Ailyn Pérez Will Release Album in May

It promises to be a red-letter spring for Ailyn Pérez: The Tucker Award-winning American soprano makes her role and house debut at Glyndebourne as Alice Ford in the reprise of a highly-regarded production of Verdi's Falstaff (May 19-July 14), and she releases Poème d'un jour, her debut solo album presenting French and Spanish songs, on the Opus Arte label (May 28 in the U.S., see full track list below).

Returning to England for Glyndebourne brings Pérez back to audiences and critics who were enthralled with her 2011 performances as Violetta in Verdi's La traviata at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. The Observer declared she was "ideal" and added: "The bewitching young American soprano puts her heart into every twist of the drama ... Her performance was glorious, the quiet passages magical." She also earned high praise for her recital last spring at London's St. John's Smith Square; the Opera Creep blog raved about Pérez's performance, saying: "She had all the spark of Beverly Sills with the glowing tone of Victoria de los Angeles, paired with engaging acting ability... She more than brought the house down. ... A transporting, transcendent experience." The soprano's debut album, made with vocal specialist Iain Burnside on piano, includes live performances from that recital and studio recordings captured at historic Abbey Road Studios.

On June 7, it's yet another honor for Pérez, as she will receive the 15th annual Plácido Domingo Award from Hispanics for Los Angeles Opera. The soprano - born in Chicago to Mexican parents and the first Hispanic to win a Richard Tucker Award in its 34-year history - appeared with L.A. Opera last summer as Mimì in Puccini's La bohème, which followed her performances in the company's world premiere of Lee Holdridge's Concierto para Mendez. The Domingo Award is personally awarded to artists of the great maestro's choosing. Past winners include Juan Diego Flórez, Rolando Villazón, Erwin Schrott and Ana María Martínez.

In March, Pérez appeared as Violetta in a new Johannes Erath production of La traviata at the Hamburg State Opera, and she joined her husband and frequent co-star - tenor Stephen Costello (also a Tucker Award winner) - in Donizetti's L'elisir d'amore at the Vienna State Opera. The pair's potent chemistry consistently draws notice: the two are profiled in the February 2013 cover story of Classical Singer magazine. They were recently billed as "opera's hottest couple" at Los Angeles Opera, while the Associated Press described them as "America's fastest-rising husband-and-wife opera stars" and Vanity Fair depicted theirs as "a match made in verismo heaven." In July 2014, Pérez will team with Costello again in La traviata at San Francisco Opera.

Opera News has said: "The phrase 'an embarrassment of riches' might have been invented to describe the combination of talents that belong to Ailyn Pérez." For previews of the soprano in performance and more, watch her in two videos from PBS: an intimate behind-the-scenes profile titled Introducing Ailyn Pérez and a full recording of November's 2012 Richard Tucker Award Gala from Lincoln Center's Avery Fisher Hall.

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