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Christina Arethas – soprano

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We’d like to introduce you to the truly glorious voice of soprano CHRISTINA ARETHAS. She is new to our roster and a product of New York’s finest voice teacher, Bill Schuman.

 Equally dynamic on the operatic and concert stage, Christina was heard last year with SONOS Chamber Orchestra as the soprano soloist for J.C. Bach’s Dies Irae. Also on the program was the U.S. premiere of Swedish composer, Fredrik Sixten’s Requiem, a piece truly dramatic in scope, calling upon the soprano soloist to soar in the heights, which is thrilling to hear in Christina’s voice. She has also sung with New York based Sympho, performing works of Strauss, Mahler, Pergolesi and Verdi.

Christina has been seen as “Fiora” (L’amore dei tre re) with Bleeker Street Opera, “Nedda” (I Pagliacci) with the Belleayre Festival Opera; “Rosalinde” (Die Fledermaus) with Sarasota Opera; “Magda” (La Rondine) with Opera Company of Brooklyn; “Elettra” (Idomeneo), “Mimì” (La Bohème) and “Gilda” (Talk Opera by Milton Granger) with Manhattan School of Music; among others.

Other roles include “Butterfly” (Madama Butterfly) and “Elvira” (Ernani). She is the soprano soloist in Albany Records’ recording of La luce eterna by Francis Thorne, a rhapsodic piece in three movements for soprano and orchestra, with the Manhattan School of Music Philharmonia. While at Manhattan School of Music she was a three-time soloist with the Manhattan School of Music Philharmonia (Beethoven Symphony No. 4, La luce eterna and Idomeneo).

A native of Charlotte, North Carolina, soprano Christina Arethas is a graduate of Manhattan School of Music and Westminster Choir College.

To follow are excerpts from reviews for her various performances:

“The soloists, soprano Christina Arethas and bass Eric Jordan, were marvelous. Arethas’ singing in the Pie Jesu movement, both when she sang alone and when she sang with the chorus, was marked by a stunning combination of sensuality and tenderness. In her prayer, no piece of her soul was withheld. No matter how ethereally she allowed her voice to soar, it never lost its sultry richness. If Arethas carried sacred song to a stunning intimacy, Jordan unflinchingly displayed his own prayer in a deep and dense interior of emotion. Jordan’s Lux Aeterna, beginning with the desperate fear of an eternal night and concluding with a passionate plea for light, conveyed the raw dignity of faith confronting terror.” Jean Ballard Terepka, www.theaterscene.net

“Christina Arethas gave a fully realized performance as Magda, the experienced courtesan who takes a shot at ‘innocent love’ before bourgeois reality intrudes. Arethas’ stylish and attractive singing, with glints of power in the soaring Act II ensemble (one of Puccini’s highest achievements), guaranteed a compelling evening.” David Shengold, Gay City News

“Of the two casts, I heard a pair of absolutely splendid voices. Christina Arethas as Fiora was perhaps too loud for the basement theater, but her upper registers were so gorgeous she was easily forgiven.” Harry Rolnick, www.concertonet.com

“Soprano Christina Arethas has impressive facility in her upper register and offers great connection to the text as Fiora.” Evelyn Stevens, www.OPERA-L.org

“Arethas and tenor Benjamin Sloman, as Avito, brought ardent passion to the doomed lovers’ romantic duet, ‘È ancora notte fonda,’ an oasis of relative peace for the illicit pair, in Act One, and to ‘Oh! Fiora! Fiora! Sono Avito!,’ their duet, troubled and agitated, in Act Two, as their chance of being discovered loomed closer at hand.” Bruce-Michael Gelbert, www.qonstage.com

“…and Christina Arethas (Gilda), Michael Kavalhuna (Rigoletto) and Mauricio Trejo O’Reilly (the Duke) would do well in an actual Verdi production.” Allan Kozinn (regarding Milton Granger’s “Talk Opera”), The New York Times

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