I have been a champion of the great American Dramatic Soprano, Alessandra Marc, for two decades. When I first heard a very young Alessandra Marc in 1987, on a scratchy "live" recording of Respighi's LA FIAMMA from a Carnegie Hall performance with Robert Bass and the Collegiate Chorale, I was blown away. In 1989, I first experienced this magnificent talent live: a thrilling Carnegie Hall concert performance of Richard Strauss's 1938 opera, FRIEDENSTAG, with the same ensemble. Half way through the opera, this voice soared through the theater in a way I had never experienced before in my life.I've followed her complex career ever since. MET appearances in AIDA and her signature TURANDOT, countless concerts, particularly her truly grand, to-the-manor-born Strauss and Wagner.
This is a voice, still in its prime -- audiences don't realize that she is still a mid-career singer because she started her career so young and her contemporaries were more than a decade older -- which should not be missed. She will sing her TURANDOT again in July at the 2008 Puccini Festival at Torre del lago (http://www.puccinifestival.it/eng/categorie.asp?idcat=1) and has concerts in the Washington, D.C. area in the 2008-2009 festival that are must hear/sees. It is time that the arts scene in New York offers her the recognition that she deserves--honoring this remarkable artist with an appearance in one of the great theaters (the MET, Carnegie Hall, Avery Fisher Hall) with companies like the MET, the NY Philharmonic, other major international orchestras, etc.
(Alessandra and me, March 2008, NYC)Check out an example of Alessandra in glorious voice in Maryland at a special gala 2008 concert honoring U.S.-based artists from China. She sings "Io son l'umile ancella" from Cilèa's ADRIANA LECOUVREUR. (see below)
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