Grand Opera, Extraordinary Voices

When Thomas Søndergård conducts the Minnesota Orchestra in two concerts featuring Puccini’s Turandot next month, it will mark the organization’s first “opera in concert” performances of the blockbuster work in 40 years. “Puccini knew the art of music drama and how to depict feelings through music,” said Søndergård. “I can’t wait to share his Turandot with the Orchestra and some of the best singers for these roles.”

Two of those headlining singers—soprano Christine Goerke as Turandot and tenor Limmie Pulliam as Calaf—are among the field’s brightest lights and biggest voices. But for both artists,  their pathway to playing some of the great roles in the opera repertoire was long, winding and uncertain.

New York native Christine Goerke was a rising star lyrical soprano when vocal troubles struck in 2003, nearly derailing her career. “It all happened so fast that when I hit a brick wall, it was terrifying,” she explained in a 2017 New York Times interview. Recognizing that her voice was growing too large for the lighter lyric roles she had been singing, she pulled back, retrained and—defying the odds—charted a new course as one of the world’s top dramatic sopranos. (Check out this video to see Goerke perform an excerpt of "In questa reggia" from a production of Turandot at the Metropolitan Opera.)

In 2019 she embraced the ultimate operatic challenge, triumphing in the role of Brunnhilde in the Metropolitan Opera’s production of Wagner’s complete Ring Cycle. She has also performed Turandot at the Met, most recently in its 2021 production, with OperaWire praising her for “wonderfully navigating the extremes between Turandot’s crueler, regal nature, and her passionate humanity.” 

For Goerke, part of the allure of opera is its physicality. “There is no amplification, but your entire body vibrates. People start singing and filling a house that is 3,000 seats, and there is no amplification. How unbelievably cool it is, what the human body can do. Everybody should know what that is, at least once. I’m all for going to a rock concert and turning [the amplification] up to 11 but it is still unbelievably amazing to see what we are capable of.”

Limmie Pulliam’s story is also one of overcoming odds. Launching a vocal career in the 1990s, the Missouri native quit singing in his 20s following numerous rejections and took up work as a debt collector and security guard, eventually starting his own security firm. 

In 2007, he sang the national anthem at a campaign event for Barack Obama, among other events. “And in doing so, I noticed some very interesting changes in my voice,” he said. “It had taken on a more mature, burnished quality. And it had grown substantially in size. And it really piqued my interest as to the type of repertoire I could possibly sing with this new instrument.”

Over a period of years he relaunched his career, singing in smaller opera houses before making his Metropolitan Opera debut as Radamès in Verdi’s Aida in 2023. He is making his role debut as Calaf in Turandot this season, first performing it in an April benefit concert at the University of Houston alongside Christine Goerke before making his Minnesota Orchestra debut. The role famously includes the chance to interpret one of the opera world’s most beloved and best-known arias, “Nessun Dorma.”

The Minnesota Orchestra Turandot will also feature South African soprano Masabane Cecilia Rangwanasha as Liù and Italian bass Adolfo Carrado as Timur, among other singers, the Minnesota Chorale and Angelica Cantanti Youth Choirs.