Dramatic soprano, Susan Neves, has been internationally acclaimed in theaters such as the Opera Bastille in Paris, the Metropolitan Opera, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Vienna State Opera, Gran Teatro del Liceu in Barcelona, Monte Carlo, and opera houses throughout Italy including l’Arena di Verona, Bologna, Genoa, Parma, and Cagliari.

 

She commands a repertoire of some of the most challenging roles written for soprano, and is a sought-after teacher and coach in Orlando, Florida. She has also taught at Stetson University and with the Miami Summer Music Festival at Florida International University. She is in demand for Master Classes all over the world and specializes in preparing young dramatic sopranos to sing the operas so closely associated with Susan's thirty eight year operatic career.

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As opera companies slowly resume work and adapt to COVID,  Susan had  several contracts cancelled in her 2020-2021 season but  was able to sing a special Holiday Concert for Vero Beach Opera before a fully-masked audience. Now that theaters are almost back to normal, Susan has several contracts in her future, beginning with a return to Florida Grand Opera as Berta in "Il Barbiere di Siviglia" in April 2023.

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Appearances in the 2019-2020 season included her first Katisha in The Mikado for Central Florida Vocal Arts, Gertrude in Hansel and Gretel for Teatro Lirico di Cagliari in Sardinia, Italy, Berta in The Barber of Seville for both Vero Beach Opera and Palm Beach Opera, and recitals in Vero Beach and DeLand, Florida

 

Her 2017-2018 season included performing the Overseer in Elektra and covering Gertrude in Hansel and Gretel at the Metropolitan Opera, an All-Verdi Concert for Vero Beach Opera, and a Master Class for her alma mater, Manhattan School of Music. 

 

The 2016-2017 season saw her at the Metropolitan Opera as Marianne in Der Rosenkavalier under Maestro Sebastian Weigle, a performance which has been released on DVD by DECCA, and making her Teatro Massimo Bellini debut in Catania, Sicily as Turandot.

 

​In her 2015-2016 season, Susan Neves appeared at the Metropolitan Opera in Strauss' Elektra,

and sang a solo recital with Robin Jensen at the Dr. Phillips Performing Arts Center in Orlando for Florida Opera Theater.

 

As part of her 2014-2105 season, she added the role of  Frugola in Puccini's Il Tabarro for Vero Beach Opera, participated in The Three Divas Concert for the same company, and also premiered the cycle, Alcott Songs, composed by Steve Danyew at Florida International University in Miami.

 

Highlights of her 2013-2014 season included her San Antonio debut as Madame Flora in Menotti’s The Medium in October, 2013, and in January 2014 her Florida Grand Opera debut as Abigaille in Verdi’s Nabucco, a role she has performed more than a hundred times. She also added her first musical theater role, Bloody Mary in South Pacific, with Piedmont Opera in March 2014.

 

Her 2012-2013 season included  Mozart’s Countess in Le Nozze di Figaro in the Ancient Theater in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, a concert of opera arias with the Stara Zagora Orchestra in Bulgaria, and her San Diego Opera debut as the Prima Corifea in the first fully-staged US production of Pizzetti’s Assassinio nella cattedrale with Ferruccio Furlanetto as Archbishop Thomas Becket. Earlier the same season, she covered the title role of Turandot at the Metropolitan Opera

 

Other recent performances of note include her Seattle Opera debut as Odabella in Attila in 2012 and a concert version of Strauss’ Elektra with the Philadelphia Orchestra. She sang Puccini’s Turandot in a return to Pittsburgh Opera in 2011, and debuted the role of Flora in Menotti’s The Medium with Florida Opera Theater the same year. She appeared in 2010 as Amelia in Un ballo in maschera with Washington National Opera, and covered both Odabella (Attila) and Lina (Stiffelio) at the Metropolitan Opera.

 

Other first roles and theatre debuts include her first Senta in Der Fliegende Hollander in Lecce in 2009, where she also performed Norma, and in the same year her first Turandot in Santiago and  her Edinburgh Festival debut as Lady Macbeth. She ended 2009 at the Metropolitan Opera, where she performed in Strauss’ Elektra. Lady Macbeth kept her busy in 2008, performing the role in Las Palmas, Como, Pavia and Brescia. Her debuts as Santuzza in Cavalleria Rusticana and Leonora in La forza del destino were at Genoa’s Teatro Carlo Felice in 2007.

 

She has won particular acclaim as a Verdi soprano of the first rank with an uncommonly vast repertoire including Abigaille in Nabucco, Lady Macbeth in Macbeth, Odabella in Attila, Elvira in Ernani, Leonora in Il trovatore and La forza del destino, Amelia in Un ballo in maschera, Elisabetta di Valois in Don Carlo, the title role of Aida and Alice Ford in Falstaff. Susan Neves has also been highly praised as Norma, Tosca, Gioconda and Giorgetta. Outside her already established repertoire she looks forward to opportunities to sing roles such as Amneris, Eboli and Herodias, among others.

 

Susan Neves is a native New Yorker with a French mother and a Portuguese father. Consequently she feels at home in whatever city she performs, and speaks six languages. She completed her musical studies at the Manhattan School of Music, where she earned a master’s degree. As a winner of the International Luciano Pavarotti Vocal Competition, Miss Neves debuted as Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni.

 

February 2018