Samantha Hankey Announces 23/24 Season, Debuts at Royal Opera House and Detroit Opera

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 
Contact: Katy Salomon | Primo Artists | VP, Public Relations 
katy@primoartists.com | 212.837.8466 

 Mezzo-Soprano Samantha Hankey Announces
2023-2024 Season Highlights

Following a Remarkable 2022/23 Season,
Hankey Debuts at Royal Opera House and Detroit Opera

Returns to the Metropolitan Opera, Opernhaus Zürich,
and Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin

Recitals at Antwerp LiedFest and The Trust Performing Arts Center

“she is emerging as a major artist of her generation” – The New York Times

“startlingly powerful” – Dallas Morning News

www.samanthahankey.com

New York, NY (August 15, 2023) – With “much elegance and youthful tone” (Financial Times), mezzo-soprano Samantha Hankey is increasingly in demand around the globe for her powerful stage presence, paired with a voice admired for its “dusky focus and hypnotic allure.” (The Times).

Hankey’s 2023-2024 season features a full slate of operatic roles, concert performances and recitals – highlighted by her debuts at the Royal Opera House debut as Dorabella in Così fan tutte and the Detroit Opera as the Fox in Leoš Janácek’s The Cunning Little Vixen. Among her other season highlights, Hankey returns to The Metropolitan Opera to take the role of Stéphano in Roméo et Juliette. She also appears with Lyric Opera of Kansas City in Cavalleria Rusticana (Santuzza) and with Opernhaus Zürich for Così fan tutte (Dorabella). In concert, Hankey will take part in a performance of Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis with Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin. She will also be featured in recitals at Antwerp LiedFest and at The Trust Performing Arts Center in Lancaster, PA.

Hankey concluded her 2022/23 season on a high note with two summer performances in Santa Fe. Upon making her Santa Fe Opera debut as Mélisande in Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande, The New York Times raved, “mezzo-soprano Samantha Hankey sang Mélisande with a weighty lower range and a mixture of chilliness and seeping passion. Another commanding stage presence — whether here, or earlier this season as Octavian in Der Rosenkavalier at the Metropolitan Opera — she is emerging as a major artist of her generation.” The Santa Fe Reporter called her “the stand-out in this show … her singing is lovely, but her acting also is visceral, embodying both loneliness and terror vividly.” She also performed alongside Pelléas et Mélisande co-star Huw Montague Rendall in recital in the 10th Anniversary Festival of Song at Performance Santa Fe.

She begins her 2023/24 season at the Lyric Opera of Kansas City, singing the role of Santuzza in Pietro Mascagni’s Cavalleria Rusticana, paired as a double-bill with Ruggero Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci. Performances are scheduled for September 23 and 29, and October 1.

On September 23 and 29, and October 1, 2023 Hankey takes the role of Santuzza in Lyric Opera of Kansas City’s staging of Pietro Mascagni’s Cavalleria Rusticana, paired as a double-bill with Ruggero Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci.

On November 12, 2023, Hankey will appear with Germany’s Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin (RSB) in a performance of Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis. She will perform as one of four featured soloists alongside the Rundfunkchor Berlin and Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin, with Vladimir Jurowski conducting.

She then travels to Belgium for a recital, O Boundless, Boundless Evening, at Antwerp LiedFest on November 18, 2023. Paired with pianist Aaron Wajnberg, Hankey will perform works by Debussy, Strauss, Barber, Alban Berg and Alma Mahler.

To begin 2024, Hankey will return to Opernhaus Zürich, singing the role of Dorabella in director Kirill Serebrennikov’s revival of Mozart’s Così fan tutte. Performances will take place January 28 and February 3, 7 and 10, 2024.

On February, 29, 2024, Hankey joins Marc A. Scorca, president/CEO of OPERA America, at OPERA America’s National Opera Center for a conversation about forging and sustaining an international career in opera, with a reception to follow.

For six dates in March, Hankey takes the trouser role of mischievous pageboy Stéphano in The Metropolitan Opera’s production of Charles Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette, conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin. Performances will be held March 7, 10, 15, 19, 23 and 30, 2024. Part of the Met’s Live in HD series, this performance will also be screened in cinemas across North America March 23, with an encore broadcast set for March 27.

Hankey performs a recital co-presented by Lancaster Art Song Society and The Trust Performing Arts Center in Lancaster, PA on March 12, 2024 in works by Strauss, Bizet, and Debussy.

On May 11, 17 and 19, 2024, Hankey makes her Detroit Opera debut as the Fox in The Cunning Little Vixen, Leoš Janácek’s whimsical modern fable about a clever vixen who tries to outwit her captors. This production originally from The Cleveland Orchestra uses playful projections to transform singers into forest creatures, with hand-crafted animations that evoke the fable’s comic-strip origins.

In June and July 2024, Hankey once again sings the role of Dorabella in Così fan tutte, this time marking her debut at London's Royal Opera House. The production directed by Jan Philipp Gloger will take place June 26 and 29, and July 2, 4 and 9, 2024 with a cast of Golda Schultz, Daniel Behle, Andrè Schuen, and Jennifer France.

Samantha Hankey 2023-2024 Season Calendar
September 23, 29, October 1, 2023
Lyric Opera of Kansas City Presents Cavalleria Rusticana
Kansas City, MO
Link: https://kcopera.org/performances/cav-pag/

November 12, 2023
Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin (RSB) Presents Missa Solemnis
Berlin, Germany
Link: www.rsb-online.de/en/concerts/vladimir-jurowski/

November 18, 2023
Antwerp LiedFest
Antwerp, Belgium
Link: https://amuz.be/activity/o-boundless-boundless-evening/

January 28, February 3, 7, 10, 2024
Zurich Opera Presents Così fan tutte
Zurich, Switzerland
Link: www.opernhaus.ch/en/spielplan/calendar/cosi-fan-tutte-448/season_50348/

February 29, 2024
OPERA America Presents Samantha Hankey in Conversation
New York, NY and Livestream
Link: www.operaamerica.org/industry-resources/2024/202402/samantha-hankey-in-conversation/

March 7, 10, 15, 19, 23, 30, 2024
The Metropolitan Opera Presents Roméo et Juliette
New York, NY
Link: www.metopera.org/season/2023-24-season/romeo-et-juliette/
Live in HD: www.metopera.org/season/in-cinemas/2023-24-season/romeo-et-juliette/

March 12, 2024
The Trust Performing Arts Center Presents Samantha Hankey
Lancaster, PA
Link: http://lbc.vbotickets.com/event/samantha_hankey_|_soprano/102237

May 11, 17, 19, 2024
Detroit Opera Presents The Cunning Little Vixen
Detroit, MI
Link: https://detroitopera.org/season-schedule/the-cunning-little-vixen/

June 26, 29, July 2, 4, 9, 2024
The Royal Opera House Presents Così fan tutte
London, UK
Link: www.roh.org.uk/tickets-and-events/cosi-fan-tutte-by-jan-philipp-gloger-details

More About Samantha Hankey
Hankey opened her 2022-2023 season as Federico García Lorca in a new production of Golijov’s Ainadamar at Scottish Opera, directed by Olivier Award-winning choreographer and director Deborah Colker, followed by a house debut at Chicago Lyric Opera as Hänsel in Hänsel und Gretel. The season also marked her Carnegie Hall recital debut in Weill Recital Hall with pianist Sophie Raynaud. Other highlights included her return to the Metropolitan Opera as Octavian in Der Rosenkavalier (broadcast Live in HD); her role and house debut as Mélisande in a new production of Pelléas et Mélisande by Netia Jones at Santa Fe Opera; and reprising Così fan tutte (Dorabella) at Palm Beach Opera.

Significant house and role debuts in recent seasons include the Gran Teatre del Liceu Barcelona as Der Komponist in Ariadne auf Naxos, Dorabella in Così fan tutte at San Diego Opera, and Ruggiero in Glyndebourne Festival’s new production of Alcina. She made her role debut as Prince Charming in Cinderella at the Metropolitan Opera, and her house debut in the same role at the Opéra de Paris, before returning to Munich’s Bayerische Staatsoper as Cherubino in Le nozze di Figaro and Octavian in Der Rosenkavalier, a role that she debuted to critical acclaim in the new production by Barrie Kosky, conducted by Vladimir Jurowski.

From 2019-2021, Samantha held a Fest contract at the Bayerische Staatsoper, where she made notable appearances as Hänsel in Hänsel und Gretel, Wellgunde in Das Rheingold, Zweite Dame in Die Zauberflöte, and Carmen in Marina Abramovic’s new production of 7 Deaths of Maria Callas at the Opernfestspiele. Other notable house debuts include the Metropolitan Opera where Samantha performed a myriad of named roles in a single season, Opernhaus Zürich, Den Norske Opera, The Dallas Opera, and Grand Théâtre de Genève.On the concert stage, Samantha performed the title role in Handel’s Agrippina in concert with Il Pomo d’Oro in Turku, Finland, where she was praised by Turun Sanomat for her “marvelously rich mezzo.” She also appeared at Bard Festival in Lili Boulanger’s Faust et Hélène, at Carnegie Hall in Handel’s Messiah, in solo recital at London’s Wigmore Hall with Malcolm Martineau and in New York City at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall and the Metropolitan Museum of Art with Brian Zeger, and Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall.

Equally at home in classical repertoire and new music, Samantha has a longstanding relationship with composer David Herzberg, with whom she co-developed the title role in The Rose Elf as well as The Fairy Prince in The Wake World, both of which received considerable praise through multiple workshops, premieres and CD recordings. She also has been involved in numerous world premieres including productions with Opera Philadelphia and The Metropolitan Opera.

Samantha’s career includes awards in a vast number of national and international competitions. In 2018, she won both First Prize and the Media Prize at the Inaugural Glyndebourne Cup. The same year, she took home multiple prizes at the Operalia Competition, winning top awards in the general division as well as the Birgit Nilsson Prize for her interpretation of the work of Richard Strauss. In 2018, Samantha also received a Career Grant from the Richard Tucker Music Foundation, following an earlier 2016 award of a Sara Tucker Study Grant. In 2017, she was named a Grand Finals Winner by the Metropolitan Opera National Council, took First Prize in the Dallas Opera Guild Vocal Competition, and received a Leonore Annenberg Arts Fellowship in the foundation’s final year.

Samantha is a graduate of The Juilliard School, where she received both her Bachelor and Master of Music degrees and was recognized with several distinctions, including the Peter Mennin Prize for Outstanding Achievement and Leadership in Music and The Juilliard Kovner Fellowship.

A native of Marshfield, Massachusetts, Samantha Hankey embraced her passion for music from an early age after performing in a local production of Annie at age six. She sang with the Boston Children’s Chorus for several years as a youth, attended the distinguished Walnut Hill School for the Arts, and pursued pre-college vocal training at the Longy School of Music and the New England Conservatory.

*Photo Credit: Fay Fox

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