Features
Catherine Cook Awarded the SF Opera Medal (Nov. 2022)
Photo Credit: Kristen Loken
SF Classical Voice
“After the bows, General Manager Matthew Shilvock came onstage to present the company’s highest honor, the San Francisco Opera Medal, to three singers whose versatility and dedication to the art have helped elevate hundreds of performances from good to great: mezzo-soprano Catherine Cook, bass-baritone Philip Skinner, and bass-baritone Dale Travis.”
Broadway World
“In her, to date, 31 years with San Francisco Opera, mezzo-soprano Catherine Cook has performed 42 roles in 56 productions for a total of 374 performances. While a San Francisco Opera Adler Fellow, Cook made her Company debut in 1991 as Mavra in Prokofiev’s War and Peace and quickly began establishing her extensive repertoire on the War Memorial Opera House stage, including several signature roles which she reprised on multiple occasions. Her 39 performances as Marcellina in Le Nozze di Figaro and 61 as Berta in Il Barbiere di Siviglia, each a Company record, stand as indelible portrayals in San Francisco Opera’s 100-year history thanks to her vocal and dramatic artistry. Cook’s numerous San Francisco Opera highlights also include Jade Boucher in the world premiere of Jake Heggie‘s Dead Man Walking, the title role in Tobias Picker’s Dolores Claiborne, Mrs. McLean in Carlisle Floyd’s Susannah and La Frugola in Puccini’s Il Tabarro. A valued performer with other leading American companies including the Metropolitan Opera, Houston Grand Opera, and Santa Fe Opera, Cook balances her busy performing career with being an educator. As a Professor of Voice at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, she holds the Frederica von Stade Distinguished Chair in Voice.”
SF Chronicle
“In remarks from the stage, the three singers conveyed their thanks to the company. ‘To be part of the San Francisco Opera family for all of these years has been such a dream come true,’ said Cook. ‘It truly is a community we are so grateful to be part of.’
Operawire
“‘As we celebrate this Centennial Season, one of the things that strikes me most poignantly is how many people in this Company have given decades of their lives in service to this stage,’ said San Francisco Opera Tad and Dianne Taube General Director Matthew Shilvock during the ceremony. ‘I am joined here today by three such artists, all of whom have been performing principal roles on this stage for over thirty years: Catherine Cook, Philip Skinner and Dale Travis. Each of them began their journeys as members of our prestigious Merola Opera Program and Adler Fellowship training programs, and each of them exemplifies a devotion to craft, a spirit of collegial music making and an upholding of the highest artistic standards.'”
SFGate
“For nearly a quarter of a century, the versatile and dramatically forceful mezzo-soprano has been the San Francisco Opera’s go-to choice for a wide range of character roles… Total S.F. Opera performances to date: 321, and counting. It’s the career she always hoped for.”
San Francisco Examiner
“Cook has been wowing audiences since the early 1990s, singing comprimaro roles to perfection. Most recently, she excelled as the servant Marcellina in San Francisco Opera’s fall production of Mozart’s ‘Marriage of Figaro,’ and took a brilliant turn as the wily Mrs. Peachum in West Edge Opera’s ‘Threepenny Opera.’ Both performances left audiences limp with laughter.”
San Francisco Opera Blog
“In the solitude of her car, as she drove home from that first staging rehearsal, Catherine Cook started to cry. She didn’t expect to. But suddenly the emotions overwhelmed her: she would be back on stage, performing live, for the first time in over a year.
“The tears surprised the normally chipper voice professor and mezzo-soprano. ‘You know when you’re crying, and you’re asking yourself, “Why am I crying?”‘ Cook laughs, looking back.”
Marin Mommies
“…As a teenager, she became enraptured with what she saw playing out on stage. It was music, comedy, and acting, all rolled into one. ‘I remember sitting in the opera house thinking, “This is it. Oh my gosh, this is everything I love on one stage.”‘ Years later, she would be in The Barber of Seville herself. Having trained at San Francisco Opera as an Adler Fellow, she returned to make the Bay Area her home.”
San Francisco Classical Voice
“As performers are sheltering-in-place with gigs up in the air or gone, some are finding solace in the act of cooking. In February, mezzo-soprano Catherine Cook reprised the role of Julia Child in Bon Appetit, playing the iconic cook in Opera Parallèle’s fundraiser at Hayes Street Grill and then during the Sun Valley Music Festival, little knowing the role would be her last for months.”
Photo Credit: Kersh Branz
Features
Catherine Cook Awarded the SF Opera Medal (Nov. 2022)
Photo Credit: Kristen Loken
SF Classical Voice
“After the bows, General Manager Matthew Shilvock came onstage to present the company’s highest honor, the San Francisco Opera Medal, to three singers whose versatility and dedication to the art have helped elevate hundreds of performances from good to great: mezzo-soprano Catherine Cook, bass-baritone Philip Skinner, and bass-baritone Dale Travis.”
Broadway World
“In her, to date, 31 years with San Francisco Opera, mezzo-soprano Catherine Cook has performed 42 roles in 56 productions for a total of 374 performances. While a San Francisco Opera Adler Fellow, Cook made her Company debut in 1991 as Mavra in Prokofiev’s War and Peace and quickly began establishing her extensive repertoire on the War Memorial Opera House stage, including several signature roles which she reprised on multiple occasions. Her 39 performances as Marcellina in Le Nozze di Figaro and 61 as Berta in Il Barbiere di Siviglia, each a Company record, stand as indelible portrayals in San Francisco Opera’s 100-year history thanks to her vocal and dramatic artistry. Cook’s numerous San Francisco Opera highlights also include Jade Boucher in the world premiere of Jake Heggie‘s Dead Man Walking, the title role in Tobias Picker’s Dolores Claiborne, Mrs. McLean in Carlisle Floyd’s Susannah and La Frugola in Puccini’s Il Tabarro. A valued performer with other leading American companies including the Metropolitan Opera, Houston Grand Opera, and Santa Fe Opera, Cook balances her busy performing career with being an educator. As a Professor of Voice at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, she holds the Frederica von Stade Distinguished Chair in Voice.”
SF Chronicle
“In remarks from the stage, the three singers conveyed their thanks to the company. ‘To be part of the San Francisco Opera family for all of these years has been such a dream come true,’ said Cook. ‘It truly is a community we are so grateful to be part of.’
Operawire
“‘As we celebrate this Centennial Season, one of the things that strikes me most poignantly is how many people in this Company have given decades of their lives in service to this stage,’ said San Francisco Opera Tad and Dianne Taube General Director Matthew Shilvock during the ceremony. ‘I am joined here today by three such artists, all of whom have been performing principal roles on this stage for over thirty years: Catherine Cook, Philip Skinner and Dale Travis. Each of them began their journeys as members of our prestigious Merola Opera Program and Adler Fellowship training programs, and each of them exemplifies a devotion to craft, a spirit of collegial music making and an upholding of the highest artistic standards.'”
SFGate
“For nearly a quarter of a century, the versatile and dramatically forceful mezzo-soprano has been the San Francisco Opera’s go-to choice for a wide range of character roles… Total S.F. Opera performances to date: 321, and counting. It’s the career she always hoped for.”
San Francisco Examiner
“Cook has been wowing audiences since the early 1990s, singing comprimaro roles to perfection. Most recently, she excelled as the servant Marcellina in San Francisco Opera’s fall production of Mozart’s ‘Marriage of Figaro,’ and took a brilliant turn as the wily Mrs. Peachum in West Edge Opera’s ‘Threepenny Opera.’ Both performances left audiences limp with laughter.”
San Francisco Opera Blog
“In the solitude of her car, as she drove home from that first staging rehearsal, Catherine Cook started to cry. She didn’t expect to. But suddenly the emotions overwhelmed her: she would be back on stage, performing live, for the first time in over a year.
“The tears surprised the normally chipper voice professor and mezzo-soprano. ‘You know when you’re crying, and you’re asking yourself, “Why am I crying?”‘ Cook laughs, looking back.”
Marin Mommies
“…As a teenager, she became enraptured with what she saw playing out on stage. It was music, comedy, and acting, all rolled into one. ‘I remember sitting in the opera house thinking, “This is it. Oh my gosh, this is everything I love on one stage.”‘ Years later, she would be in The Barber of Seville herself. Having trained at San Francisco Opera as an Adler Fellow, she returned to make the Bay Area her home.”
San Francisco Classical Voice
“As performers are sheltering-in-place with gigs up in the air or gone, some are finding solace in the act of cooking. In February, mezzo-soprano Catherine Cook reprised the role of Julia Child in Bon Appetit, playing the iconic cook in Opera Parallèle’s fundraiser at Hayes Street Grill and then during the Sun Valley Music Festival, little knowing the role would be her last for months.”