Alison Bolshoi, American contralto, recently made her role debut in the role of Azucena in Il TROVATORE with Boheme Opera NJ. Also with Boheme, in 2024 she made her role debut in the title-role CARMEN– both to stellar reviews. Other recent engagements include Giovanna RIGOLETTO with Dallas Opera, Amneris AIDA, the Hexe HANSEL UND GRETEL with Boheme Opera and concerts with MidAmerica Productions and the New England Symphonic Ensemble at Carnegie Hall. She is currently on tour in the midwest with a concert oratorio THY WILL BE DONE in the sung role of Narrator.
Earlier in March 2025, Ms. Bolshoi sang Dalila in SAMSON ET DALILA in Jane Marsh’s concert series at Temple Emmanuel, NYC. Other past notable engagements include Foreign Princess RUSALKA at the South Bohemian Opera Festival, Czech Republic, creating the role of Debbie Phillips in Peter Stopschinski BUM PHILLIPS: ALL AMERICAN OPERA at New York’s La Mama Theatre, later revived in Houston, and while still singing soprano repertoire Senta (cover) DER FLIEGENDE HOLLÄNDER at San Francisco Opera and the Mother AMAHL AND THE NIGHT VISITORS with Il Piccolo Teatro dell’Opera, New York.
Ms. Bolshoi fulfills the Wagner and Verdi repertoire with a vocal radiance and lyricism seldom heard in dramatic voices. Her insightful interpretation of each character makes her presence onstage mesmerizing. Ms. Bolshoi made her international debut at La Gran Teatre del Liceu, Barcelona, in a concert featuring excerpts from Wagner, Strauss and Schillings. Shortly afterward she joined the roster of The San Francisco Opera as a cover in Der fliegende Holländer. Ms. Bolshoi was a soloist with The Huntsville Symphony, Alabama, and gave concerts as part of the Bach to Bartok Festival with Accademia Pianistica, in Imola, Italy. She sang leading roles with One World Symphony, NY, and was a soloist for the Alfredo Silipigni Memorial Concert with the New Jersey State Opera at NJPAC. Ms. Bolshoi sang her first Verdi Requiem with the NY Symphonic Arts Ensemble, for their 25 Year Anniversary Gala in 2018. Later that same year she was asked to sing the Berlioz contralto piece La mort de Cléopâtre with the same company. Ms. Bolshoi made her debut with Opera Theatre of Montclair (NJ) in 2017 in a concert version of Tristan und Isolde by Richard Wagner.
Ms. Bolshoi created the Contralto role of Debbie Phillips in Bum Phillips: All American Opera, at the La Mama Theatre in NYC in 2014. The opera was received well by NY critics, and was brought to Houston, Texas in September 2015. In 2010, Ms. Bolshoi was the soloist for the opening gala concert at Český Krumlov, with the Prague Radio Symphony, Czech Republic, and returned the following year to perform in Dvorak’s Rusalka. The production took place in the historic Revolving Theatre, and Ms. Bolshoi became a spokesperson for the theatre.
Ms. Bolshoi made her professional debut singing the Mother in Amahl and the Night Visitors with Il Piccolo Teatro dell’Opera, NY in 2008. She worked for 12 years in the Wagner Festival Orchestra Program in NYC run by Patricia Sage and Barbara Conrad, intensely studying Wagner roles she sings today with aplomb.
Awards
Ms. Bolshoi won the Liederkranz International Competition, Wagner Section, The Gerda Lissner Foundation Award, and the Altamura-Caruso Foundation Award. She has been recognized through continued awards and sponsorship by: The American Wagner Association, NY, The Wagner Society of New York and The Wagner Association of America, Chicago. At the beginning of her career, Ms. Bolshoi was sponsored by The Evelyn Lear & Thomas Stewart Emerging Singers Program of Washington, D.C.