The young American soprano Nadine Sierra, winner of top prizes like the Beverly Sills Artists Award, has won wide attention for her singing in bel canto roles. For her debut album, however, she has chosen not Italian repertory but accessible contemporary material, most of it in English. It might seem an odd fit with her stated goal: "Opera belongs to everybody, no matter what age, no matter what race, no matter what kind of money you make or don't make. It will speak to you because it is a reflection of humanity." Much of ...
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The young American soprano Nadine Sierra, winner of top prizes like the Beverly Sills Artists Award, has won wide attention for her singing in bel canto roles. For her debut album, however, she has chosen not Italian repertory but accessible contemporary material, most of it in English. It might seem an odd fit with her stated goal: "Opera belongs to everybody, no matter what age, no matter what race, no matter what kind of money you make or don't make. It will speak to you because it is a reflection of humanity." Much of the material on the album is not opera at all, but musical theater or orchestral songs. However, it emerges that there's a method behind Sierra's selections: almost without exception (the exception is No Word from Tom, from Stravinsky's The Rake's Progress, which is placed at the end, seems to come out of nowhere, and just sounds bizarre), the music fits Sierra's voice. She's got a big, distinctive sound, with a muscular high end in which vibrato ripples powerfully and quickly. Once...
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