The Metropolitan Opera Summer Recital Series
Metropolitan Opera stars perform an evening of arias & duets from some of opera’s most beloved works featuring soprano Susanna Phillips, mezzo-soprano Elizabeth DeShong, and tenor Stephen Costello, joined by pianist Dan Saunders.
Susanna Phillips
Recipient of the 2010 Beverly Sills Artist Award, soprano Susanna Phillips frequently appears at the Metropolitan Opera, this past season starring as Clémence in Kaija Saariaho’s L’Amour de Loin and Musetta in La Bohème, a role she will reprise next season. Other performances with the company include Fiordiligi in Così fan tutte, Rosalinde in Die Fledermaus, and Antonia in Les Contes d’Hoffmann, among others. She has sung with the Zurich Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Oper Frankfurt, Santa Fe Opera, Dallas Opera, San Francisco Symphony, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra, Orchestra of St. Luke’s, Music of the Baroque, and Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, and she has received awards from the Metropolitan Opera National Council, Operalia, the MacAllister Awards, and the George London Foundation. She is a co-founder of Twickenham Fest in Huntsville, Alabama, and holds both bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the Juilliard School.
Elizabeth DeShong
Since her Metropolitan Opera debut in 2009 as Suzy in La Rondine, mezzo- soprano Elizabeth DeShong has appeared with the company in more than 50 performances, including Hermia in The Enchanted Island and A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Suzuki in Madama Butterfly, and the Wardrobe Mistress/Schoolboy/Page in Lulu, among others. She appears regularly at the Glyndebourne Festival, Vienna State Opera, Covent Garden, Bavarian State Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, English National Opera, Opera National de Bordeaux, Canadian Opera Company, and Aix-en- Provence Festival, as well as with the Baltimore Symphony, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Oregon Symphony, Toronto Symphony, and Cincinnati Symphony. She received Washington National Opera’s “Artist of the Year” award in 2010 and next season will return to the Met as Arsace in Rossini’s Semiramide, which will be broadcast Live in HD.
Stephan Costello
Winner of the 2009 Richard Tucker Award, tenor Stephen Costello has already been seen in seven roles at the Metropolitan Opera since his 2007 debut, including Roméo in Roméo et Juliette, the Duke of Mantua in Rigoletto, Lord Richard Percy in Anna Bolena, Alfredo in La Traviata, and Edgardo in Lucia di Lammermoor. He has also appeared at many of the world’s most important opera houses and music festivals, including Covent Garden, Deutsche Oper Berlin, the Vienna State Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, San Francisco Opera, Washington National Opera, the Salzburg Festival, the Dallas Opera, Madrid’s Teatro Real, the Paris Opera, and the Santa Fe Opera. He is a graduate of Philadelphia’s Academy of Vocal Arts and took first prize in the 2006 George London Foundation Awards Competition
Dan Saunders
Dan Saunders has performed in recital with Jessye Norman, Kiri Te Kanawa, Kathleen Battle, Marilyn Horne, Tatiana Troyanos, and Thomas Allen; and with violinist Eugen Fodor. More recently, has appeared with Danielle de Niese, Isabel Leonard, Nathan Gunn, and Gerald Finley. He has also performed at the White House, Carnegie Hall, Kennedy Center, Paris’s Bastille Opera, San Francisco Opera, and London’s Wigmore Hall, as well as at the Salzburg, Tanglewood, Ravinia, and Santa Fe festivals. He joined the Met’s music staff in 1985 and has been heard on PBS’s Live from Lincoln Center and as a pianist on the Met’s international radio broadcasts and web streams.