Arizona Opera Cast Members & Creatives

American soprano Sarah Coburn is captivating international audiences with her “precision placement, mercury speed, and a gorgeous liquid gold tone, gilded by a thrilling top and bottom register” (The Globe and Mail). Following her performances as Lucie de Lammermoor at Glimmerglass Opera, the New York Observer noted “she turns out to have qualities that have made legends out of so many of her predecessors, from Adelina Patti to Maria Callas: stage charisma, a thrilling upper register and, crucially, a fearlessness about abandoning herself to opera’s most abandoned heroine … this is a palpably exciting voice … Ms. Coburn is a budding prima donna of exceptional promise.”

Sarah Coburn’s engagements for the 2013-2014 calendar include an opening season concert with the Tulsa Symphony Orchestra, returns to Seattle Opera and Washington National Opera for respective performances as Marie in La fille du régiment and Adina in L’elisir d’amore, as well as the role of Elvira in I puritani with Boston Lyric Opera. She will debut at the Tivoli Festival in Copenhagen in the summer of 2014. Future seasons include returns to Handel & Haydn Society, Tulsa Opera and Seattle Opera.

Ms. Coburn’s 2012-13 performances included Amina in La sonnambula with the Wiener Staatsoper, Marie in La fille du régiment with Tulsa Opera, a gala performance for the Cincinnati Opera and a concert with the Moscow Philharmonic. She concluded the season with Cincinnati Opera as Sophie in Der Rosenkavalier.

Ms. Coburn’s engagements for 2011-12 included the title role in Lucia di Lammermoor with Washington National Opera, Rosina in Il barbiere di Siviglia with both Tulsa Opera and Boston Lyric Opera, appearing in an opera gala with the Russian National Orchestra in Moscow, in an evening of opera highlights with Oklahoma City Philharmonic, andMessiah with Handel & Haydn Society at Boston Symphony Hall. Her engagements in 2010-11 included her debuts with Wiener Staatsoper as Amina in La sonnambula and Opéra de Montréal as Gilda in Rigoletto, as well as reengagements to sing Gilda with both Los Angeles Opera and Cincinnati Opera, and Rosina with Seattle Opera. She also appeared with Los Angeles Opera to perform Handel’s “L’allegro, il penseroso, ed il moderato” and sang in recital through the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, D.C.

Recent highlights include performing the role of Princess Yue-Yang in the world premiere production of Tan Dun’s The First Emperor at the Metropolitan Opera opposite Placido Domingo, which she returned the following season to reprise in the production’s revival; Asteria in Tamerlano and Rosina in Il barbiere di Siviglia with Los Angeles Opera; Rosina with Florida Grand Opera; the title role in Lucia di Lammermoor with Tulsa Opera; Gilda in Rigoletto with Welsh National Opera; Asteria in Tamerlano with Washington National Opera; Vittoria in Pedrotti’s Tutti in maschera atWexford Festival Opera, Euridice in Haydn’s L’anima del filosofo under the baton of Sir Roger Norrington at the Handel & Haydn Society, and Gilda with Portland Opera. She also appeared as soloist in Messiah with both the Seattle Symphony Orchestra,and the Philadelphia Orchestra, in Carmina Burana with the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, in concert with Bryn Terfel in Florida Grand Opera’s Superstar Series, and in recital with Lawrence Brownlee for the Vocal Arts Society.

Ms. Coburn’s many successes performing bel canto repertoire include Elvira in I puritani with Washington Concert Opera, the title role in Lakmé with Tulsa Opera, the title role in Lucie de Lammermoor with both Cincinnati Opera andGlimmerglass Opera, the title role in Linda di Chamounix at the Caramoor Festival, Giulietta in I Capuleti e i Montecchiwith Glimmerglass Opera, the title role in Lucia di Lammermoor with Utah Opera, and Norina in Don Pasquale withFlorida Grand Opera. Ms. Coburn created the role of Kitty in the world premiere of Anna Karenina at Florida Grand Opera, later reprising the role with Opera Theatre of Saint Louis. Ms. Coburn has also appeared as Adele in Die Fledermaus with both Seattle Opera and Michigan Opera Theatre, Oscar in Un ballo in maschera and Olympia in Les Contes d’Hoffmann with Cincinnati Opera, and both Sandrina in La finta giardiniera and Susanna in Le nozze di Figarowith Florida Grand Opera.

On the concert stage, Ms. Coburn has sung Bach’s Mass in B Minor and Mozart’s Mass in C Minor with the Seattle Symphony as well as Carmina Burana with the National Chorale at Avery Fisher Hall, the National Symphony Orchestra, Haddonfield Symphony at Philadelphia’s Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, and the Dallas Wind Symphony. Sarah Coburn is a winner of the 2004 George London Foundation Awards, a 2004 recipient of a Sara Tucker Study Grant from the Richard Tucker Foundation, a 2004 Jensen Foundation Award Winner, a 2003 Liederkranz Foundation Award Winner, a 2002 Opera Index Career Grant recipient, and was a National Grand Finalist in the 2001 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions.