Frédérique Vézina (born c. 1977) is a Canadian operatic soprano. Vézina gained recognition when she made her Canadian Opera Company debut in 2002–2003 as Lisa and Mascha in Tchaikovsky's The Queen of Spades.[1][2] Critics hailed the arrival of a major presence on the operatic stage.[3] Critic Robert Everett-Green of The Globe and Mail praised her "big Act III aria" as "eloquent testimony to the character's own addiction to emotional gambling."[4] She was cast in the Canadian debut of The Handmaid's Tale in 2004.[5] She was featured as Ellen Orford in Benjamin Britten's Peter Grimes[1] and Belinda in Dido and Aeneas. Vézina played Filumena at the National Arts Centre 28 April 2005 and 30 April.[6]
Career
editBorn in Montreal,[7] Vézina attended the F.A.C.E. high school for performing arts,[8] and graduated from CÉGEP Vanier College.[1] Vézina completed a Bachelor of Music Degree at the Schulich School of Music of McGill University[1] in 2002.[5] She placed first for three consecutive years at the National Association of Teachers of Singing competition (1996, 1997, and 1999) and was awarded the Most Promising Singer prize in 1997.[9] In 2002, at the Trois-Rivières Symphony competition, she was awarded the Grand Prize as well as a recital broadcast on CBC Radio.[1] Vézina placed first at the National Music Festival competition in Calgary as well as in the Concours International de Chant de Marmande (France).[1] She was a Metropolitan Opera semi-finalist in 2004 and a winner of the Début Inc Young Artists Competition.[1]
Vézina has collaborated with internationally renowned conductors including Richard Bradshaw, James Conlon, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Hans Fricke, Bernard Labadie, Jacques Lacombe, Kent Nagano, Peter Oundjian, Yoav Talmi, Bramwell Tovey, and Timothy Vernon. Her most notable roles include, Mimi (La Bohème), Liza (Queen of Spades), Tatyana (Eugene Onegin), Donna Elvira (Don Giovanni), Contessa (Le nozze di Figaro), Ellen Orford (Peter Grimes) and the creation of Lillian Alling (Lillian Alling).
Vézina received a Graduate Diploma in Opera from The Juilliard School of Music and was a lecturer at University of Western Ontario since 2011.[10] She has been a Sessional Voice Instructor at the University of Toronto since 2013.[11]
See also
edit
References
edit- Citations
- ^ a b c d e f g "Vanier Alumni Frédérique Vézina Is an Up and Coming Opera Star". Montréal: CÉGEP Vanier College. Retrieved 7 January 2012.
- ^ "Review - The Queen of Spades - Canadian Opera Company, Toronto - Christopher Hoile". stage-door.com. Retrieved 17 June 2016.
- ^
"A winning hand for The Queen of Spades". Toronto Star. Toronto: Torstar Corporation. 29 September 2002. p. D05. OCLC 679765547.
Frédérique Vézina ... escalat[ed] from the supporting role of the maid Mascha to the co-starring role of Lisa ... performed as impressively as if she had been engaged for the role in the first place.
- ^
Everett-Green, Robert (28 September 2002). "Soprano plays her cards right » The Queen of Spades". The Globe and Mail. Toronto: Bell Globemedia. p. R7. ISSN 0319-0714.
Vézina's Lisa wandered into Herman's orbit with the home-girl naiveté of Bizet's Micaela, and emerged from it as a suicide who had been seduced and abandoned. The dark mahogany tone of Vézina's soprano somehow verified the dignity that was continually being stripped from her, and her performance of her big Act III aria made eloquent testimony to the character's own addiction to emotional gambling.
- ^ a b Terauds, John (6 January 2005). "A notable rising talent » Frederique Vezina gives solo recital at Music Toronto next Thursday". Toronto Star. Toronto: Torstar Corporation. ONT Edition Entertainment p. G03. OCLC 679765547. Archived from the original on 1 February 2013.
- ^ Simonot, Colette. "Filumena". The Encyclopedia of Music in Canada. The Historica Dominion Institute. Archived from the original on 3 February 2013. Retrieved 7 January 2012.
- ^ Litwin, Grania (2 October 2005). "On top of opera". Times Colonist. p. A15.
- ^ Crew, Robert (20 November 2003). "Frederique Vezina shy no more: COC gave soprano her lucky break: Sings Mahler with Mendelssohn Choir". Toronto Star. Toronto: Torstar Corporation. p. G04. OCLC 679765547.
- ^ MacMillan, Rick (November–December 2006). "The lyric soprano reflects on a dream role in a season of debuts: Frederque Vezine finds a sympathetic soul in Puccini's Mimi". Opera Canada. Vol. 47, no. 5. Toronto: Opera Canada Publications. pp. 16–17. ISSN 0030-3577. Retrieved 8 January 2012.
- ^ "Frederique Vezina - Don Wright Faculty of Music - Western University". uwo.ca. Retrieved 17 June 2016.
- ^ "University of Toronto - Faculty of Music - Our People". music.utoronto.ca. Retrieved 17 June 2016.