Jessica Rivera

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Jessica Rivera is an American lyric soprano.[1] She is best known for her parts in the John Adams operas Doctor Atomic and A Flowering Tree.

She received her undergraduate degree from Pepperdine University in 1996[2] and her Master of Music degree in 1998 from the University of Southern California's Flora L. Thornton School of Music.[3] In 2005 Jessica Rivera debut as Nuria in the Santa Fe Opera’s premier production of the Osvaldo Golijov's opera Ainadamar.[4][5] The subsequent recording of the work won the 2007 Grammy Award for Best Opera Recording. While in residence at the Los Angeles Opera she also sang the role of Anastasia in the world premiere of Nicholas and Alexandra, an opera by Deborah Drattell.[6]

Jessica Rivera has said of her successful career that “God made sure that I was in the right place at the right time.” [2]

[edit] Work with John Adams

Jessica Rivera has become known particularly for her work as a performer of John Adams music.[7] Since filling in for Dawn Upshaw in John Adams’s nativity oratorio El Niño she has performed major roles in the premier of two other Adams opera debuts.[8] In 2006 she sang the part of Kumudha in Peter Sellars’s premier of A Flowering Tree at the New Crowned Hope Festival in Vienna, Austria.[7][5] Subsequently Jessica Rivera stared as Kitty Oppenheimer in the De Nederlandse Opera’s 2007 production of Doctor Atomic.[9][8] She was hired to play the same part again in the Lyric Opera of Chicago’s 2007 production of the work.[7][5][10]

[edit] References

  1. ^ Tommasini, Anthony. "Tweaking a Definitive Moment in History", The New York Times, December 17, 2007. Accessed January 6, 2008. "The role of Kitty, Oppenheimer’s wife, originally for mezzo-soprano, has been rewritten for soprano, here the radiant lyric soprano Jessica Rivera in a vulnerable and intense portrayal."
  2. ^ a b Pepperdine University Fields of Dreams (Retrieved 1 January, 2007)
  3. ^ Santa Monica Symphony Program Notes: March 26 2006 (Retrieved 1 January, 2007)
  4. ^ Classical Music.org Getting to Know Soprano Jessica Rivera (Retrieved 1 January, 2007)
  5. ^ a b c Classical Music.org Lyric Opera of Chicago Doctor Atomic (Retrieved 1 January, 2007)
  6. ^ Jessica Rivera.com Resume (Retrieved 1 January, 2007)
  7. ^ a b c Playbill Arts Jessica Rivera to Play Kitty Oppenheimer in Chicago Lyric's Doctor Atomic (Retrieved 1 January, 2007)
  8. ^ a b IMG Artists Jessica Rivera Full Biography (Retrieved 1 January, 2007)
  9. ^ Hollywood Bowl Jessica Rivera (Retrieved 1 January, 2007)
  10. ^ Las Angeles Times Splitting the operatic atom in Chicago (Retrieved 1 January, 2007)

[edit] External links