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Lisa Hopkins 

Lisa Hopkins (born 1978) is an American classical singer and actress from Simi Valley, California. She holds a B.A. in Theater Studies and Acting from Yale University and a M.M. in Classical Voice from the Manhattan School of Music.

She is best known for her portrayal of Mimi in Baz Luhrmann's 2002-03 production of La Bohème on Broadway, for which she received a Tony Award. Since then, Hopkins has performed around the United States and Europe in concerts and operas, at venues such as the Estates Theatre in Prague, Wolf Trap in Virginia, the Brooklyn Academy of Music, and at several music festivals.

Contents

Early life and training

Hopkins grew up performing all over the United States, from Los Angeles to Manhattan, North Dakota, Iowa, Missouri, Utah, and Canada. Her mother is a Juilliard-trained pianist with whom she continues to collaborate.[1] She attended the Waterford School in Sandy, Utah.[2]

Hopkins received her B.A. in Theater Studies and Acting from Yale University in 2001. After her freshman year at Yale, she studied at the Scuola Insieme in Grado, Italy. The following summer she played the role of Polly Peachum in The Threepenny Opera at the Chautauqua Institution Music Festival.[3] Upon her return to Yale her sophomore year, she founded the Yale College Opera Company, playing Cleopatra in Handel's Giulio Cesare and performing Poulenc's one-woman opera, La Voix Humaine for her senior project. She also sang the role of Casilda in The Gondoliers for Yale's Gilbert and Sullivan Society, among other roles.[4] Between her junior and senior years at Yale, Hopkins performed on tour as a soprano soloist in over 20 multimedia concerts in Graz, Klagenfurt, Salzburg, and Vienna, Austria.[1]

She received her M.M. in Classical Voice from the Manhattan School of Music in 2003, where she studied with Marlena Malas. In the summer of 2004, she studied at the International Vocal Arts Institute in Tel Aviv, Israel with Trish McCaffrey.

Career

While Hopkins completed her Master's Degree, she appeared on Broadway in Baz Luhrmann's production of La Bohème in the leading role of Mimi,[5] sharing in a special ensemble Tony Award. Ben Brantley of The New York Times noted, "Mr. Luhrmann's Bohème... turns out to be both the coolest and warmest show in town.... The principals are, to a person, sexy, vital, utterly committed to the moment.... [At] the end of Act III... Jesús Garcia and Lisa Hopkins are affectingly somber... with resigned postures that suggest a haunted awareness of doom.... They brought tears to my eyes."[6] Hopkins also appears on the production's cast album, singing the final act, and she sang excerpts from the role at the televised performance during the 2003 Tony Awards ceremony at Radio City Music Hall.

Hopkins was the soprano soloist in the Mozart Requiem and Mozart's Exsultate, jubilate with the Utah Symphony and Opera at the 2004 Deer Valley Music Festival. She was chosen to present a solo recital in March 2005, on the Marilyn Horne Foundation roster, at St. Bartholomew's Church as part of the "On Wings of Song" series.[7] Additionally, she was offered the role of Arianna in the U.S. premiere of Arianna in Creta with the Gotham Chamber Opera in New York City and the role of Cio-Cio San as a guest artist in a production of Madama Butterfly at the University of Nebraska. In 2006, Hopkins received praise as Donna Anna in Don Juan in Prague, an avant-garde adaptation of Don Giovanni, first performed in October 2006 at the Prague National Theatre and then in December 2006 at the BAM New Wave Festival in Brooklyn, New York. Newsday wrote, "The only member of the cast to escape the director's unmusical ministrations was Lisa Hopkins, who, as Donna Anna, managed to ignore the squeezebox screeches coming from the pit and speakers and deliver a sensitive lament."[8]

In 2007, Opera News called Hopkins "the kind of camera-ready young singer today's marketing directors dream of.... Fortunately, unlike all too many so-termed 'total package' artists these days [she] can also sing."[9] Hopkins sang the role of Sofia in Rossini's one-act opera Il Signor Bruschino with Gotham Chamber Opera in January of 2007.[10] Back Stage commented on the performance, "...soprano Lisa Hopkins as Sofia proves a deft comedian while singing with impressive flair."[11] Hopkins was also selected as a Wolf Trap Opera Company Filene Young Artist,[12] singing the role of Corvina in John Musto's adaptation of Volpone (June, 2007) and the First Lady in Die Zauberflöte (August, 2007).[13] The Washington Post wrote, "Lisa Hopkins Seegmiller, so expressive with her big Bette Davis eyes and fluttery voice, was deliciously funny as Corvina."[14]

In the summer of 2008, Hopkins is a resident artist at the Greenwich Music Festival, appearing as Amore in Claudio Monteverdi's Return of Ulysses[15] and the soprano soloist in the Festival's performance of the love songs from Monteverdi's Eighth Book of Madrigals.[16]

Personal

Hopkins is married and lives in Washington, DC.[17] She teaches voice privately in Washington and New York City.

References

  1. ^ a b Schulman, Michael. "Hopkins '01 heads off to Broadway", Yale Daily News, February 7, 2003, Retrieved on July 8, 2008
  2. ^ At the Waterford School, Hopkins won an Emerson Prize in 1998 for her essay on Thomas Jefferson.
  3. ^ Hopkins' profile at agent's site
  4. ^ Hopkins' profile at the LDS "film personalities" site
  5. ^ Baker, Celia R. "Down-Home Diva", The Salt Lake Tribune, March 16, 2003, Retrieved on July 8, 2008
  6. ^ Brantley, Ben. "Sudden Streak of Red Warms a Cold Garret", New York Times, December 9, 2002, Retrieved on July 8, 2008
  7. ^ Concert schedule
  8. ^ Roll over, Mozart: Your 'Don Giovanni' is wailing. Newsday, December 15, 2006
  9. ^ Opera News, April 2007
  10. ^ Schweitzer, Vivien. "Young Lovers, a Vespa and a Frolic by Rossini", The New York Times, January 27, 2007, Retrieved on July 8, 2008.
  11. ^ Forbes, Harry. "Il Signor Bruschino", Backstage.com, January 29, 2007, Retrieved on July 8, 2008
  12. ^ Wolf Trap website
  13. ^ "Sound system bedevils 'Flute'", The Washington Times (review praising the three ladies), August 20, 2007, Retrieved on July 8, 2008
  14. ^ Huizenga, Tom. "'Volpone': Putting On Heirs", Washington Post, June 25, 2007, p. C05, Retrieved on July 8, 2008
  15. ^ Return of Ulysses cast list, 2008 Greenwich Music Festival, Retrieved on July 8, 2008
  16. ^ Madrigali Amorosi cast list, 2008 Greenwich Music Festival, Retrieved on July 8, 2008
  17. ^ Waterford School Alumni News, December 2006, p. 8

External links
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