Amanda Forsythe
SOPRANO
Lauded for her “light and luster… wonderful agility and silvery top notes”.
Recognized internationally as a leading interpreter of baroque repertoire, she sang Eurydice on the GRAMMY AWARD-winning recording of Charpentier’s La descente d’Orphée aux enfers, followed by her début solo album of Handel arias The Power of Love.
Read Amanda Forsythe’s full biography below.
Current Highlights
Cleopatra Giulio Cesare in Moscow – conductor Christopher Moulds
Messiah with New York Philharmonic (début) – conductor Jeannette Sorell
Poppea & Nero
Watch Amanda Forsythe with Anthony Roth Costanzo in love Scenes from Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea – recorded April 28 2019 at New England Conservatory’s Jordan Hall in Boston with Boston Baroque.
“…Brilliant Boston-based Baroque soprano Amanda Forsythe made a sensational local début as a sexy, wilfull and utterly enchanting Semele. Every aria confirmed her wondrous technique and fresh, lovely tone…”
DAVID SHENGOLD OPERA NEWS
“…Amanda Forsythe is a sheer delight in the role…”
HUGH CANNING THE SUNDAY TIMES
“…Amanda Forsythe was in radiant, silvery voice as Iole, the freed princess whose presence stokes the flames of Dejanira’s jealousy…”
JEREMY EICHLER BOSTON GLOBE
“Amanda Forsythe as Cleopatra enchanted more and more as she went, leaving Ceasar and the audience no choice…”
COLTA.RU
“Amanda Forsythe is born to sing Cleopatra: the charms of her phrasing seem to have no limits, and her light and sparkling coloratura with gleaming top notes and faultless staccato enabled her to meet all the vocal demands of the role with no visible effort…”
ROSSIYSKAYA GAZETA
“Amanda Forsythe’s Cleopatra is an interpretation full of temper, richness of the color and expression, with delightful touch of coquettishness and knavery…”
KOMMERSANT
“…Amanda Forsythe, singing the role of Iole, is one of the best Baroque sopranos on the scene today. Her voice is light and nimble, and her high notes spin with vibrato and subtle dynamic shading…”
AARON KEEBAUGH BOSTON CLASSICAL REVIEW
“…Amanda Forsythe (Isabelle)…crowned the performance with glorious sound and ornately elaborated lines…tripped merrily over yards of passagework…”
OPERA MAGAZINE
“Forsythe’s delectably seductive Serpetta…again, provided world-class, sparkling vocalism one wished to savour at length…”
DAVID SHENGOLD
“…As Iris, Amanda Forsythe, possessor of a superb technique, was vocal and visual perfection…”
MARK MANDEL OPERA NEWS
“Forsythe’s voice is marvelous – clear, florid, and warm at the same time – but the context highlighted her fundamentally superb rhythm.”
MATTHEW GUERRIERI THE BOSTON GLOBE
“Forsythe’s lovely soprano offers clarity of timbre, fleet coloratura, accurate intervals – and considerable creativity and range in decorations.”
DAVID SHENGOLD OPERA NEWS
Biography
Biography
Highly praised by Opera News for her “light and luster” and “wonderful agility and silvery top notes” Amanda Forsythe is recognized internationally as a leading interpreter of baroque and classical repertoire. She sang Eurydice on the 2015 GRAMMY-winning recording of Charpentier’s La descente d’Orphée aux enfers. Alongside her other many recordings for Boston Early Music Festival and Boston Baroque, her début solo album of Handel arias “The Power of Love” with Apollo’s Fire on the Avie label earned widespread critical acclaim.
She performed and recorded Cabri and Carmi La betulia liberata with Les Talens Lyriques at the Salzburg Mozartwoche, and toured Europe and the USA with the French countertenor Philippe Jaroussky performing works based on the Orfeo myth and recording the role of Euridice with him in the 1774 version of Gluck’s Orfeo for ERATO.
Opera engagements have included Semele (Philadelphia), Pamina Die Zauberflöte (Rome, Seattle and Die Komische Oper, Berlin), Iris Semele (Seattle), Marzelline Fidelio, Nannetta Falstaff, Amour Orphée, Manto in Steffani’s Niobe (Royal Opera House, Covent Garden), Jemmy Guillaume Tell, Corinna Il viaggio a Reims and Rosalia L’equivoco stravagante (Rossini Opera Festival, Pesaro), and Dalinda Ariodante (Geneva and Munich).
Amanda Forsythe’s collaborations with leading baroque ensembles have included performances with the Philharmonia Baroque at Tanglewood, Tafelmusik, Handel and Haydn Society, operas and concerts with Boston Baroque, and Boston Early Music Festival. She frequently performs with Vancouver Early Music, Apollo’s Fire and Pacific Musicworks.
Amanda Forsythe is also a regular soloist with Chicago Symphony Orchestra and recently made her débuts with The Philadelphia Orchestra and Lucerne Symphony Orchestra. She has also performed with Boston Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Monteverdi Choir and Orchestra, Kymi Sinfonietta and the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia.
Conductors she has worked with include Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Nicholas Kraemer, Nicholas McGegan, Andris Nelsons and Sir Antonio Pappano.
Amanda Forsythe’s recent engagements include performances and recordings with Apollo’s Fire, and Les Talens Lyriques. Forthcoming engagements include Cleopatra Giulio Cesare in Moscow, Messiah with New York Philharmonic (début) and Charlotte Symphony Orchestra, Galatea Acis and Galatea in Hannover, and performances and recordings with Boston Early Music Festival, the Handel and Haydn Society and Orchestra of St Luke’s, among others.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Miss Forsythe’s scheduled performances with the Orchestra of St Luke’s in New York City, her début with the Bayreuth Baroque Orchestra and Vivaldi’s Gloria with Chicago Symphony Orchestra, among others, were cancelled.
This biography is not for publication. Please contact the office for an updated version.
Media
Discography
Gluck: Orfeo ed Euridice
A sumptuous world-premiere recording of Gluck’s masterpiece of operatic reform, as it was presented in its Naples premiere at the Court Theatre of the Royal Palace in February of 1774, several months before the pastiche version with expanded cast debuted at the Teatro San Carlo. Here the work retains the intimate three-role cast of the well-known 1762 version, yet with fascinating customisations: the title role’s melodic line reshaped for a male soprano, a substitute aria offering a penetrating psychological portrait of Eurydice. In all, the genius of the work shines with new, astonishing colour, taking on a peculiar pace and unexpected brightness.
“Forsythe, her soprano bright yet soft-grained, contrasts well with Emöke Baráth…”
THE GUARDIAN
Duets of Love & Passion
“Ultimately this was Forsythe’s evening. Her voice suits the repertoire perfectly: there is clarity, exquisite intonation, mesmerizing agility, and beautifully scaled dynamics. Add in her genius for communication, and you have an idea of what makes her work so impressive.”
THE VANCOUVER SUN
Bach: St. John Passion
“Amanda Forsythe is technically sure and vocally charming in both of her arias.”
DAVID VICKERS, GRAMOPHONE
Handel: The Power of Love
“It is a joy to hear a singer rethinking much of this familiar music without ever distorting it, such that the CD’s 55 minutes of singing truly impresses like a first hearing…I could go on but find no need to; I hope you get my point. This is a knockout recital by a major American soprano.”
ROBERT LEVINE, CLASSICS TODAY
Rossini: Guillaume Tell (Jemmy)
“Amanda Forsythe’s Jemmy — the boy’s restored aria decorated with bravura — affords the best singing of this crucial part I’ve ever encountered.”
DAVID SHENGOLD, OPERA NEWS
Handel: Teseo
“McGegan’s pacing, his orchestra’s subtle playings and Amanda Forsythe’s singing ensure that Teseo’s ‘Chi ritorna alla mia mente’ is breathtakingly gorgeous.”
GRAMOPHONE
Charpentier: La Descente d’Orphee aux enfers, La Couronne de Fleurs
“Amanda Forsythe continues to please as greatly as she did in the BEMF’s version of Blow’s Venus and Adonis. There are few French singers of the so-called legendary recording period who could equal what I previously called her “radiantly focused soprano,” and her “dramatic coloration of the text.”
FANFARE MAGAZINE
Agostino Steffani: Niobe, Regina di Tebe
“Manto is sung enchantingly by Amanda Forsythe.”
DAVID VICKERS, GRAMOPHONE
Handel: Orlando
“Amanda Forsythe’s agile singing in Dorinda’s ‘O care parolette’ is so nonchalantly frothy; her plaintively beautiful arioso ‘Quando spieghi i tuoi tormenti’ and siciliana ‘Se mi rivolgo al prato’ are alone worth buying this for.”
GRAMOPHONE
Haydn: Die Schöpfung
“…and springwater-clear soprano Amanda Forsythe, who aces her ravishing arias and scatters delightful trills—make this well-recorded set a delight…”
TIME OUT
Blow: Venus and Adonis
“Amanda Forsythe’s languid singing is apt for the eroticism of Venus.”
GRAMOPHONE
Handel: Messiah
Jeannette Sorrell and Apollo’s Fire celebrate the holiday season with this unique DVD/2CD set presenting a dramatic approach to Handel’s Messiah that explores the work as the theatrical entertainment Handel intended.
Mozart: Lucio Silla: In un istante…Parto, m’affretto
“Parto, m’affretto” showcases coloratura soprano Amanda Forsythe – a voice to remember.”
THE INDEPENDENT
Jean-Baptiste Lully: Psyché
“Amanda Forsythe as Aglaure is sympathetic to her sister Psyché, but the same soprano’s portrayal of a nymph in Act 2 is even more beautiful.”
CLASSICS TODAY
Lully: Thésée
“As both Minerva and her Grand Priestess…Amanda Forsythe is among the most effective singers in the lot. She offers a brightly forward, almost heroic tone, vocal dexterity of a fine order, and the strongest response among the cast to the text.”
FANFARE MAGAZINE
Cooman: New Dawn
“This latest is the most rewarding of the all-Cooman discs I have heard…Soprano Forsythe has a light, flexible voice whose lovely, intimate quality is very well suited to the spirit of Cooman’s vocal writing.”
FANFARE MAGAZINE
Rossini: L’Equivoco Stravagante
“As the sprightly servant Rosalia, soprano Amanda Forsythe [was] just what the doctor ordered.”
OPERA NEWS
Dominick Argento: Jonah and the Whale
“Soprano Amanda Forsythe delivers a lovely and lyrical “Christe eleison” in the stratosphere.”
OPERA NEWS