Kelly Kaduce
Praised for “shining a bright light on operatic stages around the country” (Minneapolis Star Tribune), soprano Kelly Kaduce is a national audience and critic favorite. For her creation of the title role in Anna Karenina, Opera News proclaimed her “an exceptional actress whose performance was as finely modulated dramatically as it was musically … and her dark, focused sound was lusty and lyrical one moment, tender and floating the next.”
In the summer of 2016, Ms. Kaduce debuted with Des Moines Metro Opera as Alice Ford in Falstaff, and performed Giorgetta in Il tabarro with Bard Music Festival. Her engagements in the 2016–2017 season include Nedda in I pagliacci with Virginia Opera, Liù in Turandot with Atlanta Opera, and a role debut as Desirée Armfeldt in Sondheim’s A Little Night Music with Des Moines Metro Opera. In the 2015–2016 season, Ms. Kaduce returned to Minnesota Opera as the title role in both Tosca and Rusalka, and Wendy for the world premiere of Moravec’s The Shining; Boston Lyric Opera as Mimì in La bohème; and to Houston Grand Opera as Tosca.
Her engagements in the 2014–2015 season included performances with Minnesota Orchestra, Canadian Opera Company, and Florida Grand Opera as the title role in Madama Butterfly. Other roles included Katya in The Passenger with Lyric Opera of Chicago, and Helmwige in Die Walküre with Houston Grand Opera. Her 2013–2014 season included returns to Opera Theatre of Saint Louis as Blanche in Dialogues of the Carmelites, to Minnesota Opera in the title role of Manon Lescaut, to Lyric Opera of Kansas City as Rosalinde in Die Fledermaus; and debuts with Houston Grand Opera as Katja in Weinberg’s Die Passagierin, and Utah Opera as Liù in Turandot. She also returned to Houston Grand Opera to sing Micaëla in a concert version of Carmen.
Recent successes include Cio-Cio-San in Madama Butterfly with West Australian Opera; Anne Sørensen in Kevin Puts’ Silent Night with Opera Philadelphia; Liù in Turandot in a return to Minnesota Opera; Nedda in I pagliacci in a return to Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, also with Arizona Opera Company, Cincinnati Opera, Opera Omaha, and Florida Grand Opera; the title role in Rusalka with Opéra de Montréal and Opera Colorado; Cio-Cio-San with Minnesota Opera and Santa Fe Opera; Patricia Nixon in Nixon in China with Eugene Opera; guest soloist in Verdi’s Requiem with Crane Orchestra and Chorus (New York); Mimì in La bohème in a return to Michigan Opera Theatre and Portland Opera; Violetta in La traviata with Opera Tulsa and in a return to Malmö Opera; Countess in Le nozze di Figaro with Eugene Opera; the title role in Suor Angelica and the Countess in Le nozze di Figaro with Florida Grand Opera; Princess Lan in Tan Dun’s Tea with Opera Philadelphia; Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni with Michigan Opera Theatre; her Kentucky Opera debut as Desdemona in Verdi’s Otello; a return to Opera Theatre of Saint Louis in the title role of Salome; and an evening of arias with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra.
Other highlights include her debut with Opera Pacific as Mimì and her returns to Malmö Opera as Marguerite in Faust, to Minnesota Opera in the title role of Rusalka, and to Opera Theatre of Saint Louis as Cio-Cio-San. She performed the title role in Suor Angelica at Teatro Municipal de Santiago in Chile, appeared in recital with the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, at Saint Olaf College and (with baritone Lee Gregory) at Bates College; and sang the role of Princess Lan in Tea in a re-engagement with Santa Fe Opera. She has received high praise for her returns to Boston Lyric Opera to perform Cio-Cio-San, to Minnesota Opera to sing Rosasharn in the world premiere of Ricky Ian Gordon’s The Grapes of Wrath, and to Florida Grand Opera and Opera Theatre of Saint Louis as the title role in the world premiere of Carlson’s Anna Karenina.
She has appeared as Mimì with Opera Grand Rapids, Florida Grand Opera, Minnesota Opera, and Opera Delaware, and in the Los Angeles production of Baz Luhrmann’s La bohème. She returned to Opera Theatre of Saint Louis in the title role of Michael Berkeley’s Jane Eyre; performed the title role in Susannah with Orlando Opera; Marguerite in Faust with Nashville Opera, Florida Grand Opera and Austin Lyric Opera; Caroline in the world premiere of Margaret Garner with Michigan Opera Theatre and Opera Philadelphia; Cio-Cio-San with Minnesota Opera; Micaëla in Carmen with Nashville Opera; Birdie Hubbard in Regina at Bard’s SummerScape Festival; Juliette in Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette with Lyric Opera of Kansas City; Donna Elvira with Florida Grand Opera; the title role in Suor Angelica with Opera Theatre of Saint Louis; and Pamina in Die Zauberflöte with Atlanta Opera. For Glimmerglass Opera, she created two roles in the trilogy Central Park. She made her Santa Fe Opera debut as the Chinese Actress and ZiZhen in the world premiere of Bright Sheng’s Madame Mao, and her New York City Opera debut as Gretel in Hänsel und Gretel, which she also sang with Opera Colorado.
Among her concert credits are Mahler’s Symphony No. 2, Barber’s Prayers of Kierkegaard, Berg’s Seven Early Songs, and Argento’s Casa Guidi. She has also appeared with the Florida Philharmonic Orchestra as soloist in Beethoven’s Egmont, and in Britten’s War Requiem and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with the Boston University Symphony Orchestra at Symphony Hall.
Kelly Kaduce is a graduate of both Saint Olaf College and Boston University, and was a winner of the 1999 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions.
