ANN TOOMEY
SOPRANO
ANN TOOMEY
SOPRANO
ABOUT
American soprano Ann Toomey, whom Naples Daily News proclaimed, “…is a brilliant Floria Tosca…[whose] rich voice projects power that doesn’t disintegrate under adversity” is a former member of the Ryan Opera Center at the Lyric Opera of Chicago, a 2016 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions national semifinalist and 2019 Richard F. Gold Career Grant Recipient. Recently, she made her European debut, to critical acclaim, performing the title role in Suor Angelica at the Berlin Philharmonie, under the baton of Kirill Petrenko.
Highlights of the immediate past and current season include Woglinde in Das Rheingold with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Gustavo Dudamel, the Una poenitentium in Mahler’s Symphony No. 8 with Giancarlo Guerrero and the Nashville Symphony, Meg Page in Sir John in Love as well as a crossover recital at Bard SummerScape, Mrs. Lovett in Sweeney Todd with Dayton Opera, the Mother in Amahl and the Night Visitors with Opera San Antonio, and First Lady in Die Zauberflöte with Glyndebourne Festival, as well as the cover of Micaëla in Carmen.
In recent seasons, Ms. Toomey sang the title role of Tosca with Sarasota Opera, Opera Naples and Livermore Valley Opera, the Witch in Into the Woods with Tulsa Opera, Ortlinde in Act III of Die Walküre with Detroit Opera, Lady Billows in Albert Herring with the Princeton Festival, the title role in Die Kathrin with the Chicago Folks Operetta, returned to Wolf Trap Opera to perform the title role in Carlisle Floyd’s Susannah and to the Lyric Opera of Chicago as the Lady in Waiting cover in Macbeth.
During the 2018-2019 season, she performed as Musetta in La bohème with Lyric Opera of Chicago, completing her three-year residency with the Ryan Opera Center. She debuted at Lyric Opera of Chicago as First Lady in Die Zauberflöte and was also seen as the Fifth Maid in Elektra. She covered several roles during her time in Chicago, including Elettra (Idomeneo), Fiordiligi (Così fan tutte), and Micaëla (Carmen).
Ann Toomey is a native of Detroit, and currently lives in Chicago.
RECENT PRAISE
OPERA NEWS
Salvatore Calomino
The excerpt from Catalani’s La Wally, ‘Ne andrò lontana,’ was an opportunity to hear the excellent range of soprano Ann Toomey. Her penetrating voice, when producing high, forte pitches, is clear and emphatic yet capable of shading to a sudden diminuendo as she equates her own departure to the ceasing of a bell’s toll.
VOCAL ARTS CHICAGO
Ann Toomey was in a league of her own at April’s Rising Stars concert. Having gotten a big break filling in for Danielle de Niese as Musetta in January, Toomey displayed a confidence using every corner of the stage and finding both extremes of volume in a lesser-known selection from Massenet’s Herodiade, ‘Je souffre!…Charme des jours passés.’ The soprano, who has shown she can sing anything from Whitney Houston to Violetta in her various assignments with ROC, completed her third and final year in the ensemble.
VOCAL ARTS CHICAGO
OLIVER CAMACHO
My love for Lyric’s Ryan Opera Center is no secret. I am genuinely sad when artists whom I have come to adore reach the end of their residence in this elite finishing program. Ann Toomey and Alan Higgs departed Chicago quickly to begin apprenticeships at Santa Fe Opera. Is it possible for any of their colleagues to have had as much stage experience as Toomey, who filled in as Musetta for Danielle De Niese, and who has easily been one of the ensemble’s most versatile sopranos with too many show-stopping performances to enumerate?
CHICAGO TRIBUNE
HOWARD REICH
The women of this cast did quite well by Menotti’s score, contralto Lauren Decker offering throaty low notes, ample bloom up top and voluptuousness of timbre throughout as Miss Todd. Soprano Ann Toomey held her own — and then some — as Laetitia, matching tone and gesture with Decker. Soprano Whitney Morrison brought aptly piercing pitch and comic edge to the role of Miss Pinkerton, capturing her character’s hysteria and malevolence as the plot thickened.
CONTACT
ALEKSANDAR REUPERT
SENIOR ASSISTANT ARTIST MANAGER
+1 212 994 3540
EMAIL