BIOGRAPHY
Vivien Shotwell’s debut novel, Amato Bene, will be published in 2013 by Ballantine Books, and translated into six languages. A graduate of Williams College and the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, she is also a classically-trained singer, and is currently pursuing an Artist Diploma in opera performance at Yale University. She was a 2011 and 2009 Regional Finalist in the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, and is the 2012 recipient of the David L. Kasdon Memorial Prize for an outstanding singer in the Yale School of Music. She was born in Colorado and raised in Nova Scotia.
REVIEWS
“The dramatic centerpiece of the work was the interaction of mezzo-soprano Vivien Shotwell as Lucretia and baritone Cameron McPhail as Tarquinius. …Shotwell was filled with intensities and even sang her succession of low B-naturals in the second act like the ringing of a haunted bell.”
Jeffrey Johnson, Hartford Courant, 2012.
“The performance I heard included Robert Clark as Benedict and Vivien Shotwell as Beatrice, both of whom were vocally excellent in their roles…” Kenneth DeLong, Opera Canada, 2010.
“Vivien Shotwell is indeed a promising singer at the very beginning of her professional career, and I was delighted to hear her, especially her reedy, dark chest tones. Her vocal production, phrasing, and musicianship were impressive throughout, but she rose to a very high level in her final scenes, especially in Dido’s great Lament, which could not have been more moving and musicianly.”
Michael Miller, The Berkshire Review for the Arts, 2009
“…Vivien Shotwell was energetic and manly as Cesare, and convincingly fell in love with the irresistible Cleopatra.”
Daphna Levit, Opera Canada, 2007.
Photo by Brent Calis.