WildKat is thrilled to welcome the incandescent American soprano, Angel Blue

A star of the highest caliber, Angel’s most recent triumphs have included headlining the Metropolitan Opera’s season-opening Porgy and Bess, an acclaimed production that was beamed all around the world in HD, while proving so successful that extra performances had to be added – something without precedent in the Met’s modern history.

The American soprano regularly has critics reaching for superlatives.

“…as Bess, the sumptuously voiced soprano Angel Blue is radiant, capturing both the pride and fragility of the character.”

The New York Times

“Oh boy, could she sing. I have listened to the score of this opera countless times but this was different. Her performance was beyond description. It was as if I heard the music for the first time.”

Evening Standard

“It’s impossible to decide which aspect of Blue’s performance was the most enchanting: her radiant voice with its seemingly effortless (and endless) top notes; her joyous stage presence; or her nuanced take on the contradictory character of Bess as party girl, faithful sweetheart and substance/sex addict.”

Observer

Angel has been immersed in music throughout her lifetime, with a father who was an accomplished gospel singer and mother who played piano and violin. The Californian family frequently travelled together as Angel’s father was a preacher who gave sermons throughout the US. Her first encounter with opera came on one such trip to Cleveland when, aged four, she was taken to a concert version of Turandot. Impressed by one particular singer, Angel announced, “I want to be like the woman in the light”.

Voice and classical piano lessons followed and her passion for opera grew, eventually leading to two university music degrees, and three young-singer career-building programs.

Angel has performed in more than 35 countries with companies including the Vienna State Opera, La Scala (as the company’s first black Violetta), Dresden Opera, San Francisco Opera, Frankfurt Opera, the Aix Festival, Berlin Philharmonic, Sydney Symphony, Seoul Arts Center, and the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden.

In a busy year ahead, Angel is slated to kick off LA Opera’s new season on Sept. 26, 2020, with her role debut as Leonora in Il Trovatore. It is a homecoming of sorts for the star who was a member of the company’s Young Artist Program.

Prior to her appearance with LA Opera, in a perfect prelude to America’s Independence Day celebrations, Angel will open Boston Symphony Orchestra’s Tanglewood season on July 3, singing Barber’s Knoxville: Summer of 1915. Often compared to trailblazing soprano Leontyne Price, the next couple of years will see Angel take on several other Price signature roles culminating in her role debut as Aida.

American audiences will also be able to catch Angel as Mimì in no fewer than four different productions of Puccini’s La Bohème with Seattle Opera, San Diego Opera, the Metropolitan Opera and at Washington National Opera, and future international engagements include Violetta in Verdi’s La Traviata at La Scala in November and the title role in Puccini’s Tosca at Semperoper Dresden in December, with more to be announced soon.

Angel funded her musical training at UCLA by participating in beauty pageants, along the way collecting the Miss Hollywood crown and becoming the first African-American to hold the title of Miss Apple Valley. She also discovered a talent for broadcasting and has had great success as a presenter for BBC Proms on both television and radio.

Everyone at WildKat is delighted to be working with Angel!