It was announced today that Ailyn Pérez – winner of the Richard Tucker, Plácido Domingo and Leonie Rysanek Awards – will make her Washington National Opera debut this March, stepping in for an indisposed stellolleague to star as Adina in Donizetti’s L’elisir d’amore. This career milestone follows on the heels of the soprano’s recent success at London’s Royal Opera House, where she proved herself “a must-hear” (Guardian) in the title role of Manon and where “the show was stolen by the petite lyric soprano” when she sang Liù in Turandot; as the Telegraph’s review continued: “Pérez is currently a house favorite, and one could see why. … She floated pianissimi above the stave with spine-tingling ease.” After her first Kennedy Center appearances, Pérez returns to Covent Garden in the title role of Verdi’s La traviata (May 6–20), which she reprises at San Francisco Opera (July 5–13), in the meantime undertaking another Verdi heroine in the Hamburg State Opera’s new Rigoletto (May 24–June 1). Her first recording as an exclusive Warner Classics artist, Love Duets, is due for U.S. release in early June.