Biography
Canadian soprano Adrianne Pieczonka was raised in Burlington Ontario. She studied voice at the Universities of Western Ontario and Toronto. In 1988 she won the first prize at Hertogenbosch (Netherlands) and La Plaine sur Mer (France) international singing competitions. In 1989 she was engaged as soloist at the Vienna Volksoper and in 1991 she became a member of the Vienna Staatsoper.
Her operatic repertoire includes the following roles: Countess - Le Nozze di Figaro, Donna Elvira and Donna Anna - Don Giovanni, Arabella - Arabella, Marschallin - Der Rosenkavalier, Ariadne - Ariadne auf Naxos, Eva - Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, Elsa - Lohengrin, Desdemona - Otello, Elisabetta - Don Carlos, Alice Ford - Falstaff, Tatyana - Eugene Onegin, Lisa - Pique Dame, Agathe - Der Freischütz, Ellen - Peter Grimes, Katja - Katja Kabanova, Elisabeth – Tannhäuser and Sieglinde – Die Walküre. Future roles are Leonora – Il Trovatore, Amelia – Un Ballo in Maschera, Amelia – Simone Boccanegra and the title role of Tosca.
She has sung in many of the world’s leading opera houses including Munich, Dresden, Berlin, Hamburg, Vienna, Buenos Aires, Glyndebourne, Zurich, Geneva, Milan, Florence, London, Barcelona, Paris, Los Angeles and many others. In opera and concert, she has worked with many of the world’s leading conductors including Riccardo Muti, Zubin Mehta, Lorin Maazel, Claudio Abbado, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Sir Georg Solti, Sir Colin Davis, Christian Thielemann and others.
Operatic highlights include: her debut at Covent Garden as Donna Anna in Don Giovanni conducted by Sir Colin Davis in January 2002, Otello in 2002, Rosenkavalier in 2003 and Tannhäuser in 2005 at the Scala, Salzburg Festival Elisabetta in Don Carlos in 2003 and Marschallin in Der Rosenkavalier in 2004 and her debut at the Metropolitan Opera as Lisa in Pique Dame in January 2004. She made her debut as Sieglinde in Die Walküre in a new production of the Canadian Opera Company in April 2004. She sang the part of Sieglinde at the Metropolitan Opera New York. She will appear in the new production of the Ring at the Bayreuth Festivals in 2006.
As a concert performer Adrianne Pieczonka has appeared at the Proms in London, the Edinburgh Festival, the Salle Pleyel in Paris, Konzerthaus Vienna, Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall New York, at the Lucerne Festival, Montpellier Festival and Salzburg Festival. As a recitalist she received highest accolades by international press and audience.
Adrianne Pieczonka has recorded the role of Rosalinde in Die Fledermaus on the Nightingale Label and is also highly featured in the first ever complete recording of the orchestral songs by Richard Strauss and Alice Ford on the most recent recording of Falstaff under Claudio Abbado on the Deutsche Grammophon. An aria CD will shortly appear at Orfeo International.