Opera At The Beach presents An Evening with Patricia Racette
The Prudential Gallo-Touch of Italy Foundation is proud to present An Evening with Patricia Racette. The event will take place Saturday, Aug. 18, at the Cape Henlopen High School Theatre in support of two worthy local organizations, Coastal Concerts and The Margaret H. Rollins School of Nursing at Beebe Medical Center. The foundation was created in 2010 to bring world-class performers to Sussex County while benefitting local worthy organizations and charities.
Opera audiences and music lovers worldwide have thrilled to the artistry of soprano Patricia Racette, a leading artist of the Metropolitan Opera and Washington National Opera. Racette, who has been called “one of the opera world’s best sopranos” by New York’s WQXR, will sing a program of operatic favorites and jazz and Broadway standards. Craig Terry, a Chicago Lyric Opera conductor, will accompany her at the piano. Racette will astound with her richly lyric voice, while A Touch of Italy Restaurant will dazzle the palate with a pre-performance reception of Italian hors d’oeuvres and beverages.
Born and raised in New Hampshire, Racette studied jazz and music education at North Texas State University. In 1998, Racette was the winner of the prestigious Richard Tucker Award and she continues to set the standard in works both classic and new, maintaining strong relationships with the Metropolitan Opera, San Francisco Opera (where she is an alumna of the Merola Opera Program and a former Adler Fellow), Lyric Opera of Chicago, Houston Grand Opera, Washington National Opera, and the Santa Fe Opera.
Seen regularly at these houses, her many roles have included the title roles in Madama Butterfly, Tosca, Luisa Miller, Iphegénie en Tauride, Jenufa, and Kátya Kabanová; all three lead soprano roles in Il Trittico, Mimi and Musetta in La Bohème, Nedda in Pagliacci, Elisabetta in Don Carlos, Leonora in Il Trovatore, Alice in Falstaff, Marguerite in Faust, Mathilde in Guillaume Tell, Madame Lidoine in Dialogues des Carmélites, Margherita in Boito’s Mefistofele, Ellen Orford in Peter Grimes, Governess in The Turn of the Screw, and Tatyana in Eugene Onegin.
Abroad, Racette has also appeared at the Royal Opera House, the English National Opera, Opéra national de Paris, Teatro alla Scala, Teatro Comunale di Bologna, Teatro Comunale di Firenze, Opera di Genova, Bayerische Staatsoper, Vienna State Opera, and the Saito Kinen Festival.
Her most recent performances of Madama Butterfly and Peter Grimes at the Metropolitan Opera were seen in HD in movie theaters across the world. The broadcast of Madama Butterfly was one of the most successful broadcasts in the history of the Metropolitan Opera’s The Met: Live in HD series and was recently released on DVD.
A supporter of new works by today’s leading composers, Racette most recently created the role of Leslie Crosbie in the world premiere of Paul Moravec’s The Letter at the Santa Fe Opera. Other world premieres have included Roberta Alden in Tobias Picker’s An American Tragedy at the Metropolitan Opera, the title role in Tobias Picker’s Emmeline at the Santa Fe Opera (subsequently broadcast on PBS’ Great Performances), and Love Simpson in Carlisle Floyd’s Cold Sassy Tree at the Houston Grand Opera.
On the concert platform, Racette has appeared with many of the world’s most prestigious orchestras, including the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Minnesota Orchestra, the Houston Symphony, the San Francisco Symphony, the London Philharmonic Orchestra, Dusseldorfer Philharmoniker, and the Cologne Philharmonic. She also recorded Zemlinsky’s Der Traumgorge with James Conlon and the Cologne Philharmonic.
This past season, Racette opened the Washington National Opera’s season as Tosca, and returned to the Metropolitan Opera for Tosca and Madama Butterfly. Upcoming engagements include Il Tabarro and Suor Angelica for her debut at the Theater an der Wien in Austria, Manon Lescaut at the Washington National Opera, Tosca at the San Francisco Opera, and Il Trovatore and Dialogues des Carmélites at the Metropolitan Opera. She will also appear in concert with Patti Lupone at the Ravinia Festival and make her debut at the New York Philharmonic in performances of Dallapiccola’s Il Priogioniero.
To be an event sponsor, contact benefit organizer Tricia Ratner at 302-745-4131. “So many wonderful individuals and organizations have joined us in bringing this incomparable soprano to Lewes, in support of Coastal Concerts and the Margaret H. Rollins School of Nursing,” exclaimed Ratner. Of course there are many more sponsor opportunities available for those who would like to be involved,” she added. Current sponsors and sponsor opportunities can be found at www.OperaAtTheBeach.com. Tickets can be purchased online and are priced at $50 and $75, and include pre-performance hors d’oeuvres and beverages. Students under 18 and students attending the Margaret H. Rollins School of Nursing may purchase half price tickets with identification. Doors will open at 6:30 p.m. and the performance will begin at 8 p.m.
