KATHERINE HENLY
SOPRANO/ACTOR
BIOGRAPHY
Praised worldwide for her captivating and affecting portrayals in genres ranging from opera to musical theater, jazz, and pop, American soprano Katherine Henly has performed with Los Angeles Opera, Washington National Opera, the Royal Opera House Muscat, Hawaii Opera Theatre, Charlottesville Opera, Virginia Opera, the New York Musical Theatre Festival, the New York International Fringe Festival, and the O’Neill National Music Theater Conference. For her eleventh-hour début with Oper Köln in Street Scene, Resmusica raved “Finally, in Sam Kaplan and Rose Maurrant, we discover two of the most promising American singers... Radiant physically and vocally, also very moving in the farewell scene… the young American singer had replaced a sick colleague without having yet sung the role on stage before … Definitely a career worth following.”
The 2024-2025 season features Ms. Henly’s début at The Metropolitan Opera as one of the Niñas in their new production of Golijov/Hwang’s Ainadamar. She will also return to South Florida Symphony as soprano soloist in Mozart’s Requiem, return to Minnesota Opera as Berta in Il barbiere di Siviglia, and appear as a featured soloist in The Twisted World of Christian De Gré Cárdenas at 54 Below.
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In the 2023-2024 season, Ms. Henly brought her extraordinary dramatic prowess to the fore in creating the lead role of the Woman in Daniel Schlosberg’s world premiere adaptation of Amanda Quaid’s The Extinctionist with New York’s innovative Heartbeat Opera. Eric Myers for OPERA by Opera News raved, “The Woman is the central character and is on stage non-stop. Katherine Henly gave a tour-de-force performance in the role, stretching her essentially lyric soprano to thrillingly dramatic extremes, and making very pointed use of her impressive upper register.” She also joined Operafest Røykenvik for an arias concert, South Florida Symphony for Handel’s Messiah, MidAmerica Productions for her Carnegie Hall début in Haydn’s Lord Nelson Mass, and Minnesota Opera to cover Adina in L’elisir d’amore. In the preceding season, she sang Clorinda in Opera Maine’s production of La Cenerentola to great acclaim and was seen in concert with Grand Junction Symphony Orchestra and the Creede Musical Arts Collective.
Recent seasons saw her début the role of Musetta in Peter Rothstein’s critically acclaimed production of La bohème with Theater Latté Da in Minneapolis, her return to Charlottesville Opera as Valencienne in The Merry Widow, her début as Clorinda in Rossini's La Cenerentola conducted by Gavriel Heine for the Northern Lights Music Festival, and her performance as a soloist in Preludes: Lyrics & Lyricists, a five-part online series filmed on the historic stage of the 92nd Street Y. Additional recent performances include the world premiere of Maria Thompson Corley’s The Sky Where You Are commissioned by An Opera Theatre and streaming online as a part of Decameron Opera Coalition’s Tales From A Safe Distance; and a soloist for Glad Jul, a holiday concert produced by Motarbeider, the Støttet av Kulturrådet Norsk kulturfond, and the Nord-Odal kommune, filmed in the historic Sand kirke in Nord-Odal, Norway. She made her off-Broadway début as Elsa in Sheldon Harnick’s musical Dragons at The York Theatre Company and can be heard on the studio recording with Tony Award-winner Michael Cerveris.
Ms. Henly has completed Young Artist residencies with Utah Festival Opera, Charlottesville Opera, and the Glimmerglass Festival. She is a graduate of Ithaca College (B.M.) and Brigham Young University (M.M.).
CRITICAL ACCLAIM
"...her voice and finesse captivating the entire theater..." – The Ithacan
– "Shining brightest is Katherine Henly, who plays La Musica. Covered in gold dust, each and every word she delivers is accompanied by a smile, with her voice and finesse captivating the entire theater. Moreover, her gorgeous costume…is a goddess’s garment. Its long and gentle flow perfectly matches the angelic beauty of Henly herself."
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"...sparkled in her coloratura moments" – Worcester Telegram and Gazette
– "Henly sparkled in her coloratura moments in the late songs of the piece, making her appearance as an Ethel Merman-like exponent of Broadway show numbers in the next part of the program all the more startling."
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"it was Katherine Henly whose voice stayed with the audience." – UVU Review
Carmina Burana – "Though each was amazing in his or her own right, it was Katherine Henly whose voice stayed with the audience. She sang with such beauty and emotion that though her words were foreign, there was no doubt as to their meaning.”
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"Radiant physically and vocally" – ResMusica
Street Scene – "Radiant physically and vocally, very moving also in the farewell scene, Katherine Henly, is not to be outdone in that of her beloved - a performance all the more impressive under the circumstances. The very young American soprano, passing through Cologne, had indeed replaced in the last minute a suffering colleague during several rehearsals - without having yet sung the role on stage before. The Cologne Opera thanked her with a performance that marked both her European debut and her acting debut. A career definitely to follow.”
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"...had the audience in the palm of her hand" – One Fan Show
La bohème – “Katherine Henly as Musetta had the audience in the palm of her hand as much as her on-again, off-again lover Marcello, and together their warm, heady voices washed over us.”
"Katherine Henly gave a tour-de-force performance in the role, stretching her essentially lyric soprano to thrillingly dramatic extremes"- Opera with Opera News
The Extinctionist- “The Woman is the central character and is on stage non-stop. Katherine Henly gave a tour-de-force performance in the role, stretching her essentially lyric soprano to thrillingly dramatic extremes, and making very pointed use of her impressive upper register. The traditional opera repertory offers lyric sopranos few roles of such unbridled intensity, and Henly made the most of this one.”
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"The role is as demanding as any in the repertoire with a wide-ranging tessitura and constant emotional and vocal hairpin turns."- Seen and Heard Internation
The Extinctionist- “Soprano Katherine Henly gave a towering performance as the Woman. The role is as demanding as any in the repertoire with a wide-ranging tessitura and constant emotional and vocal hairpin turns. One minute, Henly sang bursts of coloratura that were the vocal equivalent of a panic attack and, in the next, she blazed when expressing her fears and, later, her defiance. It was, however, the sound of Henly’s voice when she was singing as softly as imaginable that pierced the soul. The integrity and emotional honesty that she brought to this difficult role were impressive.”
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"like a latter-day Wozzeck."- New York Times
The Extinctionist -“Here, one woman (Katherine Henly, tireless in a role with equal demands on her voice and acting skills) is whisked from scene to scene, like a latter-day Wozzeck.”
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"Ms. Henly threw herself fully into Woman’s vocal and emotional turmoil." - The Wallstreet Journal
The Extinctionist- “Ms. Henly threw herself fully into Woman’s vocal and emotional turmoil. With Woman left alone at the end and her decision made for her, her haunting contemplation of a future in which “the sidewalks will be rivers again” captured the opera’s sorrowful ambivalence in the face of an impossible choice.”
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"Henly threw herself around the stage yet sang with clarity and beauty as Clorinda."- Opera News
La Cenerentola -“The chief sources of hilarity were the wicked trio of Angelina’s relatives - Patrick Carfizzi as the overconfident stepfather, Don Magnifico, and soprano Katherine Henly and mezzo-soprano Rachel Barg, who perfectly portrayed Angelina’s mocking, self-obsessed stepsisters...Henly threw herself around the stage yet sang with clarity and beauty as Clorinda.”
Opera News