Praised by Opera News for her “unusually rich and resonant” voice, contralto Sara Couden has already established herself as a premiere interpreter of operatic and chamber repertoire. Highlights of her 2018-19 season include Dejainira (HERCULES) at the Staunton Music Festival, Testo in Stradella’s LA SUSANNA with Heartbeat Opera and Opera Lafayette, Israelitish Man (JUDAS MACCABAEUS) with Philharmonia Baroque, Bach cantatas at the Philadelphia Chamber Music Series, Shostakovich’s FROM JEWISH FOLK POETRY with the Chamber Music Series at Lincoln Center, and the Alto Soloist in Bach’s ST. MATTHEW PASSION with True Concord Voices. Ms. Couden made her Metropolitan Opera debut as Albine (THAÏS) in 2017 and will return to the Met this season to cover Marta and Pantalis (MEFISTOFELE).
In previous seasons, Ms. Couden toured Japan with Maestro Masaaki Suzuki as the Alto Soloist in Bach’s B MINOR MASS and covered Erste Magd (ELEKTRA) at the Metropolitan Opera. She has also appeared as Third Lady (DIE ZAUBERFLOTE) with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Dryade (ARIADNE AUF NAXOS) with West Edge Opera and the Alto Soloist in MAHLER SECOND SYMPHONY with the Santa Cruz Symphony. She recently completed the Lindemann Young Artist Program at the Metropolitan Opera and has been a fellow at the Marlboro Music Festival, Music@Menlo, Music Academy of the West, and the Institute for Young Dramatic Voices. Ms. Couden is an early music enthusiast and an indefatigable performer of 20th and 21st century music, constantly experimenting with sound, color, and text in works by composers from Monteverdi to Menotti. A gifted actress, her vast repertoire includes roles ranging in style from the terrifying Baba (THE MEDIUM) to the tragic Cornelia (GIULIO CESARE), as well as the comic Dame Quickly (FALSTAFF) and Katisha (THE MIKADO). A former violist and choral singer, Ms. Couden began to seriously study voice after receiving her Bachelor’s degree in Literature from University of California Santa Cruz. She went on to earn her Master’s of Music with Honors in Opera from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and an AD in Early Music, Chamber Music, and Oratorio from the Yale Institute of Sacred Music. She has studied with Cesar Ulloa, Marilyn Horne, Warren Jones, John Churchwell, Ken Noda, Dolora Zajick, James Taylor, Fred Carama, and Ken Noda, and been coached by Deborah Voigt and Renata Scotto. She also trains at The Barrow Group, an acting school and theater in New York City. Artist personal website here Reviews:
Dejanira, Hercules, Staunton Music Festival 2018: “Sara Couden...was phenomenal in this role. ...Her connection with the audience...was superb; she made us laugh uproariously at the bits of comedy that director Ethan Heard worked into the show (e.g. Dejanira emasculating Hercules by seizing his beer and remote control for herself while singing “Resign thy club”) but also held us all utterly rapt—and sympathetically a little terrified—with “Where shall I fly.” (She got a tremendous ovation for the latter.) ...[H]aving seen her...as Dejanira—a role that traverses emotions from anxiety to mourning, envy and anger to guilt—I would say there is now no limit to her expressive range. Her time in the Met’s Lindemann Young Artist Program seems to have been well spent. And her voice is rich and powerful with delicious contralto low ornaments.” (Verdi Prati, verdiprati.tumblr.com) Telemann’s “Canary Cantata,” Music@Menlo 2018: “For charm and a sense of goofiness welcome in Menlo’s solemn precincts, nothing could outdo contralto Sara Couden’s performance... Telemann pours all the pathos of early Italian tragic opera into his music; this is transmuted into bathos by the libretto’s intense devotion to the tiny subject of the mourning. Couden milked this contrast with avidity, pouring audible sobs and wails into her deep, thick-toned voice, backing it up with grieving facial expressions and gestures of futility, even grasping at her clothes.” (David Bratman, San Francisco Classical Voice, sfcv.org) Shostakovich’s From Jewish Folk Poetry, Music@Menlo 2018: “I was particularly struck by Gilbert Kalish’s understated but intense piano playing and Sara Couden’s wonderful contralto voice, but the whole thing was terrific and hair-raising in a way that only the best Shostakovich can be.” (Wendy Lesser, The Lesser Blog, threepennyreview.com) Mahler’s Resurrection Symphony, Santa Cruz Symphony 2018: “Urlicht...was beautifully expressed by Metropolitan Opera soloist Sara Couden...” (Fleur Williams, Local Santa Cruz) “Contralto Sara Couden, in lustrous voice, was fantastic in the setting of Urlicht” (Joe Sekon, Peninsula Review) Albine, Thaïs, Metropolitan Opera 2017: “...made everyone in the theater sit up and take notice to hear her magnificent contralto pour out the devout phrases of Abbess Albine. She took ordinary Massenet and made it extraordinary with her opulent delivery. This is a voice I’m eager to hear in Bach or Wagner!” (John Yohalem, Music America) “Sara Couden gives a warm and winning turn as the Abbess Albine who welcomes Thaïs to the cloister and later prepares her for eternity” (Charles Geyer, La Scena Musicale) Third Lady, Los Angeles Philharmonic 2017: “...positively projecting those resounding low notes to the rafters...” (Tony Frankel, stageandscreen.com) Brahms’ Balladen und Romanzen, Marlboro Music 2017: “Particularly impressive was Sara Couden, unusually a real contralto, with a rich and warm delivery...” (Jim Lowe, Barre Montpelier Times Argus) Kabanicha, Juilliard Opera 2017: “...caustic and possessive...delivered tirades at her son in chilling tones” (Anthony Tommasini, New York Times) “...fearless in creating such an unlikeable character” (vocedimeche.reviews) “The final scene with her Tichon over Kát’a’s dead body was bone-chilling stuff, as the lonely, repressed woman sought to connect, first with the horrified village and then with her son in a moment of utter, selfish need” (Paul J. Pelkonen, super-conductor.blogspot.com) Teresa, Met + Juilliard’s Sonnambula 2016: “Couden’s rich mezzo-soprano and calm demeanor were ideal for Teresa” ( Anthony Tommasini, New York Times) “Ach, dass ich Wassers g’nug hätte,” New York Baroque Incorporated 2015: “The highpoint was the disconsolate Lamento by J. S. Bach’s older cousin Johann Christoph Bach, ‘Ach, dsss ich Wasser’s gnug hätte,’ sung to perfection by alto Sara Couden.” (Stan Metzger, seenandheard-international.com) Schumann, Schubert, and Brahms, PCMS 2016: “Sara Couden’s opulent contralto was heard to formidably dramatic—at times spine-chilling—effect...” (Bernard Jacobson, seen and heard-international.com) |
Upcoming Ruth - Pirates of Penzance Winter Opera St. Louis November 8 & 10, 2019 Ormindo in Erminlinda Ars Minerva November 22 - 24, 2019 Israelitish Man - Judas Maccabaeus Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra & Chorale December 5 -8, 2019 Soloist/Gamut Bach Ensemble Philadelphia Chamber Music Society December 15-18, 2019 Grieg Songs Brooklyn Art Song Society March 2020 Alto Soloist - Elijah Yale Camarata April 3-5, 2020 |
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