Local audiences have heard Isabel Leonard at San Francisco Opera in one of her most acclaimed roles, Rosina in Il Barbiere di Siviglia, and at the Symphony showing off her musical-theater chops in On the Town. Soon they will have a chance to enjoy the celebrated mezzo-soprano’s talent and charm at the Symphony’s celebration of Bernstein’s 100th birthday on Sept. 22–24, and again on Oct.1 at the Herbst Theatre, when the singer will offer a diverse program showcasing composer Leonard Bernstein’s works for voice.

A product of Juilliard’s undergraduate and graduate programs and an arts education in New York City, Leonard, now in her mid-thirties, is a recipient of the illustrious Richard Tucker Award, and a frequent artist at the Metropolitan Opera and other major houses the world over. In the 10 years since her Met debut as Stéphano in Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette she has become a house favorite, singing a number of roles for lyric mezzo, such as Mozart’s Cherubino, Dorabella, and Zerlina, But she has also been praised for more dramatic roles such as Charlotte in Werther, and when she sang Poulenc’s Dialogues des Carmélites, Anthony Tommasini of The New York Times called her “an ideal Blanche.”

Read the rest of this interview via San Francisco Classical Voice