Susan Graham
July 23, 1960 - Roswell (United States)
© Dario Acosta
About
Susan Graham is one of the world’s foremost opera and recital stars, a compelling and versatile singing actress. Celebrated as an expert in French music, Ms. Graham has been honored by the French government as a “Commandeur de l’ordre des Arts et des Lettres”. This season, she performs a variety of repertoire in many different countries, beginning with Berlioz in Brazil, Uruguay, and Argentina. She performs Mozart and Berlioz at the Metropolitan Opera, Bernstein and Rorem at Carnegie Hall, and Massenet in Munich and Paris. Ms. Graham hosts the fourth annual Opera News Awards in New York, performs at the famed Prague Spring Festival, and closes her season with recitals in Berlin, Copenhagen, London, Vienna, and Brussels.
She sings her first Metropolitan Opera performances as Elvira in Mozart’s Don Giovanni, and is Marguérite in the Met’s debut staging of Berlioz’s Damnation de Faust. At Carnegie Hall, she sings Arias and Barcarolles in the citywide Leonard Bernstein Festival and later participates in the gala honoring Marilyn Horne’s 75th birthday. Berg’s Seven Early Songs are on her St. Louis program; Mozart arias are scheduled for Salzburg, and she sings newly-orchestrated songs by Ned Rorem with Orpheus Chamber Orchestra.
Ms. Graham, a leading participant in the international Christoph Willibald Gluck opera revival, has sung the title role of Iphigénie en Tauride in a new production staged for her by the Metropolitan Opera, and at Lyric Opera of Chicago, San Francisco Opera, and the Royal Opera House Covent Garden. The Chicago Tribune wrote: “Graham put her own stamp on the part, bringing both nobility and vibrant vocal beauty to her affecting performance.”
At home and abroad, Susan Graham has sung leading roles from the 17th to 20th centuries in the great opera houses of the world, including Milan’s La Scala, the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Vienna State Opera, Opéra National de Paris, Dresden’s Semperoper, and the Salzburg Festival, and she has appeared with most of the world’s leading conductors and orchestras. Dubbed “America’s favorite mezzo” by Gramophone magazine, the Grammy Award-winning mezzo captivates audiences with her expressive voice, tall and graceful stature, and engaging acting ability in both comedy and tragedy.