Alexandra Nowakowski (BM Voice '14) makes Met Debut

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UIUC alumna Alexandra Nowakowski (BM Voice 14′) made her Metropolitan Opera debut on October 14, 2025, stepping in for Nadine Sierra as Amina in La Sonnambula.

Reviewing for Gramophone UK, Robert Levine writes: “More of a surprise and therefore more of a triumph was Soprano Alexandra Nowakowski making her Met debut (she has been covering roles for a few years but this was her first time on the stage.) From the opening recit before ‘Come per me sereno’, Ms Nowakowski spun a lovely pianissimo line; her high phrases in the cavatina itself as graceful and pitch-perfect as one could want. The showy cabaletta, ‘Sovra il sen la man mi posa,’ a wildly decorated theme and variations, was dispatched with ease and spotless high notes, while the audience held its breath. Moving from innocent delight to tender intimacy and warmth to almost wild exaltation, it was clear that a fine artist, not just a good-enough substitute had been found. As the opera continued, she expressed sexual longing, pathos, misery, and finally, when she was vindicated, triumph. Her singing of the gorgeous ‘Ah, non credea mirarti’ was hypnotically beautiful and melancholy in the extreme, and the final, following ‘Ah, non giunge,’ the soul of ecstatic mania. In Villazon’s production, after her ordeal, she refuses Elvino’s hand and races out of town, but not before letting go with a quite remarkable high F, a knockout punch of virtuosity and a huge farewell to the petty townsfolk. The ovation for her was wild.”

Congratulations, Alexandra, on your Met Opera debut!