Recital: Angel Blue, soprano Bryan Wagorn, piano

The enchanting voice of American soprano Angel Blue is praised for its expressiveness, both in the crystalline heights of her range and the smoky depths of her lower register. Puccini’s La Bohème has played a prominent role in Blue’s career—she made her US operatic debut as Musetta at the Los Angeles Opera in 2007 and her Metropolitan Opera debut as Mimi in 2017. Most recently, she starred in the Met’s long-awaited new production of Porgy and Bess, for which she shared a Grammy for Best Opera Recording this year. Of that performance, which she has reprised in concert versions with the Berlin Philharmonic and the Philadelphia Orchestra, the New York Times raved, “as Bess, the sumptuously voiced soprano Angel Blue is radiant, capturing both the pride and fragility of the character.” Blue makes her Cal Performances solo recital debut with an eclectic and inviting program of songs and

arias by Puccini, Strauss, and Kurt Weill, music by American composers George Gershwin and Lee Hoiby, and arrangements of Black American