One of the brightest stars on stages in the U.S. and abroad, charismatic soprano Harolyn Blackwell, will perform at the Reichhold Center for the Arts on Saturday in a Birch Forum/Reichhold co-production. Blackwell has been hailed by audiences and critics alike as a model of agility, spunk, charm and silvery tone.
Recognized for her expressive and exuberant performances, as well as for her radiant voice, she is making a wide and varied career on the opera, concert and recital stages of the world.
Blackwell has moved from the Broadway stage to the Metropolitan Opera and back with ease. She broke through on Broadway in "West Side Story" then made the big move into opera with the Metropolitan Opera.
Blackwell created a sensation at the Metropolitan Opera a few seasons ago when she stepped in at the last minute for the entire run of "A Daughter of the Regiment." Allan Kozinn, writing in The New York Times, praised her "vocal finesse and agility…(and) dramatic flexibility." Other acclaim was just as impressive: Peter Davis said, in New York magazine, "I wouldn't be surprised if she went on to become a star."
Following study at Catholic University in her native Washington, D.C., Miss Blackwell's performing career commenced on the Broadway stage where she appeared in Leonard Bernstein's "West Side Story." The transition from musical theater to opera occurred when Miss Blackwell was selected as a finalist for the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions.
Since that time, she has performed with many of the major national and international opera companies and at festivals throughout the world, including Lyric Opera of Chicago, Glyndebourne Festival, Teatro Colon de Buenos Aires, San Francisco Opera, Seattle Opera, Opéra de Nice and New York's Mostly Mozart Festival, among others. At the Metropolitan Opera she has appeared in several productions, including "Un Ballo in Maschera," "La Noce di Figaro," "Manon," "Die Fledermaus" and "Werther."
Blackwell's operatic and symphonic engagements have included appearances under the batons of such renowned conductors as Herbert Blomstedt, James Cordon, Christoph von Dohnanyi, Erich Kunzel, James Levine, Zdenek Macal, Kurt Masur, Trevor Pinnock, André Previn, Simon Rattle, Gerard Schwarz, Leonard Slatkin and David Zinman.
An engaging, exciting and communicative recitalist, Blackwell has already sung in several important concert series: London's Wigmore Hall, Carnegie Hall's Weill Recital Hall (as part of their "Great Singers" series), New York's Town Hall, the Ambassador Foundation Performing Arts Series in Los Angeles, and with San Francisco Performances.
Her 1998-99 season included appearances with the Pittsburgh Symphony, performing Previn's "Honey and Rue" and Mahler's Symphony No.4, conducted by Maestro Previn; with the Cincinnati Pops, Erich Kunzel conducting, as part of a series of Valentine's Day concerts telecast nationally on PBS; in the Poulenc "Gloria" with L'Orchestre de Lyon, conducted by Yoel Levi, as Clara in concert performances of "Porgy and Bess" with the New York Philharmonic conducted by Bobby McFerrin, selections from the Richard Rodgers Songbook with Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts at Alice Tully Hall; with the Baltimore Symphony for Mozart's "Exsultante Jubilate" and Faure's "Requiem," conducted by Bobby McFerrin. During the summer of 1999, Blackwell made her Ravinia debut under the baton of Erich Kunzel in a program of Viennese music.
In 1997-98, Blackwell performed selections from operettas by Victor Herbert at Avery Fisher Hall with the American Symphony, a Gershwin Gala with the Danish Radio Concert Orchestra (broadcast on Danish television), Mozart's "Exsultante Jubilate" with the Academy of St. Martin's in the Field, the Brahms "Requiem" with the Dallas Symphony, Orff's "Carmina Burana" with the New Jersey Symphony. She also appeared as soloist with the Philadelphia Orchestra, The Naples Philharmonic, the London Symphony Orchestra and Chicago Sinfonietta.
Her recordings include the Glyndebourne production of "Porgy and Bess," the 1997 Broadway cast album of Leonard Bernstein's "Candide," and two solo albums: "Strange Hurt"-a song cycle by Ricky Ian Gordon set to text by Langston Hughes-and "Blackwell Sings Bernstein." She is also featured on "Selections from Porgy and Bess" (Telarc), "The Canadian Brass: Noel" (RCA-Victor), and "Sondheim: A Celebration at Carnegie Hall" (RCA.-Victor).
Blackwell has also appeared in a number of national telecasts, including the Metropolitan Opera's production of "Un Ballo In Maschera" with Luciano Pavarotti on PBS's "Great Performances." Last year, she opened the annual PBS "National Memorial Day Concert" with a stirring rendition of "The Battle Hymn of the Republic"; it was her second appearance on the program.
She has also appeared on the 1990 Grammy Awards and "I Hear America Singing" on PBS. Her performance of Blondchen in Mozart's "The Abduction from the Seraglio" at the Aix-en-Provence Festival was aired throughout Europe, and her appearance in the 1994 Fourth of July Boston Pops concert was televised nationally over the A&E Network. The soprano has been seen on numerous broadcasts from Washington, D.C., which have aired on PBS including: The 25th Anniversary Salute to the Kennedy Center and several Fourth of July Concerts from the Capitol Mall which have celebrated Gershwin and Bernstein, and most recently NBC's "Christmas in Washington."
Blackwell is the recipient of numerous awards and honors, one of which afforded her the opportunity to study and work in Italy with two of the greatest artists of our era, Renata Tebaldi and Carlo Bergonzi. Others include the Baltimore Opera's Puccini Foundation Award, the WON-Illinois Opera Guild "Audition of the Air" award; two career grants from the Richard Tucker Music Foundation, the Alumna of the Year Award from The Catholic University of America, an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from Siena College, and most recently, an Honorary Doctorate of Music from George Washington University.
At the Reichhold, Blackwell will be performing songs by the Spanish composer Fernando Obradors and by Richard Strauss, selections from Donizetti's opera "Lucia di Lammermoor" and Andre Previn's song cycle "Honey and Rue," with text by Toni Morrison.
Her pianist for the Reichhold recital is J.J. Penna, who has accompanied such other luminaries as Kathleen Battle.
Tickets are $35, $20 and $5. As of midweek, tickets in the covered section were selling briskly but some were still available, as were tickets in the middle and upper sections.
For tickets and more information, visit the Reichhold Web site at www.reichholdcenter.com or call 340-693-1550.
