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Carolyn Betty

About this Artist

CAROLYN BETTY (First Lady) is quickly distinguishing herself as one of the new up and coming sopranos to watch. This season, she returns to the Pittsburgh Opera as First Lady in Die Zauberflöte. She most recently appeared there as Fiordiligi in Così fan tutte and Micaela in Carmen. Other recent opera engagements have included Anna Maurrant in Kurt Weill's Street Scene, Nanny in Miss Havisham's Fire, and Annina in La Traviata at the Opera Theater of Saint Louis; Vitellia in La clemenza di Tito, and Anna Maurrant, at the Wolf Trap Opera; roles in the Opera Company of Philadelphia's productions of Aida, La Traviata, Il barbiere di Siviglia, and Susannah; and the title role in Vanessa and Fiordiligi at the Curtis Institute of Music.

She is a recent graduate of the Pittsburgh Opera Center, where her roles included Vitellia, the Fifth Maidservant in Elektra, and Amore and Melanto in Il Ritorno d'Ulisse in Patria.

In concert this season, Betty performs in Mendelsssohn's Incidental Music to A Midsummer Night's Dream with the National Symphony Orchestra. She recently appeared at the Hollywood Bowl in a concert performance of the final act of Götterdämmerung with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and with the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra in a performance of Howard Shore's The Lord of the Rings Symphony. Her other concert engagements have included First Flowermaiden in Parsifal with Pierre Boulez, and Dvor?ák duets with Iván Fischer, both at the Los Angeles Philharmonic; Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 with Mariss Jansons and the Pittsburgh Symphony; Rosalinde in selections from Die Fledermaus with the National Symphony Orchestra; Handel's Messiah with the Baltimore Symphony; and recitals with Stephen Blier with both The New York Festival of Song and Wolf Trap Opera.

A Wilmington, Delaware native, Carolyn Betty was a winner of the 2002 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. Her other awards include the 2006 George London/Kirsten Flagstad Memorial award, a 2004 Richard Tucker Study Grant, the 2000 Richard Gaddes Career Grant, a 2002 Sullivan Award, and a 2003 Shoshana Foundation Award.

06/07