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The American mezzo-soprano, Kate Aldrich, played the french horn for many years, and was actually pretty good at it. She played the piano a little bit, and the trumpet, and when she was around 16 she began to take voice lessons. That was when she knew singing was what she wanted to do. First she sang some Italian art songs with her voice teacher, and she was in a choir. Next she joined a rock band for a few years, and almost didn’t go to college to study music so that she could stay with my band. Then she went to college to study classical singing. While she was there she began to sing jazz, and she almost changed my direction of study at that point, but then she discovered opera, and she was hooked.
In 2000, Kate Aldrich made her professional debut at l’Arena di Verona as Preziosilla in La forza del destino. She was soon thereafter chosen by legendary director Franco Zeffirelli to sing the role of Amneris in a new production of Aida, which was performed on the 200th anniversary of Verdi’s death in his hometown of Busseto, Italy. She then developed her repertoire with performances as the title role in George Frideric Handel’s Giulio Cesare at the Deutsche Oper am Rhein in Düsseldorf and Staatsoper Hamburg, Sesto in W.A. Mozart's La clemenza di Tito in Prague, and Rosina in Il Barbiere di Siviglia and Isabella in L’italiana in Algeri at the Teatro Sao Carlos in Lisbon. She made her Carnegie Hall debut with the Opera Orchestra of New York as Frederic in a concert performance of Mignon and sang her first Charlotte in Werther opposite Roberto Alagna at the Teatro Regio in Torino, later repeating the role in Japan with Opera de Lyon. She returned to Torino as Orsini in Lucrezia Borgia and debuted at the Washington National Opera in the same role. She then made her debuts with both the San Diego Opera and Teatro Massimo in Palermo as Elisabetta I in Maria Stuarda.
Hailed by the San Francisco Sentinel as “the Carmen of this Generation” after her debut with the San Francisco Opera, Kate Aldrich has performed the title role in Georges Bizet’s opera to much critical acclaim in such theaters as the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Metropolitan Opera, Opernhaus Zürich, San Francisco Opera and Arena di Verona. Commanding a wide repertoire which also includes the title role in La Cenerentola, Adalgisa in Norma, Charlotte in Werther and Octavian in Der Rosenkavalier, she has performed in other leading theaters throughout the world, including the Gran Teatre de Liceu in Barcelona, Teatro Colon de Buenos Aires, Staatsoper Hamburg, Teatro Comunale di Bologna, Teatro Regio di Torino, Washington National Opera, Los Angeles Opera, Theatre du Capitole de Toulouse, Opera de Marseille, Opera de Montpellier, Opera de Montreal, and Teatro Sao Carlos in Lisbon, as well as at the Salzburg Festival and Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro.
Kate Aldrich made her debut at the Salzburg Festival as Ascanio in Benvenuto Cellini, at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan as Rosina in Il Barbiere di Siviglia, and at the Pesaro Festival in the title role of Rossini’s Zelmira. Her first appearances at the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona also marked her debut as Nerone in Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea. She also starred in revivals of such less performed works as Mariotte’s Salome with l’Opera de Montpellier and Massenet’s Don Quichotte at the Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires and in Tokyo. She appeared as Adriano in the Deutsche Oper Berlin’s new production of Wagner’s Rienzi and was also heard in the title role of Ernest Reyer’s rarely performed Salammbo in Marseille.
In 2012, Kate Aldrich also made her debut at the Teatro Real de Madrid as Sesto, returned to the Teatro Regio in Torino as Adalgisa in Norma, and sang her first Romeo in Bellini’s I Capuleti e I Montecchi at the Caramoor Festival under Will Crutchfield. Highlights from the 2012-2013 season included her debut at the Opera National de Paris as Nicklausse/The Muse in Les contes d’Hoffmann, her debut in Zürich and Seoul as the title role in Carmen, and her debut with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam in Frank Martin’s Golgotha. She also sang Sesto in La clemenza di Tito with the Opera Municipal de Marseille and starred in the concert performances of Massenet’s Le Mage at the Massenet Festival in St. Etienne, a work that had not been performed in over 100 years. In the 2013-2014 season, she sang Adalgisa in Norma at the Metropolitan Opera, Leonore in a new production of La Favorite at the Theatre du Capitole de Toulouse, and Carmen at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, Opernhaus Zürich, and in Seoul and Beijing.
In the 2014-2015 season, Kate Aldrich sang the title role in Carmen with Opera de Lyon and the Vancouver Opera, later appearing in the same role at Choregies d’Orange opposite Jonas Kaufmann. She also sang Idamante in W.A. Mozart's Idomeneo re di Creta with Opera de Lyon and Giovanna Seymour in Anna Bolena with Opera de Toulon and the Bolshoi. Her engagements from the 2015-2016 season included Marguerite in La Damnation de Faust with Opera de Lyon, Arden Scott in Great Scott at the San Diego Opera, Rosmira in G.F. Handel’s Partenope in Paris, Amsterdam and Madrid, Carmen at the Verbier and Llangollen Festivals, and Statira in Spontini’s Olympie at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées with the Cercle de l’Harmonie, conducted by Jeromie Rohrer. Her engagements for the 2016-2017 season included Giulietta in Les contes d’Hoffmann at the Opera National de Paris and Los Angeles Opera, the title role in Carmen at the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich, Semperoper Dresden, and in Tokyo under Charles Dutoit, Charlotte in Werther in San Juan, and her debut as Sister Helen Prejean in Dead Man Walking at the Lyric Opera of Kansas City.
In the current season, Kate Aldrich made her role debut as Joan of Arc in The Maid of Orleans with Odyssey Opera in Boston, after which she sang her first Verdi Requiem with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. She also sang Carmen at the Hawaii Opera Theatre and performed in concert with the Zürcher Kammerorchester. She will soon appear in galas with the Orchestre National de France and at the Avenches Opera Festival in Switzerland.
On the concert platform, Kate Aldrich has performed Gustav Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde with the Bologna Symphony and Eine Florentinische Tragoedie with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, both under the direction of James Conlon. She has performed Eine Florentinische Tragoedie and Ravel’s Sheherazade with l’Opera de Montpellier and Igor Stravinsky’s La Pulcinella and Debussy’s Le Martyre de Saint Sebastian with the Orchestre National de Radio France, under the baton of Daniele Gatti. She has also performed both the soprano and alto solo parts of La Petite Messe Solenelle at the Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro and the Washington National Opera, respectively.
Several of Kate Aldrich’s performances have been issued on DVD, including Benvenuto Cellini, La Favorite, Norma, Zelmira, Don Quichotte and Rienzi, as well as Werther opposite Roberto Alagna at the Teatro Regio di Torino. She has recorded Antoine Mariotte’s Salome on CD with l’Opera de Montpellier, as well as Massenet’s Le Mage at the Massenet Festival in St. Etienne, France. |
