 2006, she gave recitals in homage to Pauline Viardot at the Châtelet in Paris and the Wigmore Hall in London and sang the Nuits d’Eté of Berlioz with Sir Colin Davis at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées.
Anna Caterina recently made her debut in a new production of Carmen at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden with Antonio Pappano followed by Carmen at the Opera Comique conducted by John Elior Gardiner. She also also sang Berlioz Cleopatre with Sir John Eliot Gardiner at La Scala and Berlioz Les Nuits d’Ete with Bartoletti in Parma followed by Rachel in La Juive at the Opéra de Paris She has also sung a selection of Cantaloube’s Chants d’Auvergne at the 2010 BBC Proms with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales conducted by François-Xavier Roth, Damnation de Faust at the Marseille Opera and with the Orchestre du Capitole in Toulouse, Elisabetta in Maria Stuarda at La Scala, Alice Ford in Falstaff at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, Medea at the Teatro Regio Turin and in Epidaurus and Cassandre in Les Troyens at the Grand Théâtre in Geneva and with the Boston SO conducted by James Levine in Tanglewood.
Her future engagements include Cassandra in Les Troyens at the Royal Opera House in London conducted by Antonio Pappano, at the Deutsche Oper Berlin and at the Teatro Real Madrid, Carmen at the Grande Theatre de Luxembourg, Voix humane at the Opera Comique and Don Quichotte at the Teatro Real Madrid.
Upcoming concert performances will include La morte de Cleopatre with the LPO conducted by Yannick Nézét-Seguin, and again with the Orchestre National de France conducted by John Eliot Gardiner , Damnation de Faust with the Montreal SO conducted by Kent Nagano and Sherazade with the Rotterdam PO.
Anna Caterina will also continue to give solo recital tour including composers such as Hahn, Tosti, Toscanini, Bachelet, Tirindelli and Respighi among others, accompanied by Donald Sulzen, at venues including the Grand Théâtre de Genève, Cologne Opera, Wigmore Hall, Concertgebouw, Opera du Rhin in Strasbourg, Megaron Concert Hall, Opera Comique, La Monnaie, Lincoln Center New York, Kennedy Center in Washington DC and in Montreal.
She has also just been awarded the ‘Chevalier de l’Ordre National de la Légion d’honneur’ by the French Republic, which is the highest national distinction one can receive.
Anna Caterina now records for the Naïve label. Her first recording of Era la Notte was released to great acclaim.
Pianist Donald Sulzen is one of the few pianists who has attained highest international recognition in two realms of classical music. Not only is he a collaborator with some of the worlds most celebrated singers, such as Anna Caterina Antonacci, Laura Aikin, Ofelia Sala and James Taylor, but is also the pianist of the renowned Munich Piano Trio.
The London Times hails him as “spirited and stimulating” and the Süddeutsche Zeitung praises his “intelligent, brilliant interpretation.” A native Kansas Citian, Donald Sulzen received his first degree at the École Normale de Musique in Paris (Jules Gentil), from which he graduated with honors. Under the instruction of Joseph Banowetz and Harold Heiberg he took a summa cum laude Master’s degree in Music at the University of North Texas.
He then moved to Europe to specialize in German song through master classes with Martin Katz, Geoffrey Parsons and John Wustman. His extensive concert activity includes tours through the most prestigious recital halls of Europe, the USA, South America and Japan. He has amplified his personal appearance schedule through numerous performances on radio and television: Bayerischer Rundfunk, Munich; WDR, Cologne; Radio France, Paris; RAI 1, Rome; RAI 3, Naples; Südfunk Stuttgart; Radio Bremen; Nippon-TV, Tokyo. More than thirty CD productions for Orfeo International, Toshiba-EMI, Koch International, Genuin, Arte Nova, cpo and Amati document the high artistic level of this pianist. His most current releases are “Scottish Songs and Piano Trios of Joseph Haydn” with Julie Kaufmann (Orfeo), as well as “Piano Trios of Johannes Brahms” (Genuin), both with the Munich Piano Trio.
After teaching for several years at the Hochschule für Musik und darstellende Kunst “Mozarteum” in Salzburg, he accepted a position for the instruction of song interpretation at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Munich, where he presently resides. His interest in young singers is evidenced by his former activity as accompanist for the master classes of Astrid Varnay, Eleanor Steber, Magda Olivero, George Shirley and Hermann Prey. He also gives master classes for singers and pianists throughout America, Europe and Japan (Yale University, Cursos Internacionales “Manuel de Falla”, Granada …).
Currently among the artists accompanied by Donald Sulzen are such well-known names as Anna Caterina Antonacci, Laura Aikin, Daphne Evangelatos, Julie Kaufmann, Ofelia Sala, Marilyn Schmiege, Thomas Cooley, David Daniels and James Taylor. He also collaborates with New York flutist Don Bailey for Voyage Unlimited, a not-for-profit organization committed to the performance, recording and publication of new and standard chamber music for flute. Since 2001 he is the official pianist of the Munich Piano Trio, which cellist Gerhard Zank founded in 1982. Donald Sulzen’s passion to combine the musicians of his trio with his vocal artists is revealed through unique CD recordings involving works of Joseph Haydn, Alberto Ginastera, Ned Rorem and Astor Piazzolla.