Manon Strauss Evrard
Soprano
“Hoffmann's three great loves are often sung by three different sopranos, since Olympia (an animated doll) is a coloratura, Antonia (a singer) a lyric and Giulietta (a courtesan) a dramatic. But Manon Strauss Evrard, perfectly named for an opera singer, handled all the roles superbly. By turns sweet, clear, anguished, passionate, cloying and manipulative, she was tremendously impressive as both singer and actress, with the stage presence of a major star.”
– The Washington Post
French soprano Manon Strauss Evrard is one of the most promising young artists of today. Her professional operatic debut was as Violetta at the Prague State Opera in their 2006 new production of La Traviata. Miss Strauss Evrard made her Asian debut as Juliette in Gounod’s Romeo et Juliette with the Hong Kong Opera in 2007. She opens the 2007-2008 season as Musetta in Puccini’s La Bohème at the Den Norske Opera in Oslo, and will be both the four heroines in Les Contes d’Hoffmann and the title role in Lucia di Lammermoor with Virginia Opera.
Miss Strauss Evrard has been enrolled as a resident artist at the prestigious Academy of Vocal Arts in Philadelphia since September 2004, where she has performed the roles of Gilda in Verdi’s Rigoletto, Anita in Massenet’s La Navarraise, Donna Elvira in Mozart’s Don Giovanni, Musetta in Puccini’s La bohème, and the title role in Tchaikovsky’s Iolanta.
Miss Strauss Evrard’s professional engagements of the year 2005 include her performance of Elvira’s mad scene from I puritani at the Gala de l’Opéra de Montréal, and appearances in a Bel Canto Concert at the Miskolc Festival in Hungary under the baton of Joseph Rescigno. In addition, Miss Evrard has sung Mozart’s Exsultate Jubilate with the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia.
Miss Strauss Evrard’s dramatic and yet agile voice, combined with her outstanding musicality, enables her to tackle the most demanding roles in the Bel Canto repertoire. Among the roles she has been working on these past few years are the title roles of Rossini’s Armida and Semiramide and the heroines of Bellini’s I puritani, Il pirata, and La sonnambula. Other roles in preparation are Konstanze from Mozart’s Die Entführung aus dem Serail, the title role of Massenet’s Manon, and the role of Rosina in Rossini’s Il barbiere di Siviglia.
A native of Nancy, Miss Strauss Evrard is a Great Promise Award recipient and Regional Winner of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions of 2006, a second Place Winner of the Giargiari Bel Canto Competition 2005, a First Prize winner of the Competizione Internazionale di Canto Lirico di Rocca della Macie (Italy) 2004, a recipient of the Opera Norske Oslo Award from the International Belvedere Competition 2005, the Encouragement Award from the Marian Anderson Competition 2004, and the French awards of the Gold Medal at the Conservatoire National de Region de Nancy and the Adami’s Prize of the Golden Voice Competition 2002.