Dora in The Bloody Chamber
Defying traditional career boundaries, Dr. Viskontas spends much of her time performing as an opera singer. A versatile and powerful performer, she is equally at home in contemporary and classical opera. Her "bell-like timbre" and "winsome stage presence" are particularly suited for the leading noblewomen in operas from the 18th and 19th centuries, while her intellect, dramatic intensity, curiosity and nuanced acting add depth to contemporary operatic roles. Operatic performance highlights include Musetta in La Boheme, the role of Beth in Mark Adamo’s Little Women in a production that she co-produced at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, Kate in John Estacio’s Frobisher co-commissioned by Calgary Opera and the Banff Summer Arts Festival, Heart's Desire in Arthur Sullivan's rarely-performed last opera, The Rose of Persia with The Lyric Theater of San Jose and Aurelia, in Purcell's Dioclesian with San Francisco Cabaret Opera, and both the Countess (International Lyric Academy of Rome) and Susanna (Opera on Tap: San Francisco) in Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro. She has also covered the title role in Floyd's Susannah with Pasadena Opera. Her performance as the Water Nymph in a new opera written by David Heuser which was based on one of Aesop's fables, called The Golden Ax, was selected as one of the top two performances at the ninth annual Fresh Voices festival of contemporary music in San Francisco. She also created the role of Irena in Patrick Dailly's Solidarity, the world-premiere of which was performed in Berkeley with the San Francisco Cabaret Opera. In 2010, she created the lead role of Dora in a workshop premiere of Felsenfeld's The Bloody Chamber at the Live Oak Theater in Berkeley, CA and the Galapagos Art Center in Brooklyn, NY, and was hailed as "the musical highlight of the evening" by the Opera Insider. She also created the role of Amelia in a workshop version of Giancarlo Aquilanti’s opera Oxford Companions with the Stanford Orchestra in the Dinkelspiel Auditorium in Palo Alto, CA.
Vocallective
Dr. Viskontas is an avid performer of chamber music, leading Vocallective, a consortium of musicians dedicated to the art of vocal chamber music. Having commissioned composer Noah Luna to create a new arrangement of Copland's songs based on Emily Dickinson poems, she was joined by the award-winning Telegraph Quartet in the premiere of this work. Her passion for the intimate nature of chamber music is reflected in The Ensemble Project, a multi-media endeavor designed to explore the relationship between empathy and music, funded by the Germanacos Foundation. In March of 2011, she performed the West Coast premiere of Mohammed Fairouz’s Three Fragments of Ibn Khafajah at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. She also performed the piece, in Arabic, at Joyce SoHo on the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks during a marathon concert of music written after September 11th, 2001 by Manhattan-based composers. In February 2012, she performed the West Coast premiere of Fairouz’s Unwritten for voice and chamber orchestra, along with the world premiere of Giancarlo Aquilanti’s Filastrocche for voice, viola and piano, in Stanford University’s Campbell Recital Hall. In 2009, she premiered Josh Archibald-Seiffer's Wat vör shöön Vagel with the Stanford New Ensemble under the baton of Martin Fraile, in the same hall. Other notable performances this past year include Osvaldo Golijov’s Lua Descolorida and How slow the wind for voice and strings as part of the inaugural Alumni Showcase recital at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and music for voice and string quartet from the Victorian era at the Legion of Honor in San Francisco. She has had the pleasure of working with Mr. Golijov on during the Banff Summer Arts Festival in 2007.
Micaela in Carmen
In 2009, Dr. Viskontas attended the Opera en Creation workshop for emerging professionals in opera at the world-reknowned festival in Aix-en-Provence. Designed to foster the production of new works in opera, this workshop brought together 12 directors, conductors and composers, who spent two weeks working on various projects. Alongside director Jonathan Lynn (My Cousin Vinny, Clue, Yes, Minister), Indre was associate director on a new production of Mozart's Cosi fan Tutte with Pasadena Opera. Dr. Viskontas has also participated in the internationally-respected Accademia d'Amore baroque opera workshop, which culminated in the performance of staged opera scenes with period instruments in Seattle. She has performed as the soprano soloist in several oratorio works, including St. Cecilia’s Mass by Gounod in Toronto, Cleveland and Chicago, and the Christmas Oratorio by Saint-Saens, Magnificat by Vivaldi, and Rutter’s Gloria in San Francisco.