Christina Johnston is an English coloratura soprano. Born in Framlingham, Suffolk, and educated at Framlingham College, [1] she has sung leading roles, notably, at the Prague State Opera, including the Queen of the Night in Mozart's The Magic Flute . She has sung before various heads of state, including Miloš Zeman, President of the Czech Republic, and Xi Jinping, President of the People's Republic of China.
When Johnston was three, she and her mother Gillian were involved in a car crash while heading for Amberfield School, near Ipswich. Johnston can still recall her mother being cut out of the automobile and resuscitated in the ambulance on the way to hospital, where her injuries kept her for five months. Johnston herself spent three weeks in the same hospital with a broken left leg and numerous cuts on her head, and returned for further surgery six months later. [2]
During this time, Johnston became close to her father, Peter, who taught her piano and guitar and had her sing harmony with him as he played. However, he died unexpectedly when she was eleven. In 2019, Johnston she wrote him a vocal tribute entitled "Learning to Breathe", recorded at a Meerkat Midnight Session and available on YouTube. Johnston also credits her father with her devout Christianity.
From 2010–2012, Johnston studied as a young artist at Narodni Divadlo.
Johnston attended the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London when she turned 18, having been offered a scholarship immediately after her first audition. Johnston's vocal range is classified as an acuto sfogato, meaning she can reach above an F6 note. Indeed she can reach a "C" note in the seventh register, which is otherwise unheard from a coloratura sopranos. When she turned 21, Johnston moved to Prague for a vacancy at the State Opera, where she worked to perfect her coloratura capabilities. Her 2012 debut in Prague was as Queen of the Night in Mozart's The Magic Flute and as Adèle in Strauss's The Revenge of the Bat. She appeared for three seasons of Mozart's Don Giovanni as Zerlina at the Estates Theatre, Prague. Later she toured the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Asia and South America as a solo act, while acting as a mainstay for the annual Prague Film Festival until the arrival of the Coronavirus pandemic in 2020.
Although renowned for her stage roles, Johnston says her initial ambition was to star in musical theatre. She cites Mozart as her favourite composer. [3]
Having long desired to make a name for herself in England, Christina Johnston officially released her first album in September 2017. Entitled Blessing, it features recordings by the City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra and Chorus. British producer James Fitzpatrick produced it for Tadlow Music. Reportedly, Johnston had dreamed of making a classical album since the age of 14. It has Johnston singing in nine different languages, including Occitan. The album was conducted by Richard Hein. [4] It includes Mozart's "Der Holle Rache Kocht in Meinem Herzen", which has since become one of her regular items, as it allows her to sing notes in the sixth register. She then decided her ambition was to maximise the number of people for whom she sings. The album is currently ranked at 759,600th in CDs and Vinyl and 33,050th in Symphonies, on Amazon.com's bestseller rank. [5]
Johnston was married on 17 October 2010 to Viacheslav Myachin, who is credited as executive producer on the Blessing album, along with Janet Fitzpatrick. Myachin, originally from Russia, moved to Prague to work for his family's furniture business, where Johnston joined him. In the year 2019, they began the process of relocating to the UK. Johnston's mother Gillian continues to live in Suffolk. [6]
Having lost her paid work due to the pandemic, Johnston has performed a series of "lockdown" concerts from her home in Suffolk, with help from her husband. Those performed most recently have included Johnston's selected vocal renditions of tracks from Evita, Moulin Rouge, The Greatest Showman and Phantom of the Opera. These appear on Johnston's Facebook page and on her YouTube channel. [7]
A soprano ([soˈpraːno]) is a type of classical female singing voice and has the highest vocal range of all voice types. The soprano's vocal range (using scientific pitch notation) is from approximately middle C (C4) = 261 Hz to "high A" (A5) = 880 Hz in choral music, or to "soprano C" (C6, two octaves above middle C) = 1046 Hz or higher in operatic music. In four-part chorale style harmony, the soprano takes the highest part, which often encompasses the melody. The soprano voice type is generally divided into the coloratura, soubrette, lyric, spinto, and dramatic soprano.
Framlingham is a market town and civil parish in Suffolk, England. Of Anglo-Saxon origin, it appears in the 1086 Domesday Book. The parish had a population of 3,342 at the 2011 Census and an estimated 4,016 in 2019. Nearby villages include Earl Soham, Kettleburgh, Parham, Saxtead and Sweffling.
A mezzo-soprano or mezzo (; Italian: [ˌmɛddzosoˈpraːno]; meaning "half soprano") is a type of classical female singing voice whose vocal range lies between the soprano and the contralto voice types. The mezzo-soprano's vocal range usually extends from the A below middle C to the A two octaves above (i.e. A3–A5 in scientific pitch notation, where middle C = C4; 220–880 Hz). In the lower and upper extremes, some mezzo-sopranos may extend down to the F below middle C (F3, 175 Hz) and as high as "high C" (C6, 1047 Hz). The mezzo-soprano voice type is generally divided into the coloratura, lyric, and dramatic mezzo-soprano.
Kathleen Deanna Battle is an American operatic soprano known for her distinctive vocal range and tone. Born in Portsmouth, Ohio, Battle initially became known for her work within the concert repertoire through performances with major orchestras during the early and mid-1970s. She made her opera debut in 1975. Battle expanded her repertoire into lyric soprano and coloratura soprano roles during the 1980s and early 1990s, until her eventual dismissal from the Metropolitan Opera in 1994. She later has focused on recording and the concert stage. After a 22-year absence from the Met, Battle performed a concert of spirituals at the Metropolitan Opera House in November 2016.
Cecilia Bartoli, Cavaliere OMRI is an Italian coloratura mezzo-soprano opera singer and recitalist. She is best known for her interpretations of the music of Bellini, Handel, Mozart, Rossini and Vivaldi, as well as for her performances of lesser-known music from the Baroque and Classical period. She is known for having the versatility to sing both soprano and mezzo roles.
A soubrette is a type of operatic soprano voice fach, often cast as a female stock character in opera and theatre. The term arrived in English from Provençal via French, and means "conceited" or "coy". A soubrette is also defined as a young woman regarded as flirtatious or frivolous.
A coloratura soprano is a type of operatic soprano voice that specializes in music that is distinguished by agile runs, leaps and trills.
Lucia Popp was a Slovak operatic soprano. She began her career as a soubrette, and later moved into the light-lyric and lyric coloratura soprano repertoire and then the lighter Richard Strauss and Wagner operas. Her career included performances at Vienna State Opera, the Metropolitan Opera, Covent Garden, and La Scala. Popp was also a highly regarded recitalist and lieder singer.
Magdalena Kožená is a Czech mezzo-soprano.
Gianna Rolandi was an American soprano. She was based at the New York City Opera (NYCO) and enjoyed a 20-year national and international career in coloratura soprano roles. She retired from performing in 1994 and served as director of and principal instructor at the Lyric Opera of Chicago's opera studio until 2013.
"Der Hölle Rache kocht in meinem Herzen", commonly abbreviated "Der Hölle Rache", is an aria sung by the Queen of the Night, a coloratura soprano part, in the second act of Mozart's opera The Magic Flute. It depicts a fit of vengeful rage in which the Queen of the Night places a knife into the hand of her daughter Pamina and exhorts her to assassinate Sarastro, the Queen's rival, else she will disown and curse Pamina.
Susan Elizabeth Futral is an American coloratura soprano who has won acclaim throughout the United States as well as in Europe, South America, and Japan.
"O zittre nicht, mein lieber Sohn" is the first aria performed by the Queen of the Night in Mozart's singspiel The Magic Flute . It is not as well known as the Queen's second aria, "Der Hölle Rache kocht in meinem Herzen", though no less demanding; the aria requires a soprano coloratura with extremely high tessitura and great vocal flexibility.
(Maria) Josepha Weber was a German soprano of the classical era. She was a sister-in-law of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and the first to perform the role of The Queen of the Night in Mozart's opera The Magic Flute (1791).
Josepha Duschek (1754–1824) was an outstanding soprano of the Classical era. She was a friend of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, who wrote a few works for her to sing.
A lyric soprano is a type of operatic soprano voice that has a warm quality with a bright, full timbre that can be heard over an orchestra. The lyric soprano voice generally has a higher tessitura than a soubrette and usually plays ingenues and other sympathetic characters in opera. Lyric sopranos have a range from approximately middle C (C4) to "high D" (D6). This is the most common female singing voice. There is a tendency to divide lyric sopranos into two groups: light and full.
Alexandrina Pendatchanska is a Bulgarian operatic soprano. Increasingly, she is known professionally as Alex Penda.
Jana Jonášová is a Czech opera singer. One of the most important Czech coloratura sopranos of her generation, she has had an active international career at the world's major opera houses and concert stages for roughly four decades. As an opera singer she performed a varied repertoire from a variety of musical periods and in many languages. She drew particular acclaim for her portrayal of Mozart heroines and roles from the standard Czech repertory. In 1970 she joined the National Theatre in Prague where she was a member for more than three decades.
Helena Tattermuschová is a Czech lyric coloratura soprano, known chiefly for her character roles in the operas of Mozart and Janáček.
Kathryn Blomshield Lewek is an American coloratura soprano singer.
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