Dramatic soprano Leslie Helene Smith has sung some of the great ladies of Mozart and Britten in the past, and plans to be performing great roles of Verdi, Wagner and Strauss in the near future.  She is currently studying Leonora (Il trovatore, Verdi), Ariadne (Ariadne auf Naxos, Strauss), and Sieglinde (Die Walküre, Wagner).  She performed the role of Lady Billows  in Albert Herring with the Intermezzo Opera Festival in 2004 in Connecticut and in July 2003 she sang Donna Anna (Don Giovanni) in Bulgaria with the Plovdiv Philharmonic.  

 

While working on her masters in voice at Michigan State University (1997-2001), Ms. Smith performed such roles as the Witch in Hansel & Gretel, Mrs. Peachum (The Threepenny Opera), Katisha (The Mikado), Edith (The Pirates of Penzance) and Magda (The Consul, excerpt)  In her two summers at the Aspen Music Festival, she understudied Mrs. Maurrant (Street Scene) , sang a Poulenc song cycle on a joint recital, sang a John Corigliano song for the composer in a special class, and performed excerpted scenes from several operas including Fidelio (singing the role of Leonore).

 

She was the soloist for Aaron Copland’s In The Beginning in May 2005 in concerts with The Vocal Arts Ensemble of Ann Arbor and with The Zamir Chorale of Metropolitan Detroit. In 2001 Ms. Smith sang seven Verdi roles (including Ines from Il trovatore, Maddalena and Giovanna from Rigoletto, Flora and Annina from La traviata)  in a series of opera concerts in the Czech Republic with the Bohuslav Martinu Symphony and the Karlovy Vary Orchestra.  Ms. Smith has also been an orchestral soloist with The Bach Chorale of Ann Arbor in several performances of Bach cantatas and other works; and was the soprano solist for Third Millennium’s American premiere of the Busoni Mass in 2003.

 

 Ms. Smith is an avid recitalist, and has performed solo and joint recitals in such locales as Aspen, Colorado; Graz,  Austria; Plovdiv,Bulgaria; East Lansing and Ann Arbor, Michigan.  She will be giving a solo recital in April 2006 under the auspices of Arbor Opera Theater, in Ann Arbor.  The upcoming recital will include selections by Beethoven, Massenet, Verdi, Jake Heggie, and Tchaikovsky.