Yvonne Kenny
One of Australia's most popular sopranos, Yvonne Kenny is an international star of the world's opera and concert stages. She is a lyric soprano with a brilliant and firmly controlled, reliable coloratura, yet she has a full and rich-sounding voice.
As a college undergraduate she studied biochemistry but after graduating and working in her field, she enrolled in the Sydney Conservatory, where she said it was "so blindingly obvious" that singing was her "true pathway." She was accepted at the La Scala Opera School in Milan, attending there 1973 to 1974.
Her professional debut was in a concert performance at London's Queen Elizabeth Hall of Donizetti's Rosmonda d'Inghilterra, in the title role. This was a nearly textbook lucky break. The soprano scheduled to sing, Janet Price, had to cancel, and Kenny was given four days to learn the part in this virtually unknown opera. This gained her excellent reviews and led to her being engaged by Covent Garden. Realizing they had obtained a special artist, Covent Garden reserved her debut at the house for a world premiere -- Hans Werner Henze's We Come to the River, in 1976.
Covent Garden immediately cast her in several more roles in operas from Handel (Alcina, Semele) to Britten (Helena in A Midsummer Night's Dream), with Mozart's roles of Ila (Idomeneo), Pamina, Servilia, and Susanna, and other parts such as Sophie in Der Rosenkavalier, another Sophie in Werther, and Micaëla in Carmen. The Rosenkavalier role was also her debut part at the English National Opera in 1977.
Soon she was singing in major houses around the world, including as often as she could guest performances with the Australian Opera, where she has sung Debussy's Mélisande, Massenet's Manon, Leila, Countess Adele, Fiordiligi, Alcina, and Handel's Cleopatra. She has continued to add Mozart roles to her repertory, including both Donna Anna and Dona Elvira in Don Giovanni, Giunia in Lucio Silla, and Aspasia in Mitridate, Handel's Romilda in Xerxes, and the Countess in Strauss' Capriccio. Since the turn of the century, she has continued to expand her repertoire to include roles like the Marschallin in Der Rosenkavalier, the Governess in The Turn of the Screw, Dido in Purcell's opera, Blanche in A Streetcat Named Desire, and Jocasta in Oedipus Rex.
As early as her debut in Rosmonda d'Inghilterra, it was recognized that she would be a natural for roles in Italian bel canto operas, and she sings several Donizetti, Bellini, and Rossini parts. She sang the title role in the world premiere of Gavin Bryars' Medea at Lyons in 1984.
Other major opera houses and companies with which she has appeared included the Aix-en-Provence Festival, the Salzburg Festival, Glyndebourne Festival Opera, Zurich and Munich Opera, Washington, D.C. Opera, Scottish Opera, and many others.
Kenny is an admired and popular oratorio and concert singer. On records, she can be heard as Adelia in Ugo conte di Parigi, the title roles of Emilia di Liverpool and Mayr's Medea in Corinto, Penelope Rich in Britten's Gloriana, and several Mozart roles, as well as concert works including Handel's Messiah, Mendelssohn's Elijah, and Mahler's Fourth Symphony. She was awarded the Order of Australia in 1989, and in 2000 appeared before an international television audience of millions singing at the closing ceremonies of the Sydney Olympic Games.
© TiVo
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Mahler: Symphony No. 2 "Resurrection"
Yvonne Kenny, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Wiener Philharmonic Orchestra, Klaus Tennstedt, Jard van Nes, Neville Creed
Classical - Released by London Philharmonic Orchestra on 1 Mar 2010
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Howells: Orchestral Works
Richard Hickox, London Symphony Orchestra, Yvonne Kenny, Lydia Mordkovitch, Moray Welsh
Symphonies - Released by Chandos on 1 Feb 2005
24-Bit 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Vaughan Williams: Pastoral Symphony & Oboe Concerto
Bryden Thomson, London Symphony Orchestra, Yvonne Kenny, David Theodore
Symphonies - Released by Chandos on 1 May 1988
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Donizetti: Emilia di Liverpool
Yvonne Kenny, Sesto Bruscantini, Chris Merritt, Geoffrey Dolton, Philharmonia Orchestra, David Parry
Classical - Released by Opera Rara on 1 Jan 1987
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Mendelssohn: Elijah
Classical - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on 1 Jan 1992
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
KALMAN: Csardasfurstin (Die) (The Gypsy Princess)
Operettas - Released by Naxos on 1 Jan 2004
24-Bit 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Vaughan Williams: A Pastoral Symphony (No. 3) & Oboe Concerto
Yvonne Kenny, David Theodore, London Symphony Orchestra, Bryden Thomson
Classical - Released by Chandos on 1 May 1988
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Great Operatic Arias, Vol. 5
Yvonne Kenny, David Parry, Philharmonia, Barry Banks, Della Jones, Geoffrey Mitchell Choir
Opera - Released by Chandos on 1 Jun 2000
24-Bit 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
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The Divine Yvonne Kenny
Classical - Released by ABC Classic on 18 Nov 2006
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
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The Canterbury Pilgrims - At the Tabard Inn - In Honour of the City
London Symphony Orchestra, Yvonne Kenny, Richard Hickox, Robert Tear, Stephen Roberts, London Symphony Chorus
Classical - Released by Chandos on 20 May 1997
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Offenbach: Robinson Crusoe
John Brecknock, Yvonne Kenny, Alun Francis, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
Classical - Released by Opera Rara on 1 Jan 1993
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Baroque Clelebration
Opera Extracts - Released by Chandos on 1 Feb 2002
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Górecki: Symphony of Sorrowful Songs (1000 Years of Classical Music, Vol. 97)
Symphonic Music - Released by ABC Classic on 18 Mar 2016
24-Bit 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
19th-Century Heroines
Yvonne Kenny, David Parry, Philharmonia Orchestra
Opera - Released by Opera Rara on 1 Jan 1994
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Make Believe - Classic Songs of Broadway
Classical - Released by ABC Classic on 4 Jan 2002
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Mozart Arias with Obbligato Intruments
Australian Chamber Orchestra, Richard Tognetti, Yvonne Kenny
Classical - Released by Sony Classical on 29 Apr 1994
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Requiem, K. 626
Yvonne Kenny, William Kendall, Choir Of St. John's College, Cambridge, David Wilson-Johnson, Sarah Walker
Classical - Released by Chandos on 1 May 2004
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Airs célèbres d'opéra
Opera Extracts - Released by Chandos on 1 Jul 2003
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Singing for Love: Immortal Duets, Arias and Songs
Classical - Released by ABC Classic on 7 May 2010
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo