Gay City News interviews NJSO guest soprano

Gay City News interviews soprano Christine Brandes, who appears in Mozart’s Requiem with the NJSO next weekend. David Shengold writes:

The last time proudly out soprano Christine Brandes spoke to Gay City News was in April 2004. Bay Area critic Jason Victor Serinus profiled the dynamic, bright, quirky, and dark-silver-voiced Brandes as she readied her favorite role — Susanna in Mozart’s “The Marriage of Figaro” — for City Opera. Reflecting on this role now, which she has performed widely, Brandes said, “She sings all night and is the smartest one in the room …. and it’s the most perfect opera!”

For two decades, as an active concert and stage artist, Brandes has taken part in the early music and contemporary worlds. Locally, she’s performed at BAM and at the Mostly Mozart and Glimmerglass Festivals. Those traveling further afield may have encountered her onstage in Philadelphia, Washington, Los Angeles, San Diego and Seattle, or at many concert venues in her adopted Bay Area …

Gay City News spoke with Brandes as she planned her return to the metropolitan area for a March 21-24 debut with the fine New Jersey Symphony at venues in Newark, New Brunswick, and Princeton. She will perform more Mozart — his sublime “Requiem” (“Such a fantastic and moving work!”) —under music director Jacques Lacombe, with noteworthy colleagues including Susanne Mentzer and Gordon Gietz.

Read the full interview at gaycitynews.com.