Victoria Livengood

Mezzo-Soprano

Internationally renowned Metropolitan Opera star Victoria Livengood is a Grammy-winning mezzo-soprano who has been hailed by audiences and critics worldwide for her multi- faceted and powerhouse performances in a remarkably varied repertoire. Ms. Livengood has been acclaimed by The New York Times as "naturally seductive and vocally alluring." Opera News raved that "her singing and acting radiate intensity," the Italian press proclaimed that "the power of her voice could straighten the Tower of Pisa," the Boston Phoenix Magazine compared her acting to Joan Crawford and her singing to Maria Callas, and the Buenos Aires Herald

named her "one of the leading singer-actresses of her generation."

Recent seasons for Ms. Livengood have included Marthe in Faust at Detroit Opera, bringing her celebrated Marcellina to Opera Omaha’s Le nozze di Figaro, the cover of Filippyevna in Eugene Onegin with San Francisco Opera, a return the Lyric Opera of Kansas City for dual roles as the Mother and the Witch in Hansel and Gretel, reprising her role as Eunice in A Streetcar Named Desire for Hawaii Opera Theater, a return to the Seattle Opera for a role début as Kabanicha in Katya Kabanova, a company and role début with Opera Omaha in Jonathan Dove’s Flight, the Mother in The Consul with Long Beach Opera and Chicago Opera Theater, the alto solo in the The Defiant Requiem: Verdi at Terezin at UNC Charlotte, the Old Lady in Candide with Anchorage Opera, and Madame Flora in The Medium with New Orleans Opera. Additionally, she brought her Old Lady in Candide to the Seoul Philharmonic, sang Filippyevna in Eugene Onegin with Washington National Opera, Eunice in A Streetcar Named Desire with Teatro Colon, and the cover of Larina and Filippyevna in Eugene Onegin with the Seiji Ozawa Music Academy.

Since her acclaimed Met début in 1991, the Thomasville, North Carolina native skyrocketed onto the opera scene and has become known for her dynamic portrayals in more than 120 Met performances, including the title role of Carmen opposite Plácido Domingo. Ms. Livengood’s enormous versatility has allowed her to sing nearly 100 different roles with opera companies throughout the United States, Europe, South America, Canada, and Asia. Internationally, she has sung with the opera companies in Barcelona, Madrid, Salzburg, Buenos Aires, Taipei, Las Palmas, Monte Carlo, Nice, Santiago, Cologne, Vancouver, Montreal, and at Italy’s Spoleto Festival, where she closely collaborated with composer, Gian Carlo Menotti.

Nevertheless, it is in America that this Dixie Diva has primarily based her 35-year career, having sung leading roles with the companies of Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Santa Fe, Washington D.C., Seattle, Houston, Boston, Miami, St. Louis, San Diego, Baltimore, Portland, Utah, Atlanta, Palm Beach, New Orleans, Fort Worth, Anchorage, Hawaii, and with the New York City Opera! Her broad range of current favorite roles include Klytemnestra (Elektra), Madame Flora (The Medium), The Old Prioress (Dialogues of the Carmelites), Marcellina (Le nozze di Figaro), The Marquise (La fille du régiment), Herodias (Salome), Dame Quickly (Falstaff), Azucena (Il trovatore), Kabanicha (Katya Kabanova), Grandmother (The Consul), Julia Child (Bon Appetit), Katisha (The Mikado), The Witch (Hansel and Gretel), Ruth (The Pirates of Penzance), Filipyevna (Eugene Onegin), Baba the Turk (The Rake’s Progress), Augusta Tabor (The Ballad of Baby Doe),

Mrs. Lovett (Sweeney Todd), Erda (Das Rheingold), Eunice (A Streetcar Named Desire), and Prince Orlovsky (Die Fledermaus).

Ms. Livengood has performed at Carnegie Hall on ten separate occasions including as soloist in Verdi’s Requiem and in A Streetcar Named Desire, opposite Renée Fleming. She has performed with the Lincoln Center Music Festival, the Cincinnati May Festival, and with the National Symphony Orchestra at the Kennedy Center as well as with the London Symphony on her Grammy-nominated recording of Desire Under the Elms by Edward Thomas.

As a devoted recitalist, Ms. Livengood has been hailed as "gold-medal caliber, breathtaking, mesmerizing and emotionally charged" at such venues as The Kennedy Center, the Smithsonian Institute, and New York City's Alice Tully and Avery Fisher Halls. She has been heard in concert in Paris, Venice, Verona, Milan, Kiev, Odessa, St. Petersburg, Moscow, Jamaica as well as in the Caribbean on the Queen Elizabeth II, and she has performed on numerous occasions as part of the "Meet the Artists" series at Lincoln Center. She also had the honor of singing memorial concerts for her dear friend and mentor, Gian Carlo Menotti, in both Monte Carlo and in Spoleto, Italy for a live television broadcast.

Ms. Livengood has been named Alumni of the year by both alma maters, UNC-Chapel Hill and the Boston Conservatory of Music, and she holds an honorary doctorate from Jacksonville University. She is also an inductee into the North Carolina Musicians Hall of Fame, an honor that she shares with musical giants such as James Taylor, Andy Griffith, and Kate Smith. She is in demand for her highly acclaimed master classes across the globe and offers consultations and private vocal instruction when her schedule allows.

Ms. Livengood's extensive discography includes her Grammy-nominated performances with the Los Angeles Opera and James Conlon in Corigliano’s The Ghost of Versailles and the London Symphony in Edward Thomas' Desire under the Elms, as well as the Thomas Pasatieri Songbook and Adler's AIDS Requiem, all for Albany Records. She has recorded Menotti's The Consul and Prokofiev's War and Peace for the Chandos label, both with Richard Hickox conducting, as well as EMI's Oberon with Ben Heppner, Deborah Voigt, and conductor James Conlon. Her solo releases include Piercing Eyes for Albany Records as well as four live recital recordings: We Gather Together, Simple Gifts, Opening Night, and The Secret of Christmas. Her crossover gospel recordings include On Holy Ground and Ten Thousand Joys!