Helen Todd - Award winning Soprano, Founder & Artistic Director of Sugar Creek Symphony & Song Festival

6 Questions, Contact information, Details about Sugar Creek Symphony & Song, Biography & Reviews

1. What influenced your decision to do Opera?

Opera chose me. When I went to school, I thought I was going to do musical theatre. But my voice lends itself much better to classical music.  I have been singing opera professionally for over fifteen years. Also, I am able to use my professional contacts in the opera world to bring the very best singers and staff here.

2. What type of person pursues the Opera career?

I think a very focused and driven person. Opera is all consuming. You have to be very persistent if you want a career in opera and you have to love the process of practicing and developing the character. Most of your time is spent alone practicing and honing your craft.  The pay off is the rehearsal period where you get to make music with other great artists.  The performance is just a few nights but the rehearsal is a few weeks. And that is the joy of the job.

3. What is Sugar Creek Festival and how did this get started?

This festival is based in my hometown of Watseka, IL where I grew up.  I was not exposed to classical music until I went to college.  I think this is wrong that live classical music is not accessible to rural communities like Watseka. I wanted to bring opera to the rural communities at a reasonable price.

4. Who is your favorite singer?

My favorite singer is Judy Garland because she was totally committed to every word that she sang.  She didn't sing opera but she had the temperament and intensity to sing opera. I learned more from her than any other performer.  She was invested in every moment. I strive for that as well.

5. What is your favorite role?

My favorite role is Lucia di Lammermoor.  I love to sing bel canto music. It fits my voice perfectly.  I also really love playing people that go insane. Not sure where that comes from but it is something I do well. I love the Mad Scene. It is exhausting, terrifying and incredibly gorgeous all at the same time.  I love falling into a character and losing myself in their journey. And I love high notes. (Soprano)

6. Do you teach privately?

I do teach privately from my home in Cleveland Heights, OH. I strive to have all of my students not only sing beautifully but to understand every word they are singing and to communicate the text. Beautiful voice without intention does not touch people. It is the marriage of both that moves a listener.

www.HelenTodd.com

www.SugarCreekFestival.org 

Email: htodd@sugarcreekfestival.org or 216-534-1897. 

Audio files and reviews available at www.HelenTodd.com

Helen Todd is the Founder & Artistic Director of Sugar creek Symphony & Song

In 2003, Ms. Todd founded Sugar creek Symphony & Song and became it's Artistic Director. In the first season, Sugar Creek produced the opera production La Bohème, a Serenade for Strings Concert and a Violin Recital. Since 2003, Sugar Creek Symphony & Song has brought classical music out of the city and into rural Illinois each summer.  In 2007, Ms. Todd started a young artist program at the festival.  In 2008, she was named General Director.  You can find more detailed information at www.Sugarcreekfestival.org.

The Vision of Sugar Creek Symphony & Song

Sugar Creek Symphony & Song is an opera and classical music festival that takes place the first weekend in August each year. Created in 2003, the festival is now entering its sixth season.

Our goal is to bring the arts out of the city and into the countryside, build a world-class opera and classical music festival, give access to the arts to underserved rural communities, create economic opportunity through tourism and the arts, and create educational and cultural opportunities for students of the arts.

Biography

Soprano Helen Todd is known for her intense portrayals of tragic characters.  Ms. Todd began her career in the lyric coloratura repertoire and began to achieve national recognition in the 1996-97 season with her portrayal of Violetta in LA TRAVIATA with Minnesota Opera  (the English National Opera / Jonathan Miller production). Also with Minnesota Opera, under the baton of Maestro Richard Bonynge, Ms. Todd has appeared as the Queen of the Night in DIE ZAUBERFLÖTE.
 

     Ms. Todd debuted with Canadian Opera Company in the Canadian premiere of THE HANDMAID'S TALE in the fall of 2004 as Aunt Lydia.  In the spring of 2005, Ms. Todd debuted the role of Madame Mao in NIXON IN CHINA at Minnesota  Opera.  Engagements during the 2003-04 season included the title role in LUCIA DI LAMMERMOOR with Opera Illinois and Juliette in ROMEO & JULIETTE with Sugar Creek Symphony & Song Festival. Engagements during the 2002-03 season included a return to Minnesota Opera as Aunt Lydia in the North American premiere of Poul Ruder's THE HANDMAID'S TALE;

appearances with Cleveland Opera as the Queen of the Night in DIE ZAUBERFLÖTE; and Wanda in a semi-staged production of THE GRAND DUCHESS OF GEROLSTEIN with the OK Mozart Festival. Also during the 2002-03 season, Ms. Todd founded the Sugar Creek Symphony & Song Festival, and became its Artistic Director. 
 

     Engagements during the 2001-02 season included a debut with New York City Opera as the Queen of the Night in THE MAGIC FLUTE, Violetta in LA TRAVIATA with Asheville Lyric Opera, and Clorinda in a semi-staged production of LA CENERENTOLA with the OK Mozart Festival (conducted by Ransom Wilson).

 

     Recent career highlights have included the Queen of the Night in DIE ZAUBERFLÖTE with Arizona Opera, Tulsa Opera, Nevada Opera, Opera North, and the Colorado Opera Festival; Gilda in RIGOLETTO with Calgary Opera (her Canadian debut), Annapolis Opera, and Cedar Rapids Opera Theatre; Fiorilla in Rossini's IL TURCO IN ITALIA with Cleveland Opera; Alexandra in REGINA with Baltimore Opera; Curley's Wife in Carlisle Floyd's OF MICE AND MEN with Arizona Opera and Cleveland Opera (conducted by Anton Coppola); Fiordiligi in COSÌ FAN TUTTE with Arizona Opera; the title role in LUCIA DI LAMMERMOOR with Gold Coast Opera; Violetta in LA TRAVIATA with New Jersey's Bohème Opera Company; the title role in SUSANNAH with Opera North; Mimi in LA BOHÈME with Asheville Lyric Opera and the Wildwood Festival of Music and the Arts; Marguérite in FAUST with Mississippi Opera; Juliette in ROMÉO ET JULIETTE with Shreveport Opera; Susanna in LE NOZZE DI FIGARO with Connecticut Opera and Abilene Opera; Musetta in LA BOHÈME with Indianapolis Opera; Susanna in THE MARRIAGE OF FIGARO, Pamina in THE MAGIC FLUTE, Despina in COSÌ FAN TUTTE, and Anne Edgerman in A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC with the Wildwood Festival of Music and the Arts; Marie in the North American premiere of Gurlitt's WOZZECK with California's Long Beach Opera; Mabel in THE PIRATES OF PENZANCE with Mobile Opera; and Julie Jordan in CAROUSEL with Opera Illinois.
 

     Concert highlights have included Mozart's MASS IN C MINOR with the Detroit Oratorio Society; Darius Milhaud's CHANSON DE RONSARD with Cincinnati's College-Conservatory of Music Concert Orchestra; CARMINA BURANA with the Elmhurst Symphony; and A NIGHT AT THE OPERA with the Colorado Symphony.   
 

     Helen Todd received her operatic training as a young artist with the Pittsburgh Opera Center at Duquesne where she performed the roles of Adina in  L'ELISIR D'AMORE and Serviglia in LA CLEMENZA DI TITO. She received her Bachelor of Music in Voice Performance at DePaul University, and her Master of Music in Voice Performance at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music under the tutelage of the Patricia Berlin; performance highlights in Cincinnati included Cunegonde in CANDIDE.
 

     Numerous awards have included first place in the Houston Opera Studio Eleanor McCullom Auditions, first place in the Corbett / Treigle Opera Scholarship Competition, and first place in the Bel Canto Competition. Ms. Todd was a regional winner of the Metropolitan Opera Competition and a winner of the Liederkranz Foundation Awards in New York City.

Reviews:

MADAME MAO

 

"Opera's 'Nixon in China' a work writ large"

BY DOMINIC P. PAPATOLA

Pioneer Press, May 16, 2005

"But the energy in the Ordway spikes when Helen Todd takes the stage as Mao's wife, Chiang Ch'ing. There are no bad voices in the company, but when Todd's crystalline soprano rips into a politically charged aria, it's like she's grabbing each individual in the audience by the shoulders and giving them a good shake."

"Now More Than Ever"
By Christy Desmith, May 18, 2005

City Pages, Minneapolis, MN
 

"The production's high point is Act Two, Scene Two: Madame Mao brings the Nixons to the Peking Opera. There, they see a ballet opera called The Red Detachment of Women, which Adams based on a real show produced by Madame Mao during the Cultural Revolution. Although Madame's opera spoon-fed nationalism, it was hugely popular in its day thanks to its catchy music and Technicolor spectacle. In this production, too, the choreography at the Peking Opera is expressive and fun; the music picks up a beat. (Here's a clever aside: Pat Nixon notices that the show's bad guy bears an uncanny resemblance to Kissinger. Humph!) Some folks might think it's a bummer that Nixon's energy spikes at a reference to communist propaganda, but this scene, truly, forgives the production all other moments of tedium--it's that good.

And it gets even better. Helen Todd, playing the Uzi-wielding Madame Mao, interrupts for an operatic ode to the communist social order; it's called "Whip her to death." Todd nails her aria! She unpacks high notes we thought this production didn't have! The rest of the cast isn't singing with such gusto, in part relative to Adams's sparse and sleepy arrangements, but Todd's voice--finally--has the chops to cut past the orchestra."
 

 

LUCIA
 

"Tragic opera Brightened by Spectacular Singing"
Opera Illinois, Lucia di Lammermoor

"In the title role of Lucia, the heroine who is driven to violent insanity by tragic circumstances, soprano Helen Todd sang the 'Mad Scene' with thrilling dynamic range, ravishing ornamentation, perfect intonation, even in chromatic scales, and terrifying emotional intensity."
Peoria Times-Observer, Sept. 2003
 

Dazzling Voices Drive 'Lucia'"

"Soprano Helen Todd, who plays Lucia, breathes life and spirit into this scene. When the famous flute solo sounds from the orchestra, Todd's Lucia suddenly turns in recognition, almost as if she could see the music dancing before her. What she thinks she sees - in her madness - is Edgardo coming to her, calling. "I hear his sweet voice," she says in Italian and smiles as she makes her way toward him - staggering a little as she walks; Lucia's mind is unhinged, unfettered. So is Todd's voice: Again and again, the flute sings and she answers, tracing wild vocal arabesques, descending and ascending, circling and darting, stretching upward and brushing the stratosphere."

Peoria Journal Star, Sept. 2003

AUNT LYDIA

 

The Handmaid's Tale at Canadian Opera Company, October 2004

"Ruders has placed Aunt Lydia... in a long line of hysterical, sexually repressed operatic women who sing in the glass-shattering range of the Queen of the Night.  Helen Todd did a superb job, her eyes gleaming with a fanaticism that was truly scary."

National Post, September 27, 2004

 

The Handmaid's Tale at Canadian Opera Company, October 2004

"Helen Todd as Aunt Lydia also nailed her role, video clips of her indoctrinated pleading  were convincing enough to convert anyone.  Although the opera venue does not usually allow for scrutiny of close-up facial expressions, Todd's features oozed with conviction."

The Varsity, Toronto, Ontario, October 2004

 

The Handmaid's Tale at Minnesota Opera, May 2003

"Elizabeth Bishop's warm, heartfelt colorings of Offred's sometimes jagged, sometimes lyrical internal monologues were offset by the riveting, high-lying vocal frenzies of Helen Todd as Aunt Lydia, the chief indoctrinator of the young Handmaids.  Todd, a sweet-faced soprano, is physically unimposing, but she made it clear through her focused intensity that you wouldn't want to mess with her."

Opera News August 2003

 

Eerie Echo of Present in Futurist Fantasy, Minnesota Opera, May 2003
"The striking exception is the role of the maniacal Aunt Lydia (the soprano Helen Todd), whose jagged coloratura flights make her seem a sci-fi cousin of Mozart's avenging Queen of the Night."

New York Times, May 2003

 

CURLEY'S WIFE

"As opera, 'Of Mice and Men' is as powerful as the novel"
"...Soprano Helen Todd sang the pivotal role of Curley's Wife, the woman who inadvertently brings Lennie and his dreams tumbling down. Todd, who previously had sung Queen of the Night and Fiordiligi for Arizona Opera, had the strength and resilience to weather Floyd's difficult part and convey her character's shallowness without losing her humanity...."
The Arizona Republic, February 2000
 

VIOLETTA
 

"La Traviata"
"...No "Traviata can succeed without a leading lady of superior talent. Helen Todd was much more than that. A young artist who has the potential to become a superstar, she was so dramatically effective that this turned into a performance of powerful impact, while its musical values were at a very high level. ....She had a richness of tone and ability to sing with eloquence..."

"Opera NJ brings 'La Traviata to War Memorial'

"...Soprano Helen Todd was a truly beautiful courtesan, a welcome relief from the overaged and overstuffed singers who frequently find their way into this role. One could understand Alfredo's infatuation with this Violetta. She captured all of the pathos of the part, and her final act death scene was heartbreaking. She sang her big arias -"Ah, fors e lui"/"Sempre libera," and "Addio del passato"- with emotion-filled tone."

Trenton Times, May 2001

 

QUEEN OF THE NIGHT
 

"Helen Todd's Queen of the Night is appropriately fierce as the evil mom, and her two big arias were stunningly sung in a voice that on opening night was crystalline in timbre and remarkably controlled."   

Opera News