Opera star Isabel Leonard has been wowing audiences and critics around the world. She’s about to make her Cincinnati recital debut.
The singer, a mezzo-soprano and New York native, was scheduled to perform one of her signature roles, Rosina, in Rossini’s The Barber of Seville during Cincinnati Opera’s 100th anniversary season in 2020. We all know what happened — Covid caused the whole season to be canceled. Nevertheless, she did a charming podcast with artistic director Evans Mirageas, available here.
Finally, we’ll have a chance to hear Leonard’s artistry in some of her signature operatic arias and much more when she performs a recital with collaborative pianist John Arida for Matinée Musicale Cincinnati on Dec. 1 at Memorial Hall. The concert is at 5 p.m.
Since making her Metropolitan Opera debut as Stéphano in Charles Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette in 2007, she has sung on the world’s leading stages in a range of repertoire. This season (in June 2025), she’ll reprise Rosina in Damiano Michieletto’s production of Il barbiere di Siviglia at the Opéra National de Paris. She’s also performing Anita in a concert performance of Bernstein’s West Side Story, conducted by Gustavo Dudamel at the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona.
In 2020, Leonard appeared with Louis Langrée and the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra in a staged production of Ravel’s one-act opera, L’enfant et les sortilèges (The Child and the Sorceries). Here’s my review of her enchanting performance. (She also won a Grammy for the recording of this piece.)
Her Cincinnati program will show some of that versatility. Of course, we can’t wait to hear her sing “Una voce poco fa” from Rossini’s Barber of Seville, or “L’amour est un oiseau rebelle” from Bizet’s Carmen. There’s also a set of Spanish songs.
But for many in this audience, the icing on the cake will likely be her final set of Stephen Sondheim, Leonard Bernstein and a song by Jeanine Tesori and Dick Scanlan often performed by Kristin Chenoweth, “The Girl in 14G.”
Leonard has won three Grammy Awards — for Michael Tilson Thomas’ From the Diary of Anne Frank on SFS Media; Ravel’s L’enfant et les sortilèges on Decca; and The Tempest from The Metropolitan Opera on Deutsche Grammophon.
Her list of television and movie credits includes an appearance in the Leonard Bernstein biopic Maestro, directed by Bradley Cooper, in the finale of Mahler’s Symphony No. 2, “Resurrection.” She was just nominated for another Grammy for her performance in Maestro, alongside the London Symphony Orchestra led by Yannick Nézet-Séguin, in the category Best Compilation Soundtrack.
Tickets: $15-$35; students $10. Call the box office at 513-977-8838 (Tues-Friday, 1-6 p.m.) or visit matineemusicalecincinnati.org.
Brahms’ Sonata Op. 120, No. 2 in E-flat Major was the perfect introduction to this duo. (The work was originally written for clarinet and piano.) I was instantly struck by the rich, compelling tone of Pajaro-van de Stadt’s instrument. The warmth was palpable in her phrasing, and she took her time to allow the music to breathe in this wonderful, autumnal work.
