Laura Claycomb (Soprano)
Laura Claycomb caught international attention for the first
time at age 24, stepping in at the last minute to perform Giulietta
in I Capuleti ed i Montecchi with Geneva Opera. Ms.
Claycomb gained instant recognition for her outstanding performance. In the
ensuing years, critics have been scrambling for superlatives to describe her
performances.
"It is exceptional, in effect, to hear so many
qualities reunited in a voice so young. A honeyed timbre, an extremely solid
technique, vibrant, blooming high notes, that float away without the shadow of
an effort, and that become more ample as the voice rises, an unbelievable
clarity and suppleness of emission, a confounding equality of registers...
." (Jean-Jacques Roth, Le Nouveau Quotidien )
This role was also the vehicle of triumphant appearances at the
Paris Bastille, Los Angeles Opera, Pittsburgh Opera and with the Munich Radio
Orchestra.
Another of her signature roles is Gilda
in Rigoletto , which she has performed at
Canadian Opera Company, Opera de Lausanne, Opera Bastille, Pittsburgh Opera, New
Israeli Opera, Teatro Municipal de Santiago de Chile, ABAO in Bilbao, Teatro
Verdi di Salerno and Houston Grand Opera.
"She brought down the
house Friday at the Wortham Theater Center with her musically elegant and
vocally thrilling performance of Gilda's familiar aria Caro nome...After
astonishing clear scales in the brief cadenza near the aria's end, she finished
off with a series of trills on each note of the final chord, climbing
methodically but effortlessly to her high E. Immediately, HGO's opening night
audience let loose more vocal mayhem than it has in many years. ....Ms. Claycomb
showed no limits. While singing so beautifully, she inhabited the role
completely.....Ms. Claycomb's faultless technique...." (Charles Ward,
Houston Chronicle )
"...the audience burst in to prolonged applause as the fledgling diva
capped Gilda's dreamy exit following "Caro nome," the end of which she sang
lying on her back, with the unwritten E above high C..."
(William Albright, Opera
) Her Lucia at
Houston Grand Opera " literally catapulted the opening night audience to its
feet with her creativity and versatility. " (Don Moser, Houston
Voice ).
Other notable roles that have given her overwhelming critical
success have been Anne Trulove in The Rake's
Progress (Py/Gardner/Paris Garnier; LePage/Ono/Théâtre de la Monnaie),
Linda di Chamounix (Everding/Ranzani/Milan La Scala),
Comtesse Adele in Le Comte Ory
(Krief/Pido/Opera de Lausanne), Cleopatra in
Giulio Cesare (Decker/Rousset/Opera de Montpellier;
Robinson/Summers/Houston Grand Opera) ; Morgana in Alcina
(MacVicar/Hickox/English National Opera); Olympia in
Les Contes d'Hoffmann (MacVicar/Casadesus/Vlaamse Opera), and
Ophelie in Hamlet (JoÎl/Ossonce/Trieste Teatro
Verdi).
Ms. Claycomb got her start at San Francisco Opera
where she was the youngest ever to hold an Adler fellowship, singing roles such
as Xenia in Boris Godonov, Papagena
in Die Zauberflöte , Duchesse Medina-Sidonia
in Milhaud's Christoph Colombe, Marie in La fille
du régiment and Fiakermilli in Arabella .
Her role-debut of Zerbinetta in Ariadne auf Naxos
(Cox/Märkl) was the vehicle of her triumphant return to San Francisco
Opera in 2002. She reprised the role at the Richard-Strauss-Festspiele in
Garmisch with Ulf Schirmer and at Los Angeles Opera.
Following her
European debut in Geneva, she sang Marie at Turin's Teatro
Regio in Luca Ronconi's production and again as Ismene in
Graham Vick's production of Mitridate, re di Ponto . She followed with
Princess Rezia in Haydn's L'Incontro Improvviso
for L'Opera de Nice and L'Opera de Bordeaux, and Serpetta
in Mozart's La finta giardiniera at the Kennedy Center
in Washington, D.C. with Patrick Summers conducting.
After Ms.
Claycomb's debut at La Scala in the title role of Linda di Chamounix
, she sang Marie in Rome and her first Sophie
in Keith Warner's production of Der Rosenkavalier at
the Spoleto Festival in Italy. Other appearances include her role-debut at
L'Opera de Lausanne as Adina in L'Elisir d'amore
and as Konstanze in Die Entführung aus dem
Serail with Vlaamse Opera, a role she reprised at the Berlin
Staatsoper.
Showing her expertise in Baroque style as well,
Ms. Claycomb has sung with some of the world's most renowned early music
conductors and ensembles. She sang Cleopatra in Handel's
Giulio Cesare in Montpellier, Drusilla in
Monteverdi's L'Incoronazione di Poppea at the Netherlands Opera,
and Fedra in Traetta's Ippolito ed Aricia in Montpellier
with Christophe Rousset and Les Talens Lyriques. She reprised the role of
Cleopatra for the Drottningholm festival with Roy Goodman conducting and
at Houston Grand Opera with music director Patrick Summers.
"Ms.
Claycomb is a superb professional, infinitely artful of voice and broad of
gesture: an American diva to the core, with a showbiz knack for grabbing her
audience's complicitous approval in Cleopatra's extravagances" (Financial
Times)
With Richard Hickox, Ms. Claycomb debuted the role of Morgana in
Alcina at English National Opera. With Marc Minkowski and Les Musiciens
du Louvre, she debuted the role of Ginevra in Ariodante
at L'Opera Garnier in Paris; Ms. Claycomb reprised the role in Munich with
Harry Bickett. She has dazzled in the title role of Handel's
Semele in Robert Carsen's production at the Vlaamse Opera, under
the direction of Michael Hofstetter. Ms. Claycomb also has a close relationship
with Baroque conductor Emmanuelle Haïm, and performed varied French and Italian
Baroque repertoire with Haïm on tour in the United States (St. Paul Chamber
Orchestra and New World Symphony) and with her group Le Concert d'Astrée at the
Aldeburgh Festival, in Paris, on tour in France, at the Cortona Festival and on
BBC radio. Her first recording collaboration with Haïm is "Händel's Arcadian
duets" on Virgin Veritas/EMI. In the 2008-9 season, Ms. Claycomb sang Polissena
in a new David Alden production of Radamisto at Santa Fe Opera with Harry
Bickett conducting, sang a concert of Handel with Nick McGegan and the Saint
Louis Orchestra and a concert tour of Mozart arias with Les Arts Florissants and
Jonathan Cohen conducting.
In the realm of more modern music, Ms. Claycomb made her debut at the
Salzburg Festival in Peter Sellar's new production of Ligeti's Le Grand
Macabre , reprising the role of Amanda in the same
production at the Paris Châtelet. She can be heard on the Grammy-nominated
recording of Le Grand Macabre for Sony with Esa-Pekka Salonen
conducting. In the 2006-7 season, she originated the role of Queen Wealtheow in
Elliot Goldenthal's Grendel at Los Angeles Opera and at Lincoln Center
Festival in an acclaimed Julie Taymor production. Some highlights of her
operatic collaboration with the late conductor Richard Hickox include concerts
of Humperdinck's Hänsel und Gretel (role debut as
Gretel ) with the London Symphony Orchestra, Copland's The Tender
Land (role debut as Laurie Moss ), The Rake's
Progress (role debut as Anne Trulove ) all at London's
Barbican, as well as Mistress Page in Vaughan-Williams'
Sir John in Love in Newcastle with the Northern Sinfonia and its
recording for Chandos. Their last collaboration was of concerts and a recording
of Orff's Carmina Burana with the London Symphony Orchestra, released on Chandos
records. With Bernstein protйgй John Demain, Ms. Claycomb debuted
Cunegonde in Candide at Opera Pacific to glittering reviews. The
soprano sang the title role in Stravinsky's Rossignol in concert with the
Cleveland Orchestra and Pierre Boulez in 2006. In 2007, she sang her first
staged Anne Trulove in the creation of Robert LePage's Rake's Progress at the
Théâtre de la Monnaie in Brussels with Kazushi Ono and at Opéra de Lyon with
Alexander Lazarev. The Brussels production was filmed and released on DVD.
Ms. Claycomb also enjoys a vast repertoire of concert music. With
Esa-Pekka Salonen, the soprano has sung Debussy's Le Martyre de St.
Sebastien ( Angel ) with the Swedish Radio Orchestra and
Mendelssohn's A Midsummer Night's Dream with the Los Angeles
Philharmonic. Ms. Ms. Claycomb sang the world-premiere of Salonen's Five
Fragments After Sappho with the composer conducting at the Ojai
Festival, with the Los Angeles Philharmonic in Los Angeles, with the London
Sinfonietta at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, and with Ensemble Sospeso at Carnegie
Hall. "...the young American soprano Laura Ms. Claycomb ...
sang with radiant and exquisite grace." (Carl Byron,
Los Angeles Revelations) She reprised the Sappho songs with
Ensemble Modern in Japan on a program including Stravinsky's Japanese
Lyrics and Balmont Songs with Dominique My conducting.
Ms. Claycomb was the soprano soloist in Carmina Burana at the
re-opening gala of the Blossom Festival with the Cleveland Orchestra with Franz
Welser-Möst conducting, again in the Messiah again with Cleveland
Orchestra at Severance Hall, and returned with Pierre Boulez for the title role
of Stravinsky's Rossignol. With Sir Roger Norrington and the Stuttgart
Radio Orchestra, Ms. Claycomb has made tours as Teresa in Berlioz's
Benvenuto Cellini (recorded for Hanssler Classics) and as the
soprano soloist in Vaughan Williams' A Sea Symphony. With the San
Francisco Symphony and Michael Tilson-Thomas, she sang concerts of Schoenberg's
Herzgewächse and Toch's Chinesische Flöte, concerts and a
recording of Mahler's Fourth Symphony for San Francisco Symphony's own label,
concerts of Strauss' Brentano Lieder and Mahler's 8th Symphony on the Symphony's
European tour. She returns next with SFSO in Brahms' Deutsches Requiem. With
Andrew Davis and the London Symphony Orchestra, Ms. Claycomb sang Mahler's
Second Symphony.
Her collaboration in concert with Richard Hickox also includes Grainger at
the BBC Proms, Vaughan-Williams' A Sea Symphony at the Gulbenkian
in Lisbon, a stunning Haydn Creation at the Spoleto Festival and
Handel's Messiah with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra and the
Philadelphia Orchestra.
In London's Royal Albert Hall, Ms. Claycomb sang a Mozart program
including Der Schauspieldirektor with Ivan Fischer and the
Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, which was also broadcast on BBC Radio. On
another all-Mozart program in Switzerland, Ms. Claycomb was the feature, singing
a program of 6 concert arias with the Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne and
conductor Jonathan Darlington. She appeared as Madame Silberklang in "Der
Schauspieldirektor" with the Munich Radio Orchestra and Sebastian Weigle. Most
recently with the orchestra, the soprano was featured in yet another all-Mozart
concert with Ulf Schirmer conducting. Ms. Claycomb also performed Beethoven's
rarely-heard oratorio Christus am Ölberg with the Flemish Opera Orchestra
and Ivan Törz.
Ms. Claycomb sang her first Brahms Requiem at the Teatro
Lirico di Cagliari with Gerard Korsten, a concert of bel canto excerpts with
John Demain and Opera Pacific as well as at the Lanaudiere Festival with Yannick
Nezet-Sequin, and was the feature of New Year's concerts with Vlaamse Opera,
with George Pehlavanian conducting.
With an avid interest in recital repertoire, chamber music, and neglected
composers, Ms. Claycomb combines this music into her recital schedule with pianists Roger Vignoles, Peter Grunberg and Iain
Burnside. "Her vocal tone, always vibrant and compelling, has grown
plusher and more colorful wit hout losing anything in the way of dexterity, and
the vivacity and brilliance that always informed her singing seems, if anything,
to have grown even more pronounced. " (Joshua Kosman, San Francisco
Chronicle) In past years, Ms. Claycomb reprised Messiaen's
"Chants de terre et de ciel" with Grunberg on "Cal Performances" to rave
reviews, as well performing three world-premieres at One World Theater in Austin
on a chamber concert with Nina Kotova, Jose Feghali, and Ron Neal. Her recitals
have taken her from San Francisco, to Chicago, San Antonio, Houston, Brussels,
Bruges (Concertgebouw), the Tuscan Sun Festival in Cortona, Italy and a BBC
Voices recital on English radio. Her most recent recital at the Monnaie Opera
House with Burnside was received enthusiastically in Brussels.
Ms. Claycomb has collaborated with such diverse conductors as Roberto
Abbado, Harry Bicket, Ivor Bolton, Pierre Boulez, Bruno Campanella, Jean-Claude
Casadesus, Jonathan Cohen, Theodor Currentsis, Jonathan Darlington, Andrew
Davis, Colin Davis, John DeMain, Ivan Fischer, Patrick Fournillier, Lionel
Friend, Roy Goodman, Emmanuelle Haïm, Richard Hickox, Michael Hofstetter,
Alexander Lazariev, Jun Märkl,Nick McGegan, Marc Minkowski, Franz Welser-Möst,
Kent Nagano, Kazushi Ono, Jean-Yves Ossonce, Renato Palumbo, David Parry,
Evelino Pidò, Stefano Ranzani, Carlo Rizzi, Christophe Rousset, Donald
Runnicles, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Steven Sloane, Patrick Summers, Michael
Tilson-Thomas, Roberto Tolomelli, Emmanuel Villaume, and stage directors David
Alden, Pierre Audi, Riccardo Canessa, Robert Carsen, John Copley, John Cox,
August Everding, William Friedkin, Nicolas Joël, Denis Krief, Jorge Lavelli,
Mark Lamos, Robert LePage, David MacVicar, Leon Major, Lotfi Mansouri, Lorenzo
Mariani, Italo Nunziata, Daniel Oren, David Pountney, Olivier Py, James
Robinson, Luca Ronconi, Emilio Sagi, Peter Sellars, Julie Taymor, Stefano
Vizzioli and Keith Warner.
Ms. Claycomb has also won the Silver Medal at the
International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow in 1994, the Operetta Prize at
the Belvedere Competition in Vienna in 1992 and First Prize in the National
Opera Association Competition in 1992. A native Texan, Ms. Claycomb studied with
Barbara Hill Moore and received degrees in both Vocal Performance and Foreign
Languages; she has also studied with Norma Newton, Gerald Martin Moore, Peggy
Bouveret and Dickson Titus. The soprano makes her home in Italy with her
husband
From official site of Laura
Claycomb
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