Paulette Berman Fagen, soprano
Soprano Paulette Berman Fagen studied in Italy with the illustrious baritone, Tito Gobbi, and vocal coach, Luigi Ricci. She made her professional debut in the Netherlands, singing Zerlina in Don Giovanni. Among her most performed roles is the Queen of the Night, from Mozart’s The Magic Flute. For the title role in the opera Marilyn by Lorenzo Ferrero, which was given its German debut as part of the Dokumenta modern art festival in Kassel, Germany, Musical America praised her “brilliant virtuosity.” Following which, Ferrero composed the song-cycle Canzoni d’Amore for Ms. Berman Fagen, which she sang in its world première as part of the Biennale of Venice. Among other operatic engagements, Ms. Berman Fagen has sung with Teatro Massimo, Palermo; the Koninklijke Opera van Vlaanderen, Antwerp and Ghent; Opera Forum of the Netherlands; the Stadttheaters of Darmstadt, Osnabrück, and Saarbrücken. She was a long-time leading soprano of Staatstheater Kassel, in Germany, where she sang, among other roles, Gilda in Rigoletto; Olympia in The Tales of Hoffmann; Adele in Die Fledermaus; Rosina in The Barber of Seville; and Despina in Cosi fan Tutti.
Ms. Berman Fagen has appeared on radio and television with the BRT and RTBF Brussels; Radio Hilversum, Netherlands; BBC TV, London; SFB and RIAS Berlin; WGN and WNBC Chicago; and RAI Torino, Italy. On the musical theater stage, she sang Maria in Bernstein’s West Side Story in Berlin’s famed Theater des Westens, in a year-long run. As a concert singer, she has been featured with several orchestras, including the Belgian National Orchestra; L’Orchestra Siciliana di Palermo, Italy; Kasseler Symphoniker; Haifa Symphony, Israel; RAI Orchestra Torino, Italy; the Asko Ensemble, Netherlands; Monadnock Music Festival Orchestra, New Hampshire; the Queens Symphony Orchestra, New York; and the Dortmunder Philharmoniker.
