About this Artist
Israeli Mezzo-Soprano, RINAT SHAHAM, becoming known as a young artist who captivates her public, made her American debut as Zerlina in Don Giovanni with the Opera Company of Philadelphia in November 1994, a role she also performed for her European debut at the European Center for Opera and Vocal Art, Belgium. These were followed by a series of roles performed both with the Curtis Opera Theater and other professional venues, while obtaining both her Bachelors and Masters Degrees.
Miss Shaham has sung the title-roles in L'Incoronazione di Poppea, Dido and Aeneas, Elle in La Voix Humaine and Cherubino in Le Nozze di Figaro where she triumphed for the Vancouver Opera. Other roles include Idamante in Idomeneo, Countess Melibea in Il Viaggio a Reims and Bianca in The Rape of Lucretia.
Highlights of the 1997-1998 season included Miss Shaham's performance with the London Symphony Orchestra under Andre Previn in a concert of L'Enfant et les Sortilèges, immediately followed by a recording for Deutsche Grammophon, soon to be released. Later, Miss Shaham was invited by Marilyn Horne to appear at her Birthday Gala at Carnegie Hall on January 16, 1998. During the summer Miss Shaham performed the role of Dido in Dido and Aeneas for the Aix-en-Provence Festival, where she also sang a series of recitals.
As a recitalist, Miss Shaham appeared frequently in the USA, Canada, Europe and Israel. Recently she sang recitals in New York (for the Marilyn Horne Foundation), in Calgary, in Los Angeles and in Savona, Italy. In concert, she has appeared with the Concerto Soloists of Philadelphia and the Lyric Chamber Music Society of New York.
In the 1998-99 season, Miss Shaham opened the New York Chamber Symphony concert with Maestro Schwarz last October at Alice Tully Hall. In November she sang the title-role in Ravel's L’Enfant et les Sortilèges with the Minnesota Orchestra under their Musical Director, Maestro Eiji Oue. Shortly after these concert performances, Miss Shaham sang Kate Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly for her Boston Symphony debut with Maestro Seiji Ozawa in a production designed by Hanae Mori. During the spring she returned for a European Tour of Dido and Aeneas under the auspices of the Aix-en-Provence Festival.
In the 1999-2000 season, she successively sang again the role of Cherubino in Le Nozze di Figaro for the Opera Company of Philadelphia (a theater she will return to for Charlotte in Werther in 2000-2001) and Opera Pacific. In concert, Miss Shaham appeared with Vladimir Spivakov and the Moscow Virtuosi at Avery Fisher Hall in the Mozart Coronation Mass. During the following season she has been engaged to sing Cherubino with the Fort Worth Opera, Dorabella in Cosi fan tutte with Michigan Opera Theater and her first Carmen with Austin Lyric Opera. Miss Shaham also looks forward to her New York Philharmonic debut as the soloist in Bernstein's Jeremiah Symphony under Leonard Slatkin, which will follow shortly her performances of the same piece with the Santa Barbara Symphony and Gisèle Ben-Dor.
Ms. Shaham, a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music, is a scholarship recipient from the America-Israel Cultural Foundation and the first prize winner in the 1993 Mario Lanza Voice Competition. She is also the recipient of a Sullivan Foundation 1999 Grant and has been a Finalist in both the Concerto Soloists Competition (1994) and the Opera Index Competition (1995).
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