Sara Blanch creates an incandescent Zerbinetta

THE SONGBIRD: Born in Spain in 1989, Sara Blanch studied ballet, piano, and singing in her youth. She received her degree in voice from the Liceu Conservatory of Barcelona and made her operatic debut in 2013 at the Rossini Opera Festival playing Contessa di Folleville. Blanch has appeared in opera houses and concert venues across Spain (Barcelona, Madrid, Seville, Peralada, and Oviedo) as well as Italy, France, Russia, and Germany. Roles include Norina, Lucia, Matilde, Fiorilla, Adina, Queen of the Night, and Zerbinetta.
THE MUSIC: Richard Strauss's opera "Ariadne auf Naxos" premiered twice. The first was in 1912 in Stuttgart where it was conceived as a short opera to accompany a new adaption of Moliere's play, "Le Bourgeois gentilhomme." This version was performed in other cities over the next year (Zurich, Munich, Prague, and London), but the play/opera hybrid concept proved ineffective (and way too long at over six hours). Working with his librettist/partner Hugo von Hofmannsthal, Strauss refashioned the opera as a stand-alone work with a newly added prologue, which premiered to success in Vienna in 1916. This version of the opera was quickly embraced by critics, artists, and the public -- it has since been recorded commercially many times and is performed regularly around the world. Zerbinetta's grand aria "Grossmächtige Prinzessin" is arguably the most daunting coloratura showpiece ever written. It's not just long at about 12 minutes; it doesn't merely contain a full armada of coloratura vocal acrobatics (trills, cadenzas, scales, filigree, high notes, wide leaps, and so on); it's not just the freewheeling harmonic structures -- no, this scene demands a level of virtuosic musicianship and theatrical flair that is simply unmatched. Zerbinetta is a coloratura soubrette on steroids! In this scene and role, Strauss invented an entirely new musical language to exploit the unique glories of the coloratura soprano voice.