Meet Forrópera star CHRYSTAL E. WILLIAMS

Get to know mezzo-soprano CHRYSTAL E. WILLIAMS, who stars with husband Felipe Hostins in Forrópera, our next Sunday Spotlight with Baltimore Concert Opera (streaming Feb. 7 & 10).

PREVIOUS OD APPEARANCES: OD fans may remember Chrystal from her stunning performances as Charlotte in our concert production of Werther and last summer’s Al Fresco Arias. Other recent appearances include her Met Opera debut as Maketaten in Akhnaten (2019), Rebecca Parker in Charlie Parker’s Yardbird with Seattle Opera (2019), and The Stewardess in Flight with Minnesota Opera (2020).

MUSICAL CALLING: An alum of the Academy of Vocal Arts and Yale School of Music, Chrystal credits her opera awakening to seeing the great Leontyne Price perform live while on a student trip to NYC. “You couldn’t help but be inspired by her, and it occurred to me that I could help people doing what she was doing,” Williams told Classical Singer magazine in a recent interview. “If I could make people feel what I was feeling and experience what I was experiencing, then I could help people through music.” 

GIVING BACK & BREAKING BARRIERS: “For me to be able to see someone like Leontyne Price made all the difference in the world,” Williams continued in her CSM interview. “There was someone who looked like me, singing opera professionally. I needed that. To be able to go into schools now and have that kind of an impact, where young people can see someone whose skin looks like theirs and whose hair looks like theirs and sings opera—that has a huge effect on the entire direction of the future of the art form.” She also founded the Chrystal E. Williams scholarship in 2004 to help support students pursuing performing arts careers.

Chrystal and husband Felipe, an accordionist who’s toured with world music greats including João Lucas e Marcelo and Guilherme e Santiago, are also breaking barriers with Forrópera, their super-catchy amalgam of opera and forró (a type of traditional folk music and dance with origins in northeast Brazil). “Music is music. We really just wanted to highlight that there are no barriers, no walls, and all this kind of other stuff. It’s just great theater!” says Chrystal. “We also wanted to use Forrópera to foster unity, peace, and understanding through music because a lot of times it literally came down to black and white audiences… We just wanted to create a space of unity and harmony where all can just go and be and enjoy music and enjoy art.”

Also: Meet Chrystal’s husband and co-star, Felipe Hostins, and get sneak peek at Forrópera

Streams Feb. 7 (2 pm) and Feb. 10 (7:30 pm); Tickets: $15 per household