Deborah Voigt

A Chicago native and raised in southern California, soprano Deborah Voigt is one of the world’s most celebrated singers. Blessed with a one-in-a-million voice that can manage the demands of the greatest dramatic roles in opera – from the heroines of Richard Wagner and Richard Strauss to the most famous roles of Verdi and Puccini – she is also acclaimed for her winning forays into other musical genres, from Broadway tunes and jazz standards to popular and holiday songs. An active recitalist, Voigt also has an extensive discography, and has given many enthusiastically received master classes. She appears regularly, as both performer and host, in the Metropolitan Opera’s “Live in HD” series, which is transmitted live to movie theaters across the U.S. and overseas. Voigt’s 2011-12 season features a season-opening gala performance with the New York Philharmonic, and role debuts as Brünnhilde in Wagner’s Siegfried and Götterdämmerung, the final two installments of the Met’s new “Ring” cycle. Highlights of her previous season included her role debut as the ‘other’ Brünnhilde — in Wagner’s Die Walküre (one of opera’s greatest and most difficult-to-sing heroines), her much-discussed debut as Annie Oakley in Irving Berlin’s Annie Get Your Gun, and the world premiere of Voigt Lessons, a one-woman show developed by Voigt with playwright Terrence McNally and Francesca Zambello. Honored in the media with a CBS 60 Minutes profile, features in People and Vanity Fair, spotlights in More and O, the Oprah Magazine, and appearances on Good Morning America, CNN, and the nationwide telecasts of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade and July 4 fireworks celebration, Voigt has become one of America’s most visible and beloved opera stars. Known to Twitter fans as “a dramatic soprano and down-to-earth diva,” Voigt was named by the Los Angeles Times as one of the top 25 cultural tweeters to follow. She won both the Gold Medal in Moscow’s International Tchaikovsky Competition and First Prize at Philadelphia’s Luciano Pavarotti International Voice Competition; a Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, she was also named Musical America’s “Vocalist of the Year” in 2003. In 2007 she won an Opera News Award for distinguished achievement, and in 2009 she received an Honorary Doctorate from the University of South Carolina.

Call Me Debbie