Jessica Sandidge - Soprano
Jessica Sandidge’s soprano voice has been described as “plush” by The New York Times and as a "voice of both power and beauty" by Opera Wire. She first joined the Metropolitan Opera in their 2016/17 season as Jano(c) in Janácek's Jenufa. In 2017 she returned as Sylvainne(c) in The Merry Widow, and again in the 2018/19 season as Dawn(c) in the premiere of Nico Muhly's Marnie. In 2020 she made role and company debuts with Pacific Opera Project singing in a Gluck double bill of La Corona (Atalanta) and Il Parnaso Confuso (Apollo), of which Broadway World wrote: “…soprano Jessica Sandidge offered silvery high notes, decorated runs, and a dramatic middle range that made her characters come to life.” Both one-acts were performed according to COVID-19 safety protocol at an outdoor Drive-in venue. She also performed a live video recording of the one act one woman opera La Voix Humaine by Poulenc with Angels Vocal Arts with a green screen online stage setting. Upcoming performances include Marie in La Fille du Régiment with Sarasota Opera.
In the 2019-2020 season, Ms. Sandidge debuted the role of Cio-Cio San (Madama Butterfly) with Long Island Lyric in New York with stage director Carol Castel. She then reprised the role of Hanna Glawari (The Merry Widow) in Hong Kong with Musica Viva with director Lo Kingman. Of her recent performance as Musetta with Sarasota Opera, Your Observer described her as "appropriately seductive and tempestuous as Musetta, singing her waltz song with great aplomb." This same season, she also debuted the trouser role Walter in La Wally, an opera that had not been performed in the U.S. since the same company (Sarasota Opera) mounted the new production in 1989.
In the 2018-2019 season she made many company debuts, including New York City Opera’s production of Donizetti's Il Pigmalione, of which The New York Times wrote: "Jessica Sandidge's belated entrance as Galatea came as something of a relief, all the more so for the loveliness of her singing." She also made her debut with St Petersburg Opera as Violetta (La Traviata), a role she had previously covered in 2015 with Martina Arroyo’s Prelude to Performance, and performed, with New Jersey Festival Orchestra in 2017. In 2018 she also conquered her first Norma (Bellini) with New Jersey Verismo Opera, under the baton of Lucy Arner, and she debuted Strauss’ Vier letzte Lieder with the Shelter Rock Orchestra on Long Island in New York. That summer she also reprised Mimì (Bohème) with Pittsburgh Festival Opera, a role she had previously sung with Prelude to Performance in 2016 and Long Island Lyric Opera in 2017. She closed the season by making a role and company debut with Angels Vocal Arts in her hometown of Los Angeles in their production of Il Trittico as Giorgetta (Il Tabarro).
In 2017 she was the second soprano to ever perform the role of Margaret Hughes in Carlisle Floyd’s latest work, Prince of Players, which made its New York debut with Little Opera Theater of New York, a company she had previously sung with in Gluck’s rarely performed The Reformed Drunkard. Other performances that year included her debut as Violetta, a role she had covered twice before, with the New Jersey Festival Opera, Micaëla in Heartbeat Opera's New York City production of Carmén, and her role debut as Hannah Glawari in Léhar's The Merry Widow with The Muses Project in Hot Springs, Arkansas.
Jessica has given several concert performances such as, Soprano in A Prayer for Mother Earth, by Ivo Antogninni with The New England Symphonic Ensemble in a world premiere performance at Carnegie Hall. This concert also included solos in Requiem for the Living by Dan Forrest. Her Carnegie Hall debut was Soprano in Fauré's Requiem with Manhattan Concert Productions in 2015. Her Lincoln Center debut was in 2016 when she performed Violetta's aria, Ah, forse è lui...Sempre libera in Rose Hall with the ISO of New York. She then performed as Soprano in the National Chorale's
Messiah (Händel) Sing-in later that year in David Geffen Hall.
Another notable performance in 2016 was her performance as Paolina in the resurrection of Donizetti's Poliuto with Amore Opera, in which The New York Times wrote she: "... sang beautifully as Paolina, her dynamic control and expressive gesture notable throughout."
Other roles performed include Countess Almaviva (Le nozze di Figaro), Donna Anna (Don Giovanni), Nedda (Pagliacci), Freia (Das Rheingold), Janthe (Der Vampyr), Valencienne (The Merry Widow), Pamina (Die Zauberflöte), and Gilda (Rigoletto). She has performed with such companies as New York City Opera, Opera New Jersey, Martina Arroyo's Prelude to Performance, St Petersburg Opera, Pittsburgh Festival Opera, Manhattan Concert Productions, MidAmerica Productions, Long island Lyric Opera, New York Grand Opera, Opera Ischia, SongFest, Chelsea Opera, Lowell House Opera, Regina Opera, and the Liederkranz Opera Theater.