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ADRIENNE DANRICH
SOPRANO
BIOGRAPHY
Emmy® winning Soprano Adrienne Danrich has been described as a “standout, a singer of unusual might” by the Washington Post, and “[an] authentic lyric spinto soprano” by La Cronaca del Wanderer. Her masterful interpretation of new works has made her sought out by contemporary opera presenters and composers, garnering world premiere performances, covers and workshops at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center Theater, Metropolitan Opera, Canadian Opera Company, Cincinnati Opera, Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, American Lyric Theater, Prototype Festival and H.E.R.E Arts Center in New York.
This season, Ms. Danrich makes her Prototype Festival debut as Mel in the world premiere of Kelly Rourke & John Glover’s Eat the Document; returns to Opera Theatre of Saint Louis for her second world premiere with the company, singing the role of Ida in Lynn Nottage, Ruby Aiyo Gerber, & Ricky Ian Gordon’s This House; sings in two workshops - Miss Sue in Deborah D.E.E.P. Mouton and Jasmine Barnes’s She Who Dared with American Lyric Theater, as well as the role of Dinah in Tifara Brown and Kevin Day’s Lalovavi; and will continue touring with Terence Blanchard, the E Collective, and the Turtle Island String Quartet in the Fire Shut Up In My Bones: Opera Suite in Concert at the La Jolla Music Society, Purdue University, Saint Paul’s Arts Partnership, the Krannert Center, Soraya Center for the Performing Arts and the Gaillard Center.
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Most recently, Ms. Danrich made her triumphant house debut in the Canadian Opera Company’s world premiere production of Aportia Chryptych in the role of Portia Spirit. The Globe and Mail called Danrich’s performance “a standout”, and Opera Canada declared “Danrich blows us away, the sheer force and richness of her voice bursting through the walls.” Danrich also made her role and house debuts with the Hamburg NDR Elbphilharmonie as Bess in Porgy and Bess, and with Opera Theatre of Saint Louis in the world premiere of Aryeh Stollman and Tobias Picker’s Awakenings as Miriam. She reprised the role of Miriam for her Odyssey Opera house debut, which was also recorded on the BMOP label. Moreover, Danrich’s recent portrayal of Mrs. Dickson in the world premiere of Lynn Nottage and Ricky Ian Gordon’s Intimate Apparel at Lincoln Center was a rousing success and went on to be filmed and aired on PBS Great Performances.
Ms. Danrich had the honor of joining the Metropolitan Opera for two consecutive seasons, covering the roles of Emelda Griffith in Michael Cristofer & Terence Blanchard’s Champion, and Sister Rose in Terrence McNally and Jake Heggie’s Dead Man Walking. She also covered roles with the Lyric Opera of Chicago (Leonora in Verdi’s Il Trovatore for two non-consecutive seasons, and Serena in The Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess) and the Canadian Opera Company (Plotina in the world premiere of Daniel MacIvor & Rufus Wainwright’s Hadrian).
Other roles Ms. Danrich has performed include the title roles in Verdi’s Aida (Tulsa Opera, Annapolis Opera), Puccini’s Tosca (Live at First Concert Series), Puccini’s Madama Butterfly (Imperial Symphony Orchestra). Also, La Contessa in Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro (Sarasota Opera, Opera Pacific, and Dayton Opera), Donna Anna in Mozart’s Don Giovanni (Dayton Opera), and Ensemble in NBC’s production of Sound of Music Live!
In addition to singing around the world, Ms. Danrich is also a multi-disciplinary artist. Ms. Danrich’s Music as the Message, a free community-based, intergenerational program musical initiative featuring international and local artists, will see two new productions this year in New York and St. Louis, in which Danrich will serve as Executive Producer, Host, and Performer. Additionally, as a writer, she received a commission from Cincinnati Opera for her one-woman show, This Little Light of Mine: The Stories of Marian Anderson and Leontyne Price, which premiered live in Cincinnati and was subsequently filmed and televised by PBS Milwaukee (MPTV). Ms. Danrich received an Emmy® for Outstanding Achievement for On Camera Talent as a Performer and Narrator. PBS Cincinnati (WCET) filmed a newly envisioned original televised version of the show, which will air in the Tri-state region.
Danrich’s ventures as a composer and lyricist include her song cycle, Love & Trouble: Five Personas - One Voice with Dave Hall. Danrich & Hall received a commission to orchestrate the cycle from the Fargo-Moorhead Symphony, and the team released Love & Trouble on the Roven Record label. Additionally, her composition Breathe, written with Drew Hemenger, was written in response to the murder of George Floyd and has been performed in various venues including Houston Grand Opera’s Giving Voice (performed by Nicole Heaston Lane and Kevin Miller), as well as with the Fargo Moorhead Symphony (performed by Ms. Danrich and Christopher Zimmerman).
Danrich made her sound design debut with the Canada’s National Arts Centre and Nova Scotia’s Neptune Theater with Walter Borden’s The Last Epistle of Tightrope Time, and as a librettist Ms. Danrich wrote and co-wrote two episodes of Experiments in Opera’s first Writer’s Room multi-episode opera Everything for Dawn, which aired on WNET/ALL ARTS channel.
Ms. Danrich is a native of St. Louis, MO and is an alumna of Eastman School of Music and the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music. Her discography includes Love & Trouble: Five Personas - One Voice (Roven Records), Forgotten Voices ((AVIE Records), The Weary Blues (HR Recordings), Only Heaven by Ricky Ian Gordon (PS Classics), Age to Age (OCP Publications), Original Songs of Sacred Slumber and Solitude (Soli Deo Gloria Productions) and A Tribute to William Warfield (Eastman School of Music).
Current as of February 5, 2025
CRITICAL ACCLAIM
"...she shapes her lush voice into a near howl of anguish..." – New York Theater Guide
Intimate Apparel – We see this during landlady Mrs. Dickson's powerful warning to Esther, that she's forsaking love in favor of security. In her role as a woman who has seen both sides of love, Danrich pierces one's heart as Dickson when she shapes her lush voice into a near howl of anguish: Unlike Mrs. Dickson's mother, who worked her hands bloody, Mrs. Dickson has magnificent hands ― but nothing warm to hold on to.
"...the astonishing Adrienne Danrich..." – Vulture
Intimate Apparel – Mrs. Dickson (the astonishing Adrienne Danrich)...Mrs. Dickson nearly takes the show away from the principal characters thanks to the way Danrich finds blue notes in her operatic phrasing, giving it a touch of fever in a sea of cooler sounds.
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"Hers is a potent, full-throated vocal production...it is an exhilerating, pin-your-ears-back effect." – Opera Today
Awakenings – As Miriam...Ms. Danrich, who starts out muttering in lower registers, inexorably raises her searing soprano, first in joy, later in outraged self-pity that she has been robbed of time with her kin. Hers is a potent, full-throated vocal production, and when she rides the orchestra at some tumultuous climaxes, it is an exhilarating, pin-your-ears-back effect.
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"Danrich blows us away..." – Opera Canada
Aportia Chryptych: A Black Opera for Portia White – Danrich (Portia Spirit) blows us away, the sheer force and richness of her voice bursting through the walls…