Aside from a few casual recitals, mezzo-soprano Angela Brower has never performed in her home state of Arizona.
That will change this weekend when Brower, an ensemble singer for the historic Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich sings the role of Octavian in the Tucson Symphony Orchestra’s concert performance of Strauss’ “Der Rosenkavalier.”
“I’m super excited,” Brower, 31, said last week on the eve of leaving Germany. “This will be my Arizona debut, actually. It’s a big deal for me.”
The concert kicks off the third annual Tucson Desert Song Festival, which helped the TSO bring in Brower and two other exceptional vocalists.
“(Bayerische Staatsoper) is arguably one of the five most important opera houses in the world,” said TSO conductor George Hanson, a veteran of Germany’s opera stages who will conduct Brower. “When people hear her voice, they will know why she stands on world stages and they will fully understand the (value) of bringing a world-class singer.”
This weekend also marks the first time Brower has come to Tucson since she was a kid. She remembers her father taking her along on a trip to visit a dentist friend. Once they left the concrete jungle of Phoenix in their rearview and crossed into Tucson, the concept of the desert sprang to life.
“Once I got into Tucson, I was like, ‘Oh, there’s the cacti.’ And they had problems with snakes and I thought, ‘Wow, the wilderness,’” she said.
Brower, a graduate of Arizona State University and Indiana University, and an alum of New York’s Glimmerglass Festival of Young Artists Program, has been in Munich for 6 ½ years. She went initially as part of the opera’s young artists program, but later accepted a job in the ensemble cast.
That means she is cast in a number of Bayerische Staatsoper productions each season. Her repertoire includes Siebel in Gounod’s “Faust”; Nicklausse in Offenbach’s “Les Contes d’Hoffmann” (which she also sang in her 2013 San Francisco Opera debut); Cherubino in Mozart’s “Le Nozze di Figaro”; Rosina in Rossini’s “Il Barbiere di Siviglia” and Hänsel in Humperdinck’s “Hänsel und Gretel.” When she returns to Germany, she will sing the role of Dorabella in Bayerische’s production of Mozart’s “Cosi fan tutte” in mid-February.
She’s also sung the role of Octavian in “Der Rosenkavalier,” a role she debuted in October.
“That is a hard role,” she said, calling it one of the largest roles for a mezzo to learn. “It’s very difficult. If you’ve ever heard it, it’s very chromatic and very dramatic. It’s not very easy to learn because it’s not as melodic as a Beethoven or Puccini. It’s quite modern.”
Brower will perform twice with the TSO before returning to Munich to sing the role of Dorabella in Mozart’s “Cosi fan tutte” in February. She returns to the States this summer to sing the role of Cherubino in Mozart’s “The Marriage of Figaro” June 29 and July 3 and 5.
Brower said she loves living in Germany but would love to explore more career opportunities in the States.
“I haven’t done much in the States. I went right from Glimmerglass to Munich,” she said. “I have a lot of success over here (in Germany). For the moment, I’m very happy to be over here, but we’ll see what the future brings.”
