Lisa Hopkins

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Lisa Hopkins is an American classical singer and actress born in 1978 in Simi Valley, California. Hopkins is best known for her portrayal of Mimi in the 2002-03 production of La Bohème on Broadway, for which she received a Tony Award.

Contents

[edit] Early life and training

Hopkins was home-schooled until the age of nine (growing up all over the United States, from Manhattan to North Dakota, Iowa, Missouri, and Canada) and then attended the Waterford School in Sandy, Utah.[1] She studied at Scuola Insieme in Grado, Italy in 1997. Her mother is a Juilliard-trained pianist.[2]

Hopkins received her B.A. in Theater Studies and Acting from Yale University in 2001. There, she founded the Yale College Opera Company, playing Cleopatra in Handel's Giulio Cesare and performing Poulenc's one-woman opera, La Voix Humaine for her senior project. She also sang the role of Casilda in The Gondoliers for Yale's Gilbert and Sullivan Society, among other roles.[3] She received her M.M. in Classical Voice from the Manhattan School of Music in 2003. She studied voice with Marlena Malas while still an undergraduate and studied at the International Vocal Arts Institute in Tel Aviv, Israel in 2004. She currently studies with Trish McCaffrey in New York.

[edit] Career

After college, Hopkins was the soprano soloist for the CarinthiArte Advent Concert in Kärnten, Austria, and subsequently performed on tour as soprano soloist in over 20 multimedia concerts in Austria.[2] Next, she played Polly Peachum in The Threepenny Opera at the Chautauqua Institution Music Festival.[4]

Hopkins appeared on Broadway in Baz Luhrmann's production of La Bohème,[5] sharing in the special ensemble Tony Award for her shared lead role of Mimi.[6] She also appears on the production's cast album, singing the final act, and she sang excerpts from the role at the televised performance during the 2003 Tony Awards ceremony at Radio City Music Hall.

Hopkins was the soprano soloist in the Mozart Requiem and Mozart's Exultate, jubilate with the Utah Symphony and Opera at the 2004 Deer Valley Music Festival and was chosen to be a recitalist on the Marilyn Horne Foundation roster, to present a solo recital in March 2005 at St. Bartholomew's Church as part of the "On Wings of Song" series.[7] In 2006, Hopkins received praise as Donna Anna in Don Juan in Prague, an avant-garde adaptation of Don Giovanni, first performed in October 2006 at the Prague National Theatre and then in December 2006 at the BAM New Wave Festival in Brooklyn, New York. Newsweek wrote, "The only member of the cast to escape the director's unmusical ministrations was Lisa Hopkins, who, as Donna Anna, managed to ignore the squeezebox screeches coming from the pit and speakers and deliver a sensitive lament."[8]

In January 2007, Hopkins sang Sofia in Rossini's one-act opera Il Signor Bruschino with Gotham Chamber Opera in New York City.[9] In 2007, also, she was selected as a Wolf Trap Opera Company Filene Young Artist,[10] singing the First Lady in Die Zauberflöte (August, 2007)[11] and Corvina in John Musto's adaptation of Volpone (June, 2007). The Washington Post wrote, "Lisa Hopkins Seegmiller, so expressive with her big Bette Davis eyes and fluttery voice, was deliciously funny as Corvina."[12]

In June 2008, Hopkins is scheduled to appear at the Greenwich Music Festival in Claudio Monteverdi's Return of Ulysses and other works.[13]

[edit] Personal

Hopkins is married to Travis M. Seegmiller and lives in Washington, DC where Seegmiller practices law at Patton Boggs.[14] She teaches voice privately in Washington and New York City.

[edit] References

  1. ^ At the Waterford School, Hopkins won an Emerson Prize in 1998 for her essay on Thomas Jefferson.
  2. ^ a b From Yale Daily News
  3. ^ Hopkins' profile at the LDS "film personalities" site
  4. ^ Hopkins' profile at agent's site
  5. ^ The Salt Lake Tribune, 16 March 2003
  6. ^ The New York Times noted, "Jesús Garcia and Lisa Hopkins are affectingly somber in the same moment, with resigned postures that suggest a haunted awareness of doom.""Sudden Streak of Red Warms a Cold Garret", NY Times, December 2002
  7. ^ Concert schedule
  8. ^ Roll over, Mozart: Your 'Don Giovanni' is wailing. Newsday, December 15, 2006
  9. ^ See NY Times review of Il Signor Bruschino. In its review, Backstage.com wrote, "...soprano Lisa Hopkins as Sofia proves a deft comedian while singing with impressive flair."
  10. ^ Wolf Trap website
  11. ^ Washington Times review of Magic Flute praising the three ladies
  12. ^ Washington Post review of Volpone
  13. ^ [http://www.greenwichmusicfestival.org/ Information about the 2008 Greenwich Music Festival
  14. ^ Waterford School alumni news

[edit] External links