Season 2010 /2011
Susan Owen - Leinert, soprano
General Manager of
The Chamber Opera of Memphis
The American soprano has found her success in Europe, particularly in the German repertoire. Schooled at the Universities of East Carolina and Austin, Texas, she holds a Master of Music Degree. Currently she is professor of voice at the University of Memphis, TN. After winning the Metropolitan Opera International Auditions and the Opera America Award, she set her sights on Germany, where she found many opportunities to sing such roles as Santuzza, Leonora, Amelia,Tosca, Venus/Elisabeth, Jenufa, Brünnhilde,
Isolde, Färberin, Emilia Marty and Elektra, among others.
Emilia Marty
Elektra
Ms. Owen-Leinert has performed major roles in engagements at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, Semper Oper Dresden, Staatsoper Berlin Unter den Linden, Bayerische Staatsoper Munich, Deutsche Oper am Rhein, Staatstheater Kassel and Darmstadt, Oper Bonn and others. She has sung with such renowned conductors as Christian Thielemann, Daniel Barenboim, Janos Kulka, Jiri Kout, Marc Albrecht, Stefan Soltesz and Marc Soustrout. Guest engagements took her around the world to Italy, France, Belgium, The Netherlands, Austria, Mexico, Japan, Taiwan, Korea, the Middle East and Cyprus.
Die Walküre James Morris - Wotan
Complete live recordings of Der Ring des Nibelungen (Brünnhilde) were released on CD by Ars-Production, Germany. The music magazine Orpheus wrote “The American soprano throws herself into the part with power, passion and fire, perfect diction and a knowledge of what she is singing. An ideal Wotanstochter.” (Photo: Brünnhilde, DER RING DES NIBELUNGEN Götterdämmerung, Act 2, Kassel 1999 - Stage director: Michael Leinert)
Brünnhilde: Susan Owen-Leinert
Opernwelt:
“With a large voice, precise phrasing, great diction and a rare
seriousness in penetrating this role, she sings a Brünnhilde like one
seldom hears today.” Her concert repertoire includes Wagner’s
Wesendonck Lieder, Vier Letzte Lieder of Richard Strauss,
Sieben Frühe Lieder of Alban Berg, Arnold Schoenberg’s Gurre-Lieder
and Gustav Mahler’s 8th Symphony. Ms Owen-Leinert has sung
recitals in Europe and the United States with acclaim, recently in
Düsseldorf at the renowned Heinrich Heine & Robert Schumann
Festival 2006. She was invited by several radio stations, for
instance, Radio France - Paris, where she premiered Zygmunt Krauze’s
La Terre. Rolf Liebermann, well-known composer and former Intendant
of the Hamburgische Staatsoper wrote: “This great international success
would not have happened without her beautiful voice and impressive
musicality!"
Susan Owen-Leinert is Professor for Voice at the Rudi E. Scheidt School
of Music - The University of Memphis and the editor of the first
complete edition of 105 Klavierlieder by Louis Spohr (1784 -
1859) with the German music publisher Dohr, Cologne.
www.owen-leinert.com www.louis-spohr-society.org
Michael Leinert
Artistic Director and stage director of The Chamber Opera of Memphis
Born 1942 in Meldorf / Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. His father, Dr. Friedrich Leinert, was a well-known composer (a pupil of Arnold Schoenberg), conductor and Professor of Music in Hannover. Michael Leinert studied Music (Oboe), German Literature and History of the Arts at the University of Munich and Detmold. His teachers of Drama Direction and Opera Direction were Professor August Everding, Professor Heinz Arnold and Professor Götz Friedrich. In 1970 he became a Dramaturg and director for drama and opera at the Theater of Kiel. Following this appointment, came further engagements as Dramaturg and stage director at the State Theater of Braunschweig, the State Opera of Hamburg (Everding / v.Dohnanyi) and the State Opera of Munich (Everding). In 1985, Michael Leinert became the personal assistant of General-Intendant Tobias Richter (State Theater of Bremen). In 1988 he was appointed Artistic Director and General Manager of Pfalztheater Kaiserslautern and from 1991-1999 he was the Artistic Director and General Manager of the State Theater of Kassel. In autumn 1999 Leinert started his position as Chefdramaturg (Artistic Assistant) and stage director of the Deutsche Oper am Rhein Duesseldorf-Duisburg. Mr. Leinert has been invited to direct plays and operas in Germany, Italy, Denmark, Russia, The United States and Cyprus.
He created and directed the first Cypriote Opera "Manoli" by Vassos Arghyrides and Giorgos Neophytou, also the world premiere of Ingomar Gruenauer's "Amleth and Fengo" in Heidelberg and Jürg Baur's first Chamberopera (Libretto: M. Leinert after Chechov's "The novel with the contrabass", 2005) in Duesseldorf. At Palm Beach Opera, Florida, Leinert directed successfully "Samson et Dalila", The Flying Dutchman" and in 2002 Wagner's "Tannhaeuser". With great acclaim from International press, he directed in 2002 at the National Theatre of Cyprus in Nicosia the World Premiere of the Greek translation of Goethe's FAUST by the famous poet Nikos Kazantzakis. At the Chamber Opera of Hamburg he directed Donizetti's "Il Borgomastro di Saardam", Mozart's "Le nozze di Figaro", Giovanni Paisiello's "Il barbiere di Siviglia" and Wagner's "Das Liebesverbot". In March 2006 he produced successfully the opera HAMLET by Ambroise Thomas at the Deutsche Oper am Rhein, Duesseldorf-Duisburg. In March 2007 he produces the play DON JUAN by Molière with The Cyprus Theatre Organisation in Nicosia/Cyprus.
HAMLET Ophélie's Mad - Scene: Marlis Petersen
Michael Leinert's greatest international achievements as a director are: Don Giovanni, Der Ring des Nibelungen (1997 - 99), Tristan und Isolde, Tannhäuser, Der Fliegende Holländer (Kassel, Aachen, Heidenheim, Ferrara, Parma, Padua, Palm Beach Opera/Florida),Wozzeck,Tosca, La Bohème, Madama Butterfly, Il tabarro, Gianni Schicchi, Manon Lescaut , Rigoletto, Jenufa, Sibelius' The maiden in the tower and Rachmaninow's Francesca da Rimini (First Premiere in Germany), Pagliacci, Cavalleria rusticana and Ernst Krenek's Orpheus und Eurydike. His stage direction of Jan Cikker's Das Erdbeben in Chile (First Premiere in Germany) got the rating: "Best production of the month" from the Opera Magazine Orpheus International. For his stage direction of Leoncavallo's PAGLIACCI at the Operahouse of Halle he received a nomination in the OPERNWELT Year Book 1994/95 (Critic's inquiry) for his "expresssive Regie".
Nedda: Frauke Nehrig
Michael
Leinert produced many theatre plays, such as from Friedrich Schiller,
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Witold Gombrowicz, Jean Racine and Molière among others. Leinert founded the First European Drama Competition ( in
connection with the world's greatest exhibition for Modern Art:
documenta IX in Kassel, 1992), promoted by Sir Peter Ustinov and
Professor August Everding.
He performed also successfully experimental
authors and modern music composers as Mauricio Kagel (Presentation, Pas
de cinq, Himmelsmechanik, etc.), John Cage (Theatre piece, 4:33), Bent
Lorentzen (Perogolesi's Home Service), Wilfried Hiller (IJOB - world premiere at the Bavarian State
Opera of Munich, Opera Festival 1979 with Lorenz Fehenberger, tenor), Hans - Joachim Hespos
(Nachtvorstellung, world premiere 1886 in Bremen/Concordia),
György Ligeti (Rondeau), Jörg Wyttenbach (Streichquartett), Manfred Trojahn,
Dieter Schnebel (Nostalgie - Solo for conductor without an orchestra) , Manfred Niehaus,
Marc Neikrug (Through roses), Karlheinz Stockhausen, Hans Jürgen von Bose (BLUTBUND, world premiere at
Hamburgische Staatsoper) and others. He translated Jean Sibelius'
"Maiden in the tower" into the German language as well as
Donizetti's " Il pazzi per progetto" and Tom Johnson's "The four
note opera".
Mozart Don Giovanni, Kassel 1997 Nidia Palacios (Zerlina), Sedat Ötztoprak (Don Giovanni), Cyril Assaf (Masetto)
He has written and directed many Radio Plays, several opera libretti and three musical plays for children. His biography of the German Romantic Composer Carl Maria von Weber is published in the fifth edition by the well-known Rowohlt Verlag (Serie Monografien) and has been translated into Swedish and Chinese. Michael Leinert has taught as a Guest Professor of Opera History and Opera Literature and Drama at the Universities of Bremen, Braunschweig, Hamburg and Munich. At Robert-Schumann-Hochschule Düsseldorf he gave lessons in stage direction for the Opera Department. He is one of the directors of the Memphis Opera & Song Academy at the University of Memphis, Tennesse / USA, a new summer academy for singers. http://operasongacademy.memphis.edu
Michael Leinert was
for many years the Artistic Director of several
"Studios for Contemporary Experimental Music Theatre" in Germany, for
example in Kiel, where he was also the Director of "Musica nova" (1970
- 1974); later in Braunschweig, Coburg, at the Hamburgische Staatsoper (Opera
stabile), at the Bayerische Staatsoper Munich (together with Walter Haupt) and
in Bremen.
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The Composer of
Silent Partners
Dr. John David
Peterson, Professor Emeritus, at the Rudi E.
Scheidt School of Music - The University of Memphis,is the composer of
the chamber opera Silent Partners. He holds a doctorate in Organ
Performance from the University of Michigan, and has performed recitals
and presented workshops throughout the United States. He is co-editor of
the acclaimed Concordia edition of J.S. Bach's Orgelbüchlein
and has performed the complete solo organ works of Bach in a 15-recital
series. An accomplished pianist as well as an organist, he is active as
a vocal accompanist and chamber pianist. He is also a published composer
(Morning Star, L K Drew), arranger (Randall Egan, Bärenreiter-Verlag),
and author (The American Organist, The Diapason,
Opera Quarterly). He was a recipient of the University's
Distinguished Teaching Award in 2002.
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Dr. Randal Rushing, Tenor,
Professor of Voice, and Interim Director for the Rudi E. Scheidt School
of Music at The University of Memphis, is a gifted soloist of the
concert and opera stage at home and abroad. He made his Lincoln Center
debut this season in Handel's Messiah at Avery Fisher Hall. Upcoming
performances include Messiah at Carnegie Hall, Mendelssohn's
Lobgesang with Virginia Symphony, and Handel's Judas
Maccabeus with the Shreveport Symphony. He has performed with the
Chicago Symphony, Peter Schreier conducting, as soloist for the
Messiah, and with the 21st Century Consort as soloist in Mahler's
Das Lied von der Erde. With Memphis Symphony he performed the
Verdi Requiem. He made his fourth appearance at Carnegie Hall,
singing the role of the Evangelist in Bach's St. Matthew Passion
with the illustrious St. Cecelia Chorus, conducted by David Randolph.
Rushing recently returned to New York as tenor soloist in the U.S.
premiere of Mendelssohn's Dürer Festmusik with the AmorArtis
Orchestra under the direction of Stephen Somary.
Dr. Rushing made his début in 2001/2002 with the St. Cecilia Chorus and
Orchestra in a gala concert at Carnegie Hall as soloist in Mendelssohn's
Lobegesang and in Finzi's Ode for St Cecelia. He was
soloist for Bach's Christmas Oratorio and Mozart's Requiem
at Carnegie Hall, where he also débuted in the American premiere of
Bok's Missa Solemnis.
He has performed extensively throughout Germany, Switzerland, Central
America, the Czech Republic, and the United States. A recipient of the
Rotary International Foundation Scholarship, he studied at the
Staatliche Hochschule für Musik Rheinland in Köln, Germany. This was
followed by engagements with the Stadttheater Regensburg and Theater der
Stadt Heidelberg, guest soloist performances throughout Europe and
regular appearances on German and Swiss national and cable television.
Rushing received his American training and degrees from the University
of North Texas and Arkansas Tech University.
Dr. Rushing is under the exclusive management of Dispeker, Inc., of New
York. He oversees the School of Music's undergraduate scholarship
program and is director of the European Summer Music Institute in
Marktoberdorf, Germany.
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Laurence Albert
made his operatic debut with the Detroit Opera in 1977, and since,
has sung over 50 roles internationally with theaters including the St.
Louis Opera Theater, Opera Memphis, the Paris Opera Bastille, and the
Frankfurt Oper. Laurence Albert was the first African-American to
represent the Mid-South Region as prizewinner at the Metropolitan Opera
National Council Auditions held at the MET in April of 1981. Laurence is
also prizewinner of the Concours de Chant de Paris (Opera and Song), and
the International Concours Tryptique de Paris (French Melodie). For two
consecutive years, the Franz Schubert Institut of Austria awarded
Laurence its Franz Schubert Institute Prize for his interpretation of
the German Lied.
Laurence holds degrees in Music and Performance from Morehouse College,
and the St. Louis Conservatory of Music. He has performed oratorio, and
opera under the baton of Sir Michael Tippett, Robert Shaw, Leonard
Slatkin, John Nelson, Gary Bertini, and Rudolf Werthen.
Laurence has given master classes on performance, and interpretation in
France, Switzerland, and the United States. He conducted the Parisian
choral society 'The Voice of Freedom' dedicated to the performance of
the American Negro Spiritual from 1996 through 2002.
Laurence
Albert is currently an Adjunct Professor of Voice at Rhodes College, and
the University of Memphis (TN).
Laurence Albert can be heard in a EMI recording of George Enescu's opera
OEDIPE
(with José van Dam, Marjana Lipovsek, Brigitte Fassbaender, Barbara
Hebdricks, Nicolai Gedda a. o.), conducted by Lawrence Foster.
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Lenena Brezna, soprano
Lenena's Bio will be added soon.
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Photos: © Huther, Straub and Archives of The Chamber Opera
The Chamber Opera of Memphis is proud to present
a very special and rare photo of MARIA CALLAS.
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