Biography
Hei-Kyung Hong (born 4 July 1959) is a Korean-American lyric soprano.
Hong was born in Gangwon province, South Korea and studied at Yea Won Music School in Seoul. At age 15, she obtained a scholarship to study at the Juilliard School of Music in New York and its American Opera Center. In 1981, she sang professionally for the first time when composer Gian-Carlo Menotti invited her to perform at the Spoleto Festival in Italy and Charleston, South Carolina.
Hong made her Metropolitan Opera debut as Servilia in Mozart's opera La Clemenza di Tito in 1984. She has since gone on to sing a wide range of roles at the Met, mainly in Mozart operas including Susanna in Le Nozze di Figaro, Zerlina in Don Giovann, Despina in Così fan tutte, Ilia in Idomeneo, and Pamina in Die Zauberflöte, but also in Italian and French operas as Gilda in Rigoletto, Micaela in Carmen, the title role of Massenet's Manon.
From late-1990s she moved to somewhat heavier parts such as Countess Almaviva in Le Nozze di Figaro, Liù in Turandot, Violetta in La traviata and Ava in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg.
Although the Met has been her main stage since her debut, she also performs at other major opera houses in the United States and Europe, such as the Lyric Opera of Chicago, San Francisco Opera, Washington National Opera, Wiener Staatsoper, Teatro alla Scala di Milano, the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden in London, L'Opéra de la Bastille in Paris, and the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich.
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