Voice and Virtue

An interview with Ailyn Pérez

by David Shengold

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Published: Oct 7, 2008

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Lovely lyric soprano Ailyn Pérez is one of many AVA graduates now rocketing to worldwide fame. After acclaim with regional opera companies and orchestras, her career soared this summer when she appeared at Austria's super-glam Salzburg Festival. This week she makes her Opera Company of Philadelphia debut as Marzelline in Beethoven's stirring Fidelio opposite world-class leads Christine Goerke and Anthony Dean Griffey.

City Paper: Where did you grow up, and with what musical influences?

Ailyn Pérez: I am a second-generation Mexican-American and grew up in a close-knit, large extended family [in Elk Grove Village, Ill.]. Holidays were celebrated with as many women as possible making tamales, talking together and getting the children together to show off by singing a Mexican ballad called "Paloma" with our grandmother.

CP: I understand you married Philly tenor Stephen Costello just last month. What's it like singing with him onstage?

AP: Stephen and I were friends and colleagues at AVA and trained and performed together before we started dating in 2005, so besides being one another's biggest fans, we can openly discuss phrasing and ideas. We really complement each other vocally and musically, too, so that's been a great advantage.

CP: Any interest in crossover work?

AP: A Mexican album of sensual duets and ballads with the best mariachi in Guadalajara, maybe singing with Alejandro Fernández. Singing and dancing with Usher is one of my dreams — and meeting Missy Elliott and seeing if she would produce my debut video of opera arias. And I'd love to sing Maria in West Side Story.

CP: In the meantime, what are your thoughts on Fidelio?

AP: I'm enjoying the role of Marzelline very much because of the noble story she gets to be a part of in a most unprecedented way: falling in love with Fidelio, a woman disguised as a man in order to free her husband from unjust imprisonment. With not much time to adjust or recover from the shock of discovering that Fidelio is really Leonore, Marzelline has one line of shock before joining in singing the praises of Leonore's redemptive love. Mostly, I'm having a ball making my debut in this new production with the amazing cast. It's so wonderful to work 10 minutes from home!

(d_shengold@citypaper.net)

Fidelio, Oct. 10-24, $7-$210, Opera Company of Philadelphia at the Academy of Music, 1420 Locust St., 215-893-1018, operaphilly.com.

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