Photo: Peggy De Witt
Biography
“Elizabeth McDonald…as Elettra, provided
a gorgeous, gleaming tone and powerful coloratura attack.”
-- Urjo Kareda, The Globe and Mail, April 9, 2001
One of the hottest young Canadian sopranos, Elizabeth McDonald is a former member of the Canadian Opera Company Ensemble Studio. As a last minute replacement, she made her triumphant professional debut with the COC as Elettra in Idomeneo in the spring of 2001 and garnered more rave reviews after her appearance with the Company during their popular Altamira Summer Opera Concerts the following summer. Subsequently, while taking care of her newborn daughter, she understudied a number of roles with the COC including the Woman in Robert Lepage’s critically acclaimed production of Schönberg’s Erwartung, Madama Cortese in Rossini’s Il Viaggio a Reims, and the soprano soloist in Verdi’s Requiem.
During the summer of 2000, she was an Apprentice Artist with the Santa Fe Opera, where she was the recipient of the Judith Raskin Memorial Award for Singers, and covered the roles of the Prima Donna in the North American premiere of Venus und Adonis (a role she also covered for the COC during its Canadian premiere in January 2001), and the Overseer in Strauss’ Elektra. During Santa Fe Opera’s Apprentice Showcase Series of staged opera excerpts, she was heard as Musetta in La Bohème and in the title role in Tosca.
Named a 2002 Laureate of the Jeunes Ambassadeurs Lyriques, Elizabeth was also a finalist and first Canadian representative at the Fourth International Festival of Operatic Singers “Marie Kraja” in Tirana, Albania, a semi-finalist at the 2002 Eckhardt-Gramattee Competition and a winner of the Great Lakes Districts in the Metropolitan Opera Competition of 2002.
Elizabeth graduated from the Eastman School of Music in May of 2000 with a Masters of Music in Performance and Literature where she studied with the late Dr. William McIver. While at Eastman, she was awarded the prestigious Performers’ Certificate and placed second in the first ever Lotte Lenya Competition in 1998. She is a 1996 honours graduate of the Bachelor of Music program from the University of Toronto, where she was a student of Mary Morrison. In addition, Elizabeth trained at the Banff Centre for the Arts in the Dramatic Integration Program, the Britten-Pears School in Contemporary Song Literature, the Orford Arts Centre, and at the Vancouver Early Music Festival.
2002/2003 season engagements with the COC included the role of Miss Jessel in the COC Ensemble Studio production of Britten’s The Turn of the Screw and the understudy of the title role in Janáček’s Jenůfa. In addition, Elizabeth performed a number of recitals in Ontario including those with the Mozart Society, the Off Centre Music Series with Canadian baritone James Westman, and was a featured soloist in the “Grand and Glorious Operatic Choruses” concert with Chorus Niagara.
The 2003/2004 season included performances with the National Ballet of Canada as the featured soloist in David Del Tredici’s Child Alice: Part I In Memory of a Summer Day. Elizabeth was also a featured soloist in the Quinte Cabaret for the Belleville Festival of Trees 2003 and was heard as part of the Belleville Public Library’s Lunchtime Concert series, which was broadcast on Cogeco Cable 4 Television.
-- Urjo Kareda, The Globe and Mail, April 9, 2001
One of the hottest young Canadian sopranos, Elizabeth McDonald is a former member of the Canadian Opera Company Ensemble Studio. As a last minute replacement, she made her triumphant professional debut with the COC as Elettra in Idomeneo in the spring of 2001 and garnered more rave reviews after her appearance with the Company during their popular Altamira Summer Opera Concerts the following summer. Subsequently, while taking care of her newborn daughter, she understudied a number of roles with the COC including the Woman in Robert Lepage’s critically acclaimed production of Schönberg’s Erwartung, Madama Cortese in Rossini’s Il Viaggio a Reims, and the soprano soloist in Verdi’s Requiem.
During the summer of 2000, she was an Apprentice Artist with the Santa Fe Opera, where she was the recipient of the Judith Raskin Memorial Award for Singers, and covered the roles of the Prima Donna in the North American premiere of Venus und Adonis (a role she also covered for the COC during its Canadian premiere in January 2001), and the Overseer in Strauss’ Elektra. During Santa Fe Opera’s Apprentice Showcase Series of staged opera excerpts, she was heard as Musetta in La Bohème and in the title role in Tosca.
Named a 2002 Laureate of the Jeunes Ambassadeurs Lyriques, Elizabeth was also a finalist and first Canadian representative at the Fourth International Festival of Operatic Singers “Marie Kraja” in Tirana, Albania, a semi-finalist at the 2002 Eckhardt-Gramattee Competition and a winner of the Great Lakes Districts in the Metropolitan Opera Competition of 2002.
Elizabeth graduated from the Eastman School of Music in May of 2000 with a Masters of Music in Performance and Literature where she studied with the late Dr. William McIver. While at Eastman, she was awarded the prestigious Performers’ Certificate and placed second in the first ever Lotte Lenya Competition in 1998. She is a 1996 honours graduate of the Bachelor of Music program from the University of Toronto, where she was a student of Mary Morrison. In addition, Elizabeth trained at the Banff Centre for the Arts in the Dramatic Integration Program, the Britten-Pears School in Contemporary Song Literature, the Orford Arts Centre, and at the Vancouver Early Music Festival.
2002/2003 season engagements with the COC included the role of Miss Jessel in the COC Ensemble Studio production of Britten’s The Turn of the Screw and the understudy of the title role in Janáček’s Jenůfa. In addition, Elizabeth performed a number of recitals in Ontario including those with the Mozart Society, the Off Centre Music Series with Canadian baritone James Westman, and was a featured soloist in the “Grand and Glorious Operatic Choruses” concert with Chorus Niagara.
The 2003/2004 season included performances with the National Ballet of Canada as the featured soloist in David Del Tredici’s Child Alice: Part I In Memory of a Summer Day. Elizabeth was also a featured soloist in the Quinte Cabaret for the Belleville Festival of Trees 2003 and was heard as part of the Belleville Public Library’s Lunchtime Concert series, which was broadcast on Cogeco Cable 4 Television.
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