About Capitol Opera Richmond
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CAPITOL OPERA RICHMOND is a Non-Profit, all volunteer organization founded to act as a resource and information center for "Voice Professionals" of all types, such as trained singers, broadcasters, and public speakers, and to provide a performing venue for local singers, musicians, directors, conductors, choreographers and dancers. We take great pride in the diversity and talent of our casts.
Capitol Operas Sacramento, Harrisburg, Raleigh, Albany, & Richmond are all branches of Capitol Opera Companies, Inc. |
Kathleen Torchia
Founding General Director Capitol Opera Companies Incorporated |
Meet Capitol Opera Richmond's Artistic Staff
Karine Eva Marshall, lyric soprano, attended the High School for the Performing Arts in Philadelphia, PA. Shortly thereafter, she moved to New York City and attended the American Musical and Dramatic Academy (AMDA). Immediately upon graduation she began touring with Broadway shows. Karine performed and covered roles in Oklahoma, Hello Dolly, and Annie get your Gun, performing throughout Europe, the Far East, and the United States. It was while ushering at the Opera Garnier in Paris that Karine Eva found her true musical love in opera. She has earned degrees from Conservatoire de Boulogne, the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, and has done graduate work at California State University, Sacramento. Praised for her impassioned acting and multifaceted tone. Mrs. Marshall has performed and includes in her operatic repertoire,Manon in Manon, Musetta and Mimi in La Boheme, Tatyana in Eugene Onegin, Rosalinda in Die Fledermaus, Despina in Cosi fan Tutte, Micaela in Carmen, Damon in Acis and Galatea, Galatea in The Lovely Galatea, Nedda in Pagliacci, Salome in Salome, Susanna and Barbarina in the Marriage of Figaro, Susanna Walcott in The Crucible, Bastienna in Bastien and Bastienna, Wellgunde in Das Rheingold and the Sandman in Hansel and Gretel. Karine Eva has a particular affinity for new opera, having created the roles of Jasmin in Carla Lucero's Wournos and Peguine in Janis Wilson's The Wedding. In addition to opera, Mrs. Marshall is an active recitalist and concert singer having performed the soprano solos in the Requiem and Piccolomini Masses of Mozart,Handel's Messiah, Bach’s Ein feste Burg, John Rutter’s Requiem, Vivaldi’s Gloria, Faure’s Requiem, The Seasonings by Peter Schikele, and Schubert's Mass in G and Mass in B Flat. Karine Eva is also a film and voice over actress. She is currently represented by Uptown Talent in Richmond Va, and Talent One agency in Raleigh NC for film, voice over, and print work.
Caroline Whisnant is an American opera singer and soprano whose repertoire encompasses Richard Strauss, Puccini, Wagner, bel canto, lieder, American Standards and musical theater. Her signature roles include the title role in Richard Strauss's Elektra, the Dyer’s Wife in Die Frauohne Schatten, the title role in Puccini’s Turandot & Brünnhilde in Wagner’s Ring Cycle. She has performed operatic roles in Italian, German, French, and English as well as concerts in Greek, Chinese, Russian, Spanish and Finnish. During her career Caroline has performed in over half of the US states and in 13 different countries on four continents.
Caroline established herself as one of the finest singing actresses in the dramatic soprano repertoire. For her triumphant performance as Elektra with Frankfurt Opera the press raved saying “In exemplary fashion, she translated the shyness of a wild animal, radical desire for vengeance and a residue of repressed tenderness in dealing with her brother Orest, into a wide
spectrum of body language and vocal colors spanning from expansive radiant power to piano nuances.” One critic also claimed “the way she nurses her father’s gleaming axe, you would not
want to meet her in a dark alley.” In Die Walküre her performance was praised as “a perfect portrait of Brünnhilde. She impressively shows the character’s change from the rather unencumbered favorite daughter, becoming her father’s confident, to a woman of independent
judgment and action.”
While in America, Caroline worked across the United States with numerous houses including the Metropolitan Opera, New York City Opera, Washington Opera, Dallas Opera and many other companies. In Europe she has sung Turandot with Teatro La Fenice (Venice, Italy), Badisches Staatstheater Karlsruhe, Hessisches Staatstheater Wiesbaden, Nationaltheater Mannheim and the Staatsoper Hannover; Elektra with Oper Frankfurt, Teatr Wielki in Warsaw, Stockholm's Kungliga Operan and Norway's Den Norske Opera and Anna Bolena with Nationaltheater Mannheim. Other important performances include the Dyer’s Wife in Die Frauohne Schatten with Nationaltheater Mannheim, Oper Frankfurt, Badisches Staatstheater Karlsruhe, Deutsche Oper am Rhein, Hamburgische Staatsoper and Brünnhilde in Der Ring Des Nibelungen with Nationaltheater Mannheim, Badisches Staatstheater Karlsruhe, Deutsche Operam Rhein, Aalto-Musiktheater in Essen and Teatro Lirico di Cagliari in Sardinia. Caroline received her Bachelor’s degree from Converse College with Distinction in Performance and a Master of Music degree from Florida State University. She then spent four years at the Academy of Vocal Arts in Philadelphia honing her craft. During this time, she won or was a finalist in several competitions, including the North Carolina State and the Mid-Atlantic Regional Metropolitan Opera Competitions and the Luciano Pavarotti International Vocal Competition. In 2005, Opernwelt hailed her as one of Europe's female singers of the year for her role debut as Lady Macbeth in the Oper Frankfurt’s controversial Calixto Bieito production of Macbeth.
Jessica Wakelyn, coloratura, is a Baroque enthusiast. A student of Michelle Harman-Gulick , she studied at Virginia Commonwealth University where she focused in Vocal Performance and English. Always the coquette, she has performed Susanna from Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro, Zerlina from Mozart's Don Giovanni, Josephine in HMS Pinafore, Miss Silverpeal in Mozart's Der Schauspieldirektor, and Serpina in Pergolesi's Baroque masterpiece La Serva Padrona, and Adele in Strauss' Die Fledermaus.
Her Baroque training has come from world renowned harpsichordist Jory Vinikour, soprano Céline Ricci from Les Arts Florissants, and lutenist and countertenor Mark Rimple. She was very happy to combine her skills acquired through years of learning and research to create her first Baroque pastiche The Legend of Sleepy Hollow for Capitol Opera Richmond.
She presently works with COR, teaches English full-time at Virginia Commonwealth University, and is planning a recital of French Baroque and Female Baroque composers.
James Taylor, M.M. (Yale), is an internationally celebrated tenor. At home in opera, concert, recital, and musical theatre, he has appeared with numerous opera companies, symphonies, and theatres, including the New York City Opera, San Francisco Opera, Opera Carolina, Sarasota Opera, Gottigen Handel Festspiele, Theater Augsburg, and the Nederlandse Reisopera. He has given recitals in the US, Europe, and Asia.
In his earlier roles as baritone, Mr. Taylor performed the title roles in Il Barbiere di Siviglia and Le nozze di Figaro, Marcello in La Boheme, among others. As tenor, his performances have included Siegmund in Die Walküre, Parsifal in Parsifal, the title role in Lohengrin, Don Jose in Carmen, Manrico in Il Trovatore, Cavaradossi in Tosca, and Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly. His many concert performances include Hándel's Messiah, Bach's Magnificat, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, and Mozart's Requiem.
Among his numerous awards, Mr. Taylor was winner of the Metropolitan Opera District Auditions for Connecticut, Finalist in the Eastern District Finals at New York's 92nd Street Y, and was a finalist in the International Belvedere/Hans Gabor Competition, the Dutch International Vocal Competition, and the Lieder Competition of the International Johannes Brahms competition. In addition, Mr. Taylor was invited to participate in the International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow.
A talented and sought-after educator, he has served as Director of Opera at Drake University and the University of Alabama, and has been on the music faculties of VCU and the University of Virginia. His students have gone on to such prestigious schools as the New England Conservatory, Juilliard, Manhattan School of Music, Yale University, Guild Hall, LAMDA, RADA, and the Royal College of Music. Several of his students perform regularly internationally in opera and musical theatre, and have their own theatre companies across the United States and in Europe. His student, Lawson Anderson, is the current winner of the George London Foundation's Kirsten Flagstad Award for Young Wagnerian Singers.
Mr. Taylor has had the pleasure to work with many of the top Artist Teachers in the business, such as Richard Cross, Doris Yarick-Cross, Jackson Sheats, Andrew Gainey, and Seth Riggs. He has also participated in Master Classes with Placido Domingo, Sherrill Milnes, and Regine Crespin.
Mr. Taylor resides in Bon Air, Virginia, with his wife Sheridan.
In his earlier roles as baritone, Mr. Taylor performed the title roles in Il Barbiere di Siviglia and Le nozze di Figaro, Marcello in La Boheme, among others. As tenor, his performances have included Siegmund in Die Walküre, Parsifal in Parsifal, the title role in Lohengrin, Don Jose in Carmen, Manrico in Il Trovatore, Cavaradossi in Tosca, and Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly. His many concert performances include Hándel's Messiah, Bach's Magnificat, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, and Mozart's Requiem.
Among his numerous awards, Mr. Taylor was winner of the Metropolitan Opera District Auditions for Connecticut, Finalist in the Eastern District Finals at New York's 92nd Street Y, and was a finalist in the International Belvedere/Hans Gabor Competition, the Dutch International Vocal Competition, and the Lieder Competition of the International Johannes Brahms competition. In addition, Mr. Taylor was invited to participate in the International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow.
A talented and sought-after educator, he has served as Director of Opera at Drake University and the University of Alabama, and has been on the music faculties of VCU and the University of Virginia. His students have gone on to such prestigious schools as the New England Conservatory, Juilliard, Manhattan School of Music, Yale University, Guild Hall, LAMDA, RADA, and the Royal College of Music. Several of his students perform regularly internationally in opera and musical theatre, and have their own theatre companies across the United States and in Europe. His student, Lawson Anderson, is the current winner of the George London Foundation's Kirsten Flagstad Award for Young Wagnerian Singers.
Mr. Taylor has had the pleasure to work with many of the top Artist Teachers in the business, such as Richard Cross, Doris Yarick-Cross, Jackson Sheats, Andrew Gainey, and Seth Riggs. He has also participated in Master Classes with Placido Domingo, Sherrill Milnes, and Regine Crespin.
Mr. Taylor resides in Bon Air, Virginia, with his wife Sheridan.
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