Q&A WITH
CATHERINE COOK
BY SUZANNE WHITNEY
OPERA COLORADO
2020-21 SEASON
Mezzo-soprano Catherine Cook is the star of the one-woman extravaganza April in Paris. We are so lucky to have such a captivating performer at the helm of our newest digital performance. Catherine has performed a wide range of roles at many leading opera houses including The Metropolitan Opera, San Francisco Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, and more, including performing in the much-beloved 2011 Opera Colorado production of Rusalka. Enjoy this opportunity to get to know this wonderful singer and learn what it was like creating a new digital program.
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How did you get involved with April in Paris? In September of 2020 Greg Carpenter, Opera Colorado’s General & Artistic Director, contacted me. He had the idea for a digital program called April in Paris, which would feature Lee Hoiby’s one-act opera Bon Appétit!. From there Greg gave me the amazing opportunity to choose my own repertoire.
What connection do you have to the music in this production? I absolutely love all the music in this project, it was so much fun to put the program together. The first episode is some of my favorite French music. Some are new pieces I have always wanted to sing and some are pieces I have performed before. I tried to put together a variety of moods and styles, all centered around spring, love, and Paris. The second episode is a set from Cabaret Songs by the American composer William Bolcom. These songs tell stories in a whimsical, fun, and comical style. I’ve always wanted to do these songs staged as a character of some sort, so this was a great opportunity to play with that idea. The character we landed on for this episode is Wendy Barrie, a talk show host from the late 1940s. Finally, we close out the show with Bon Appétit! by Lee Hoiby. It is a one-woman
