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Catherine Malfitano

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Strasbourg, Opéra national du Rhin, Catherine Malfitano as Violetta. Director Jean-Pierre Ponnelle, 1980.

Catherine Malfitano (born April 18, 1948) is an American operatic soprano and opera director. Malfitano was born in New York City, the daughter of a ballet dancer mother, Maria Maslova, and a violinist father, Joseph Malfitano. She attended the High School of Music and Art and studied at the Frank Corsaro Studio and Manhattan School of Music, graduating in 1971. She often mentions that she was rejected from The Juilliard School.[1][2]

Operatic career

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Malfitano made her professional singing debut in 1972 at the Central City Opera in the role of Nannetta in Verdi's Falstaff. She soon appeared with Minnesota Opera, where she sang in the world premiere of Conrad Susa's Transformations and, in 1974 at the New York City Opera, in Puccini's La bohème, as Mimi. She then appeared with the Lyric Opera of Chicago (1975) and at the Royal Opera House (1976) and in other major European opera houses. She performed in 1974 as Susanna in a new production of Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro at the Holland Festival, and in 1976 as Servilia in a new production of Mozart's La Clemenza di Tito at the Salzburg Festival. In 1978, Malfitano achieved wider recognition in a telecast of Menotti's The Saint of Bleecker Street from NYCO, playing Annina.,[3] as well as Rose in Kurt Weill's Street Scene on Live from Lincoln Center in 1979.

Since then, Malfitano has sung at the major opera houses throughout the world, including the Metropolitan Opera in New York City, Teatro alla Scala in Milan, Royal Opera House in London, Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris, La Monnaie in Brussels, Grand Théâtre de Genève, Teatro Comunale Florence, Liceu in Barcelona, Berlin State Opera, Wiener Staatsoper, Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich, Paris Opéra, Hamburgische Staatsoper, De Nederlandse Opera in Amsterdam as well as the Lyric Opera of Chicago, the San Francisco Opera, the Los Angeles Opera, and the Houston Grand Opera.[4]

One of Malfitano's best-known roles is the title role of Puccini's Tosca, for which she won an Emmy Award in 1992, performing alongside Plácido Domingo and Ruggero Raimondi. The opera was broadcast live from the actual Roman settings and viewed worldwide. She is also associated with the title role in Strauss's Salome, notably for performing the "Dance of the Seven Veils" ending the dance completely nude, a rarity in opera.[5] She was also Jenny in Kurt Weill's Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny (Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny).

Throughout her career, Malfitano has championed the music of American composers, including Carlisle Floyd, William Bolcom, Conrad Susa and Thomas Pasatieri.[3]

In 2005, Malfitano started a second career as an opera director, with a production of Puccini's Madama Butterfly for Central City Opera (the company with which she made her professional singing debut in 1972). Since then, she has created productions for La Monnaie, Florida Grand Opera, Washington National Opera, San Francisco Opera's Merola programme, English National Opera, the Lyric Opera of Chicago and the Canadian Opera Company.[6]

She is a member of the voice faculty at Manhattan School of Music.[7]

Repertory

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She has sung over 70 roles throughout her career and continues to add more in her repertoire. Her repertory includes:

Composer Opera Role(s)
Richard Strauss Salome Salome
Claudio Monteverdi L'incoronazione di Poppea Poppea
Francesco Cavalli L'Ormindo Erisbe
Gian Carlo Menotti The Saint of Bleecker Street Annina
Christoph Willibald Gluck Orfeo ed Euridice Euridice
Kurt Weill Die Dreigroschenoper Polly Peachum
Street Scene Anna Maurrant and Rose
Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny Jenny Smith
Gaetano Donizetti Lucia di Lammermoor Lucia
Engelbert Humperdinck Hänsel und Gretel Gretel
Ludwig van Beethoven Fidelio Marzelline and Leonore
Francis Poulenc Les Mamelles de Tirésias Thérèse
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Die Entführung aus dem Serail Konstanze
La clemenza di Tito Servillia
Le nozze di Figaro Susanna
Don Giovanni Zerlina and Donna Elvira
Samuel Barber Antony and Cleopatra Cleopatra
Dmitri Shostakovich Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District Katerina Lvovna Izmailova
Gioachino Rossini Il Turco in Italia Fiorilla
Leoš Janáček The Makropulos Affair Emilia Marty
Jenůfa Kostelnička Buryjovka
Jacques Offenbach Les Contes d'Hoffmann The three leading female roles (Olympia, Antonia, Giuletta)
Giacomo Puccini Il tabarro Giorgetta
Suor Angelica Sister Angelica
Gianni Schicchi Lauretta
Tosca Floria Tosca
La bohème Mimi
Madama Butterfly Cio-Cio-San
Jules Massenet Manon Manon
Giuseppe Verdi Macbeth Lady Macbeth
La traviata Violetta Valery
Stiffelio Lina
William Bolcom A View from the Bridge Beatrice
Alban Berg Lulu Lulu
Wozzeck Marie
Charles Gounod Romeo et Juliette Juliette

Selected discography

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Record

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External audio
audio icon You may hear Catherine Maltifano as Salome in Richard Strauss's opera Salome, Op. 54 with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Christoph von Dohnányi and Bryn Terfel in 1995 Here on archive.org

Video

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References

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  1. ^ Biography at arts.endnotes.com Archived 2006-12-06 at the Wayback Machine
  2. ^ "Met Baby Catherine Malfitano Grows up to Become an Opera Prima Diva—and Incurable Romantic".
  3. ^ a b Article on Malfitano at USoperaweb.com Archived 2001-12-10 at archive.today
  4. ^ Catherine Malfitano: Full Biography - IMGArtists.com
  5. ^ "Catherine Malfitano". Beauty in Music. Archived from the original on February 11, 2006.
  6. ^ Catherine Malfitano's website Archived 2015-02-06 at the Wayback Machine, profile as a director
  7. ^ "Manhattan School of Music".
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