BY KAREN BOSSICK
Audrey Luna enjoys an exclamation point that no other opera singer can claim.
She has appeared in a question for “Jeopardy” for setting a record for the highest written note ever sung at the Metropolitan Opera.
“I did not know it was a record until about halfway through our run at the Metropolitan Opera when the Metropolitan Opera's archivist discovered that it indeed was,” said Luna. “By then ‘The Exterminating Angel’ by Adès had already performed in Salzburg and Covent Garden. I knew it was a pretty high note but didn't realize it would be record setting. It's been fun seeing this fact shared by Alex Trebek on Jeopardy and various other gameshows.”
Sun Valley audiences can check out Luna’s high notes for themselves when Luna performs Saturday, Aug. 20, for the Sun Valley Opera. The performance will be held in a private garden.
A reception starts at 5:30 p.m. with the performance following at 6:30 p.m. Tickets are $175, available at www.sunvalleyopera.com or by calling 208-726-0991.
Luna grew up next door to Idaho in Salem, Ore. But her career has taken her to the Grammy Awards ceremony where in 2014 she won a Grammy for Best Opera Recording. She also has performed at concert houses throughout the world, including Carnegie Hall, the Vienna State Opera, The Berlin Philharmonic and The Royal Opera at Covent Garden.
“It has been an adventure of many storage units across the United States and crossing the Atlantic too many times to count until about ten years ago when I decided to settle on O'ahu where I met my husband,” she said. “Nowadays, I'm usually crossing two oceans to go to work, but it is worth it to come back home to paradise.”
Luna said she will sing an array of high-flying songs and arias from Verdi to Gershwin during Saturday’s performance.
“I chose one of the songs—'Knoxville: Summer of 1915’ because it paints a beautiful portrait of the reflection of a summer's day through the eyes of a child,” she said. “The text is from an essay by James Agee. I have a one-year-old daughter and I often catch myself seeing things through her eyes for the first time, and that's why this piece has special meaning to me now.”