Mezzo-soprano Kirstin Chávez is considered one of the most riveting and significant young artists performing today. She is praised for her luscious and velvety tone that transcends classification, with its rich evenness in her lower register and the easy ripeness of the top. The combination of the dramatic intensity of her acting, along with her natural physical beauty, make her an arresting and unique presence on the operatic stage.
Ms. Chávez has captured attention and acclaim in her signature roles and is now known as one of the definitive Carmen of the day, a role that she has performed with great success at New York City Opera, Tokyo City Opera, Minnesota Opera, as well as in Beijing, China, and Sydney, Australia. Opera News recently reported that her Carmen in Graz, Austria was “the Carmen of a lifetime. With her dark, generous mezzo, earthy eroticism, volcanic spontaneity and smoldering charisma, Chavez has it all, including a superb command of French and a sense of humor.” She has also been praised for her renditions of Rosina in il Barbiere di Siviglia (San Diego Opera, Santa Fe Opera, Indianapolis Opera, Orlando Opera), Dorabella in Cosi fan Tutte (Orlando Opera, Connecticut Opera), Cenerentola in Cenerentola (Kentucky Opera, Fresno Opera), Desideria in The Saint of Bleecker Street (Central City Opera) and Maddalena in Rigoletto (San Diego Opera, New York City Opera, Opera Company of Philadelphia).
Her natural sensuality also lends itself remarkably well to a host of pants roles, including her favorites: Octavian, in Der Rosenkvalier (Florentine Opera), Cherubino in Le Nozze di Figaro (New York City Opera, Opera Company of Philadelphia), Hansel in Hansel and Gretel (Atlanta Opera) and Orfeo in Orfeo ed Euridice (Metropolitan Opera). She has also earned praise for her performances in modern American Operas with her Jo in Adamo’s Little Women (Opera Pacific), Thérèse, in Tobias Picker’s Thérèse Raquin (San Diego Opera) and for Sondra Finchley in Picker’s new An American Tragedy, which was her Metropolitan Opera principal debut in 2005.
In her 2008 debut at the famous Sidney Opera House with Opera Australia in her signature role as Carmen, she was called “stunning in the lead role of Carmen, with a confident and earthy stage presence and rich powerful voice,” and was said to have “a voice full of the requisite Bohemian fire and earthy sex appeal, a velvety mezzo in the same black and scarlet tones as her costumes, and she is disarmingly at ease in the role.”
The mezzo-soprano sings the title role of Carmen with the Orlando Opera, Manitoba Opera, and The New National Theatre in Tokyo, Japan, during the 2009-2010 season, and in the previous season, she was Orfeo in Orfeo ed Euridice (Metropolitan Opera), Rosina in Il Barbiere di Siviglia (Opéra de Nice, France) the title role of Carmen (Staatsoper Hannover, Germany, and with the Opera Australia on tour in Taipei), Dorabella in Cosi fan Tutte (Oper Graz in Austria), Maddalena in Rigoletto (San Diego Opera), and Preziosilla in La Forza del Destino (Caramoor Festival, NY). In addition, she joined the Detroit Symphony Orchestra for concert performances at the Meadow Brook Music Festival and she appeared with the Wintergreen Performing Arts Festival in performances of Manuel de Falla’s El Amor Brujo.
Ms. Chávez has also performed regularly on the concert stage with works such as: Handel’s Messiah, Mozart’s Requiem, Beethoven’s 9th Symphony, Bach’s Magnificat, and Rossini’s Stabat Mater.
Kirstin Chávez was born in Albuquerque, New Mexico, but spent most of her formative years in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, where her parents worked as English and Music teachers. She received a Bachelor of Music degree, with Honors, from New Mexico State University, and a Master of Music degree, in Performance, and the Performer’s Certificate, from the Eastman School of Music. After beginning an Artistic Residency with the Orlando Opera, Ms. Chávez won several major international competitions, including The Sullivan Foundation, The George London Foundation, the Licia Albanese-Puccini Foundation, the Opera Index Foundation, The Gerda Lissner Foundation, the Jensen Foundation, and the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions (National Finalist).