Young Opera Singers Join Together For AIDS Research Recording

Singers from left to right: Jamie Barton, Sean Panikkar, Susanna Phillips, and Keith Phares

"An all-star cast of renowned singers and instrumentalists comes together on one CD to sing for hope and in the cause of supporting AIDS research: Joyce DiDonato, Yo-Yo Ma, Jamie Barton, Noah Stewart, Susanna Phillips, Sean Panikkar, Matthew Polenzani, Anthony Dean Griffey, Monica Yunus, Camille Zamora, Isabel Leonard and many more. Actors Sharon Stone (Casino, Basic Instinct) and Ansel Elgort (The Fault In Our Stars) contribute readings of poetry. All profits from the sale of this album will go to amfAR, The Foundation for AIDS Research. This CD features new songs by established and emerging American composers, many specially commissioned to create a global musical portrait of AIDS today." [Source] Listen to excerpts from the recording by clicking here and click here to purchase. See the back inlay for the disc after the jump. Also be sure to check other original songbooks including Heartbeats and AIDS Quilt Songbook. 

Susanna Phillips Sings Praises Of Richard Strauss Songs

(Photo: Zachary Maxwell)

"Susanna Phillips, Carlos Miguel Prieto and the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra love to take risks. That's certainly clear from the season-opening, musical challenge that the celebrated singer, rising-star conductor and New Orleans band have arranged for Friday (Sept. 19). When the musicians gather at the Mahalia Jackson Theater, they will test technique, soul, and stamina in a series of visionary works penned by Richard Strauss. Phillips will appear for the program's centerpiece, the 'Four Last Songs,' which Strauss composed in 1945, while contemplating the end of life and the disappearance of the cultured, music-loving Germany that had sustained his work for half-a-century. Phillips first sang those culminating masterworks in her early 20s, in Huntsville, Alabama, when Prieto led the orchestra there. 'It's an amazing experience to come back to the 'Four Last Songs' over the years. They never feel the same because I have changed so much as a singer and as a woman,' Phillips said. 'I'm always seduced by their beauty, of course, but now I approach them with more simplicity. As a young singer I tried to act out the words, because I hadn't lived enough, didn't understand enough about the poems Strauss set.' Phillips has a tip for Friday's concertgoers: read the poems that inspired Strauss. 'Vocal music always is driven by the text – and these poems, by Hermann Hesse and Joseph von Eichendorff, really are the entrance point for singers and listeners. I'm always seduced by their mood of serene acceptance, and the understanding of death that Strauss underscores with every note,' Phillips said. 'I care about that message, and that's the key to Strauss for me. It's not just about hitting high notes and finding a comfortable tempo. I come from a different school: if I don't feel the music in my heart, it won't be heard it in my voice. I think Prieto and the LPO operate from the same assumptions – and that's why I'm so excited about this concert.'" [Source]

New York Times Clips Wings Off Metropolitan Opera's "Bat"

Susanna Phillips (Rosalinde) and Christopher
Maltman (Eisenstein) in Johann Strauss, Jr.'s
Die Fledermaus at the Metropolitan Opera
(Photo: Nick Heavican)

"Real Champagne tends to provoke sticker shock in cash-strapped young people hoping to drink their way through New Year’s Eve. A popular solution is André, the saccharine, mass-produced sparkling wine that sells for about $4 or $5 a bottle. The Metropolitan Opera’s new production of Johann Strauss Jr.’s tuneful farce Die Fledermaus, which rang in the new year on Tuesday evening, is operatic André: bubbly, sweet and syrupy. It’s not subtle or deep, but if you’re determined to have a party, it’ll get the job done. And the Met’s youthful cast is nothing if not determined to celebrate. The performers sing, dance and mug their way through Strauss’s classic waltzes with big smiles and lots of hearty laughter, intent on showing the audience a good time. But their lines are often worthy of groans more than giggles." [Source]

Susanna Phillips Graces Vanity Fair For MET Return

The soprano photographed in Santa Fe
(Photo: Erik Madigan Heck)

"A native of Alabama and southern to her core—five years ago more than 450 Alabamians attended her Met debut, as Musetta in La Bohème, a role she reprises this season—Phillips, 32, is a sparkler herself. She is almost six feet tall and a former basketball player: 'You can’t be almost six feet tall in Alabama and not play basketball,' she says, laughing. Then there’s her big, glorious voice—glittering in the upper register, lustrous in the lower. To date, she has made the Mozart repertory particularly her own, both at the Met and at the Santa Fe Opera. 'He’s my musical home,' she says. Phillips will also star this season as Rosalinde in the Met’s sumptuous new Sacher torte of a Die Fledermaus, which debuts on New Year’s Eve. But first, there’s that eagerly awaited Così. 'I’m so excited,' says Phillips, who has collaborated only once before with Levine. 'He never really needed to say anything; he showed you what to do. By the way he used his arms I found myself wanting to make music with him.'" [Source]

Susanna Phillips Brings All the Boys to the Yard in Streetcar

(Photo: Todd Rosenberg/Lyric Opera of Chicago)

The reviews are in for Streetcar Named Desire at the Lyric Opera of Chicago. Find out more about the production here and see more photos here.

MET Sirius XM Radio Tonight: "Satyagraha"

Listen to the Metropolitan Opera perform Glass's Satyagraha live tonight at 7:30 PM EST on Sirius XM radio. Intermission guests: Susanna Phillips and Mary Phillips.

Susanna Phillips Debut Recording Focuses on the French Song

"This program of French song marks the solo debut recording of the brilliant young soprano, Susanna Phillips. Ms. Phillips was the recipient of the Metropolitan Opera’s 2010 Beverly Sills Artist Award, and appeared at the Met last season as Pamina in Julie Taymor’s production of The Magic Flute, and as Musetta in La bohème, the role with which she made her Met debut in 2008. Following her Baltimore Symphony debut under Marin Alsop, the Baltimore Sun proclaimed, “She’s the real deal!” In the banner year of 2005, Susanna Phillips was the winner of four of the world’s leading vocal competitions – Operalia (both First Place and the Audience Prize), the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, the MacAllister Awards and the George London Foundation. Susanna Phillips’s triumphs have taken her to The Lyric Opera of Chicago, the Minnesota Opera, Santa Fe Opera, the Dallas Opera, the Boston Lyric Opera and many others –a star in the making!" [Source]

TRACK LISTING:
Claude Debussy
Ariettes oubliées
Olivier Messiaen
Poèmes pour Mi
Gabriel Fauré
"Les roses d'Ispahan"
"Nell"
"Après un rêve"
"Adieu"

Read an interview and review from Fanfare magazine, as well as listening samples from the CD, after the jump.

MET in Japan: Play Ball With Susanna Phillips

The Metropolitan Opera has added yet more pictures from their Japan tour (if you missed segments 1 or 2). There is a great photo of soprano Susanna Phillips playing ball in a fun game arranged between the MET and the Japanese staff. Check out the website for more photos.

Hitting more than high notes: Susanna Phillips off the stage (Photo: Kirt Burcroff/MET Opera)