Opera & Operetta
Allegra Durante, a coloratura soprano born and raised in New York City, has been performing opera since 2010. She has taken on roles including Zerlina in Don Giovanni, Oscar in Un Ballo in Maschera, Olympia in Les Contes d’Hoffmann, Morgana in Alcina, Amore and Euridice in Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice and Echo in his Echo et Narcisse, Hippolyte in Rameau’s Hippolyte et Aricie, Papagena and First Lady in Die Zauberflöte, Gretel in Hänsel und Gretel, and Giulietta in Romeo & Giulietta, a pastiche of scenes from Bellini’s I Capuleti e i Montecchi interwoven with text from Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet.
In the operetta repertoire, she has been heard as Josephine in H.M.S. Pinafore, Patience in Patience, Casilda in The Gondoliers, Aline Sangazure in The Sorcerer, and Phyllis in Iolanthe.
Most recently, in 2023-24, Allegra was cast as Zerlina in Mozart’s Don Giovanni with Amore Opera. The opera will be performed in the original Italian, fully-staged with orchestra, Jan. 26-27, 31, and Feb. 1-3.
In 2021 and 2023, respectively, Allegra performed with the Brooklyn Telemann Chamber Society in productions of Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice as Amore, and Rameau’s Hippolyte et Aricie (re-titled as Phedre) as Hippolyte that were recorded in the style of films. Orfeo has been released on YouTube after premiere showings in New York City, and Phedre will be released in the first half of 2024.
In 2017 Allegra was part of Summer Vocal Arts at Brooklyn Music School in New York City, where she debuted as Echo in Gluck's opera Echo et Narcisse.
Each summer from 2015-2017, Allegra studied with Orfeo Vocal Arts Academy and performed in and near Dresden, Germany. In summer of 2014 she traveled through Italy, first studying the Italian language at Centro Studi Urbania, host school of Si Parla, Si Canta, and then immersing herself in the Italian culture while visiting numerous cities in Northern and Central Italy.
Allegra produced and co-starred in her first independent production in 2012, a staged and costumed pastiche called Replenished Repertoire. The next year, she joined forces with fellow soprano Susan Bywaters to direct and produce a fully-staged arrangement of Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice with chamber orchestra and quartet chorus. The run played to sold-out houses and the production was praised musically and dramatically as well as for its inventive staging.
After years of being torn between musical theatre and classical spoken theatre, in 2010 Allegra discovered that opera offered her the best of both worlds, and hasn't looked back since her first professional role, the Shepherd in Tosca. Her training includes classes at the Lucy Moses School and HB Studio in New York City, and over 15 years of movement work including ballet, jazz, tap, and ballroom dancing, karate, stage combat, fencing, rock climbing, and historic movement styles.
Allegra has performed with Amore Opera, the Brooklyn Telemann Chamber Society, Vertical Player Repertory, OperaRox Productions, New Amsterdam Opera, Empire Opera, Vocal Productions NYC, New York Lyric Opera Theatre, Operamission, the New Jersey Association of Verismo Opera, Utopia Opera, the Brearley Singers, and the New York Fringe Festival. She is a former member of the Opera Collective, which performs in subway stations throughout New York City to share opera with a wider audience.
In addition to her passion for performing, Allegra has interests in historic movement style/coaching, costuming, and directing. As a costume designer, Allegra has worked with Mannes School of Music as well as New York-based companies Opera Feroce, Salon/Sanctuary Concerts, and Musica Nuova.
In 2016 she made her debut as a Historic Movement Coach for a production of Rigoletto with Amore Opera. She instructed the chorus and principals on how to inhabit the gestures and movement of the 16th century, and how to wear period costumes as if they were the performers’ own clothing.