Eglise Gutierrez Plays Recital At Merkin Concert Hall

The Opera Orchestra Of New York presents soprano Eglise Gutiérrez in recital on Wednesday, March 10, 2010 at Merkin Concert Hall, 8:00 p.m. accompanied by pianist Danielle Orlando. The Vidda-Award winning soprano in her New York Recital Debut will perform a wide ranging program of songs and arias by Handel, Caccini, Paisiello, Thomas, Rachmaninoff, Lecuona and Gershwin.

This festive and eclectic concert is one of four recitals offered by Opera Orchestra in 2009-10. This season, referred to by Maestro Queler as the orchestra's "bridge season", was carefully calibrated to balance artistic integrity with fiscal recovery, as the company prepares to return to full operas-in-concert in future seasons.

Soprano Eglise Gutiérrez
A fast rising star on the international opera scene, Eglise Gutiérrez, is blazing her way across the operatic stages of Europe and America with her committed embodiments of the bel canto coloratura heroines. Proclaimed "Artist of the Year 2009" at Finland's Savonlinna Opera Festival, Ms Gutiérrez began the year as the star of the third MIDEM Opera Night in Cannes.
Stage debuts in 2009-2010 include the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Teatro Real of Madrid, the Ravinia Fesitval, the Vancouver Opera and the Greek National Opera. January took her to Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, where she re-created her signature performance in the title role Lucia di Lammermoor. From the Teatro Colón of Buenos Aires to the stages of Bogotá Colombia, Hartford, Ct., Mexico City and Savonlinna, Finland Ms Gutiérrez has won acclaim for her deep interpretation of this bel canto masterpiece. Ms Gutiérrez will also grace the stage in this role this year at the Opéra de Montréal and the Savonlinna Opera Festival, Finland.

Ms Gutiérrez's mastery of the bel canto repertoire also includes the role of Amina in La Sonnambula, which she has performed with the Opera Orchestra of New York (under maestro Eve Queler), the Detroit Opera (under the stage-direction of Renata Scotto and the baton of Richard Bonynge) and the Teatro Lirico di Cagliari. She is a renowned interpreter of the role Gilda in Rigoletto, which she has enacted in Hamburg, Hartford, Tel Aviv, Trieste and Rome (alongside Renato Burson and Ramón Vargas), the Vancouver Opera and the 2009 Ravinia Festival.

About The Opera Orchestra of New York
Long noted for important discoveries of repertoire and singers, each performance at by The Opera Orchestra of New York is judged a "must attend" event for serious opera-goers from around the globe. Year after year, the stars whom Queler has discovered and brought up through the ranks come back to collaborate in new ventures.

The Opera Orchestra of New York has made a powerful and influential impact in the opera world, with sold-out concerts featuring casts of singers carefully matched to the repertory, from artists of international stature (such as Placido Domingo, Dolora Zajick, Nicolai Gedda, Montserrat Caballé, Aprile Millo and Alfredo Kraus) to superlative young singers just launching their careers. Most importantly, The Opera Orchestra of New York's pioneering efforts have led national opera companies to add works that received their first major modern hearing at The Opera Orchestra of New York to their permanent repertoires. These include The Metropolitan, Chicago Lyric, San Francisco, and Houston Grand Operas; repertoire includes Verdi's I lombardi, Donizetti's La Favorita, Zandonai's Francesca da Rimini, Dvo?ák's Rusalka, and Mussorgsky's Khovanshchina.

Among the orchestra's numerous U.S. premieres are Puccini's Edgar with Carlo Bergonzi and Renata Scotto; Boito's Nerone with James Morris and Pablo Elvira; and Smetana's Libuse with Gabriela Benacková and Paul Plishka. A most notable performance was the New York premiere of Tchaikovsky's The Maid of Orleans, featuring Dolora Zajick and Jorma Hynninen, a performance that also marked the American premiere of the Russian language version.

The 2009-10 season marks the launch of Opera Orchestra's "Rising Stars," a series of intimate, informal dinner-hour solo recitals and chats with selected young artists. Rising Stars is hosted by Metropolitan Opera commentator Ira Siff and features Maestro Queler at the piano.

Eve Queler, Music Director, has conducted over 100 operas in concert at Carnegie Hall with The Opera Orchestra of New York. Standing out among her many successes are Wagner's Rienzi and Tristan und Isolde, Berlioz's Benvenuto Cellini, Smetana's Dalibor, and Richard Strauss's Die Liebe der Danae. She has championed many neglected Russian and Czech operas that are staples in Central Europe but virtually unknown in America. She was the first conductor here to perform Mussorgsky's unfinished Khovanshchina with orchestration by Shostakovich, as well as the first Czech-language performance of Janacek's Katya Kabanova (1979), Jen?fa (1988), and Dvo?ák's Rusalka (1987). Known for her ability to spot new talent, Eve Queler has provided critical early exposure to such opera luminaries such as José Carreras, Renée Fleming, Dmitri Hvorostovsky, James Morris, Aprile Millo, Lauren Flanigan, Stephanie Blythe, and Deborah Voigt.

SINGLE TICKET INFORMATION:
Tickets: $50.00, VIP Package (Recital and reception) $75.00
Call The Opera Orchestra of New York at 212-906-9137 or visit www.operaorchestrany.org.