Kelly Kaduce - Mimi

Soprano

Portland Opera Debut

Kelly Kaduce is a soprano with a warm and rich voice, stunning beauty, and superb acting ability. For her creation of the title role in Anna Karenina, Opera News proclaimed her "an exceptional actress whose performance was as finely modulated dramatically as it was musically. She embodied Anna's shifting personas - warm mother, passionate lover, dying penitent, drug-addicted madwoman - with emotional and physical specificity, and her dark, focused sound was lusty and lyrical one moment, tender and floating the next." For her Boston Lyric Opera debut in the title role of Thaïs, Opera News observed, "Kaduce sings with bell-like purity and silvery sweetness, and she suspends her legato with an effortless, sensual spin. A born actress, Kaduce is also a masterful illuminator of text."

In 2008/09, Kelly Kaduce makes her Kentucky Opera debut as Desdemona in Verdi's Otello, returns to Malmö Opera as Violetta in La traviata, to Florida Grand Opera as Countess in Le nozze di Figaro, to Opera Theatre of Saint Louis in the title role in Salome, to Michigan Opera Theatre as Nedda in I pagliacci, sings Mimi in La bohème with Portland Opera, and in an evening of arias with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra.

Her 2007/08 season included her debut with Opera Pacific as Mimi in La bohème, and her returns to Malmö Opera as Marguerite in Faust, to Minnesota Opera in the title role of Rusalka, and to Opera Theatre of Saint Louis in the title role of Madama Butterfly. She also sang the title role in Suor Angelica at Teatro Municipal de Santiago in Chile. In recital, she performed at St. Olaf College and (with baritone Lee Gregory) at Bates College.

Ms. Kaduce's 2006/07 season was met with critical acclaim for her returns to Boston Lyric Opera to perform Cio-Cio-San in Madama Butterfly and to Minnesota Opera to sing Rosasharn in the world premiere of Ricky Ian Gordon's The Grapes of Wrath. Of her Cio-Cio-San, the Boston Globe effused, "this production succeeds on the strength of Kelly Kaduce's winning performance," while the New Yorker described her in The Grapes of Wrath as "warmly expressive as Rosasharn." Rave reviews continued after the world premiere of David Carlson's Anna Karenina, for both Florida Grand Opera and Opera Theatre of Saint Louis. Musical America averred, "Kaduce made of Anna a really moving and touching portrait, delineating her decline into despair and addiction with an understated elegance and power, so that her death was not so much a shock as a final call to rest of a tortured soul." In the summer of 2007, Ms. Kaduce sang the roles of Princess and Puppet in Tan Dun's Tea in a re-engagement with Santa Fe Opera and also performed in recital with the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival.

Recent operatic highlights include her return to New York City Opera as Mimi in La bohème, a role she has also performed with Opera Grand Rapids, Florida Grand Opera, Lyric Opera of Waco, Minnesota Opera and Opera Delaware; Mimi in the Los Angeles production of Baz Luhrmann's La Bohème; her return to Opera Theatre of Saint Louis in the title role of Michael Berkeley's Jane Eyre; her first performances of the title role in Susannah with Orlando Opera; her return to Nashville Opera as Marguerite in Faust, which she has also performed with Florida Grand Opera and Austin Lyric Opera; Caroline in the world premiere of Margaret Garner with Michigan Opera Theatre, also performed with the Opera Company of Philadelphia; Cio-Cio-San in Madama Butterfly with Minnesota Opera; Micaëla in Carmen with Nashville Opera; and Birdie Hubbard in Regina at Bard's SummerScape Festival.

Other highlights include Juliette in Gounod's Roméo et Juliette with Lyric Opera of Kansas City; Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni with Florida Grand Opera; her first performances of the title role in Suor Angelica with Opera Theatre of Saint Louis; and her first performances of Pamina in Die Zauberflöte with Atlanta Opera. Ms. Kaduce made her Santa Fe Opera debut as The Chinese Actress and ZiZhen in the world premiere of Bright Sheng's Madame Mao. She made her New York City Opera debut as Gretel in Hänsel und Gretel, which she also sang with Opera Colorado. For Glimmerglass Opera she created two roles in the trilogy Central Park.

Among Kelly Kaduce's concert credits are Mahler's Symphony No. 2, Barber's Prayers of Kierkegaard, Berg's Seven Early Songs, and Argento's Casa Guidi. She has also appeared with the Florida Philharmonic Orchestra as soloist in Beethoven's Egmont, and in Britten's War Requiem and Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 with the Boston University Symphony Orchestra at Symphony Hall.

Kelly Kaduce is a graduate of both St. Olaf College and Boston University. Ms. Kaduce was a winner of the 1999 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions.

www.kellykaduce.com