North Carolina Opera Rusalka Preview Press

Joyce did a feature interview on Opera Lively – the full piece you can read here. Here’s a sneak peek:

“I always research as much as I possibly can when preparing a role. What I learn from other sources allows me to gather information about the character and leads me in the right direction in creating an interpretation with multiple dimensions. For me, this is a step in the work process that cannot be skipped. I feel that by doing the research part of the exploration, I allow myself the privilege of discovering and studying the music. That being said, it is my job to present the character to the audience in a way which enables them to have a meaningful experience. They must be stimulated, transported and inspired. So, once I’ve done my research, I let most of the information live in my subconscious and I allow myself the freedom to organically express the emotions communicated by the text and the music.”
-Joyce El-Khoury

Also, Joyce appears in the News Observer preview feature, quote below:

Canadian soprano Joyce El-Khoury, already a seasoned Verdi and Puccini singer, is looking forward to taking on the title role again (her first was in San Antonio in January and she’ll sing it in Amsterdam in May). El-Khoury likes the way Rusalka makes the audience think about what it means to be human.

“She is driven by love, discovering it for the first time and wanting to experience all of it,” El-Khoury said. “It’s amazing to see her go from that mindset to become a sacrificing, forgiving creature, in some ways more human than the humans.”

-News Observer, full story here.