Ms. Genaux’s professional stage debut was with the Florentine Opera in October 1994 as Isabella in L’italiana. She subsequently sang the role with numerous companies, including the Wiener Staatsoper, Opéra National de Paris, San Francisco Opera and Turin’s Teatro Regio, among others. Rosina/Il barbiere di Siviglia is her most performed role, having sung it with twenty-one companies including: the Wiener, Deutsche and Bayerische Staatsopers; Metropolitan, De Nederlandse, Washington National and Dallas Operas; and at the Dresden Festival. She has played Angelina/Cenerentola with twenty-two companies including the: Semperoper, Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, Opera Orchestra of New York (at Carnegie Hall), Washington Concert Opera, Teatro Municipal de Santiago, New Israeli Opera, Japan Opera Foundation, and the Grand Théâtre de Genève. Among her other bel canto and French grand opera credentials are the trouser parts of: Title Role/Tancredi (Vienna/Budapest); Neocle/L’assedio di Corinto (Baltimore); Malcolm/La donna del lago (Caramoor); Orsini/Lucrezia Borgia (Caramoor/Minnesota Opera); Falliero in Bianca e Falliero (Washington Concert Opera); Pippo/La gazza ladra (Caramoor); Arsace/Semiramide (Minnesota & Caramoor); Romeo/I Capuleti ed i Montecchi (Minnesota/ Pittsburgh); Hassem in Donizetti’s Alahor in Granata (Seville); as well as Meyerbeer’s Urbain in Les Huguenots (Bilbao) and Edemondo in his Emma di Resburgo (Vienna). In the Baroque and early-Classical repertoires her Händel roles are the most varied and numerous, encompassing everything from fearless generals to ruthless goddesses, from impetuous young men to love-sick maidens disguised in male attire, from caped Crusaders to the most nefarious of villains and finally to allegorical visions: Galatea in Aci, Galatea e Polifemo (Berlin/Salzburg (Whitsun); Il Piacere/Il Trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno (Madrid/Vienna); Bradamante/Alcina (Paris); Title Role/Ariodante (Dallas/San Diego); Polinesso/ Ariodante (Paris/London/Madrid/Vienna); Title Role/Arminio (Solothurn/Siena/Amsterdam); Title Role/ Giulio Cesare (Washington); Sesto/Giulio Cesare (San Diego); the dual roles of Juno and Ino/Semele (Les Talens Lyriques in Paris/London and the New York City Opera); and the Title Role/Rinaldo (Montpellier/ Innsbruck). She has also labored lovingly to help widen the appreciation for the works of Johann Adolf Hasse, both in her many concerts and on stage: Piramo/Piramo e Tisbe (Salzburg/Montpellier); Marc’Antonio/Marc’Antonio e Cleopatra (Paris/Brussels) and Selimo/Solimano (Berlin/Dresden). Additionally, she has made a strong impact as: Penelope/Il ritorno d’Ulisse (Munich–three engagements); Title Role/Vivaldi’s Giustino (Solothurn); Irene/Bajazet (Vienna/Yokohama/ Montpellier/Venice/Cracow/Paris/Madrid/Metz); Antiope/Ercole sul Termodonte (Cracow/Vienna/Paris); San Teologia in Alessandro Scarlatti’s La Santissima Trinità (Palermo/Lyon/Paris); Nerone in Domenico Scarlatti’s Ottavia restituita al trono (San Sebastián); Macario in Leonardo Leo’s Sant’Elena al Calvario (Cracow); Orfeo in Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice (Los Angeles); and in a pair of Haydn roles - Costanza in L’isola disabitata (Bamberg) and Ernesto in Il mondo della luna (Vienna).
Included among her many notable past concert and recital engagements have been those with: the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, La Cetra, Collegium Apollineum, Il Complesso Barocco, Concentus Musicus Wien, Concerto Copenhagen, Concerto Italiano, Concerto Köln, Europa Galante, Freiburger Barockorchester, hr-Sinfonieorchester, Kammerorchester Basel, Kammerorchester moderntimes_1800, Les Paladins, Les Talens Lyriques, Venice Baroque Orchestra, Les Violons du Roy, Orchestre National de France, Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France and at the BBC Proms; festival appearances in: Rome, Prague, Ludwigsburg, Halle, Schwetzingen, St. Denis, Lanaudière, Montpellier, San Remo, Antibes, Ravello and Caramoor; performances with: the Münchner Kammerorchester, New York Chamber Symphony, Orchestra of St. Luke’s, New York Festival of Song, in her native Alaska (Anchorage, Fairbanks and Juneau), at the Wiener Konzerthaus, London’s Barbican Center, Moscow’s Tchaikovsky Concert Hall, Teatro Real in Madrid, Barcelona’s Gran Teatre del Liceu, on a South American tour (São Paulo/Rio de Janeiro/Montevideo and Buenos Aires), Herbst Theater in San Francisco and Carnegie’s Weill Recital Hall, as well as on French TV on “Les Victoires de la Musique” and Eve Ruggieri’s “Musique au cœur 5 étoiles”.
Ms. Genaux’s discography/videography continues to grow steadily. Four previously-mentioned recordings are scheduled for 2012-13 release: Vivaldi’s L’oracolo in Messenia, with Fabio Biondi and Europa Galante on Virgin Classics; “A Tribute to Faustina Bordoni” (Hasse/Händel) with Cappella Gabetta on Sony; “Baroque Divas”, with Ann Hallenberg & Sandrine Piau, and Armonia Atenea/George Petrou on Decca; and the Hasse Marc’Antonio e Cleopatra, with Claudio Osele leading the forces of Le Musiche Nove, on a label still to be determined. Among her recent releases are: the 2010 Oehms Classics CD of Hasse’s Sanctus Petrus et Sancta Maria Magdalena, led by Michael Hofstetter from the 2008 Ludwigsburger Schlossfestspiel; a DVD of the Vienna production of Il mondo della luna, led by Nikolaus Harnoncourt on the Unitel Classica/C Major label (2010); and the Virgin Classics CD of Vivaldi’s Ercole sul Termodonte (2010/11), conducted by Fabio Biondi leading Europa Galante, with a cast that includes Diana Damrau, Joyce DiDonato, Philippe Jaroussky and Rolando Villazón. Ercole was given a 2011 Echo Klassik Prize for “Opera Recording of the Year (17th-/18th-Century)”, marking the mezzo’s third such Echo award for her work with the Biondi/Europa Galante team, preceded by “Pyrotechnics – Vivaldi Opera Arias” (Virgin, 2009), which also received a 2010 Grammy© nomination for “Best Classical Vocal Performance,” and by Bajazet (Virgin, 2005), which was also Grammy©-nominated. Among other recently released CDs are the world-premiere recording of Vivaldi’s L’Atenaide, with Federico Maria Sardelli leading the Orchestra Barocca Modo Antiqua on the Naïve label and Virgin Classics’ “Händel/Hasse, Arias and Cantatas” (2006), with Bernard Labadie and Les Violons du Roy; La Santissima Trinità (Biondi/Europa Galante) released in 2004; and, in 2003, her first solo disc on the label, “Bel Canto Arias,” featuring works by Rossini and Donizetti, with John Nelson conducting the Ensemble Orchestral de Paris. Harmonia Mundi produced two Baroque recordings, both conducted by René Jacobs, which have garnered copious critical and popular accolades: Händel’s Rinaldo, in 2003 and the Grammy©-nominated “Arias for Farinelli” in 2002. Arminio, recorded live in 2001, released on Virgin Classics, led by Alan Curtis, won the 2002 International Händel Prize. Other live recordings include: Alahor in Granata on the Almaviva label; “Rossiniana,” released by Agora with the Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano Giuseppe Verdi; and “An Evening of Arias and Songs by Gioacchino Rossini,” with accompanist Martin Dubé. A documentary, “A Voice out of the Cold,” has been seen on television world-wide. “Fracture,” her first film, in which she made a cameo appearance, was released internationally in the Spring of 2007 and is now available on DVD.
In May 2008 Pittsburgh Opera honored Ms. Genaux with their Maecenas Award and the previous year she garnered the New York City Opera’s Christopher Keene Award. She is also the recipient of other distinctions: the Premio “Opera CD Classics – Città di Mondovi” and the Florentine Opera’s Marie Z. Uihlein Artist Prize. She has also been recognized by several other musical organizations, including the Fort Worth, Baltimoreand Palm Beach Operas. In 1997 she won a prestigious ARIA Award, and was lauded as the “1999 Artist of the Year” by the Dresden Music Festival. She makes her home in Motta di Livenza and studies with Claudia Pinza, continuing her long-time association with EPCASO (Ezio Pinza Council of American Singers of Opera).
