page_title: Ginger Costa-Jackson
section_title: Career
hierarchical_section_title: Ginger Costa-Jackson / Career
caption_attribution_description: English: Ginger Costa-Jackson, mezzo-soprano, as Myrtale in the Metropolitan Opera's 2008 production of Massenet's Thais by Walt Jackson.
context_page_description: Ginger Costa-Jackson is an Italian-American operatic mezzo-soprano who performs often with the Metropolitan Opera since entering its Lindemann Young Artist Development Program in 2007. The Met: Live in HD global broadcasts feature her frequently, as do other major theaters and concert venues worldwide. Costa-Jackson has performed in her native Italian as well as English, French, and Spanish; she speaks these languages fluently, along with limited German. While her signature role is Carmen, Costa-Jackson also performs comic roles, as in her Marchesa di Poggio, and also her 2009 Celia in Gilbert and Sullivan's Iolanthe with the San Francisco Symphony.
context_section_description: The 2007 jump from private student to the Lindemann Young Artist Development Program was the pivotal point in Costa-Jackson's career. The young singer had no degree, nor had she participated in the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions.  Being a young artist gave her access to the Met's considerable resources, world-class teachers and coaches, and on-stage experiences.
  Costa-Jackson made her first appearance with the Metropolitan Opera in its 2008 Opening Night Gala as Rosette in Massenet's Manon. Her singing debut came that same year in a new production of Massenet's Thaïs, which starred Renée Fleming and Thomas Hampson. Costa-Jackson was Myrtale. From 2008 to 2013 Costa-Jackson had 15 contracts with the Metropolitan opera (see Repertory below). General Manager Peter Gelb explained how the Met's young artists are typically assigned small roles with the company. The company develops young artists, often giving them cover assignments before launching them into main roles. This pattern is evident in Costa-Jackson's placement in increasingly demanding cover roles since she graduated from the Lindemann Young Artist Development Program in 2010. Her 2012 and 2013 cover roles included Cherubino (Le nozze di Figaro), Meg Page (Falstaff), and Dorabella (Così fan tutte). Her debut in the title role of Carmen came in 2011 with Glimmerglass Opera, when Francesca Zambello cast Costa-Jackson as the gypsy temptress. Scheduling conflicts required Costa-Jackson to turn down offers to sing Carmen with Opera Hong Kong and Opera Hamilton in Canada. The Met released her from a contract to sing Bersi in Andrea Chénier, so that Costa-Jackson could sing Carmen with Virginia Opera in 2014. Carmen became her signature role and she has performed it all over the world. By March 2019 she had performed it thirteen times, in venues ranging from Seattle and San Diego to Mexico City and Tokyo.
  2012 saw Costa-Jackson's debut with San Francisco Opera in the role of Nancy T'ang (Nixon in China), a role she had previously sung under the baton of the composer, John Adams, at the Met. Costa-Jackson's first professional role in Europe was Lola (Mascagni's Cavalleria rusticana) with the Gran Teatre del Liceu in 2011. She was "Puss" in the 2010 U.S. premiere of Montsalvage's El gato con botas produced by the Gotham Chamber Opera.  Costa-Jackson sang Wowkle in the historic 2010 Metropolitan Opera centennial production of Puccini's La fanciulla del West.
caption: Ginger Costa-Jackson in her 2008 Metropolitan Opera debut as Myrtale in Thaïs
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