“I don't recall the last time I witnessed an opera audience connect with a comedy so immediately and with such sustained, wide-eyed enthusiasm as MOT's opening night crowd did Friday. Matter of fact, both the onstage doings and the audience's bubbly response were more suggestive of Broadway than opera...much of it in brilliant duets for Nemorino and Adina - the vivacious and vocally agile soprano Ailyn Perez.”
Lawrence B Johnson, The Detroit News

RECITAL TWO

» Full Recital List
» 15 Oct 2009 » 19:30 » St John's, Smith Square » £20, £15, £10 (Concessions £10)

AILYN PÉREZSoprano

Iain BurnsidePianist
Songs and arias by composers including Mozart, Puccini, Turina, Vives, Granados and Verdi.

One of the most promising and exciting young artists today, Ailyn Pérez has already won awards for both her operatic singing and recital performances. She has toured with Andrea Bocelli and most recently she has appeared as Marzelline in Fidelio with Opera Company of Philadelphia and at the Salzburg Festival singing Juliette in Roméo et Juliette.

Artist Biographies

AILYN PÉREZ

AILYN PÉREZ soprano

AILYN PÉREZ is a graduate of The Academy of Vocal Arts and Indiana University. For AVA she has portrayed the title role in Lucia di Lammermoor, Susanna in Le nozze di Figaro, Adina in L’elisir d’amore, Suzel in L’amico Fritz, Mimì in La bohème, Anna in Le villi and Gilda in Rigoletto.

Ms. Pérez has won awards for both her operatic singing and recital performances. She was awarded second place by the Licia Albanese-Puccini Foundation in 2004 and in 2005 was placed second at the Loren L. Zachary Competition and received an encouragement award from Opera Index. In 2006 she won Second Prize in the Operalia Competition in Valencia, Spain and the George London Award in the George London Foundation Competition. In 2007 she was the winner of the Shoshana Foundation Career.

She made her professional debut at Palm Beach Opera in 2002, where she sang Zerlina in Don Giovanni and Soeur Constance in Les dialogues des Carmelites and then in 2005 she went on to portray Anne Trulove in The Rake’s Progress and the role of Juliette in Roméo et Juliette with the Merola Opera Program and the Countess in Le nozze di Figaro with Wolf Trap Opera in 2006.

In 2007 Ms Pérez made her debut with Opera Theatre of St. Louis as Violetta in La traviata and with Boston Lyric Opera as Susanna in Le nozze di Figaro. During that same season she sang with Los Angeles Opera as Amor in the world premiere of Lee Holdridge’s Concierto para Mendez, with Opera Carolina as Gilda in Rigoletto and sang in a 7–city tour of the United States and Mexico with Andrea Bocelli.

In the 07/08 season, she joined the roster of the Metropolitan Opera for Le nozze di Figaro and Hänsel und Gretel and other engagements included concerts with Plácido Domingo in Moscow and Qatar, Schubert’s Mass no. 5 with the Netherlands Radio Symphony and Susanna in Le nozze di Figaro with Michigan Opera Theatre. Also in the summer of 2008, she sang the Four Heroines in The Tales of Hoffmann with Opera Theatre of St. Louis and prior to this, she appeared as the Countess in Le nozze di Figaro with the Salzburg Festival on tour to Japan.

Her engagements in the 08/09 season included Marzelline in Fidelio with the Opera Company of Philadelphia and at the Salzburg Festival singing Juliette in Roméo et Juliette, Violetta in La traviata with Florida Grand Opera, Adina in L’elisir d’amore with Michigan Opera Theatre, Leila in Les Pecheurs de Perles with the Teatro Municipal in Santiago, Marguerite in Faust with San Diego Opera and Opera Carolina, Lauretta in Gianni Schicchi at the Opera Company of Philadelphia and Zerlina in Don Giovanni with Dallas Opera.

In the 09/10 season she will sing Violetta in La Traviata at the Deutsche Staatsoper Berlin, Juliette in Roméo et Juliette for San Diego Opera, Marguerite in Faust for Fort Worth Opera and give a Rosenblatt recital in London. Future work includes the 4 Heroines in The Tales of Hoffmann for English National Opera.

Iain Burnside

A prominent pianist and an award-winning BBC Radio 3 broadcaster, Iain Burnside collaborates in concert and on CD with singers such as Ailish Tynan, Lisa Milne, Rebecca Evans, Joan Rodgers, Susan Gritton, Yvonne Kenny, Susan Bickley, Ann Murray, Sarah Connolly, John Mark Ainsley, Mark Padmore, Andrew Kennedy, Roderick Williams, Christopher Maltram and Bryn Terfel, and with actors such as Fiona Shaw and Simon Russell Beale.

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