Susan Owen-Leinert sownlnrt@memphis.edu (office) owenleinert@aol.com (private)
American dramatic soprano
Susan Owen is a leading
interpreter of the German Romantic and 20th century repertoire.
The
German magazine Opernwelt reported
of her performance of Brunnhilde:
"With a large voice, precise phrasing,
great diction and a rare seriousness in penetrating this role;
she sings a Brunnhilde
like one seldom hears today".
Ms. Owen made her debut at the
Deutsche Oper Berlin as Isolde in Wagner's Tristan und Isolde
under the
batons of Christian Thielemann and Jiri Kout, she performed Strauss' Elektra
at Staatsoper Hannover,
the Dyer's wife at the Semperoper in Dresden in Die Frau
ohne Schatten. At the Deutsche Oper am Rhein
she was heard as Senta and Isolde.
Susan Owen returned to the USA to perform both Elisabeth and Venus
in a new
production of Tannhaeuser at the Palm Beach Opera and was invited to
Taipei and to Tokyo for concerts
to sing
Bruennhilde with the NHK Orchestra in excerpts from Der
Ring des Nibelungen. In April, 2004 she sang
the role of Isolde at
the Opera de Nancy et de Lorraine, France.
Her interpretation of the role of Elektra by Richard
Strauss was hailed in the press as the 'Singer-Discovery of the year 2000'.
She
debuted this role at Staatstheater Darmstadt under the baton of Marc Albrecht and has
performed Elektra at
Aalto Theater Essen ( Stefan Soltesz conducting), Theatre
Munster, Antikenfestspiele in Trier and Staatsoper Hannover.
At Staatstheater Darmstadt
(1999 - 2002) she debuted the roles of Isolde, the Faerberin
(Dyer's wife), Emily Marty
(The Makropoulos Case) and Ortrud in Wagner’s Lohengrin.
Ms. Owen sang her first complete cycle as Brunnhilde with great
critical acclaim in Michael Leinert’s production of Der Ring des Nibelungen at
Staatstheater
Kassel
during the 1997 - 1999 seasons. Live recordings of this
complete Ring production were successfully released by Ars-Production
in Germany.
As Brunnhilde she has been a guest in
numerous opera houses including Oper Bonn, Theatre Kiel, Theatre Augsburg, at
the Opera Royal de Wallonie
in Liege, Belgium and Teatro Giuseppe Verdi in
Trieste, Italy.
From 1995 - 1999 Miss Owen was a member of the ensemble at
the Staatstheater Kassel
where she excelled as Santuzza (Cavalleria Rusticana), Leonora
(La Forza del Destino), Giorgetta (Il Tabarro), Marie (Wozzeck) and the title role in
Jenufa under the baton of Janos Kulka.
Her concert repertoire includes, among others, Richard Wagner's Wesendock-Lieder, Arnold Schoenberg’s Gurrelieder and Gustav Mahler's 8th
Symphony.
Susan Owen made her European debut in 1993 with an
invitation from Maestro Daniel Barenboim to the Staatsoper Unter den Linden
in Berlin for
Helmwige
in the Harry Kupfer production of Die Walkuere. She returned to the Staatsoper as Senta in Der Fliegende Hollaender, a role with which
she has
enjoyed great success in the theatres of Bologna, Kassel and Aachen.
Born in Salisbury, North Carolina, Susan Owen received her
Bachelor of Music Degree from East Carolina University and her Master of Music Degree
from
the University of Texas at Austin.
Ms. Owen captured the attention of the opera world when
she was a winner of the 1990 Metropolitan Opera
National Council Auditions and in 1991 the
Opera America Award. Many engagements followed in her early career. She performed Maddalena
in
Andrea Chenier (Hawaii Opera), Aida (Lyric Opera Kansas City) and Tosca
(Austin Lyric Opera and Virginia Opera).
With Eve Queler and the Opera Orchestra of New
York she sang the part of Irene in Wagner's Rienzi, and at Austin Lyric
Opera she debuted in the role
of Elisabeth in Tannhaeuser.
Susan Owen-Leinert is associate professor of voice at the Rudi E. Scheidt School of Music at the University of Memphis, Tennessee.
She is the founder of the
Memphis Opera & Song
Academy , a summer academy for opera singers on
the verge of international careers. From 2005 - 2007 she was the district
director for the Metropolitan Opera Guild Auditions. In October,
2007 she performed Peter Maxwell Davies
"one-woman-opera" THE MEDIUM at The Chamber Opera of Memphis
in Harris Concert Hall in Memphis, TN., and also toured to Hamburg and Duesseldorf,
Germany. Her next successful premiere was the role of the Theater Director in Pergolesi's
Home Service at The Chamber Opera of Memphis in October 2008. She translated this opera by Bent Lorentzen into English for the publisher Edition
Wilhelm Hansen in Copenhagen, Denmark.
In 2009 Susan Owen-Leinert
was the recipient of the CCFA Dean's Creative Achievement Award.
She has been a guest lecturer, recitalist and given master classes in the United
States, Germany and Cyprus.
As the president of theSpohr Society of the United States, Susan Owen -Leinert
is, together with her husband Michael Leinert, the editor of the first
critical edition of the "Complete Lieder" in 12 vols. by Louis Spohr at the German
Publisher Dohr, Cologne, Germany.
www.dohr.de/autor/spohr.htm .
Excerpts from opera productions and concerts with Susan Owen-Leinert can be
viewed at VIDEO CLIPS.
Please click to:
Repertoire Susan Owen
The_Spohr_Society_of_the_United_States
The Chamber Opera of Memphis
Photo Gallery Susan
Reviews in English
CD From
the Treasure Chest of German Lied
Der
Ring des Nibelungen
Ring Reviews
The German CD label ARS Produktion
www.ars-produktion.de produced with
Susan Owen-Leinert as Brunnhilde in
RICHARD WAGNER's
DER RING DES NIBELUNGEN (DIE WALKUERE; SIEGFRIED, GOETTERDAEMMERUNG,
a complete live recording from Staatstheater
Kassel, Germany).
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