“He (Rod Gilfrey) was ably matched by mezzo-soprano Jennifer Lane, whose performance as Charmian combined volup-tuousness, vulnerability and rage in a potent blend.” [Larsen’s Everyman Jack]
Joshua Kosman,
San Francisco Chronicle
Jennifer Lane,
mezzo-soprano
Mezzo-soprano Jennifer Lane is “a singer whose dark, bottomless voice is
matched by her expressiveness and intelligence
Mezzo-soprano Jennifer
Lane is “a singer whose dark, bottomless voice is matched by her
expressiveness and intelligence.” The press has described her singing as
“clear, rich, plangent,” “compelling and dramatic,” and possessing “agility and
charisma,” She has been featured by many of the most prestigious
institutions and orchestras in the US and abroad. These include the
Metropolitan Opera, New York City Opera, San Francisco Opera, Opéra Monte Carlo, Opéra du Caen,
and the San Francisco Symphony, Minnesota Symphony, Jerusalem Symphony, Atlanta
Symphony, St. Louis Symphony, and National Symphony, with conductors ranging
from Robert Shaw, Robert Craft, Michael Tilson
Thomas, Graeme Jenkins, Nicholas McGegan, Monica Huggett, William Christie, Mark Minkowski,
and Andrew Parrott, as well as with period instrument ensembles such as FreiburgerBarock, Philharmonia Baroque, Handel & Haydn Society of Boston,
Les Arts Florissants, and Les Musiciens
du Louvre, in concerts throughout the US, Europe, South America, and the Middle
East.
Ms. Lane has over fifty CD
recordings to her name on a wide variety of labels, as well as two films: Dido & Aeneas (with the Mark Morris
Dance Group and Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra) and The Opera Lover, a romantic comedy. Both
films are available on DVD. Among her most recent CD recordings are Sravinsky’sOedipus
Rex (Jocasta),Schoenberg’s Gurrelieder(Waldtaube),and Schoenberg’s
song cycle Das Buch
der HängendenGärten,
all for Naxos; The Pleasures & Follies
of Love andVillancicos
y Cantadasfor Koch; and17th Century French Airs de Cour with
Ensemble Orinda for www.Magnatune.com.
During the 2013-2014 season, Jennifer Lane sang Handel arias from Radamisto, GiulioCesare, and Orlando
with the Baroque Chamber Orchestra of Colorado, Bach Solo Cantatas 54 and
170 with the Washington Bach Consort, and a recital of Haydn and Mozart with
Hungarian fortepianist, Petra Somlai.
During the 2012-13 season, she recorded Milhaud’s
massive Orestiewith an all-Metropolitan Opera cast
under the supervision of composer William Bolcolm, and
sang the role of Madame Larina in Eugene Onegin
with Opera Naples, B Minor Mass with the
Santa Rosa Symphony, Messiah with Tempsta di Mare, and gave a solo recital at the National
Gallery in Washington, DC. In 2010 and 2011, she performed in Opera Gala
concerts for Nantucket Island Arts & Music. Ms. Lane premiered the lead
female role of Charmian Londonopposite baritone Rodney Gilfrey as Jack
London in Everyman Jack, in a newly
commissioned opera by Phillip Littell and Libby
Larson produced by Sonoma City Opera in 2006, about the life of author and
adventurer, Jack London. In 2007, she sang the title role of Carmen in the Astoria Festival’s production
of the Peter Brook adaptation, and, in 2009, sang the role of Marcellina in Palm Beach Opera’s Le Nozze di Figaro under the direction of
Mario Corradi.
As part of the 20th
anniversary season of the Four Nations Ensemble, with whom she recorded two CDs
for Gaudeamus (Haydn’s Arianna a Naxos and The Cantatasof Antonio Caldara), she performed
songs and arias by Mozart and his predecessors at the New York Historical
Society. Ms. Lane was the vocal soloist for the June, 2005 marriage ceremony of
Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown, now Governor of California. In December,
2005, she toured Arizona and California with El Mundo
performing Baroque Villancicos y Cantadas,
and, in spring of 2006, sang Brahms’ Alto
Rhapsody, with the Lexington Philharmonic Orchestra, and Das Lied von der Erde(Mahler), with the Turning Point
Ensemblein Vancouver. In commemoration
of the Baroque Performance Institute at Oberlin’s founder, she performed the
highly virtuosic role of Apollo in Handel’s Terpsicore. She returned to BPI to perform and record the Alto I solos in St. Matthew Passion, in celebration of
BPI’s 40th anniversary. Ms. Lane was Alto soloist in St. Matthew Passion with Soli Deo Gloria in Chicago, John Nelson conducting, and with
Baldwin-Wallace Bach Festival’s St
Matthew Passion, in March, 2012, where she returns
this season for St. John Passion and Magnificat.
At Duke University, Ms. Lane
recently performed the role of Storge in Handel’s Jephtha. This role, and the role Dejanira in Hercules, which she performed in a
staged version at the Blackfriars Theatre as part of
the 2005 Staunton Festival, are among her signature Handel roles. Her Handel roles further include
Solomon, Orlando, and Tolomeo, performed at Carnegie
Hall, the Halle Festival, Germany, and at Aix-en-Provence. Other appearances include
Charpentier’sTe Deum with Kent Tritle and the NY Oratorio Society in Carnegie Hall, Music from the Court of Ferrara at the
Berkeley Early Music Festival, and the role of Micah in Handel’s Samson, with Dallas Opera Director,
Graeme Jenkins, and the University of North Texas Collegium Musicum.
In February, 2012, she the role of Irene in UNT’s
production of Theodora, with Graeme
Jenkins, directing.
Jennifer Lane has directed
operatic productions for La Folia Baroque in Austin, Texas, Stanford
University, Lake Placid Institute in New York and at the Blackfriars
Shakespeare Theatre in Staunton, Virginia. Her productions at the Blackfriars include Dido
& Æneas, in which she also sang the dual
roles of Dido and Sorceress, another of her signature roles, Handel’s Semele, in which she sang the dual roles of
Juno and Ino, and Handel’s Acis & Galatea.
Ms. Lane held the position of Associate Professor at
the University of Kentucky-Lexington before being recruited to the University
of North Texas as Associate Professor in 2007. Prior to UK, Ms. Lane was on the
faculty at Stanford University for nine years. Ms. Lane teaches regularly at
summer workshops including the Amherst Early Music Festival, San Francisco
Early Music Society (SFEMS), Lake Placid, the International Baroque Institute
at Longy, and the Madison summer workshops, among others.
At Stanford, she produced and directed seven fully staged operas: Dido & Æneas,
The Magic Flute, A Childhood Miracle, A Game of Chance, Der Schauspieldirektor,
A Hand of Bridge, and Hin und Zurück.
Also at Stanford, she created an early music vocal and instrumental Collegium
Musicum which, during its third year, performed
Shadwell & Dryden’s The Tempest.
Students of Ms. Lane’s have won awards from the Metropolitan Opera Council, the
Orpheus Competition, the Holt Foundation and students in KY and TX have won 1st
Place Awards from the National Association of Teachers of Singing, Ms. Lane’s
students have been admitted for graduate study at Peabody, Manhattan, the Royal
Academy of Music/London, Indiana University, McGill, and Eastman. A number of
them are enjoying active national and international opera, concert, and
teaching career