 Karen
Huffstodt has been applauded in such leading opera houses as La Scala
in Milan, the Vienna State Opera, Bastille Opera, Berlin Staatsoper, Hamburg
Staatsoper and many others. The soprano has received outstanding acclaim
singing the title role of Salome, a part she has not only performed
extensively, but also recorded (in the French version based upon the original
text of Oscar Wilde) with Kent Nagano and the Opéra de Lyon. The
Illinois native has also been praised for roles as varied as Donna Anna
in Don Giovanni, the title parts of Tosca and Thaïs,
Sieglinde in Die Walküre, and Chrysothemis in Elektra.
In 1993, she opened the Scala season under Riccardo Muti as Giulia in a
new production of Spontini's La Vestale, recorded for future telecast
and release on CD. During the 1995-96 season she added two new roles to
her repertoire: Marie in Wozzeck at the Grand Théâtre
de Genève and Senta in Der Fliegende Holländer for the
Netherlands Opera. The same season saw her as the Mother in concert performances
of Dallapiccola's Il Prigioniero at the Florence May Festival, as
Salome at the Vienna and Hamburg State Operas as well as in Genoa, as Chrysothemis
in a new staging of Elektra for her Salzburg Festival debut, and
as Leonore in Fidelio in Bonn and Berlin. Miss Huffstodt is equally
at home on the concert platform in repertoire which includes Strauss's
Four Last Songs, Mahler's Eighth Symphony, and Schoenberg's Gurrelieder.
Among the artist's future plans are Chrysothemis with the Washington Opera
and her first Empress in Die Frau ohne Schatten in Düsseldorf.
Other new roles in her developing repertoire, scheduled for the future,
include Isolde in Tristan und Isolde, Minnie in La Fanciulla
del West, Elisabeth in Tannhäuser, and the title role of
Catalani's La Wally. |
