Susan Sevier, contralto, equally at home in oratorio, opera, and theatrical musicals, with repertoire from Handel to Wagner to Sondheim, receives general acclaim for her sacred music performances: for her recent performance of Haydn’s rarely performed Stabat Mater, the Concertnet.com critic said: “Contralto Susan Sevier is always a joy to hear. A ‘true’ contralto of enormous depth and range, she conveyed a great sense of pathos and sorrow in her singing”, and, for her performances in the Opera Bel Canto production of Rossini’s Petite Messe Solennelle , the Washington Post critic called her performance of the Agnus Dei “eloquent”. A frequent recitalist and oratorio performer, appearances in the last year included Max Reger’s “O Haupt voll Blut und Wunden”, Bach Cantata No. 82, “Ich Habe Genug”, Carl Freidrich Graun’s Der Tod Jesu, Mendelssohn’s Elijah, Handel’s Messiah, and Mendelssohn’s Walpurgisnacht, as well as recitals of Spanish art songs and an all duet program featuring works by Brahms, Schumann, Dvorak and Mendelssohn .
Opera performances include Wagner’s Das Rheingold Erda with the Washington National Wagner Society and the West End Opera in NY, and as Rossweisse in Act III of Die Walküre, featuring James Morris as Wotan and Christine Brewer as Brunhilde at Baltimore’s Meyerhoff Symphony Hall; as “The Witch” in Humperdinck’s Hansel & Gretel , and as Acuzena in Verdi’s Il Trovatore with the Maryland Opera Society; as Marcellina, in Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro at the Tuscia Opera Festival (Italy); and as Verdi’s Amneris in Aida, Acuzena in Il Trovatore, and as Mozart’s Dritte Dame with the Bourgas Philharmonic and Opera Society (Bulgaria).
Her musical theatre credits include appearances as the Duchess of Plaza Toro in the Mt. Vernon Players production of Gilbert & Sullivan’s Gondoliers; Bloody Mary in South Pacific at the Ashlawn Summer Festival; and Frau Peachum in the Brecht/Weill Three Penny Opera at the Theatre Project in Baltimore, for which Baltimore’s City Paper review cited her “excellent performance”. Her recently released CD, Weihnachstsfreude, is available for purchase at www.seratemusicali.org.
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