SHERRY ZANNOTH - SOPRANO

Biography

    "Sherry Zannoth's spellbinding technique made the fiendish role of Verdi's Lady Macbeth sound easy.  From secure top to solid bottom, her unusual voice as seamless as the music allowed”, said Opera News: while

Opernwelt said:  "The discovery -- Sherry Zannoth -- as the fiendish Lady Macbeth whose devastating energy flowed through every securely placed coloratura note, penetrating in the high register, expressive in her mezzo

range."  Her very first performance of the role elicited this response from the Nordheim-Westfallische Presse:  "With her fiery coloratura, powerful high notes, and expressive pianissimos, Sherry Zannoth both frightened and moved me as Lady Macbeth.  She went from compelling greed for power to a sleepwalking scene which made you understand her anguish and madness through exquisite singing and acting…"

    These reviews give you an idea of the power of soprano Sherry Zannoth, both as singer and actress.  A powerful singing-actress, she combines her actress sensibility with a large, expressive voice and a versatility which allows her to actually become the roles she sings. She is able to thrill as Tosca and display a heroic quality as Rezia in Oberon. Opernwelt said, "The Merry Wives were led by the graceful, charming acting of Sherry Zannoth asAlice Ford and her powerful, gleaming soprano.

     Ms. Zannoth has performed with such distinguished conductors as James Levine, Leonard Slatkin, Jeffrey Tate, Robin Stapleton, John Mauceri, Marcello Panni, Pinchas Steinberg, Daniel Lipton, Robert Page, Willie Anthony Waters, and Julius Rudel, among others.  Personally selected by acclaimed director Harry Kupfer, she made her Cologne Opera debut in his new production of Shostakovitch' The Nose, conducted by David Levy.

     Ms. Zannoth's Metropolitan Opera debut was in Kurt Weill's The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny.  Her European debut at the Wexford Festival, as Jenny in the same work, received the Irish equivalent of the Opera Oscar, and earned her the following reviews:  "A graduate of the NYC Met Mahagonny, Sherry Zannoth makes here her European debut as Jenny.  The voice is warmly vibrant…the combination of hard and soft, of clear-eyed honesty and rueful sophistication is brilliantly caught."… Financial Times-London. 

     This success led to an engagement at the State Theatre of Bremen, Germany for productions of La Traviata, Aida, Tosca, La Wally, and Falstaff.  She performed her first Fidelio and added Ariadne, Ellen Orford, Gertraud in Der Traumgorge (Szymanowski) and Anna in Zandonai's rarely heard I Cavalieri di Ekebu. 

     She has subsequently sung in Austria, Switzerland, Poland, and South America.  She then added the Far East and Middle East to her travels with six tours including Hong Kong, Korea, the Arab Emirates, India, Pakistan Malaysia, and Singapore.  These tours included performances for Prime Ministra Indira Gandhi of India, First Lady Imelda Marcos of the Philippines, and Queen Sirikit of Thailand.

    The performance of contemporary music is an important part of Ms. Zannoth's art.  While in Bremen, she sang the world premiere, for Radio Bremen, of Oliver Trotschel's Drei Gesange fur Sopran and Neun Spielen, Opus 24.  Ms. Zannoth also had the honor of being the first singer chosen to be an integral part of a world premiere by Johan Kresnik for his dance-theatre work Wendewut.  Wendewut was performed the Berlin Volksbuhne Modern Festival and was taped for television and broadcast on the European arts channel Arte.

    Ms. Zannoth has sung over a hundred performances of Madama Butterfly in five countries and in three languages, and had the honor of performing the first Traviata ever produced in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

    She also commands a large oratorio-orchestral repertoire, which includes the major works of Bach, Brahms, Beethoven, Berlioz, and as the winner of the New York Oratorio Society Competition, she made her Carnegie Hall debut singing Handel's Messiah with bass Samuel Ramey.  She returned to Carnegie Hall in 1995 to sing Verdi's Requiem, a work she has had the privilege of performing since the beginning of her career.  The Luzerner Tageblatt said: "Soprano Sherry Zannoth led the quartet with eloquent phrasing, gleaming high notes and a ‘Libera Me” haunting, moving pianissimos-truly memorable singing…"

    Last season, she performed a recital of Reynaldo Hahn for the Proust Society of America and will follow this with 2 more recitals of Frenchmusic next spring for the Mercantile Library, as well as performing more Hahn

on The Proust Gala at Alice Tully Hall.  In January and March, she premiered works by composer Andrew Violette in two concerts presented at Merkin Hall.  In March, she created the role of Vera in composer Patrick Byers' Incident at San Bajo, presented by Riverside Opera Ensemble at Theatre for the New City.

     In March, Ms. Zannoth will present a recital of contemporary composers for the Poetry Festival at the Mercantile Library. April will bring the premiere/release of Death of the Hired Man, award-winning composer of the piece, Andrew Violette at the keyboard. This Innuova CD will also feature Crash, poetry of Walt Whitman, a duet for soprano and tenor, also Andrew Violette with, the composer at the piano. Death of the Hired Man  will also be filmed for television.

     In May, Ms. Zannoth will premiere a song cycle on poems of Edgar Allan Poe by Nathan Matthews in a Merkin Hall concert for Riverside Opera Ensemble.