mercymom

Lisette Oropesa, a 2005 graduate of LSU in vocal performance will sing the part of Susanna in The Marriage of Figaro for opening night tonight at the MET. Lisette had been the understudy and performed in the final dress rehearsal Friday night and then was told she would have the part for the five October performances (Oct. 2, 6, 10, 13 and 18).

Lisette is a lyric soprano and was a student of Robert Grayson at LSU. She was a Grand Finals winner at the MET National Council Auditions in 2005, is in her third year of the Met's LYADP (Lindemann Young Artist Development Program), and in 2007 she won 1st Place in the Gerda Lissner Foundation, and the Licia Albanese Puccini competitions.

(my S is auditioning at LSU, among others, so I've been doing research)

lorelei2702

Her mom, Rebecca Orapesa, started at one of the NO schools, transferred to LSU, studied there in the 80's, a very fine lyric soprano voice. Lisette was the little girl under the piano, literally.

LSU is quite a fine music school, has an outstanding, very well integrated vocal program, the faculty works well together, EXCELLENT choral person, good opera training, a solid graduate program, but the undergrads get opportunities, too. Highly recommended as a relatively unknown option ouside the typical conservatories and Big Ten state schools which come to mind as premiere music schools.

mercymom

The NYTimes gave opening night a great review. Apparently Lisette was understudy to Isabel Bayrakdarian for the part of Susanna, Figaro's bride. Ms. Bayrakdarian, who is pregnant withdrew from the production late last week, and the Met gave the part to Lisette over the weekend, which happened to be her 24th birthday. What a present.

The review stated in part:
For a while, the return of Mozart’s “Nozze di Figaro” to the Metropolitan Opera stage promised at least one interesting quirk: Isabel Bayrakdarian was to sing Susanna, Figaro’s bride, though she is very visibly pregnant. A pregnant Susanna being chased by the Count and flirted with by Cherubino would have given the story a different spin.

But it was not to be. Ms. Bayrakdarian withdrew from the production last week, just a few days before the Tuesday opening. The soprano Lisette Oropesa, 24, a winner of the Met’s National Council Auditions in 2005 and currently in the company’s Lindemann Young Artist Development Program, took over the role. Before Tuesday, she had sung microscopic roles in Met productions of “Idomeneo” and “Suor Angelica.”

Ms. Oropesa’s last-minute elevation turns out to be a more interesting story than a pregnant Susanna. She proved a vocally and physically agile Susanna, with an attractively silky, flexible timbre. Her fine comic instincts and cheerfully bright sound put her in command of the stage during much of the first two acts. But she conveyed emotional depth too, most notably in her moving, dark-hued account of “Deh vieni, non tardar” in the final act.

Putting Ms. Oropesa in a cast that already included Erwin Schrott, a youthful Uruguayan bass, as Figaro, was a smart move....

mercymom

Congratulations to Lisette, and also to Robert Grayson at LSU for developing such a fine talent.