Singer Spotlight: Szu-Wen Wang

Singer Spotlight Szu-Wen Wang

Soprano Szu-Wen Wang has been involved in DragonDiva productions for several years. Some of her performances with DragonDiva have included the Fairy Godmother in Cinderella in 2010, Gretel in Hansel and Gretel in 2009, Phyllis in Iolanthe in 2009, and Gianetta in Elixir of Love in 2008. Opera Canada has praised her performance in Handel's Amadigi as having "taste, restraint and good vocal control," and applauded her "carefully nuanced and ably delivered" singing of Cio-Cio-San in Vancouver Island Opera's production of Madama Butterfly. Szu-Wen holds a Bachelor's degree in Vocal Performance from Taipei National University of the Arts, a Master of Music and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees in Vocal Performance from the University of Texas at Austin. She is excited to be involved in the Minoru Chapel Opera Nights Concert and hopes you can catch this performance and future DragonDiva productions.

Szu-Wen leads a very busy schedule
but she was able to answer a couple
questions to whet your appetite for
the Minoru concert.

(Q) Can you share one of your favorite
moments that happened during a
DragonDiva Production?

(A) Honestly I enjoyed every moment of each DragonDiva production I have been involved with. But if I really have to single out a certain moment, I have to say, watching my colleagues dancing in "Loudly let the trumpet Bray" in Iolanthe cracks me up every time I think of it. It was just too funny and brilliant!

(Q) What show would you love for DragonDiva to produce and what role would you like to sing?

(A) Too many to list them all here, but I do hope to star as Olympia in Offenbach's "Les Contes D'Hoffmann" before I get too old to look like a doll.

(Q) Can you tell us a little about what
your process is when you are preparing
a role for the opera stage?

(A) Usually I start with getting all of
the notes right first. As we all know,
it's much harder to fix musical
mistakes later on. Then I spend
lots of time on the diction. Then I
work on the characteristic of the role.

Szu-Wen will be singing scenes from last summers hit Cinderella as well as Elixir of Love and Hansel and Gretel. Don't miss out on your chance to hear this amazing soprano.

Up next a few words from our Vice-President Janet Vandertol