Laura Claycomb caught international attention for the first time at age 24, stepping in at the last minute to perform Giulietta in I Capuleti ed i Montecchi with Geneva Opera. Ms. Claycomb gained instant recognition for her outstanding performance. In the ensuing years, critics have been scrambling for superlatives to describe her performances.
This role was also the vehicle of triumphant appearances at the Paris Bastille, Los Angeles Opera, Pittsburgh Opera and with the Munich Radio Orchestra.
Another of her signature roles is Gilda in Rigoletto , which she has performed at Canadian Opera Company, Opera de Lausanne, Opera Bastille, Pittsburgh Opera, New Israeli Opera, Teatro Municipal de Santiago de Chile, ABAO in Bilbao, Teatro Verdi di Salerno and Houston Grand Opera.
Other notable roles that have given her overwhelming critical success have been Anne Trulove in The Rake's Progress (Py/Gardner/Paris Garnier; LePage/Ono/Théâtre de la Monnaie), Linda di Chamounix (Everding/Ranzani/Milan La Scala), Comtesse Adele in Le Comte Ory (Krief/Pido/Opera de Lausanne), Cleopatra in Giulio Cesare (Decker/Rousset/Opera de Montpellier; Robinson/Summers/Houston Grand Opera) ; Morgana in Alcina (MacVicar/Hickox/English National Opera); Olympia in Les Contes d'Hoffmann (MacVicar/Casadesus/Vlaamse Opera), and Ophelie in Hamlet (JoÎl/Ossonce/Trieste Teatro Verdi).
Ms. Claycomb got her start at San Francisco Opera where she was the youngest ever to hold an Adler fellowship, singing roles such as Xenia in Boris Godonov, Papagena in Die Zauberflöte , Duchesse Medina-Sidonia in Milhaud's Christoph Colombe, Marie in La fille du régiment and Fiakermilli in Arabella . Her role-debut of Zerbinetta in Ariadne auf Naxos (Cox/Märkl) was the vehicle of her triumphant return to San Francisco Opera in 2002. She reprised the role at the Richard-Strauss-Festspiele in Garmisch with Ulf Schirmer and at Los Angeles Opera.
Following her European debut in Geneva, she sang Marie at Turin's Teatro Regio in Luca Ronconi's production and again as Ismene in Graham Vick's production of Mitridate, re di Ponto . She followed with Princess Rezia in Haydn's L'Incontro Improvviso for L'Opera de Nice and L'Opera de Bordeaux, and Serpetta in Mozart's La finta giardiniera at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. with Patrick Summers conducting.
After Ms. Claycomb's debut at La Scala in the title role of Linda di Chamounix , she sang Marie in Rome and her first Sophie in Keith Warner's production of Der Rosenkavalier at the Spoleto Festival in Italy. Other appearances include her role-debut at L'Opera de Lausanne as Adina in L'Elisir d'amore and as Konstanze in Die Entführung aus dem Serail with Vlaamse Opera, a role she reprised at the Berlin Staatsoper.
Showing her expertise in Baroque style as well, Ms. Claycomb has sung with some of the world's most renowned early music conductors and ensembles. She sang Cleopatra in Handel's Giulio Cesare in Montpellier, Drusilla in Monteverdi's L'Incoronazione di Poppea at the Netherlands Opera, and Fedra in Traetta's Ippolito ed Aricia in Montpellier with Christophe Rousset and Les Talens Lyriques. She reprised the role of Cleopatra for the Drottningholm festival with Roy Goodman conducting and at Houston Grand Opera with music director Patrick Summers.
With Richard Hickox, Ms. Claycomb debuted the role of Morgana in Alcina at English National Opera. With Marc Minkowski and Les Musiciens du Louvre, she debuted the role of Ginevra in Ariodante at L'Opera Garnier in Paris; Ms. Claycomb reprised the role in Munich with Harry Bickett. She has dazzled in the title role of Handel's Semele in Robert Carsen's production at the Vlaamse Opera, under the direction of Michael Hofstetter. Ms. Claycomb also has a close relationship with Baroque conductor Emmanuelle Haïm, and performed varied French and Italian Baroque repertoire with Haïm on tour in the United States (St. Paul Chamber Orchestra and New World Symphony) and with her group Le Concert d'Astrée at the Aldeburgh Festival, in Paris, on tour in France, at the Cortona Festival and on BBC radio. Her first recording collaboration with Haïm is "Händel's Arcadian duets" on Virgin Veritas/EMI. In the 2008-9 season, Ms. Claycomb sang Polissena in a new David Alden production of Radamisto at Santa Fe Opera with Harry Bickett conducting, sang a concert of Handel with Nick McGegan and the Saint Louis Orchestra and a concert tour of Mozart arias with Les Arts Florissants and Jonathan Cohen conducting.
In the realm of more modern music, Ms. Claycomb made her debut at the Salzburg Festival in Peter Sellar's new production of Ligeti's Le Grand Macabre , reprising the role of Amanda in the same production at the Paris Châtelet. She can be heard on the Grammy-nominated recording of Le Grand Macabre for Sony with Esa-Pekka Salonen conducting. In the 2006-7 season, she originated the role of Queen Wealtheow in Elliot Goldenthal's Grendel at Los Angeles Opera and at Lincoln Center Festival in an acclaimed Julie Taymor production. Some highlights of her operatic collaboration with the late conductor Richard Hickox include concerts of Humperdinck's Hänsel und Gretel (role debut as Gretel ) with the London Symphony Orchestra, Copland's The Tender Land (role debut as Laurie Moss ), The Rake's Progress (role debut as Anne Trulove ) all at London's Barbican, as well as Mistress Page in Vaughan-Williams' Sir John in Love in Newcastle with the Northern Sinfonia and its recording for Chandos. Their last collaboration was of concerts and a recording of Orff's Carmina Burana with the London Symphony Orchestra, released on Chandos records. With Bernstein protégé John Demain, Ms. Claycomb debuted Cunegonde in Candide at Opera Pacific to glittering reviews. The soprano sang the title role in Stravinsky's Rossignol in concert with the Cleveland Orchestra and Pierre Boulez in 2006. In 2007, she sang her first staged Anne Trulove in the creation of Robert LePage's Rake's Progress at the Théâtre de la Monnaie in Brussels with Kazushi Ono and at Opéra de Lyon with Alexander Lazarev. The Brussels production was filmed and released on DVD.
Ms. Claycomb also enjoys a vast repertoire of concert music. With Esa-Pekka Salonen, the soprano has sung Debussy's Le Martyre de St. Sebastien ( Angel ) with the Swedish Radio Orchestra and Mendelssohn's A Midsummer Night's Dream with the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Ms. Ms. Claycomb sang the world-premiere of Salonen's Five Fragments After Sappho with the composer conducting at the Ojai Festival, with the Los Angeles Philharmonic in Los Angeles, with the London Sinfonietta at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, and with Ensemble Sospeso at Carnegie Hall. "...the young American soprano Laura Ms. Claycomb ... sang with radiant and exquisite grace." (Carl Byron, Los Angeles Revelations) She reprised the Sappho songs with Ensemble Modern in Japan on a program including Stravinsky's Japanese Lyrics and Balmont Songs with Dominique My conducting.
Ms. Claycomb was the soprano soloist in Carmina Burana at the re-opening gala of the Blossom Festival with the Cleveland Orchestra with Franz Welser-Möst conducting, again in the Messiah again with Cleveland Orchestra at Severance Hall, and returned with Pierre Boulez for the title role of Stravinsky's Rossignol. With Sir Roger Norrington and the Stuttgart Radio Orchestra, Ms. Claycomb has made tours as Teresa in Berlioz's Benvenuto Cellini (recorded for Hanssler Classics) and as the soprano soloist in Vaughan Williams' A Sea Symphony. With the San Francisco Symphony and Michael Tilson-Thomas, she sang concerts of Schoenberg's Herzgewächse and Toch's Chinesische Flöte, concerts and a recording of Mahler's Fourth Symphony for San Francisco Symphony's own label, concerts of Strauss' Brentano Lieder and Mahler's 8th Symphony on the Symphony's European tour. She returns next with SFSO in Brahms' Deutsches Requiem. With Andrew Davis and the London Symphony Orchestra, Ms. Claycomb sang Mahler's Second Symphony.
Her collaboration in concert with Richard Hickox also includes Grainger at the BBC Proms, Vaughan-Williams' A Sea Symphony at the Gulbenkian in Lisbon, a stunning Haydn Creation at the Spoleto Festival and Handel's Messiah with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra and the Philadelphia Orchestra.
In London's Royal Albert Hall, Ms. Claycomb sang a Mozart program including Der Schauspieldirektor with Ivan Fischer and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, which was also broadcast on BBC Radio. On another all-Mozart program in Switzerland, Ms. Claycomb was the feature, singing a program of 6 concert arias with the Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne and conductor Jonathan Darlington. She appeared as Madame Silberklang in "Der Schauspieldirektor" with the Munich Radio Orchestra and Sebastian Weigle. Most recently with the orchestra, the soprano was featured in yet another all-Mozart concert with Ulf Schirmer conducting. Ms. Claycomb also performed Beethoven's rarely-heard oratorio Christus am Ölberg with the Flemish Opera Orchestra and Ivan Törz.
Ms. Claycomb sang her first Brahms Requiem at the Teatro Lirico di Cagliari with Gerard Korsten, a concert of bel canto excerpts with John Demain and Opera Pacific as well as at the Lanaudiere Festival with Yannick Nezet-Sequin, and was the feature of New Year's concerts with Vlaamse Opera, with George Pehlavanian conducting.
With an avid interest in recital repertoire, chamber music, and neglected composers, Ms. Claycomb combines this music into her recital schedule with pianists Roger Vignoles, Peter Grunberg and Iain Burnside. "Her vocal tone, always vibrant and compelling, has grown plusher and more colorful wit hout losing anything in the way of dexterity, and the vivacity and brilliance that always informed her singing seems, if anything, to have grown even more pronounced. " (Joshua Kosman, San Francisco Chronicle) In past years, Ms. Claycomb reprised Messiaen's "Chants de terre et de ciel" with Grunberg on "Cal Performances" to rave reviews, as well performing three world-premieres at One World Theater in Austin on a chamber concert with Nina Kotova, Jose Feghali, and Ron Neal. Her recitals have taken her from San Francisco, to Chicago, San Antonio, Houston, Brussels, Bruges (Concertgebouw), the Tuscan Sun Festival in Cortona, Italy and a BBC Voices recital on English radio. Her most recent recital at the Monnaie Opera House with Burnside was received enthusiastically in Brussels.
Ms. Claycomb has collaborated with such diverse conductors as Roberto Abbado, Harry Bicket, Ivor Bolton, Pierre Boulez, Bruno Campanella, Jean-Claude Casadesus, Jonathan Cohen, Theodor Currentsis, Jonathan Darlington, Andrew Davis, Colin Davis, John DeMain, Ivan Fischer, Patrick Fournillier, Lionel Friend, Roy Goodman, Emmanuelle Haïm, Richard Hickox, Michael Hofstetter, Alexander Lazariev, Jun Märkl,Nick McGegan, Marc Minkowski, Franz Welser-Möst, Kent Nagano, Kazushi Ono, Jean-Yves Ossonce, Renato Palumbo, David Parry, Evelino Pidò, Stefano Ranzani, Carlo Rizzi, Christophe Rousset, Donald Runnicles, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Steven Sloane, Patrick Summers, Michael Tilson-Thomas, Roberto Tolomelli, Emmanuel Villaume, and stage directors David Alden, Pierre Audi, Riccardo Canessa, Robert Carsen, John Copley, John Cox, August Everding, William Friedkin, Nicolas Joël, Denis Krief, Jorge Lavelli, Mark Lamos, Robert LePage, David MacVicar, Leon Major, Lotfi Mansouri, Lorenzo Mariani, Italo Nunziata, Daniel Oren, David Pountney, Olivier Py, James Robinson, Luca Ronconi, Emilio Sagi, Peter Sellars, Julie Taymor, Stefano Vizzioli and Keith Warner.
Ms. Claycomb has also won the Silver Medal at the International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow in 1994, the Operetta Prize at the Belvedere Competition in Vienna in 1992 and First Prize in the National Opera Association Competition in 1992. A native Texan, Ms. Claycomb studied with Barbara Hill Moore and received degrees in both Vocal Performance and Foreign Languages; she has also studied with Norma Newton, Gerald Martin Moore, Peggy Bouveret and Dickson Titus. The soprano makes her home in Italy with her husband.
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