ABOUT
BIOGRAPHY & PROJECTS
BIOGRAPHY
Praised for her "enticing strength and marvelous vocal character" (Arts Knoxville), Christine Alfano's powerful and sparkling voice has charmed audiences at home and abroad. Her "luscious" voice is particularly at home in the music of the bel canto, romantic and veristic periods. Her singing has been featured on NPR's "Performance Today," America's most popular classical music radio program.
​The 2024-2025 season features two role debuts, as well as an apprenticeship with Sarasota Opera. Christine will perform the role Gertrud in Humperdinck's Hansel and Gretel in her company debut with Amelia Island Opera under the baton of Maestro Keith Chambers. In early December, Christine will return to Saint-Saëns' Oratorio de Noël as the Soprano Soloist. She will spend three months as an Apprentice Artist with Sarasota Opera during their Winter 2025 season, performing in Verdi's Stiffelio, Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro, Mascagni's Cavalleria Rusticana, and Leoncavallo's Pagliacci. Additionally, she will be featured in the Welcome Concert at Sarasota Opera House, the Stars of Tomorrow Concert at Manatee School of the Arts, and the Apprentice at Noon at the Peterson Great Room concerts at Sarasota Opera House. Springtime will feature her return to Amelia Island Opera to sing the role of Kate Pinkerton and to study cover the title role in Madama Butterfly. She will be the featured soloist in Bold City Opera's "An Evening of Arias," performing a selection of arias by Mozart, Puccini, Verdi, Wagner and Massenet.
Last season, Christine performed Villa-Lobos' Bachianas Brasileiras No. 5 with the UK-based VIDA Guitar Quartet for Beaches Fine Arts Series. The 2023-2024 season also featured her role debut as Angelica in Puccini's Suor Angelica with Jacksonville-based Bold City Opera, performed immersively within St. John’s Cathedral. In addition, she appeared as a featured soloist in Saint-Saëns' Oratorio de Noël and was a guest soloist in Vivaldi's Gloria with The Bolles School.
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A passionate advocate for new music, she has performed in several world premieres, most notably Marble City Opera's production of Pesci's Royal Flush. Other recent new-music credits include Psychiatrist in A Severed Chord with Voices of the Valiant and Ms. Dara in An Embarrassing Position with Tennessee Opera Theatre. Other roles from prior seasons include Rosalinde in Die Fledermaus and Zweite Dame in Die Zauberflöte, both with Tennessee Opera Theatre. Notable international credits include La Ciesca in Puccini's Gianni Schicchi with the Brancaleoni International Music Festival and the Amalfi Coast Music and Arts Festival. In 2022, she was a featured soloist at the Ehrbarsaal in Vienna, Austria, where she performed arias and duets from Bellini’s Norma and Mozart’s Don Giovanni.
Christine was a participant in the 2022-2023 Professional Artist Workshop at Gulfshore Opera and is an alum of both the Knoxville Opera Studio and the Palm Beach Opera Studio. She currently studies with Jennifer Rowley; previous teachers have included Kirsten Chambers, Dr. Kimberly Roberts, and Daniel Belcher. She received her Master of Music degree in Voice Performance and her Graduate Certificate in Music Theory Pedagogy from the University of Tennessee College of Music in 2022, where she was the Graduate Teaching Assistant for the Tennessee Opera Theatre. She attended Florida State University College of Music for her undergraduate work, where she received a Bachelor of Arts degree in both Music and Italian.
Zweite Dame
Die Zauberflöte
TENNESSEE OPERA THEATRE
PROJECTS
DIRECTING
Christine is also active in the opera world as an emerging stage director. Most recently, she directed a site-specific production of Bluebeard’s Castle for Bold City Opera, which was described as “a feat of minimalism that feels grand in its design and powerful in its performance. With innovative staging in an octagonal church — uncannily echoing the shape of Bluebeard’s castle itself — the production brings an air of eeriness that enriched the audience’s sense of entrapment and mystery. Directed with attention to both intimate detail and operatic scale, the show unfolds in a space that melds seamlessly with the story’s Gothic tone.” (JaxPlays).
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In summer 2022, she directed the world premiere of Pluto by Michael J. Polo in both the United States and Austria, collaborating with Maestro Gregory Buchalter. Summer 2023 featured her return to Austria to direct another world premiere, A Girl from Ipanema by Brazilian composer Diogo Carvalho. She has assistant directed for organizations including the Lakes Area Music Festival (The Rake's Progress) Tennessee Opera Theatre (Die Zauberflöte), and the Vienna Summer Music Festival (La Bohéme, Die Zauberflöte, Hänsel und Gretel, Don Giovanni). She was a Production and Directing Intern for Marble City Opera and Druid City Opera, and is particularly inspired by cinematic directors Yorgos Lanthimos, David Lynch, and Wes Anderson.
BOLD CITY OPERA
In late 2022, Bold City Opera was formally founded by locally-based soprano Christine Alfano and conductor Brandon Michael Smith. What started off as a dream between two collaborating musicians came to fruition with BCO's extraordinarily successful first season in 2023. This inaugural season featured free outreach performances of Barber's A Hand of Bridge at The Cummer Museum of Art and Gardens, as well as a highly celebrated and nearly sold-out production of Puccini's Suor Angelica at St. John's Cathedral. Season Two features greatly expanded programming, with three one-act operas on the calendar— two of which will be offered free to the public— and a wider array of outreach events that cater to opera lovers as well as to singers themselves. BCO began the season presenting a tremendously successful, immersive production of Bartók's psychological drama, Bluebeard’s Castle, set within the castle-like walls of Jacksonville's historic Riverside Church at Park and King.
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Mission Statement:
Bold City Opera creates cutting-edge opera by fostering interdisciplinary collaboration and championing immersive experiences. By producing works in innovative and revolutionary ways, we aim to cultivate and educate new audiences. We aspire to build community by forging a vision of opera that is universally accessible, inclusive of underrepresented voices, and which showcases regional and emerging artists. BCO is proudly a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.