Artists on Stage
Emily Dorn
In the high stress, high stakes world of opera auditions, showing up without German repertoire in front of the director of Dresden’s Semperoper would normally be the kiss of death. Not so for soprano Emily Dorn.
Born in Mississauga, Ontario to a musical family, the former Emily Duncan-Brown sang with the Canadian Children’s Opera Company and attended Etobicoke School of the Arts. After studies with Lucille Evans at McGill, and Ruth Falcon at Mannes, the then Florida-based Dorn landed roles in the 2011-12 season with Opera in Williamsburg (Lucy in The Telephone), Lyric Opera of Virginia (Violetta), Palm Beach Opera (Juliette) and Green Mountain Opera Festival (Norina). Her management set up an audition with Eytan Pessen, then of Dresden’s Semperoper—little did she know how potentially important it would be.
After singing “Padre, germani, addio!” from Mozart’s Idomeneo, an impressed Pessen asked her, “Do have anything in German? You do realize you are singing for a German opera house?”
Fortunately, she was about to appear in Wagner’s Rienzi with Opera Orchestra of New York. Quickly fetching her score, she sang “Ich sah die Stadte” for Pessen, her accompanist sight reading on the fly.
“Your German, it’s like a nice chocolate. You need more nuts in it,” commented Pessen, who nevertheless invited her to join Semperoper’s Junges Ensemble.
“When you get invited
