Joyce El-Khouri
Born in Lebanon and raised in Canada, Joyce has an acclaimed reputation for bringing newly discovered/rarely performed works to life, most recently with the world premieres of Donizetti’s L’Ange de Nisida (Royal Opera House (ROH)) and Franz Liszt’s Sardanapalo (Weimar Staatskapelle) –both captured and released internationally.
Her 2022/2023 season opens with a highly anticipated role debut as Amelia in Un Ballo in Maschera with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Riccardo Muti. Joyce then makes her debut with the Luzerner Sinfonieorchester at the Grafenegg Festival performing Strauss’s Vier Letzte Lieder. She appears in concert with tenor Jonathan Tetelman for Festkonsert 2022 with the Helsingborg Symphony Orchestra in collaboration with The Birgit Nilsson Museum in Båstad, Sweden. Further in the season, Joyce returns to the Canadian Opera Company for Micaëla in Carmen as well as debuting the title role of Anna Bolena at ABOA Bilbao Opera in Spain. She then reunites with composer Tobias Picker for his opera Awakenings in the role of Rose for the opera’s east coast premiere in collaboration with Odyssey Opera & Boston Modern Opera Project. A world premiere studio recording will follow on BMOP/sound (TBR Summer 2023). In the spring of 2023, Joyce reprises Amelia in Un Ballo in Maschera with Riccardo Muti at the Tokyo Spring Festival as well as reprising Puccini’s Madama Butterfly at Opéra de Montréal.
Ms. El-Khoury’s discography includes three rare Donizetti operas on the Opera Rara label (Les Martyrs, Belisario and L’Ange de Nisida) conducted by Sir Mark Elder – all to critical acclaim, L’Ange recently took home the 2019 Oper! Award for Best Opera Recording. She also has a Juno-nominated solo disc, ‘Écho’ with The Hallé conducted by Carlo Rizzi. Additionally, Audite released the newly-discovered unfinished Liszt opera Sardanapalo in 2018.
Recent engagements include debuting with the London Philhamonic Orchestra in Rossini’s Stabat Mater, and with Opéra National de Bordeaux as Leila in Les Pêcheurs de Perles. She also made role and house debuts with Opera Philadelphia as Liù in Turandot, and as Salome in Massenet’s Herodiade with Washington Concert Opera. Violetta in La traviata with the Canadian Opera Company in Toronto, Musetta in La bohème with the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich and with San Diego Opera in Jake Heggie’s new opera Great Scott as Tatyana Bakst.
Ms. El–Khoury garnered raves when she starred in the title role of Maria Stuarda at Seattle Opera, replacing an ailing colleague in addition to giving her own scheduled performances, in some instances singing back to back performances. On the concert stage, Ms. El-Khoury debuted with the Orchestre de Paris in Rossini’s Stabat Mater, under the baton of Jesús López-Cobos, and performed in concerts in Austria with Elīna Garanča, and in Spain with Juan Diego Flórez.