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biography
Hailed by the press as a "radiant and confident" performer, mezzo-soprano Cherry Duke has sung with many of America’s foremost companies. Her roles with New York City Opera, Opera Omaha, Chautauqua Opera, Glimmerglass Opera, Connecticut Opera, Virginia Opera, New Orleans Opera and Nevada Opera have earned her the praise and respect of reviewers, music professionals and audience members alike. Cherry’s "striking voice-acting and stage movement" is especially evident in complex leading roles such as Nero in The Coronation of Poppea (Opera Omnia), Jo March in Mark Adamo’s Little Women (New York City Opera Japan Tour, Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music and Ash Lawn Opera Festival) and Lucretia in The Rape of Lucretia (New York Chamber Opera). She has sung the title roles in Hansel and Gretel, Der Rosenkavalier, The Rape of Lucretia and Carmen as well as principal mezzo-soprano roles in Le nozze di Figaro, Il barbiere di Siviglia, Madama Butterfly, Die Zauberflöte, Falstaff, Rigoletto, The Mikado, La Traviata, L’enfant et les sortilèges and The Love for Three Oranges, to name a few. Upcoming engagements include a return to Helena, Montana to sing Rosina in The Barber of Seville.
New York City Opera
Cherry has performed several roles with New York City Opera and traveled to Japan with the company to cover Jo March in Little Women and Suzuki in Madama Butterfly. She later returned to NYCO for Madama Butterfly and the New York premiere of Mark Adamo’s second opera, Lysistrata. Recent engagements with New York City Opera include the annual VOX concert this May.
"Pants Roles"
The role of Hansel has become a regular fixture in Miss Duke's career. She has performed it over 250 times across the United States in at least five different translations. She performs a variety of other "trouser roles" with ease, "quelling any suspension of disbelief problems that can arise as woman plays man." (Denton Record-Chronicle) These roles include Stephano in Romeo et Juliette, Prince Orlofsky in Die Fledermaus, and the title role in the mystery-musical, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, among others. Recently, Cherry performed the role of Nero in The Coronation of Poppea with Opera Omnia to great acclaim: "In their musical assurance and beautifully understated acting they were the finest Nero and Poppea I have encountered in the theatre." (Classics Today) Recent engagements include Cherubino in Le nozze di Figaro with Helena Symphony Orchestra.
New Music and Musical Theater
A versatile and intelligent singing actress, Cherry is frequently involved in cross-over works and new music. She has sung principal parts in the last several seasons of New York City Opera’s VOX: Showcasing American Composers concerts and has thrived in works which blend elements of musical theater and opera, such as Music Theater Group’s The Rose Project and The Blackamoor Angel, which she performed at Joe's Pub and Bard SummerScape Festival. Cherry’s versatility was showcased in her portrayal of Nellie Forbush in Rodgers & Hammerstein’s South Pacific (Ash Lawn Opera Festival). "Nellie Forbush, played by Cherry Duke, is spunky and exuberant and sang and danced her way into our hearts." (The Daily Progress)
Oratorio and Orchestral Concerts
In concert, Cherry Duke has performed with the Helena Symphony Orchestra, New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, New England Symphonic Ensemble, Hartford Symphony Orchestra, Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra, Ventura Chamber Music Festival, Bach Festival Society of Winter Park and San Bernadino Symphony Orchestra. At Carnegie Hall and Avery Fisher Hall (Lincoln Center), she has sung solos in Handel’s Messiah. Also at Carnegie Hall, Cherry sang the alto solos in Beethoven's Mass in C and Schubert’s Mass in B-flat. She has also performed solos in Falla's El Amor Brujo, Bach's B-Minor Mass and Weihnachts-Oratorium, Haydn’s Lord Nelson Mass, Theresa Mass and Mass in Time of War, Mendelssohn's Elijah, Vaughan-Williams' Magnificat and Saint-Saëns’ Christmas Oratorio, and several orchestral "Pops" concerts. Upcoming oratorio engagements include the Durufle Requiem with the Charlottesville and University Symphony this fall and a return to the Bach Festival Society of Winter Park for Mendelssohn's Elijah.
Awards and Honors
A Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions New York District Winner, Cherry is the recipient of many awards, including the Grand Prize in the Connecticut Opera Guild Young Artist Competition and the Liederkranz Foundation Voice Competition.
A Fort Worth, Texas native, Cherry graduated summa cum laude from Texas Woman’s University where she studied with prolific vocal pedagogy and diction textbook author Joan Wall. She received her graduate degree in Opera from The Hartt School at the University of Hartford. Cherry Duke resides in New York City.