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INTRODUCTION
Corinne Winters is a powerhouse of voice, presence, and passion. As she takes on iconic roles from Mimì at the Met to Violetta in Rome, and returns to the haunting depths of Kat’a Kabanova in Munich, she continues to redefine what it means to be a modern soprano. In this exclusive conversation, Winters opens up about the emotional and physical demands of opera, her love of running, life on the road, and how fashion and femininity shape her stage presence.
BIOGRAPHY
Recently named Best Female Singer of 2024 by the Oper! Awards, American soprano Corinne Winters has sung over thirty leading roles in major opera houses around the world. Corinne begins her 24/25 season as the soprano soloist in Janáček’s Glagolitic Mass with Jakub Hrůša and the Czech Philharmonic, both for the BBC Proms and the Dvořák Prague Festival. Also in concert, she makes her debut as the title role in Puccini’s Manon Lescaut with Washington Concert Opera, and appears with the Smetana Litomyšl Festival in a gala concert of Slavic opera scenes. On the operatic stage, Corinne makes her leading role debut at the Metropolitan Opera as Mimì in La bohème, her house debut at the Bayerische Staatsoper in a new Krzysztof Warlikowski production of Káťa Kabanová, and her house debut with the Greek National Opera, reprising both title roles in Dmitri Tcherniakov’s production of Gluck’s Iphigénie en Aulide and Iphigénie en Tauride. Additionally, Corinne returns to the Royal Opera House Covent Garden as the title role in Jenůfa, and to Teatro dell’Opera di Roma as the title role in a new production of Suor Angelica. She will also return to one of her signature roles, Violetta Valéry, in a new production of La traviata during the summer of 2025 at Teatro dell’Opera di Roma. Corinne’s debut at the Salzburg Festival in Barrie Kosky’s production of Káťa Kabanová garnered international acclaim, including an International Classical Music Award for Best Opera DVD. In addition to Salzburg, Corinne has performed her signature role of Káťa at Seattle Opera, Teatro dell’Opera di Roma, Grand Théâtre de Genève, Janáček Brno International Festival, Staatsoper Stuttgart, and Opéra de Lyon. Other recent opera highlights include both title roles in Iphigénie en Aulide and Iphigénie en Tauride at Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, Rusalka at the Wiener Staatsoper and Opéra Royal de Wallonie-Liège, Moniuszko’s Halka at Teatro Real and Theater an der Wien alongside Piotr Beczała, Madama Butterfly and Blanche de la Force in Dialogues des Carmélites at Teatro dell’Opera di Roma, Madama Butterfly and Tchaikovsky’s Iolanta at Oper Frankfurt, Jenůfa at the Grand Théâtre de Genève, Jenůfa and Mimì in La bohème at the Palau de les Arts Reina Sofia in València, Giorgetta in Il Tabarro and Suor Angelica at La Monnaie / De Munt, and Violetta in La traviata at Royal Opera House Covent Garden, a role which she has also performed at Seattle Opera, Opera Australia, English National Opera, Opera Hong Kong, and Lithuanian National Opera and Ballet Theatre. In concert, Corinne has sung Strauss’s Vier letzte Lieder with the Bamberg Symphony at the Wiener Musikverein, the soprano soloist in Dvořák’s Stabat Mater with the Berlin Philharmonic, and Dvořák’s cantata The Spectre’s Bride with the Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, all conducted by Jakub Hrůša. Other concert highlights include a gala concert of arias with Andrea Battistoni and the Orchestre de Opéra Royal de Wallonie-Liège, the soprano solo in a European tour of Verdi’s Requiem with the Monteverdi Choir and Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique, led by Sir John Eliot Gardiner, and Les nuits d’été with the Borusan Istanbul Philharmonic Orchestra. She has appeared in recital with the George London Foundation, where she was praised by Opera News as “a striking brunette who manages to be simultaneously gamine and seductress, reveal[ing] an arresting, uniquely plum-colored soprano that could pass for mezzo in the middle but explodes with vibrant color on top,” as well as the New York Festival of Song, Tucson Desert Song Festival, and Vocal Arts DC, showcasing Spanish song repertoire from her debut album, Canción amorosa. An International Opera Awards nominee Best Female Singer in 2023, Corinne has won prizes from the Mabel Dorn Reeder Foundation, Marcello Giordani Foundation (1st prize, Critics Choice Award, Vero Beach Prize), George London Foundation (George London/Leonie Rysanek Award), Sullivan Foundation (Career Grant), Licia Albanese Puccini Foundation (1st Prize), Palm Beach Opera Competition (1st Prize), Gerda Lissner Foundation (2nd Prize), and the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions (National Semifinalist, 1st place New England Region), and is a recipient of Wolf Trap Opera’s Shouse Career Grant. Corinne earned a Master of Music degree in vocal performance from the Peabody Conservatory and Bachelor of Science degree magna cum laude from Towson University before appearing as a resident artist at the prestigious Academy of Vocal Arts in Philadelphia. As a master teacher and career mentor, Corinne enjoys sharing her passion for the craft with organizations such as Opera di Roma’s Fabbrica Young Artist Program, YoungArts Miami, Premiere Opera Foundation, National Student Opera Society UK, The University of Arizona, and her alma maters Towson University and the Peabody Conservatory, as well as her private voice studio.
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INTERVIEW
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Alice Lechner comes from a music-loving family. Her first encounter with the opera universe was at the tender age of six. The grandeur of the stage productions and costumes, the backstage chatter, and last, but definitely not least, the music left her in awe, beginning with Mozart’s Don Giovanni. The overall feeling that opera awakens in anyone who gets a glimpse into this part of artistic eternity, that each and every day passes the test of time, was what drew her to stay and be a part of this world. The Opera House of Brașov became her second home, and the people who worked there were her second family.
Since then, Alice has devoted her spare time to maximising her musical knowledge through instrumental studies, studying both piano and violin for a short time. In the following years, her number one passion stepped out of the limelight and graciously gave way to Law Studies.
Since 2018 she has been studying Law at “Alexandru Ioan Cuza” University in Iași.
Her passion for opera, even if it is no longer her top professional priority in terms of career, it has most definitely become her priority during her free time. Wanting to experience the best of both worlds and extend her musical horizons, she regularly attends opera performances throughout Romania and abroad.
With OPERA Charm Magazine, Alice aims to nurture her creative side to help it flourish and bloom and to discover, alongside the magazine’s readers, the fascinatingly complex world of opera.
Currently, she is an LL.M. in Business Law at “Alexandru Ioan Cuza” University in Iași.
Oana Zamfir is a second year MA student at the “George Enescu” National University of Arts, at the Department of Musicology.
She studied violin for 12 years at the “Stefan Luchian” High School of Art in Botosani, later focusing on the theoretical aspects of music. In 2019 she completed her bachelor studies in Musicology as a student of the National Academy of Music “Gheorghe Dima” in Cluj-Napoca. Her research during 2018-2019 brought to the forefront elements of the archaic ritual within works of composers who activated during the communist period, giving her the opportunity to start a research internship at the “Carl von Ossietzky” University in Germany. In this context, she recorded conversations with members of the Sophie Drinker Institute in Bremen, and had access to documents directly from the Myriam Marbé archive.
Since 2019 she has been a teacher of Music Education and Theoretical Music Studies, making full use of interactive methods in the musical training of students and working, at the same time, with the children’s choir founded in the first year of her activity.
Her interests include pursuing a degree in interior design in 2020.
Alexandru Suciu inherited his passion for art growing up in a family of several generations of musicians. He began his musical studies at the “Augustin Bena” School of Music in Cluj, where he studied piano and guitar. Even though his main study direction was philological, his passion for music prevailed. He began his academical journey at the Faculty of Letters of the “Babeș-Bolyai” University, studying Comparative literature and English. He continued by studying Opera Singing at the “Gheorghe Dima” National Music Academy. He also graduated the Musical Education section, followed by Artistic Directing at the Musical Performing Arts department.
His multidisciplinary education opened the doors towards research, which is seen both through his participation in national and international conferences and symposia, such as the Salzburg Easter School PhD-forum, organized by the Salzburg Universität or the Silesian Meeting of Young Scholars, organized by the Institute of English at the University of Silesia, as well as the collaboration with Opera Charm Magazine.
During his student years, he won several prizes, including the Grand Prize at the “Paul Constantinescu” National Musical Interpretation Competition, the Romanian Composers and Musicologists’ Union Prize at the same competition, the First Prize and the Schubert Prize at the “Ada Ulubeanu” Competition.
He further developed his artistic skills by specializing in courses and masterclasses held by personalities such as Vittorio Terranova, Giuseppe Sabbatini, Marian Pop, Ines Salazar, Riccardo Zanellato, Paolo Bosisio, Valentina Farcaș and Manuel Lange in contexts such as the Internationale Sommerakademie für Operngesang Deutschlandsberg, Corso Internazionale di Canto Lirico I.M.C. Licata or the Europäische Akademie für Musik und darstellende Kunst Montepulciano. Besides his activity on-stage, he currently teaches Opera Singing Didactics, and Pedagogical Practice within the Department for Teacher Education and Training at the “Gheorghe Dima” National Music Academy.
Cristina is a 24 year-old Romanian soprano & a student at the National University of Music Bucharest, where she pursues the MA program in Vocal Performance.
She made her debut in Pamina from “Die Zauberflöte” by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart at only 19 years old at the Bucharest National Opera House, as a member of the Ludovic Spiess Experimental Opera Studio. Over the years she made her debut in roles such as Contessa d’Almaviva (Le nozze di Figaro), Mimì & Musetta (La Bohème), Alice Ford (Falstaff), Erste Dame (Die Zauberflöte) in her university’s opera productions.
Her passion and experience extends in the field of choral music, too.
She has been part of our dream team since the fall of 2021. For a good period of time she took care of OPERA Charm’s social media and took you on the monthly journey through the history of opera through our Legends rubric – and a few times through the Theaters around the World rubric.
Her little soul rubric – from 2021 to present – is definitely the Conductors of the Future, where, every month, she gives you the chance to meet a young star of the world of conducting and, of course, to find out what’s the most charming feature of opera in these artists’ views.
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