Puerto Rican soprano Zulimar López-Hernández will make her Union Avenue Opera debut as Violetta in Verdi’s “La Traviata,” which Tim Ocel will direct and Scott Schoonover will conduct in four performances: July 11, 12, 18 and 19 (all shows at 8 p.m.).
“She is it in opera,” López-Hernández says of Violetta, a courtesan who falls deeply in love as she is dying of tuberculosis. “The role is a challenge, both vocally and dramatically.
Violetta is a wide stretch for the soprano, whose “bread and butter” roles, she said, are Musetta in “La Boheme,” Susanna in “Le Nozze di Figaro” and Norina in “Don Pasquale.”
She said the smaller dimensions of Union Avenue Opera made her feel comfortable accepting the challenge, as did the trust she feels for Ocel and Schoonover. She said they made her feel “safe” to rehearse and perform the demanding role.
“As a musician, you are the instrument and it is a physical experience,” she said of singing opera. “Your muscles have to work through your instrument; it takes time for your body to get used to the role. But I know they will take good care of me.”
She is currently based in New York City, where she studies with Ruth Falcon. She previously studied voice at Academy of Vocal Arts in Philadelphia and at the University of Puerto Rico, where a scholarship to sing chorus diverted her from her first major, nutrition. She said Puerto Rico is an island of art song.
“Classical opera is a big thing here,” she said, speaking by phone from Puerto Rico before she traveled to St. Louis for rehearsals. “There is a lot of good energy from the youth. Young singers want to speak their culture, and they want to communicate to the world through music, through opera.”
This will be her first visit to St. Louis, but colleagues who have done shows at Union Avenue Opera and Opera Theatre of St. Louis have led her to expect good things.
“I am told the community there really supports the arts,” she said. “I have a lot of great friends and colleagues who go there and love it. I can’t wait to be there for a month.”
Union Avenue Opera will perform “La Traviata” in Italian with English supertitles, accompanied by a full union orchestra. Italian-Canadian tenor Riccardo Iannello is playing the lead role of Alfredo, Violetta’s lover.
Familiar voices returning to the Union Avenue stage for this production include Debra Hillabrand, Robert Garner, Anthony Heinemann and Debby Lennon.
Also this season at Union Avenue Opera, two St. Louis premieres: Previn’s “A Streetcar Named Desire (August 1, 2, 8, 9) and Wagner’s “Siegfried,” reduced and adapted by Jonathan Dove (August 22, 23, 29, 30).
Tickets may be purchased online at www.unionavenueopera.org, by phone at 314-361-2881, and in person at Union Avenue Opera, 733 N. Union Blvd.
