Operatic and Symphonic Treasures

Monday, January 30 at 8 p.m.  

The Kravis Center for the Performing Arts

Called by Gramophone magazine as “America’s favorite mezzo,” and the New York Times as “an artist to treasure,” mezzo-soprano Susan Graham joins Maestro Gerard Schwarz and the Palm Beach Symphony to perform arias from Mozart’s “Le Nozze di Figaro and Le Nozze di Figaro,” Lehár’s “The Merry Widow” and Berlioz’ “Les Troyens” as well as selections from The Great American Songbook. The program also features the Symphony performing Debussy’s sensual and evocative Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune (Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun) and Shostakovich’s dramatic and powerful Symphony No. 10 in E Minor, Op. 93, created after Stalin’s death by the great composer whose career that Russian leader had nearly ended.

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Graham rose to the highest echelon of international performers within just a few years of her professional debut, mastering an astonishing range of repertoire and genres along the way. Her operatic roles span four centuries from Monteverdi’s Poppea to Sister Helen Prejean in Jake Heggie’s “Dead Man Walking,” which was written especially for her. A familiar face at New York’s Metropolitan Opera, she also maintains a strong international presence at such key venues as Paris’s Théâtre du Châtelet, Santa Fe Opera and the Hollywood Bowl. Her extensive concert and recital career includes collaborations with the world’s leading orchestras, and she makes regular appearances with the New York Philharmonic, Boston Symphony, Orchestre de Paris and London Symphony Orchestra. Among her honors are a GRAMMY Award for her collection of Ives songs, Musical America’s Vocalist of the Year and an Opera News Award. The Boston Globe reviewed one of her concert performances noting, “Friday’s main draw was mezzo-soprano Susan Graham…Graham was in splendid voice and brought the music across with a luxurious, well-focused tone and plenty of dramatic conviction.”