KATHRYN LEWEK
SOPRANO
BIOGRAPHY
Kathryn Lewek has established herself as one of opera’s most thrilling coloratura sopranos of this generation, performing some of the most vocally challenging roles in the repertoire and joining the top-ranking operatic performers of all time. Last season reached the remarkable milestone of Kathryn’s 50th performance of Die Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute) as Die Königin der Nacht (The Queen of the Night) at The Metropolitan Opera, which surpasses The Met's record for the most performances of an opera role by a single artist. The New York Times declared her performance “utterly enthralling, emitting richly glowing bursts of notes like a collapsing star.”
Ms. Lewek’s interpretation of the quintessential Mozart villain has labeled her the reigning Queen of the Night, with productions of Die Zauberflöte with more than 25 companies in over 300 performances to date, including The Royal Opera House, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Houston Grand Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Wiener Staatsoper, Teatro Real in Madrid, Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, The Royal Danish Opera, amongst others. Lewek's plush, buoyant dramatic coloratura has received widespread acclaim on the global stage, pinning her as the soprano who "executes this stratospherically difficult role better than anyone alive” (The New Yorker).
The upcoming 2023-2024 season will see Lewek in an array of brilliant roles. Two highly anticipated role debuts will include the title role of Lakmé at Opéra de Nice, followed by her portrayal of Juliette in Roméo et Juliette with Toledo Opera, alongside tenor Zach Borichevsky, Lewek’s husband, as Romeo. Additional performances include Olympia in Les Contes d'Hoffmann at Semperoper Dresden; a debut as Madame Herz/Tonina in a pastiche of Der Schauspieldirektorwith the Vienna Philharmonic; and Handel’s Messiah with the Oratorio Society of New York at Carnegie Hall. Ms. Lewek will perform Die Königin der Nach in Die Zauberflöte at Semperoper Dresden, The Metropolitan Opera, with the Cleveland Orchestra, and at Palau de les Arts Reina Sofia in Valencia. She will also perform in Houston this spring in the world premiere of Matthew Aucoin and Peter Sellars' Unsilent Spring, presented by DACAMERA. [read more...]
CRITICAL ACCLAIM
"...the unquestioned star of the show is soprano Kathryn Lewek..." – Chicago Sun Times
Le Comte Ory – "But the unquestioned star of the show is soprano Kathryn Lewek, who revels in the preening role of a prima-donna opera singer portraying the spoiled Adèle in this opera within an opera, drawing cheers all afternoon long. With a lovely, high-flying soprano
voice, she handles the coloratura demands with thrilling ease."
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"...This is perhaps her most inspired turn to date..." – OperaWire
Die Zauberflöte – “Kathryn Lewek has become the Met Opera’s go-to Queen of the Night. Of her 44 performances at the Met to date, all of them have been in this role. And while it is easy to play this “villain” in one dimension, Lewek always seems to find shades and colors to explore. This is perhaps her most inspired turn to date.”
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"...Kathryn Lewek was utterly enthralling..." – The New York Times
Die Zauberflöte – “...the soprano Kathryn Lewek was utterly enthralling, emitting richly glowing bursts of notes like a collapsing star in “O zittre nicht.” She careered around the stage in a wheelchair during “Der Hölle Rache,” bringing thrilling drama to a coloratura showpiece so fiendish that sopranos are lucky to get through it when they’re standing stock still.”
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"...death-defying..." – Broadway World
Die Zauberflöte – “...the death-defying Kathryn Lewek…”
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"...one of opera’s most thrilling coloratura sopranos of this generation..." – BG Independent News
La Traviata – “Kathryn Lewek, who will be debuting the role of Violetta, has established herself as one of opera’s most thrilling coloratura sopranos of this generation. She has performed some of the most vocally challenging roles in the repertoire, joining the top-ranking operatic performers of all time”
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"...The effect is spellbinding..." – Classical Music
Apollo de Dafne – “Having led Handel’s Messiah, Orlando and Ariodante onstage, soprano Kathryn Lewek here turns to Handel cantatas. Her selection is shrewd: Armida abbandonata and Apollo e Dafne both channel technical, affective and dramatic prima donna power. Lewek wields this power majestically. . . Lewek builds on these distinctions in how she modulates her instrument and elaborates her melodies. Her Armida commands vocal muscle and jagged cadenzas, while her Dafne is all limpid purity sprinkled with agréments. The effect is spellbinding.”
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"...especially luscious at its stratospheric top..." – Opera News
Ariodante – “Lewek may not yet be as celebrated a performer as Bartoli, but here she is every bit as much a star. Her coloratura, more conventionally ‘bound’ than Bartoli’s, is consistently brilliant, and her voice is especially luscious at its stratospheric top. The central moment of her portrayal is the Act II aria 'Il mio crudel martoro'. Lewek turns it into a thirteen-minute tour de force of mournful utterance, using a seemingly shortness of breath to portray how profoundly the young woman has been wounded.”
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"... with eerie ease and enormous sound..." – The New York Times
Die Zauberflöte – “Indeed, when the soprano Kathryn Lewek, as the Queen of the Night, sang her character’s dazzling and demonic aria, many people started clapping halfway through, right after she dispatched the famous music’s bursts of coloratura passagework with eerie ease and enormous sound. Yes, she was quite a sight in her fantastical costume, a mothlike figure with multiple flapping wings. But it was her singing that had some children near me sitting up in their seats and breaking into applause.”
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"... Lewek sparkled both vocally and dramatically..." – operaexplorer
Orphee – “Kathryn Lewek sparkled both vocally and dramatically – she is a natural for such opera buffa or operetta type of roles”