Tobias Picker: With Joyce El-Khoury in the role, [he] believes they’ve hit a home run

“With Joyce El-Khoury in the role, Picker believes they’ve hit a home run. “I saw her perform a scene from Suor Angelica when she was a young artist at the Met in the Lindemann Young Artist Development Program, I was moved by her – by a combination of her voice, her acting, and her ability to float beautiful high notes and sustain them. Her performance was moving in the way that anyone who sings the role of Emmeline has to be able to move an audience. I’ve been wanting her to do it ever since.” While Picker was the Artistic Director of OPERA San Antonio, he gave El-Khoury another plumb role, the title role in Dvořák’s Rusalka – another great, non-traditional, and psychologically complex character from opera. “I thought it would be good preparation for Emmeline. She was so touching as Rusalka.”
-Vital Voice, Feature on Tobias Picker, full article here.