Roberta Alexander receives the Edison Oeuvre Prize 2020 and joins Interartists Amsterdam for general management

November 26th 2020
Today we are celebrating the admired American-Dutch soprano Roberta Alexander, who joins Interartists Amsterdam for general management. This morning it has been announced that she is awarded the Edison Klassiek Oeuvreprijs 2020, the most prestigious Dutch classical music award, for her lifetime achievements.

We are absolutely delighted to start working with Roberta, who, 45 years after her operatic debut, continues to sing on the world’s leading stages and to teach new generations of singers.

Tonight, the Metropolitan Opera will stream Patrice Chéreau's production of Strauss' Elektra from 2016 in which Roberta Alexander performs the role of Fünfte Magd. The streaming is available here on November 27th from 01:30 am CET for 23 hours.

Among the most compelling singing actresses of our time, Roberta Alexander enjoys international renown for her riveting, incisive characterizations, miraculous vocal and dramatic range.

She recently performed the role of Curra in Christoph Loy’s production of La Forza del Destino at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden in 2019, and at Dutch National Opera in 2017. With Patrice Chéreau she created the role of Fünfte Magd in his legendary production of Elektra at the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence in 2013. Since then, she has revived the role at the Metropolitan Opera in 2016, at Teatro alla Scala in 2018, and at the Staatsoper unter den Linden, Berlin in 2019. In 2020 she rehearsed the role of Ein Page der Herodias in Salomé in a new production for Teatro alla Scala by Damiano Michieletto, led by Riccardo Chailly, before the performances had to be postponed due to Covid-19.

In future seasons she will return to the Berliner Staatsoper as Fünfte Magd, and will focus on roles such as Marcellina in Le Nozze di Figaro, Madame de Croissy in Les Dialogues des Carmélites and Ms Sedley in Peter Grimes.

As well as performing, teaching and masterclasses remain an important part of her daily life, as passing on her expertise to the next generation of young singers is a significant purpose for her. She offers a broad range of classes for Young Artists Programmes, drawing on her 45 years of stage experience.

Roberta Alexander was reared in a musical family. She studied at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor from 1969 to 1971, receiving M. Music in 1971. She made her operatic debut at Dutch National Opera in 1975 in La cambiale di matrimonio. By 1984 she had been part of no fewer than 26 productions at Dutch National Opera. She appeared as Pamina at the Houston Grand Opera in 1980, as Daphne in Santa Fe in 1981, and as Elettra in Idomeneo in Zürich in 1982. Following a tour of Europe, she made a successful debut at the Metropolitan Opera in New York as Zerlina in November 1983.

Among the operatic heroines, she has unforgettably portrayed are the title role of Janacek's Jenufa (a Glyndebourne production), Mimì in Puccini's La Bohème, and especially the great Mozart heroines: Fiordiligi in Così fan tutte, Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni and Vitellia in Mozart's La Clemenza di Tito, the latter a major success with both the public and the press at the Glyndebourne Festival. In addition, she has performed principal roles at New York's Metropolitan Opera, the Royal Opera House/Covent Garden, and the major Houses of Berlin, Hamburg, Vienna, Zurich and Venice, in Philadelphia and at New York's Carnegie Hall.

Roberta Alexander will be represented by Rozemarijn Tiben
E-mail: rozemarijn.tiben@interartists.nl
Cell phone: +316 342 72 282

Interartists Amsterdam
Kleine Wittenburgstraat 1
1018 LS Amsterdam

T +31 20 845 36 04
P.O. Box 94359
1090 GJ Amsterdam