Griselda CD Released

Lynne is delighted to announce the release of Vivaldi's "Griselda," which she recorded for Naxos with Kevin Mallon and Aradia Ensemble. Lynne sings the role of Roberto, and is joined on the recording by Marion Newman as Griselda, Carla Huhtanen as Costanza, Giles Tomkins as King Gualtiero, Colin Ainsworth as Ottone, and Jason Nedecky as Corrado. An early review of the cd from the french website www.forumopera.com reads:
 
"As Roberto, mezzo Lynne McMurtry is another Canadian voice to discover. Her low registers are expressive and furious, giving her presence and personality. Undoubtedly, the scenes between Roberto and Costanza are the best moments of this recording, thanks to these two excellent singers..."

Lynne to sing title role in Tamerlano

Lynne looks forward this season to her debut in a title role with Opera in Concert.  A favourite with the company, she will be appearing as the lead in Handel’s Tamerlano in February, 2008.  Her previous appearances with Opera in Concert include Mme. de Croissy in Dialogues des Carmélites, Roberto in Vivaldi’s La Griselda, and her critically acclaimed portrayal of Mrs. Brown in John Beckwith’s Night Blooming Cereus. Of that performance, Opera Canada wrote “McMurtry was simply outstanding as Mrs. Brown, with fulsome tone and careful characterization,” while the Globe & Mail declared her “ravishing.”

Whitman Recital One of the Year's Best

Lynne's recital of songs on poems of Walt Whitman was named one of the top recitals of 2006 in the Toronto Star's review of the Year in Classical Music. The concert, with pianist Alison d'Amato, was comprised almost entirely of Canadian and American composers' settings of Whitman texts. The final song is from the AIDS Quilt Songbook, and invokes Whitman's presence in the present day.

John Terauds wrote:

"One of the finest vocal recitals I attended this year was also free, at St. James Cathedral last May. Toronto mezzo-soprano Lynne McMurtry, with her partner Alison d'Amato, had crafted a masterful program of art songs that included 20th century compositions by Charles Ives, Leonard Bernstein, Ned Rorem and even more recent settings of Walt Whitman verse by Toronto opera composer James Rolfe.

That a general audience can be held spellbound by programming so far removed from Carmen, Swan Lake and Beethoven's Fifth Symphony is a reminder that classical music is not only alive and well, but thriving in Toronto.

Audience- and performer-friendly spaces can only help get more people addicted to the best opiate of all, the live performance."