Luretta Bybee
Voice
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A native of Midland, TX, Luretta Bybee has sung with numerous opera companies and orchestras in the United States and abroad. She is particularly known for her Carmen, having sung the Bizet heroine with the New York City and Seattle opera companies and in the world tour of Peter Brook’s adaptation, La Tragedie de Carmen. Of her New York City Opera performances, Anthony Tommasini of The New York Times wrote: “Bybee brings a dusky-colored, vibrant voice to the role. This was a strongly sung and engaging portrayal.” Other recent roles have included Lucretia in Britten’s Rape of Lucretiawith the Opera de Montreal; Genevieve in the Cincinnati Opera’s 2001 production of Pelleas et Melisande; Ulrica in Opera Memphis’s A Masked Ball; and Dame Quickly in the Seattle Opera Company’s Falstaff. The mezzo also created the role of Joanna in Carly Simon’s children’s opera, Romulus Hunt, in its world premiere in New York and at the Kennedy Center. She recorded that work for Angel Records.
Bybee’s concert work has included the 1996-97 world premiere of the reduced orchestral version of Leonard Bernstein’s Songfest at the 92nd Street Y. She reprised that work in 1998, appearing with the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra and Seiji Ozawa on the Leonard Bernstein Memorial Concert at Tanglewood. She has also sung Verdi's Requiem and Handel’s Messiah at Carnegie Hall as well as additional Messiah performances with the Seattle, Colorado, and Houston Symphonies. She can be heard on the recording of Aaron Copland’s In the Beginning with Gloria dei Cantores.
Recent news includes a performance of Rossini's L'Italiana in Algeri with Cologne, Festival de Santander and NYCO, judging the 2006 mid-south regional MET finals, and joining the voice faculty at the 2006 Aspen Festival.
Studies at Baylor University. Voice with Carol Mayo. Faculty of University of Michigan at Ann Arbor.
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