From gospel to opera
Whitney Morrison’s journey from gospel to opera leads to Lyric
Whitney Morrison breaks into a megawatt smile when she talks about the “discovery” of her voice. ¶ “My parents tell the story that as a toddler, even before I was talking, they would hear me singing the familiar church vamp, ‘ Blessed be the rock,’ ” she says. “I had the tune, even if I didn’t have all the syllables of the words. And often they would just put me on a table at church and I would sing.”
On Oct. 7, the “table” on which the 28- year- old soprano will be singing will be none other than the stage of the Lyric Opera of Chicago. And Morrison will be making her debut with the company, playing the role of Countess Ceprano in Verdi’s “Rigoletto.”
“It’s a small role, but it plays an important part in the storyline,” said Morrison, who, in September 2016, impressed audiences at the final auditions for Lyric’s Ryan Opera Center, the highly competitive training ground for on- the- rise opera stars, and garnered the Audience Favorite Award. ( She began work as part of the Center’s new ensemble in May 2017.)
“Countess Ceprano is a tart — an adulteress who has become just one of the many conquests of the womanizing Duke of Mantua,” explained Morrison, who will be singing opposite tenor Matthew Polenzani, an earlier Ryan alum who has
established an illustrious career. “And ultimately, Rigoletto, the Duke’s court jester, is tragically led to believe it is the Countess, rather than his beloved, sheltered daughter, Gilda, who is being kidnapped in an act of revenge.”
Following her debut in “Rigoletto,” Morris on will play Gerhhilde, one of the Valkyries, in the Lyric production of Wagner’s “Die Walkure," opening Nov. 1. She also will understudy as the slave girl, Liu, an important secondary soprano role in Puccini’s “Turandot” ( opening in December), and as the innocent Marguerite, the leading