December 31st, 2024 2:30 PM
Where: The National Hispanic Cultural Center Journal Theatre – directions
PERFORMANCE RUNNING TIME: approximately 2 hours
$35-$85, Students $15
Join us for an easy and unforgettable New Year’s Eve, and forget about the stress of making plans! We close out 2024 and begin 2025 featuring the dynamic duo of tenor Clay Hilley and soprano Sara Duchovnay. Clay Hilley makes an exciting return to Opera Southwest after his stunning portrayal of Radamès in Aida back in 2015. Clay returns to us directly from the Deutsche Oper Berlin. Hilley has earned rave reviews from the New York Times and Financial Times, and he continues to shine in some of opera’s most illustrious heroic roles.
Accompanying our singers are the Opera Southwest Orchestra, the New Mexico Symphonic Chorus, and the Albuquerque Youth Symphony. With a variety of opera favorites and light classics, there is something for everyone to ring in the New Year. This is your chance to enjoy an incredible celebration without any hassle. Book your tickets now!
VIP After Party
Enjoy fine dining and a champagne toast to the new year at La Fonda del Bosque after the performance! Gratuity is also included in the price of dinner.
La Fonda del Bosque is just across the plaza from the Journal Theatre — only a minute’s walk from the theatre.
Champagne Reception is SOLD OUT
Clay Hilley
Clay returns to Opera Southwest after performing as Radames in Aida in 2015. Winning critical acclaim for “vocal heft, clarion sound and stamina” (New York Times) and for performances described as “close to perfection – powerful, subtle, intelligent, every word crystal clear” (Financial Times), American Heldentenor Clay Hilley continues to garner success in an ever-growing list of opera’s most monumental heroic roles. He is the winner of the 2024 Richard Tucker Music Foundation Award and is proud to represent the legacy of one of the greatest American tenors of the the last one hundred years by carrying the honor forward into the 21st Century.
Highlights of the current season include debuts at the Wiener Staatsoper in the title role of Tannhäuser in a new production directed by Lydia Steier and conducted by Music Director Philippe Jordan, and with l’Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal in performances of Gurre-Lieder led by Music Director Rafael Payare. On the stage of his ‘home’ company, Deutsche Oper Berlin, the tenor bows in Tannhäuser conducted by Axel Kober, Tristan und Isolde with Petr Popelka and Sir Donald Runnicles, and in Turandot under the baton of Jordan de Souza.
The tenor’s busy diary in the summer of 2024 included a role debut as Calaf in Turandot at Teatro Lirico Giuseppe Verdi Trieste, the title role of Parsifal at the Bayerische Staatsoper marking his first collaboration with renowned Wagner conductor Ádám Fischer, and performances of the First Act of Die Walküre for his debut at the Gran Teatre del Liceu and Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde (Schoenberg arr.) with Sir Donald Runnicles at the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival.
After stepping into the premiere of Bayreuth’s new Götterdämmerung on one day’s notice in 2022, Hilley has returned to the Bayreuth Festival in the title role of Tristan und Isolde, one of several Wagnerian roles now featuring prominently in his operatic diary. The 2023-24 season saw his debut as the title role of Tannhäuser at the Edinburgh International Festival in a concert performance with Sir Donald Runnicles and later with the Deutsche Oper Berlin in fully-staged performances in Berlin led by Pietari Inkinen; a house debut at the Bayerische Staatsoper in the title role of Parsifal; and a return to the Deutsche Oper Berlin as Siegfried in a revival of Stefan Herheim’s production of Der Ring des Nibelungen. Additionally, the tenor joined the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra and Music Director Karina Canellakis for a concert performance of Siegfried at Amsterdam’s venerable Concertgebouw.
Sara Duchovnay
American soprano Sara Duchovnay has been hailed by The San Francisco Examiner as “clarion voiced” and OperaWire described her as “dynamic and expressive”, further adding that she “sang with warmth and luster” and “moved with elan, thus matching her vocal vibrancy”. Of her role debut as Nedda in Pagliacci with Opera Roanoke, the Roanoke Times praised her “nuanced portrait of an unhappy woman” and “her high notes [which] rang outwi th ease at the swelling climaxes in both her first act aria and in her love duet with Silvio.”
Recent engagements include Sara’s debut performance of Richard Strauss’s Vier letzte Lieder with Shenandoah Valley Bach Festival under the baton on Deanna Tran; her debut with the Grand Teton Music Festival, where she covered the role of Cio-Cio San and sang the role of Kate Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly under the baton of Sir Donald Runnicles; as well as her Swiss debut with Musikkollegium Winterthur, singing Alma Mahler’s Fünf Lieder with the Musikkollegium Winterthur Orchestra under the baton of Kalena Bovell.
Additionally, Sara served as Artist in Residence for the Görlitz/Zgorzelec Jewish Remembrance Week, performing concerts in Germany and Poland. As the granddaughter of Holocaust survivors, Sara was honored to add her voice and her soul to this very special project.
Other credits of note include Lauretta in Gianni Schicchi with Opera Delaware, Die erste Dienerin in Die ägyptische Helena with Odyssey Opera, and the soprano soloist in Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis with the Madison Symphony Orchestra under the baton of John DeMain.
Sara currently resides in Berlin, Germany. She holds a Bachelor of Music from the Hartt School of Music and a Master of Music from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.
