Nicole Cabell

Nicole's Soprano Album wins Georg Solti Gold Orpheus in Paris

2007-05-04T23:50:00.000+01:00

Hier soir (2 Mai 2007) à l’Opéra Bastille, comme chaque année, l’Académie du Disque Lyrique a remis ses Orphées d’Or 2007

Prix Georg Solti
Orphée consacrant les débuts d’une jeune carrière discographique : Nicole Cabell pour Soprano avec le London Philharmonic dirigé par Andrew Davis (Decca).

The Académie du Disque Lyrique held its prize-giving ceremony at the Opéra Bastille in Paris on 2nd May 2007. The prizes are known as the Orphées d'Or.

The Georg Solti Prize was awarded to a young discographic career:
Nicole Cabell for Soprano with the London Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Andrew Davis (Decca).

For the complete list of awards, see list here

Sexy Divas Boosting Classical Music Biz

2007-05-02T10:28:00.000+01:00

Classical music sales have risen 11.7% since 2003 thanks in part to the popularity of Russia's Anna Netrebko and other female vocalists

Since Russian singer Anna Netrebko appeared on the scene, cash registers are finally ringing again in the classical music industry. Record companies are pushing a steady stream of new female vocalists -- but being a diva nowadays requires much more than just talent.
The list of requirements sounds daunting: slim as a model, sexy as a pop star and blessed with a magical voice capable of beguiling the masses. Think Kate Moss meets Christina Aguilera and Maria Callas. Deutsche Grammophon's sister company Decca is serving up American soprano Nicole Cabell, 29, whose repertoire could best be characterized as a pleasant operatic potpourri.

For complete article, see

Joachim Kronsbein

Translated from the German by Christopher Sultan

The Gramophone ~ Editor's Choice May 2007

2007-04-28T10:48:00.000+01:00

Solo Recital Debut Album Review (3)

An impressive debut recital by this young American prize-winner

Here's an hour of enchantment from the American soprano who won the 2005 Cardiff Singer of the World. There she swept the board with her final item, Teresa's taxing but rewarding aria from Benvenuto Cellini. Here it forms the centrepiece of a recital that takes her with extreme accomplishment through a varied programme.

Perhaps the French pieces suit her best of all, and she seems happy singing in the language. She delivers Juliette's Waltz Song with insouciance with insouciance, then follows it with a deeply soulful account of Juliette's last-act aria. "Depuis le jour" is right up there among the best of the past, with the high note towards the end, touched with pure lightness. The dash of the bolero from Les filles de Cadix is as fitting as it should be.

But Cabell can do many other things so well as to satisfy the most fastidious connoisseur of fine singing. Her bel canto skills are disclosed in Julietta's opening aria from Capuleti, with the even legato a pleasure to encounter. Norina's flighty aria from Don Pasquale isdone with just the requisite allure.

The two popular Puccini arias again show off her clear, clean tone and secure technique, even if one would sometimes like a bit more light and shade in her bright voice.

It's big leap from there to Tippett's A Child of Our Time, but once more Cabell gives every evidence that she knows what she is about and the aching phrases hanging in the air. The Menotti aria is well sung but musically nothing special; "Summertime" gets a lovely reading.

Sir Andrew Davis and the LPO find the right mood for each piece in turn and the recording is faultless. Who knows, maybe Decca has a new Sutherland in view.

Alan Blythe
The Gramophone
May 2007

"Meet the New Gheorghiu"

2007-04-18T00:22:00.000+01:00

By Fiona Maddocks,

Evening Standard

London

Turning singing stars into performing monkeys is nothing new - but antics are becoming ever more part of the job.

Last week on Radio 4's Today programme, the teenage soprano Hayley Westenra tried to prove that her stratospheric top notes could make a dog bark. She failed.

The dog barely growled, though her agent must have been purring at the peak-time exposure, never mind his client's red face.

And last week in Milan, world-class tenor Juan Diego Flórez broke all La Scala taboos by encoring an aria so that he could sing his virtuosic high Cs again.

The American-born Nicole Cabell, 29, winner of 2005 Cardiff Singer of the World, is made of different, sterner stuff. In London for the launch of her debut album of operatic arias from Donizetti to Gershwin, the fastrising soprano finds such behaviour deeply embarrassing.

"I guess we all have to work harder to keep ahead of the game," she acknowledges. "Music colleges are like opera factories churning out hopefuls - but there's a limit.

"Singing is not about high notes and acrobatics. It's about telling a story. All I want is to take the ego out of the equation.

"The idea of encoring a top note, or even stopping to take a bow in the middle of a performance after a showy aria - aagh! The very thought. I can't do all that prima donna stuff."

This elegant and articulate Californian clutches her throat in horror at the idea. Still hardly known here, except to those who delighted in her Cardiff success, Cabell is every inch the glamorous star, with a light, silvery voice equally at home in Italian and French repertoire as in Cole Porter.

"I love doing popular American music. That's my heritage. But I'm not a jazz singer. I prefer to do what's written down."

Cardiff has thrust her into the elevated company of past winners such as Bryn Terfel, Dmitri Hvorostovsky and Katerina Karneus.

Her international career is taking off and she has been touted as "the next Angela Gheorghiu", not unreasonably since her first career break came when she stood in at short notice in Berlin for that ultimate celebrity diva, in Roméo et Juliette.

"I did it at a day's notice on only three hours' sleep and with no rehearsal. I've never been so nervous. I knew the role, but I had no idea how my voice was projecting in a new acoustic."

She hasn't yet met Gheorghiu but will sing Musetta to her Mimi in a Chicago Bohème next season.

"Angela can get away with it," she says, tacitly acknowledging that "doing an Angela" has become common operatic parlance for throwing a strop.

"She's a master of the business of self-presentation. It's part of her persona. Some singers are chameleons, always reinventing themselves, like Madonna.

"But by contrast, take Renée Fleming. She's a star, but she deals with it brilliantly. She's much more down-to-earth. Dawn Upshaw is another."

Cabell sees herself more in this Fleming-Upshaw mould, naming those singers as musical role models.
"Maybe it's a lot to do with how you grow up, whether you have to fight to get away from your childhood circumstances, as Angela did in Romania, or whether you're happy with your surroundings and don't need to kick back so much. I had a pretty steady home life."

Her mother, "a stay-home mom", taught Nicole and her brother herself when they were tiny - "so by the time I went to school I was a grade ahead."

Money was scarce but education valued.

So, too, was the sense of community. Her grandfather was the first African-American police chief in Los Angeles, her father a policeman and other members of the family have been FBI agents.
"Yes, you could say we're big on law enforcement in the Cabell family! I wasn't aware of much violence or dirty stuff. I never thought my father would run into trouble.

"There was always a sense of wanting to do well in life. Every time we saw Tiger Woods on the TV, my mother would say, 'Now he's an example to follow'."

This is a reference to Cabell's mixed race, which she perceives as central to her identity.
"It's a case of embracing everything, not saying no to anything. My mother always used to say, when you fill in a form and it asks about race, never put 'other'. Tick the boxes for all the things you are." In Cabell's case this is African, American, Korean and Caucasian, visible in her striking, sharp cheek-boned, perfect oval face.
"I feel that I'm all these races. I'm excited watching Barack Obama, especially since I now live in Illinois. The idea of our own mixed-race senator being a presidential candidate makes me proud."

School music, in the southern Californian town of Ventura where she grew up, was limited. "I played flute in Junior High School, and had a natural musical ability, but it was all marching bands and sport and I thought: no way."

She only started singing at the age of 16. "I was crooning along to Kiri on a CD of my mother's, just fooling around. She was the one who said I really sounded like an opera singer and I should do something about it. I was more into bands like Def Leppard, Guns N' Roses and Nirvana."
She acknowledges that much as she loves the classical music she sings, she does not always find it easy.
"I'm like anyone of my generation. I've got a very short attention span. I have to work hard to get to know the music. I didn't even see an opera until I was at college."
One of her most valuable tools is her iPod, which she uses to help her learn roles. "I play it the whole time and spend a lot of time downloading, mostly CDs because I'm always on the road.

But if I'm not working, I'm as likely to be listening to Joni Mitchell or The Doors. You won't find a singer who'd listen to an opera for pleasure when they've been singing one all day! We need a break."

As she points out, opera was - broadly speaking - the pop of its time, and her appetite for all kinds of music, including rock, remains voracious.
"It's important for any performer to know what's going on, what's current. But it's hard to get Americans interested in opera. They tend to think going to a Broadway show is as good as it gets, culturally. It's so different in London."

How so? "I've heard that glamorous couples wanting a good night out go to the opera and drink champagne!" She is rumoured to be making her Royal Opera debut next season, when she can test out her wild hypothesis.
The surprise is the degree to which Cabell resists the spotlight at all. "Yes, I've had stage fright. But once I'm up there, doing it, I love it."

She always imagined herself as a backroom girl, perhaps working behind the scenes in the film industry, as a writer or producer.

"I'm a real home body. Living in California, Hollywood was always there as part of the backdrop of childhood.

My best thing, if not going shopping, is being in a room on my own, sitting down for five hours and writing fiction. One day I'll go back to it, but for the moment I've got my hands full."

Forthcoming appearances

2007-04-17T09:40:00.000+01:00

Fresh from triumphs in Europe, soprano Nicole Cabell returns in May to the scene of one her earlier successes, Indianapolis. Cabell appears in two programs with the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra — she sings the soprano solo in Brahms's German Requiem and then returns to the orchestra a week later to perform arias from Gounod's Roméo et Juliette, Gustave Charpentier's Louise and Donizetti's Don Pasquale. Cabell, a 29-year-old Californian, drew international attention in December when she stepped in to sing the lead role in a concert performance of Roméo et Juliette at Berlin's Deutsche Oper on just a few hours notice after Angela Gheorghiu withdrew. But her career was already taking off: since winning the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World competition in 2005, she has been attracting fans at many major opera houses. Her first engagement in Indianapolis came in December 2005, when she sang memorable renditions of Handel arias under the direction of Raymond Leppard as part of the Indianapolis Symphony's Christmas program. Cabell's upcoming calendar includes appearances at the Santa Fe Opera, her debut at the Metropolitan Opera and return engagements with Lyric Opera of Chicago and the Royal Opera (Covent Garden) in London.

Solo Recital Debut Album Review (2)

2007-04-17T00:04:00.000+01:00

Nicole Cabell - Soprano
CD Reviews (2)

Liquid gold

Nicole Cabell’s CD debut, as winner of the 2005 BBC Cardiff Singer of the World, shows versatility as this American lyric soprano’s strength. She encompasses Tippett and Menotti with the same voice of liquid gold as her conventional pieces by Charpentier and Donizetti. In her three Puccini arias she can sculpt slow legato phrases with a sensuality that twine them around you. Yet her rapid floridity is fearless in the long arias by Bellini and Berlioz. Her Gershwin “Summertime” is refreshingly direct. An outstanding launch.
by Ian Dando
NZ Listener
April 28-May 4 2007

Geoff Brown
From The Times
March 16, 2007
Soprano
Decca

Events moved fast once the American soprano Nicole Cabell won the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World contest in June 2005 with a lyric voice one part silver, one part gold and another part intoxicating red wine.

She signed an exclusive contract with one of the ritziest of record companies, Decca. Over Christmas week of that year the microphones sprouted to catch her in a motley programme with the London Philharmonic, featuring her Cardiff show stopper from Benvenuto Cellini , Gershwin’s Summertime , Charpentier, several Italian diva jewels, even a little Tippett.

Odd, then, that the release should dawdle into the shops so late. Odd, and a mite unfair. For Cabell, 30 this year, has a voice still in the process of cultivation, and some of the blemishes strewn about — bald spots on top, some gabbled words, suspect trills, patches of intonation best not examined under a strong light — might well have faded with more time for nurturing.

Still, the CD catches her at a moment in her career. If we miss the ultimate in polish, we get plenty of raw promise, and that promise can be exceptional. Try her glissando down to the close of Summertime : an occasion for the tingling of spines.

Listen to her float the last line of Quando me’n vò , from La Boheme . In general the romantic yearning in Puccini’s music suits her; she glows especially in the arias from Gianni Schicchi and La Rondine , luxuriating in the long, ambulating melodies, phrased with considerable skill.

Andrew Davis, who’s conducted her often at Lyric Opera of Chicago, conjures luscious accompaniments from the London Philharmonic; the horn player Timothy Brown well deserves a bow of his own.

In repertoire Cabell is plucky. How often does Puccini walk with Tippett? What other recitalist embraces Menotti? Her track from his opera The Old Maid and the Thief isn’t the CD’s most successful, but you have to applaud someone not content with trodden paths.

Presenting Cabell’s trophy at Cardiff, Joan Sutherland warned her: “Don’t do too much too soon.” Words worth pondering; and from some angles maybe she’s already recorded too soon.
But when that voice is kept focused, its power and heat are undeniable. Nicole Cabell, soprano, is not going to go away.

****

ReviewOperaOnline.us

Last month we had the opportunity to hear a singer we had never heard before, soprano Nicole Cabell, performing the role of Clara, in Gershwin’s Porgy & Bess, and we were impressed with her sound.

Now comes a new, recording under the DECCA label featuring Ms. Cabell in a debut album (due in May, 07) under her own name. The singer comes highly recommended, having won the BBCs Cardiff Singer of the World Competition in 2005, listing credits and reviews worthy of a talent in clear ascendancy – which she obviously is. For this debut CD she chooses some of what she likes best. “I wanted to sing not simply pieces that I love,” she is quoted in her acknowledgement, “but the music that I believe fits my voice.” A lyric soprano with punch, Ms. Cabell, glides effortlessly through a series of well known arias in English, French and Italian, culling some of the best from composers such as Puccini, Gounod, Gershwin, Bellini, Donizetti. With superb accompaniment from Maestro Davis and the London Philharmonic Orchestra, Ms. Cabell gives a strong accounting of herself and leaves no doubt that no matter how many times one hears “O mio babbino caro,” (Gianni Schicchi) or “Quando m’en vo,” (La boheme) which she will be performing in concert this month with Anna Netrebko and Rolando Villazon, there’s still room for hearing and enjoying it anew from a different voice with a slightly different interpretation. Everything one reads about this voice is true: smooth legato, florid passages and delightful coloratura – and we might add with this debut CD, a nice selection of music that will satisfy most tastes with its even thematic presentation. Our personal favorite? Charpentier’s soulful “Depuis le jour où je me suis donnée (Louise), but then, there are many favorites on this CD.

*****

Dominic McHugh

Musical Criticism. Com

Arrogant though it may sound, I knew from the moment Nicole Cabell first opened her mouth at the Cardiff Singer of the World competition in 2005 that she was going to win. It was obvious that here was a singer with the complete package: vocal beauty, intelligence, stunning good looks, poise, communication – and, more than anything, a star quality that marked her out as special.

This debut CD satisfies on almost every level and, as with her programme for Cardiff, she presents a thoughtful and unusual programme that avoids, for the most part, the usual bleeding chunks that have been recorded to death. Have no fear, though: here are Musetta’s ‘Quando me n’vò’, Magda’s ‘Chi il bel sogno di Doretta’ and Lauretta’s ‘O mio babbino caro’, sung with loveliness and a true sense of the meaning of the lyrics. Cabell’s rich tone is ideal for Puccini and these tracks indicate the promise of some exciting portrayals of his soprano roles in coming years. Indeed, she is about to record La bohème with Netrebko and Villazón for Deutsche Grammophon and will appear as Musetta at Covent Garden in July 2008.

But what excites me here is the inclusion of arias by Berlioz, Tippett and Menotti that on the one hand show Cabell’s flexibility as an artist and on the other make me want to revisit complete recordings of these pieces. The aria by Berlioz with which she brought the house down at Cardiff, ‘Entre l’amour et le devoir’ from Benvenuto Cellini, is equally impressive here. The voice is amazingly focussed and secure, ringing in the top register, and she spits the words out with exhilarating attack. ‘What a curse for woman is a timid man!’ from Menotti’s The Old Maid and the Thief finds the artist in equally thoughtful and inspiring form, while ‘How can I cherish my man in such days’ from A Child of Our Time is distinguished for Cabell’s complete change of character: the quality in her voice becomes more restrained and mournful to reflect the wartime context of Tippett’s lament.

Gounod’s Juliet is represented by two arias, namely the waltz and the potion aria. The former is wonderfully vivid and flirtatious, even if Cabell seems hard pushed occasionally with the faster coloratura passages (though it’s still exhilarating and would probably bring the house down if sung live with such emotion); the latter is the highlight – deeply emotive and capturing the suffering and experience of the young woman. Bellini’s Juliet (from I Capuleti e I Montecchi) is another imaginative and welcome inclusion and again a very assured and composed performance. Like Juliet’s waltz, Norina’s aria from Donizetti’s Don Pasquale is perhaps a bit hard-driven, but two French arias – Delibes’ Les Filles de Cadix and Charpentier’s ‘Depuis le jour’ from Louise – denote a repertoire that will serve the singer very well in the opera house. The Charpentier in particular lies ideally for her voice and is simply breathtaking.

Without doubt, though, the most personal performance on the disc is ‘Summertime’ from the Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess. Cabell’s part Afro-American background no doubt influenced her hugely sensitive interpretation of the aria. It’s the icing on the cake of a nearly perfect recording that has stayed in my CD player for days.

The Year of Musetta

2007-04-05T13:17:00.000+01:00

Netrebko, Villazon and Cabell in La Bohème

Nicole Cabell will sing Musetta in Puccini's La Bohème with Anna Netrebko as Mimi and Rolando Villazon as Rodolfo at the Bayerische Rundfunk, Munich for three concert performances on 12, 14 and 17 April 2007 with the Bavarian Symphony Orchestra and Chrorus under the leadership of Bertrand de Billy. The performances will be recorded for CD release by Deutsche Grammophon.

Nicole will continue to sing Musetta in the summer at the Santa Fe Opera from 29 June until 25 August, under the baton of Corrado Rovaris in a new production by Paul Curran with Jennifer Black/Serena Farnocchia (Mimi), Gwyn Hughes Jones/Dimitri Pittas (Rodolfo) and Corey McKern/James Westman (Marcello). In September 7 at Washington National Opera under Emmanuel Villaume and in October/November in Chicago, it's Musetta again under the baton of Sir Andrew Davis with Angela Gheorghiu / Serena Farnocchia (Mimi), Roberto Aronica / Gwyn Hughes Jones (Rodolfo), and Quinn Kelsey (Marcello) in a production by Renata Scotto.

Gramophone Editor's Choice

2007-04-05T11:42:00.000+01:00

From the hundreds of classical CDs Gramophone reviews each month, editor James Inverne (formerly James Jolly) selects 10 outstanding recordings to be the Editor's Choice.

The Gramophone Awards - often called the Oscars of the classical music world - are the most significant honours bestowed on the classical record industry.

Onew of the 10 selections for May 2007 is Nicole Cabell's Soprano Solo Album for Decca.

Solo Recital Debut Album Review (1)

2007-04-05T10:46:00.000+01:00

Recital Debut Album:

Soprano Review (1)

*****

The Cardiff Singer of the World competition has been a springboard to fame for many present day stars. One need only mention names like Karita Mattila, Dmitri Hvorostovsky, Bryn Terfel and Lisa Gasteen. Last time, in 2005, the winner was California-born soprano Nicole Cabell, who was immediately signed up by Decca and recorded her debut recital in December that year. With the London Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Sir Andrew Davis backing her the conditions of the project are the best possible. The playing is certainly superb, further enhanced by the excellent recording.

As for the singer, her first phrases of the well-known waltz aria from La Bohème made me sit up. Here was a voice with a personal timbre: bright, vibrant and with a ring that one more associates with heavier repertoire. It soon turned out that it was not just a voice: her phrasing was so natural, carefully judged no doubt but not in that calculated way that cries out: Listen! How good I am! This was something that came from within, from conviction rather than complacency. What I also felt though was a certain coldness. True, Musetta is a calculating woman but she is also warm and flirtatious, which didn’t quite come through in this reading. The tempo was certainly on the slow side but the singing wasn’t alluring enough. The next aria, also in ¾ time, the quick and virtuoso waltz from Roméo et Juliette, revealed that Ms Cabell’s trill and coloratura technique is in perfect shape. It was a true pleasure to hear this music sung with such full tone yet with elegance and lightness, but even here I missed some warmth.
Recitals of this kind tend to centre upon roughly the same hackneyed standard arias. This is natural enough, but Cabell was bold enough to include several rare numbers. The beautiful aria from the late lamented Gian-Carlo Menotti’s The Old Man and the Thief was an inspired choice and here, singing in her mother tongue, she appeared as warmer while retaining some steel in the voice. Indeed this was great singing, expressive and with well judged pianissimos. The dramatic act 4 aria from Roméo et Juliette also suited her better than the fairly empty waltz and here she created a character with face. She delivered a beautiful O mio babbino caro but, as with the Musetta aria, a little short on charm. For Les filles de Cadix she lightened the tone, it was lively and bouncy, impeccable singing but again that last ounce of charm, of caressing the phrases, was missing.
As Clara in Porgy and Bess she sang the famous lullaby with exquisite shadings, elegant portamenti and a slightly laid back, jazzy feeling. The same can be said of her excellent reading of How can I cherish my man in such days from Michael Tippett’s A Child of our Time, where she demonstrated her fine breath control. I haven’t seen the aria from Benvenuto Cellini included in a recital for ages, so this was another good choice. This three-part piece sets the soprano to severe test, especially the fast cabaletta-like third part. She came out of it with flying colours, showing off a perfect trill in the cadenza. It’s a far cry to the inward Louise aria, which she sang in long phrases and scaled down towards the end to a near whisper. Impressive!
The long aria from I Capuleti e i Montecchi, Bellini’s “Romeo and Juliet” opera, though not based on Shakespeare, opened with Timothy Brown playing the beautiful horn solo delivering an exquisite round tone. Ms Cabell’s opening phrase presented us with a nervously trembling Juliet. Then when the horn came back for a duet with the soprano there was a nice contrast between the mellow instrument and the bright voice. Helen Tunstall’s harp accompaniment to the aria proper should also be mentioned. Overall this aria was one of the most successful in the whole recital.
She may not have the creamy tones one ideally wants in Doretta’s dream but it was still a well considered reading with sensitive phrasing. The concluding aria, Norina’s entrance piece from Don Pasquale, was lively and up to the demands on nearly all accounts. Vocally it couldn’t be bettered, but I missed a smile in the voice – it was too straight-faced. But she is at the very beginning of her career and more stage experience will certainly add to her already well endowed armoury of expressive means. For pure singing she is full-fledged already. Indeed it is a remarkable voice and I am already longing to hear more from her – why not a complete opera? There is for example some Menotti to be recorded.

Göran Forsling,
Recording of the Month MusicWeb April 2007

View Track Listing:

We loves you, Porgy

2007-03-22T13:53:00.000Z

New Porgy and Bess out on disc

True confessions: until the release of Decca's new Porgy and Bess, I haven't much cared about the two stupid questions that won't go away: Is the Gershwins' Porgy and Bess a real opera, and if so, is it a great one? If Berg's Lulu is an opera, and great (both articles of faith with me), why not Porgy?

But the real reason I haven't bothered about it is that, until now, I've never heard a performance of Porgy (live or recorded) that did much for me. Now having been knocked sideways by this Porgy and Bess, brilliantly led by John Mauceri, I'm on board. This is great stuff.

The ostensible selling point of this Porgy is, of all things, the version. The work of a posse of Gershwin scholars including Mauceri, it is the first recorded Porgy that reflects the show the Gershwins and DuBoses continuously refined for its 1935 Broadway premiere, the tour that followed, and, after Gershwin's death in 1937, a California tour in 1938.

Most performances since 1938 have been based on the original printed score, which was published before the Broadway premiere and really counts as the creators' first, not final, thoughts on it. The Gershwin scholars (fanatics all) behind this new version have scoured all of the available performing materials to arrive at an accurate version of the 1935 performing score, which, just for starters, shaves an hour (and a CD) off the three-and-a-half-hour running time of the "original." In their own words, it "restores the cuts." Take that, authenticists!

Still, musicology, however keen, has never sold audiences on anything. This Porgy
will snag you with its vitality — make that spunk. Mauceri makes good on his assertion that "Porgy and Bess is our great American opera." It's as true to life and involving as you could stand it to be.
The previous Porgys I know have fallen somewhere between overwrought musicals and awkward, self-conscious operas. But Mauceri's instincts for musical theater rival the masters'. This Porgy isn't just "right." It grabs you from its first gesture — a big, Rhapsody in Blue-like glissando — then, in the language of music theater, never lets you go.

With most new critical editions, only experts can hear all but a few of the changes. I can't say that I noticed all of the "literally thousands" of changes the Porgy sleuths have made, but scarcely a second passes without something sounding new, and better. The brighter, jazzier colors in the final instrumentation are only the most obvious improvements. More important, in their fleet new shapes, whole scenes sweep away the old and replace it with something infinitely more believable and striking.

Before spinning these discs, I watched the EMI DVD of the Glyndebourne Porgy, with Simon Rattle leading a highly conscientious reading of the "complete" opera. Its merits notwithstanding, it's a proper, British Porgy that tries so hard to get the idiom right and not offend that it's always walking on eggs. Gratifying as it is that Rattle gives the same attention to Porgy as he does to Fidelio, Mauceri (who's also conducted Fidelio at the Met, and Lulu in SF) drives a performance perhaps only an American could. He and his musicians, including the ace Nashville Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, are steeped in the idiom, nail it, and give us a Porgy that sizzles.
To a one, Mauceri's singers are fine vocalists, but not one of them would settle for that alone. Their performances are amply operatic, whatever that means, but artistically at least, these risk-takers exchange vital body fluids, some of which also get on you. You get all snaggled up in their beautiful, sad, messy lives, and when was the last time that happened to you at the opera?
Instead of making a meal of "Summertime," as every soprano I've heard sing it has, Nicole Cabell's Clara makes a picnic of it, beautifully foreshadowing the actual picnic a short act away. Bess' short revival of it as a lullaby, as she watches over Clara's child, is charged with undertones of the danger that infuses the daily lives of these pithy survivors.
Alvy Powell's Porgy is, despite being a paraplegic, no Goody Two-Shoes, yet he's never less than sympathetic. Marquita Lister gives us a Bess (who, despite Porgy's famous tune, is three different men's woman at some point) who actually sounds different when she's with each of them.
Shining like a klieg light over his brilliant colleagues is Robert Mack's vocally snazzy, dramatically savvy Sporting Life. You only think you know "It Ain't Necessarily So" and "There's a Boat Dat's Leaving Soon for New York."
In the irrefutable words of the chorus, "Oh, I can't sit down."

Tim Pfaff , Bay Area Reporter, 3/22/07

Nicole's début at Carnegie Hall

2007-03-21T14:44:00.000Z

... Anyone who was at Carnegie last night enjoyed an unforgettable experience. There is a difference between high school and adult choirs, and it's one that the Viennese and Anglicans have known for at least 600 years. Young voices have a more pure tone, a more silken texture than mature voices, and their sound filled the Isaac Stern Auditorium last night with an incandescent glow. Close your eyes, and you might have imagined you were sitting in a great Gothic cathedral.

The first half of the program featured each of the four choirs singing a capella or piano arrangements of various hymns and songs, conducted by their regular choral directors. The selections ranged from Jan Sweelink's 1626 setting of Psalm 96, to the Latin hymn Lux Aurumque, written in 2000 by 36 year old Eric Whitacre. I felt a bit uneasy when the Bentonville High School Chamber Choir - a public high school - chose to perform a rousing Gospel song called Worthy to Be Praised, but it got by far the biggest ovation of the night.
After the intermission, the combined choirs - nearly 200 singers in all - were joined by the Orchestra of St. Luke's for Stravinsky's Symphony of Psalms and Poulenc's Gloria. Dr. Jessop paused to say a few words beforehand, reminding us that these works were challenging for an adult choir to pull off, much less high school students. In the Gloria, the choir was joined by the talented American soprano Nicole Cabell, who made her Covent Garden debut this season and is engaged to sing at the Met in upcoming seasons. Her voice had a dark radiance, effectively penetrating the huge sound projecting from behind her.
After the music ended, Jessop brought out all the individual choral directors to share in the huge standing ovation, a moment they seemed to cherish even more than the kids, who will likely have to wait for their grandchildren to realize just how magical last night was.

Imelda de’ Lambertazzi

2007-03-17T13:00:00.000Z

Reviews of Imelda de' Lambertazzi at Queen Elizabeth Hall, London

It used to be assumed that because Donizetti had composed so many operas – his nickname was “Dozzinetti”, man of the dozen – only a handful could withstand serious consideration. That view is looking increasingly suspect, thanks to a recent surge of recordings, revivals and research. There is much more to him than Lucia di Lammermoor, Maria Stuarda and Don Pasquale – if only we would open our ears. Intelligently prepared concert performances such as this, promoted by Opera Rara and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, reveal a dramatist of consistency and daring.
It’s hardly surprising that Imelda de’Lambertazzi, first produced in Naples in 1830 and then virtually forgotten for 150 years, disconcerted its early listeners. There was no overture, remarkably little vocal decoration, scarcely a pause for reflection. The drama came first, second and third, making for a wonderfully compact score that Verdi must surely have learned from a decade later. Here is a composer not pandering to expectations but breaking new ground – and paying heavily for it.

The plot, drawn from medieval Bolognese chronicles, is a standard tale of tragic love snared by the feuding of two powerful families. What distinguishes Imelda from other such operatic fables is that it’s not the tenor who gets the woman but Bonifacio the baritone – a quirk of circumstance, dictated by Donizetti’s recognition of the outstanding gifts of Antonio Tamburini, destined to become one of the most famous baritones of his day.
James Westman took some time to get inside the part: his voice, well-produced but not specially interesting, summoned the necessary intensity only in the second half. Nicole Cabell’s Imelda was mistress of the beautifully spun line, albeit short of expressive vulnerability. The real fireworks came from two well- contrasted tenors – Massimo Giordano, wonderfully Italianate as the brutish young Lorenzo, and Frank Lopardo, singing as handsomely as he has ever done in the father-role of Orlando. The OAE relished Donizetti’s primary orchestral timbres, and Mark Elder’s conducting generated tremendous heat and stylistic assurance.

Andrew Clark, Financial Times, March 15, 2007
***

Do you like your Donizetti rare, or well done? Well, when Opera Rara joins forces with Mark Elder and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment you relish it both ways at once.
Composed just before Anna Bolena , Donizetti's Imelda de’ Lambertazzi was scarcely heard in 20th-century Europe until 1989 — and not a lot thereafter. It’s a promising Romeo and Juliet of a story, with the feuding between the Bolognese families of Ghibellines and Guelphs. But it was thought to lack certain essentials, such as an overture and a proper finale, and it has surprisingly little fancy vocal writing. In other words, it’s lean: it’s very much a drama of personal encounter and confrontation. What better candidate for a concert performance with period instruments?
From the tense drum roll of the opening to the lone trumpeter high in the stalls, Mark Elder and the OAE had a capacity audience on the edge of its seats. A sombre chorus of national mourning, sung by the fine Geoffrey Mitchell Choir, and well worthy of Verdi, seduced the ear. And within the first ten minutes two tenors, father and son in the tale, were belting out exhortations to glory, honour and victory.
What more could anyone want? Well, a starry as well as a star-crossed Imelda, of course. And there she was in the person of the soprano Nicole Cabell, mourning in mellifluous melody for all mothers; ardently and stylishly declaring her love for Bonifacio; and finally, with Richard Lester’s solo cello, sighing and sobbing her last as she expires. The two tenors were magnificently matched. Frank Lopardo was rhythmically incisive as Imelda’s father, Orlando; and the Pompeii-born Massimo Giordano unleashed pyroclastic flows of anger and vengeance as her brother Lamberto. The baritone James Westman as Bonifacio was a little backward in coming vocally forward; but Brindley Sherratt was a formidable bass Ubaldo.
Best of all, there was the orchestra: the OAE responded to Elder's superbly paced direction with alacrity and a true sense of adventure.

Hilary Finch, Times on Line, March 14, 2007
***

The more you hear Opera Rara's revivals of Donizetti's lesser known works, the more you have to confront the composer's fascination with the macabre. At the end, the heroine kills herself by sucking poisoned blood from her lover's corpse. It is a measure of Donizetti's genius that when this potentially ludicrous moment arrives, it strikes us as a logical denouement.
First performed in 1830, the opera is a study of sectarian violence. In 13th-century Bologna, two aristocratic families, the Lambertazzi and the Gieremei, are waging urban war. Imelda is carrying on a clandestine affair with Bonifacio, heir to the Gieremei estates. Discovery of their relationship escalates the slaughter. Imelda's father Orlando rejects her as she dies, while her brother Lamberto, unhealthily obsessed with her sexuality, looks vindictively on.

Donizetti drags us through this tale at breakneck speed, dismantling operatic convention as he goes. The doomed lovers, unusually, are soprano and baritone. The Lambertazzi patriarchy consists of preening tenors. Sustaining the relentless tension is hell for the performers and it is here that the problems with Opera Rara's revival set in.
Donizetti presents Imelda as tough, though Nicole Cabell makes her genteel. Similarly, James Westman's handsomely sung Bonifacio seems bland. The persistent fire in the performance came from Mark Elder's ferocious conducting, and from Frank Lopardo and Massimo Giordano, both on blazing form as the father and son. The nightmarish atmosphere was immeasurably heightened by the abrasive sound of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment.
Tim Ashley,The Guardian,Wednesday March 14, 2007
***

Forgotten drama packs a mighty punch

It's a measure of Donizetti's extraordinarily prolific output that although Imelda de' Lambertazzi is listed as his 29th opera, it still ranks as an early work.

Nothing about it seems hesitant, however - it's a rough, tough melodrama on a Romeo and Juliet theme, in which the Bolognese clans the Guelphs and the Ghibellines take the place of the Veronese Capulets and Montagues.
Imelda has been largely forgotten since its first performances in 1830, and even the post-war revival of enthusiasm for Donizetti has to my knowledge given rise to only one modern performance, in Lugano in 1989.
Nobody thinks it a masterpiece: the musicologist William Ashbrook, writing before this exhumation, was positively sniffy about its fustian dramatic coarseness, deeming it of interest only for its unconventional choice of a baritone for its hero and the fact that it was composed a few months before Donizetti's first great work, Anna Bolena.
But Imelda certainly packs a punch.
Musically muscular and forceful, it contains only two full-scale arias and proceeds instead through violent confrontations, declamatory recitative, and noisy choruses and ensembles.
There is a marked lack of coloratura padding or incidental frippery, and the action is so relentlessly fast that one is left wishing for a little more light and shade or an extended episode of lyrical repose.
At Opera Rara's concert performance (which was being recorded), Mark Elder proved a superb advocate for the score's defence.
Like those other great conductors of early 19th-century Italian opera Riccardo Muti and Charles Mackerras, he allows no slacking or coasting, insisting that the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment gives full weight and attention to even the most trivial and clichéd of accompaniments and figurations.
The cast was fired by his blazing energy and cracking pace.
In the title role, Nicole Cabell sang with limpid tone and sensitivity: what a pity that her words were largely swallowed up by the hall's woolly acoustic.
James Westman's firm and elegant voice gave an admirable account of the baritone's big number, while Massimo Giordano and Frank Lopardo made the most of thankless secondary tenor roles.
It was an exhilarating performance, even though I doubt anyone was left particularly wanting to hear the opera again.
Next time he turns to Donizetti, Elder might like to address the more complex challenges offered by two still-underrated products of his maturity, Poliuto and Maria di Rohan.

Rupert Christiansen Daily Telegraph 12 March 2007
***

St John's, Smith Square Recital Reviews

2007-02-23T06:53:00.000Z

The Rosenblatt Recital Series, which presents concerts around London from artists ranging from the well-known to the brand-new, last week showcased Nicole Cabell, the glamorous 29-year-old winner of the 2005 Cardiff Singer of the World competition.

Accompanied by pianist Simon Lepper, the American soprano tackled an impressive variety of repertoire. Her greatest strengths, it seems, lie in poetry and contemplative song. Three Liszt songs – ‘Es muss ein Wunderbares sein’, ‘Die Lorelei’ and ‘Enfant, si j’étais roi’ – held the audience spellbound as the voice seemed to become one with the accompaniment and indeed the piece. Later in the concert, Ben Moore’s Keats setting ‘Darkling I listen’ created a similar magic.

Yet in two Puccini favourites – ‘Quando me’n vo’’ (one of Cabell’s calling cards) and ‘Chi il bel sogno di Doretta’ — her tone was monochrome and there was little sense of character portrayal.
‘Padre, germani, addio’ from Idomeneo was imbued with urgency, while Bolcom’s ‘Amor’, was delivered with mischievous sparkle and wit. However in Gounod’s ‘Je veux vivre’ and (as an encore) Puccini’s ‘O mio babbino caro’, Cabell failed to set the hall alight, despite an unfailing sense of style and poise; her elegant, sophisticated presence just did not sit well with teenaged heroines, nor with the child subject of three songs from Bernstein’s ‘I hate music’.

In other offerings from American music theatre, Cabell proved herself as an entertainer; she struck just the right balance between schmaltz and musicality, a rare gift when presenting a mixed recital programme to a largely classical audience.

This was by no means a flawless recital, and perhaps the variety of repertoire was simply too great. Cabell’s Liszt interpretations alone proved her to be a young artist of exceptional promise; perhaps next time she should focus on such a strength and present it to the best of her ability.
Ruth Elleson
Opera Today
28 Feb 2007

It’s a voice that wraps itself around you. That is how Marilyn Horne described the lyric soprano of the Californian Nicole Cabell, who took first prize at the BBC Cardiff Singer of the Year in 2005 and who presented her solo calling card to London on Wednesday in her Rosenblatt Recital.

The voice does, indeed, have something of the pashmina about it: long, sinuous phrasing, warm tone and a sophistication that touches everything she sings. Cabell does no more and no less at present than simply sing the music that fits her voice best: Puccini, French opera and American song.

Every register of her voice is illuminated through her generous smile; there’s a sudden sense of lift-off into coloratura and an irresistible glide through every second of schmaltz. Whether experience or a new singing teacher will give her a wider palette of vocal colour, a sharper focus, a punchier edge to phrasing and inflection remains to be seen. But this audience was enthralled by her Musetta Quand m’en vo’ soletta per la via , by her Rondine Che il bel sogno di Doretta and by her Gounod Juliette Je veux vivre . She also brought close focus to three songs by Liszt, consummately accompanied by Simon Lepper.

And it was good to hear Ben Moore’s responses to Keats’s nightingale in his setting Darkling I listen , followed by a tricksy, witty performance of Amor , one of William Bolcom’s superb Cabaret Songs .

Hilary Finch The Times 23 February 2007

Nicole talks about her career since Cardiff

2007-02-22T13:56:00.000Z

Singer of the World list revealed

The 25 singers who will compete in "the world's greatest singer competition" - the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World title - have been revealed.

A record number of more than 1,000 auditioned and three countries make the final for the first time.

The competition, held every two years, has helped launch many international careers - including Bryn Terfel's.

Soprano Nicole Cabell, the 2005 winner, said she has had "a remarkable amount of good fortune" since her triumph.

"I've been all over the world. I can probably say most of my engagements have come on the heels of my Cardiff victory," said the American, whose debut solo CD is released in the UK soon.

"It's a fantastic start, I've no idea where I would be without it. I might be here, I might not but I certainly don't think I'd be here as quick or with such fortitude."

Since her win she has debuted at the Royal Opera House in London and has dates at opera houses on both sides of the Atlantic scheduled into her diary.

The names of the shortlist for the week of concerts in Cardiff in June were revealed on Thursday by BBC Wales controller Menna Richards.

This year's winner will receive increased prize money of £15,000 and may also have an opportunity to perform with the BBC and the Welsh National Opera.

Three countries - Estonia, Croatia and Uzbekistan - have competitors in the final for the first time. Singers from as far afield as Brazil, China, Australia and Norway will take part.

Ms Richards said: "Each BBC Cardiff Singer of the World competition brings the attention of the music world to Wales for this unique search for excellence in opera and song.

"Singers and audiences alike enjoy what are both fiercely contested competitions and an unparalleled experience for young singers.

The competition's patron Dame Joan Sutherland said she was eagerly looking forward to return to Wales to "the world's greatest singing competition".

She said: "I am delighted to see the huge success 2005's winner Nicole Cabell is now enjoying which she happily acknowledges was thanks to her success in Cardiff."

The competition was launched in 1983 with Finnish soprano Karita Mattila emerging winner.
In 1989 Bryn Terfel won the Lieder prize - the second part of the competition which is now known as the Song prize - and Russian baritone Dmitri Hvorostovsky the overall title.

From BBC News

Contest was a 'springboard' for past winner

The winner of the 2005 BBC Cardiff Singer of the World has revealed how the contest has boosted her career.

Nicole Cabell returned to the Welsh capital for yesterday's launch of the 2007 competition.

The American soprano's career has rocketed since she was awarded the prize.

She has won rave reviews on both sides of the Atlantic, including when she made her Royal Opera House debut.

She has also signed a contract with Decca and her first solo album will be launched in the spring.

She will also make her debut at New York's Metropolitan Opera in the coming months.

"The result of winning this competition is immeasurable," she said.

"It really is the one to win and the media exposure is priceless.

"The competition has been a springboard to many of my engagements, if not all of them."

Karen Price,
Western Mail,
IC Wales

New Solo Decca Album Sneak Preview

2007-01-03T15:58:00.000Z

For details, tracklisting and other information, see this page

Idomeneo at the Deutsche Oper, Berlin

2007-01-03T13:11:00.000Z

“The only singer who excelled was the young American Nicole Cabell as Ilia, a princess in love with Idamante. Her sound was delicate and agile, her phrasing intelligent and secure, and her stage manner touching. Against the background of this particular production, Cabell's success was all the more impressive.”
Warwick Thompson,
Bloomberg,
December 19, 2006

“Nicole Cabell was the star of the evening, an appealing Ilia whose love for Idomeneo's son helps lead to redemption. She was lithe and evocative in voice, movement and facial expression, a perfect partner to Mihoko Fujimura, cast as Idamante, her love.”
George Jahn,
Associated Press,
December 18, 2006

“… And immediately, Nicole Cabell appeared on stage; she is a young soprano that one is more than willing to describe as an up-and-coming star. […] Mihoko Fujimura and Nicole Cabell then sing about life, about the precedence of love over the inexorable consequence of holy decrees. They sing with such glowing intensity that they could convince people contemplating suicide that life has a meaning. […] Enthusiastic applause greeted the singers, first and foremost Nicole Cabell.”
Harald Jähner,
Berliner Zeitung,
December 20, 2006

“Furthermore, there was Nicole Cabell’s enchanting Ilia, whose rosy timbre and secure soprano voice lent the evening its only ray of light.”
Christine Lemke-Matwey,
Tagesspiegel,
December 20, 2006

“Only Nicole Cabell as Ilia brought vocal glamour to the stage.”
Axel Brüggemann,
Frankfurter Rundschau,
December 20, 2006

“Nicole Cabell, as the Trojan princess Ilia, displays a beautiful timbre.”
Julia Spinola,
Frankfurter Allgemeine,
December 18, 2006

Nicole's Berlin "triumph"

2006-12-11T17:36:00.000Z

“One could have expected to see the General Director [Kirsten Harms] appear in front of her audience at the Deutsche Oper in the darkest of moods in order to announce the sad news that the star-singer of the evening, Angela Gheorghiu, would not be taking part in the concert, as she had canceled literally at the last moment due to illness. Yet Ms. Harms appeared to be beaming - and quite rightly so. She had been able to secure the services of Nicole Cabell for the role of Juliette for this concert performance of Gounod's ‘Roméo et Juliette’. This turned out to be happy news. Miss Cabell came, sang and triumphed - and this in every respect. One does not just listen to Nicole Cabell with pleasure; she is also a joy to behold.”

Klaus Geitel,
Berliner Morgenpost,
December 9, 2006

“One forgot quickly that Angela Gheorghiu canceled at the last moment, as the American Nicole Cabell knew, after a timid start, how to fill with her voice the large space of the Deutsche Oper. Cabell, who is at the start of a world-class career and already has a contract with Decca and a debut at the Met, is still quite young and sang Juliette with the same wide-eyed innocence and pleasure in her (vocal) power of seduction that Claire Danes had in spades in Baz Luhrmann’s film.”

Wolfgang Fuhrmann,
Berliner Zeitung,
December 10, 2006

“The young American Nicole Cabell triumphed as [Angela Gheorghiu’s] replacement with a warm and high-placed soprano.”

Frank Kallensee,
Märkische Allgemeinde,
December 9, 2006

Nicole steps in for Gheorghiu

2006-12-07T17:31:00.000Z

Once again, Nicole has been asked to save the day!

Angela Gheorghiu (left), who was scheduled to sing Juliette in Gounod's Roméo et Juliette at the Deutsche Oper Berlin called in sick a few hours before the performance. Nicole had just finished singing Adina in L'elisir d'amore in Montpellier. She was due to fly to Berlin to start rehearsals for the forthcoming production of Idomeneo later in December. The Deutsche Oper management requested her to take over from the sick Gheorghiu and Nicole obligingly accepted.

Fortunately, the role of Juliette is in Nicole's repertoire. Those of you who are regular readers of this blog will recall that she sang the Shakespearean heroine in a production at Spoleto's Festival in May-June of this year - to great critical acclaim. Partnering Nicole in Romeo is the American tenor Neil Shicoff. The conductor is Frédéric Chaslin.

Nicole replaces ailing Broadway star

2006-11-06T15:51:00.000Z

Broadway star Audra McDonald (left), scheduled to headline Cincinnati Opera's gala fundraiser called Some Enchanted Evening on Saturday, November 4, 2006 cancelled because of illness, the opera announced Friday and Nicole Cabell stepped in at the last minute.

Cincinnati Opera's artistic director Evans Mirageas predicts that Nicole will be "the next Renee Fleming." Nicole, who was in the middle of a run of concert performances of Gorecki's 3rd Symphony with the Minnesota Orchestra in Minneapolis, flew in to Cincinnati to replace Ms McDonald for the gala. After the performance, she flew back to resume the Gorecki concerts in Minneapolis.

Gorecki: "Symphony of Sorrowful Songs" Reviews

2006-11-06T15:44:00.000Z

The young soprano engaged by Vänskä for these performances, Nicole Cabell, displayed Thursday night at Orchestra Hall not only a remarkably rich sound that was firm and full, from the low notes of the second movement all the way up to high G, but also a close identification with the text, which speaks so tellingly of mortality and redemption.
Michael Anthony,
Star Tribune,
November 3, 2006

“But Vanska, the Minnesota Orchestra and soprano Nicole Cabell - the winner of last year's high-profile BBC "Singer of the World" competition - made it clear that this is a work best experienced in concert.
There are few deeper sorrows than that of a mother in mourning, and it is such sadness that suffuses Gorecki's piece. While Cabell's rich voice was ideal for its demands - dark, yet hopeful, immersed in its mood yet transcending it - this was as much a showcase for orchestra as soloist, particularly during the hypnotic closing of its first movement, when the cellos and basses whispered of loss and grief.”
Rob Hubbard,
Pioneer Press,
November 3, 2006

... it was Nicole Cabell who held my full attention as her melodious soprano voice sang the haunting notes of Henryk Gorecki's "Symphony of Sorrowful Songs." Composed in 1976, the Polish writer's three hymns bring together a 15th century lamentation, a 20th century prayer written on a prison wall by an 18-year-old, and a poem based on folk poetry using part of a church hymn. It is hard to describe the power of these three movements. Whatever Gorecki intended, Cabell (under the direction of Osmo Vanska) teased out deep sorrow from the notes on the page. Her repetition (in Polish) of the line, "He lies in his grave and I know not where though I keep asking people everywhere," was enough to bring tears to your eyes.

These songs were pieces of maternal pain in which mothers and children create a bond, despite the horrors and deep wounds that separate them. I have stood at the bedside of parents saying goodbye to dying children and even wept at the loss of a daughter stillborn with my wife. But Gorecki somehow has managed to capture in the combination of words and music the deep searing pain of a child taken too soon. Cabell, who won the 2005 BBC World Singing Competition in Cardiff, was like no singer I've heard yet in Minnesota. She pulled me into the music in a way I rarely have been before and reminded me of the power of music to capture human emotion, desire, and deep sorrow.
Brian T. Hartley

Boston’s Bernstein Concert at Harvard Review

2006-10-24T11:06:00.000+01:00

... the audience got its first taste of award-winning soprano Nicole Cabell, who sang “Kaddish” from Bernstein’s “Kaddish Symphony.” Cabell, who was phenomenal throughout the night, sang this long piece in a consistently high register but never showed signs of faltering. Backed by the women of the Bernstein Festival Chorus, as well as Yoshitaka Yamamoto ’08 on masterful organ and Carrie E. Andersen ’08 on percussion, “Kaddish” revealed the power of Bernstein’s music and left the audience stunned.

Cabell returned to sing the five-song cycle “I Hate Music,” sung from the perspective of a ten-year old. Hearing the prominent soprano sing in a childish style was odd at first, but Cabell pulled it off with flair and ease.

R. Derek Wetzel
The Harvard Crimson
October 15, 2006

Porgy & Bess: Decca CD reviews

2006-09-27T09:41:00.000+01:00

"The real find here is Nicole Cabell, a beautiful soprano who twists ‘Summertime’ into the bold opening aria that Gershwin probably hoped for."
Daniel Felsenfeld
Time Out New York
October 5-11,2006

"... Nicole Cabell as Clara and Robert Mack as Sporting Life produce the best performances. "
Andrew Clements
The Guardian
September 22, 2006

Nicole Cabell, Top Cardiff Competition Star, Sings at Barbican

2006-09-27T09:25:00.000+01:00

By Warwick Thompson
Sept. 21
(Bloomberg)

Nicole Cabell has the glamour of Shirley Bassey and Nefertiti combined, one critic panted. Throw in a voice like a shimmering rope of pearls, an exquisite legato and an instinctive understanding of French style, and you begin to approach the blistering talent of this Californian soprano.

Cabell, 28, shot to fame last year after a hands-down win at the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World competition, and made a hair- prickling debut at the Proms this year singing Britten's Les Illuminations. She's been offered a Decca recording contract.

Tonight at London's Barbican Hall, she sings the role of Princesse Eudoxie in a concert performance of Halevy's La Juive (The Jewess, 1835). The part marks her debut with the Royal Opera. I caught up with Cabell, who was looking chic and soignee, and not a little excited, in a dressing room in Covent Garden.

Thompson: First tell me a little about the role, Princesse Eudoxie. What happens to your character?
Cabell: It's a fantastic part. My husband falls in love with Rachel, a Jewess, and the church condemns them both to death. I have to beg Rachel to say that my husband was innocent, that he didn't seduce her, in order for his life to be saved. You get to see all Eudoxie's passion as she brings herself to this terrible act of desperation, begging a Jewess -- and her rival -- for a favor. But she'll do anything to save the man she loves.
Thompson: There's a famous aria, ``Je l'ai revu'' and quite a few duets. Is it a large role?
Lots of Passion
Cabell: It's a huge sing, really huge, with lots of coloratura and lots of passion -- and it's only a secondary part. I dread to think what's it's like for Rachel, the Jewess.
Thompson: Is it actually a coloratura role?
Cabell: If you give it to a coloratura soprano, it is. I'm a light lyric soprano, so it won't be so typically coloratura-ish, if that makes sense.
Thompson: You're looking absolutely terrific. Do you find there's any pressure to look great?
Cabell: Yes, there is. There are great singers who don't have conventional looks who aren't getting the parts they should. Thirty years ago, they might have had good careers. I should fight it, but actually I'm the one going to WeightWatchers, trying to stay trim.
Thompson: Would you be offended if I asked about your racial background?
African-American, Korean
Cabell: Not at all. Both my grandfathers are African- American, one grandmother is Korean, and one is white. I describe myself as multiracial.
Thompson: Does that have any impact on your career?
Cabell: No, I don't think so, at least not a negative one. Someone once said I'd be perfect for the role of Leila in The Pearl Fishers . I'd be happy if they cast me!
Thompson: You must be earning good fees now. What are you spending on?
Cabell: I'm saving up to buy some real estate, but it's tricky because I love shopping, clothes, haircuts, makeup. I'm a real spendaholic.

Warwick Thompson is a critic for Bloomberg News. The opinions expressed are his own.

Great reviews for La Juive at Royal Opera

2006-09-20T11:12:00.000+01:00

No less impressive was Cardiff Singer of the World Nicole Cabell as Princess Eudoxie: a shame it's a small part, but she shone in her classy Act III aria, showing dexterity in the demanding coloratura passages, particularly the cadenza.
Dominic McHugh
MusicOMH.com
20 Sep 2006

As Rachel, Marina Poplavskaya [...] was neatly balanced by the bubbles and froth of her more privileged rival, the Princess Eudoxie (Nicole Cabell, in an auspicious Royal Opera debut).
Neil Fisher
The Times, London
21 Sep 2006

Last year's Cardiff Singer of the World winner, Nicole Cabell, was alluring as the coquettish Princess Eudoxie.
Fiona Maddocks
Evening Standard, London
20 Sep 2006

[...] Mark my words, stardom beckons.
It already has for BBC Cardiff Singer of the World winner Nicole Cabell. In the "decorative" coloratura role of Princess Eudoxie, whose "haute couture" vocal lines are as richly embellished as the jewels she craves, Cabell provided the kind of glamour and awareness that wins recording contracts. She just has - with Universal - and company executives were no doubt salivating at the quality of her show-stopping aria in act three.
Edward Seckerson
The Independent, London
23 Sep 2006

... But the real discoveries of the evening, beyond this unjustly neglected score, were the two sopranos both after the same man. In the title role, Russian Marina Poplavskaya proved herself more than ready to take on Donna Anna later this season, while American Nicole Cabell rose to some hypnotic coloratura.
Anthony Holden
The Observer, London
September 24, 2006

... But the big news on Tuesday night was the joint appearance of two young stars-in-the-making, the delightful American soprano Nicole Cabell (the most recent BBC Singer of the World, already armed with a Decca contract), fluting away insouciantly as Rachel’s love rival, Princess Eudoxie, and even more so the sensational Marina Poplavskaya, still a member of the RO’s Jette Parker Young Artists Programme, as the Jewess.
Hugh Canning
The Sunday Times, London
September 24, 2006

...excellent performances from Cabell, Poplavskaya, Schmunck, and the chorus...
Anna Picard
The Independent, London
24 Sep 2006

But vocally, it was ladies' night. Nicole Cabell, last year's BBC Cardiff Singer of the World, was a ravishing Christian princess...
Rupert Christiansen
Daily Telegraph
21 Sep 2006

But what gave this performance its class was the casting of Marina Poplavskaya and Nicole Cabell as Rachel and Princess Eudoxie. Both sopranos are on the springboard of a great career. [...] Both communicated a sense of drama. Cabell, confident but not cocky, adorned her coloratura with warmth, intelligence and glorious musicianship.
Andrew Clark
Financial Times
20 Sep 2006

Princess Eudoxie requires a coloratura soprano [...] [She]would be at home in something written by Donizetti. The bell-like voice of the bubbly Royal Opera debutant, Nicole Cabell, excelled as Eudoxie. [She] had sufficient heft to project over a consistently noisy orchestra in the ensemble scenes.
Jim Pritchard
Seen and Heard
Sep 2006

Nicole Cabell tossed of Eudoxie’s elaborate arias with enviable charm and ability.
Robert Hugill
Planet Hugill
September 25, 2006

Liszt at Bard College

2006-08-14T23:57:00.000+01:00

"... the concerts highlighted a lesser-known side of the composer, including works he wrote during a stint as a religious recluse.
But long before Liszt opted for the monastery late in life, he had a more serious, contemplative side, demonstrated by the appealing song Die Lorelei, expressively and elegantly sung by the superb young soprano Nicole Cabell on Friday. Listeners were also treated to Ms. Cabell’s velvety voice in the weekend’s final concert, on Sunday, where she sang “Tandis qu’il sommeille” from La Juive , by Halévy. "
Vivien Schweitzer,
New York Times
August 15, 2006

Franz Liszt and his Times

"The first concert included a selection of Liszt's songs, a genre in which he excelled, I believe. His settings are always striking and original, sometimes disarmingly simple and intimate and sometimes grand, employing operatic modes like recitative in a way that penetrates to the heart of the text, here masterfully sung by John Hancock and Nicole Cabell.

As a result, if I ever see a recital advertised with any of these names, I'll drop pretty much anything to go: [...] Nicole Cabell, soprano.... Were there stars? Absolutely. [...] Soprano Nicole Cabell sang Liszt's setting of Heine's "Die Lorelei" with penetrating intelligence and heart-rending expression. "
Michael Miller
Berkshire Fine Arts
18 Sep, 2006

Nicole in 'Porgy and Bess'

2006-08-11T14:32:00.000+01:00

Nicole Cabell appears in the first ever recording of Gershwin's original 1935 production version of Porgy and Bess. This brand-new studio recording was made in Nashville following the first performances of Gershwin's revised version for more than half a century. Conducted by John Mauceri whose acclaimed recordings of Broadway classics include The King & I, Candide and a definitive series of Gershwin musicals, Gershwin's most popular score bridges the worlds of grand opera and the Broadway musical.

The recording , produced by Decca, features Alvy Powell as Porgy and Marquita Lister as Bess, with Nicole Cabell as Clara singing Summertime . It is due to be released in September 2006.

Nicole at the Proms II

2006-08-11T13:55:00.000+01:00

Nicole Cabell

photographed after her performance

of Britten's Les Illuminations

at the Royal Albert Hall

on August 2, 2006.

Nicole's London Proms Debut

2006-08-11T13:41:00.000+01:00

One concert last week stood out for the number of attractions on offer. It was as if a card-player who had been having a poor run suddenly found himself dealt four aces in one hand. [....] The fast-rising American soprano Nicole Cabell, winner of the 2005 Cardiff Singer of the World, made her debut. Cabell is impressive for the technical ease of her lyric voice and her aptitude in a variety of musical styles. In Britten's Les illuminations she sang in good French, projecting enough of the underlying emotional ambiguities to make the songs come alive in this large hall
Richard Fairman
The Financial Times
August 10, 2006

Most impressive, however, was soprano Nicole Cabell, winner of last year's BBC Singer of the World competition. Britten's Les Illuminations has been part of her repertoire for a while now, and her full, rounded tones were perfectly suited to this sultry music, carried effortlessly above Andrew Davis's sensitive string accompaniment. The magical descent with which she ended Phrase was worth admission alone, her projection to the audience exemplary.
Ben Hogwood
musicOMH.com
August 4, 2006

The 2005 Cardiff Singer of the World, Nicole Cabell, found the implicit sex in the "murmurs and visions" of Les Illuminations, plumbing the contradictions between the sound and sense of Arthur Rimbaud's verse, while Evgeny Kissin and a somewhat retiring trumpeter, Sergei Nakariakov, were very much unequal partners in Shostakovich's bipolar Concerto for Piano, Trumpet and Strings.
Edward Seckerson,
The Independent,
August 7, 2006

Nicole Cabell lived up to her 'Singer of the World' reputation with a ravishing performance of Britten's Illuminations. Cabell, with her floaty upper register, made us fully aware of the work's lush sensibilities.
Mark Mortimer

… Nicole Cabell (the luminous, sensual soloist)…
Barry Millington,
The Evening Standard
August 3, 2006

Prokofiev’s Classical Symphony set a suitably light-hearted mood, followed by an expressive and captivating rendition of Les Illuminations by Nicole Cabell.

Nicole in Tulsa

2006-07-28T08:55:00.000+01:00

Tulsa Mayor Kathy Taylor and husband Bill Lobeck recently hosted Nicole Cabell and guests at their home in a fundraising event for the Tulsa Opera.

Nicole Cabell in Trafalgar Square!

2006-07-17T23:06:00.000+01:00

Above

Londoners crossing Trafalgar Square recently would have seen this giant billboard

announcing the Opening of the 2006 Proms

and in the midst of it, a huge picture of Nicole Cabell.

Below, a close-up of Nicole's picture on the billboard

Ravinia Festival Review

2006-07-03T17:16:00.000+01:00

Saturday's pre-Fourth of July concert was an amiable hodgepodge of star-spangled pops and other popular American classics by Bernstein, Copland and Sousa. But its central glory was Nicole Cabell, the extraordinarily gifted young American soprano who was making her first Ravinia appearance since winning the prestigious BBC Cardiff Singer of the World competition last year.

The Lyric Opera's star alumna has it all -- striking natural beauty, a killer smile, a statuesque frame a supermodel would envy, and, of course, that gorgeous voice.

She put her radiant soprano to crowd-pleasing use in a clutch of American musical theater classics from "Kismet," "Street Scene," "Showboat" and other shows, accompanied by the CSO and, in a brief cabaret turn on a darkened stage, by Ravinia President and CEO Welz Kauffman at the piano.

Cabell was best in songs such as "Harlem on My Mind" and "And This is My Beloved," where her artistic poise, absolute sincerity of expression and alluring femininity were at one with the musical material. I would gladly have done without hearing orchestral excerpts from Verdi's "Aida" to have heard Cabell sing a few operatic arias. Maybe next time.

By John von Rhein
Chicago Tribune
July 3, 2006

Nicole in 'Wikipedia'

2006-06-25T14:47:00.000+01:00

Nicole Cabell's entry in Wikipedia, the online encyclopaedia, has finally been published!

Nicole Cabell, Soprano

2006-06-24T17:17:00.000+01:00

Nicole Cabell, the 2005 Winner of the BBC Singer of the World Competition in Cardiff and exclusive DECCA recording artist, is fast becoming one of the most sought-after lyric sopranos of today.

Miss Cabell’s 2006/2007 season includes many exciting debuts, most notably with the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden as Eudoxie in concert performances of La Juive, the Orchestra of St. Luke’s at Carnegie Hall in Poulenc’s Gloria, the Santa Fe Opera as Musetta in La Bohème, the Opéra de Montpellier as Adina in L’Elisir d’Amore and with Opera Rara in a recording and concert performance of the title-role of Donizetti’s Imelda de’ Lambertazzi. Other notable concert appearances include Carmina Burana and Honey and Rue with the Oslo Philharmonic and Andre Previn, an all-Bernstein evening at Harvard with Judith Clurman, the Gorecki 3rd Symphony with the Minnesota Orchestra and Osmo Vänskä and a return to the Indianapolis Symphony for Mahler’s 4th Symphony with Mario Venzago. Miss Cabell also looks forward to recitals in London and Hammond, LA. Future projects include debuts with the Metropolitan and Washington Operas, the Teatro Real in Madrid, Opera Pacific and returns to Miss Cabell’s home company, the Lyric Opera of Chicago, all in leading roles.

Nicole Cabell’s past season was filled with debuts, especially in opera with the Palm Beach and Madison Operas for Pamina in Die Zauberflöte, with Michigan Opera Theater as Musetta in La Bohème and, last but not least, with the Spoleto Festival USA for Juliette in Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette. She appeared in recital in New York City as part of Marilyn Horne’s Birthday Gala at Carnegie’s Zankel Hall as well as in Chicago, Buffalo and Bradford, PA. On the concert stage Miss Cabell was heard in Louisville in both the Poulenc Gloria and Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with Raymond Leppard in both cases, in Milwaukee in a program of Shakespeare-themed pieces with Nicholas McGegan, in crossover concerts with the Pasadena Pops and in Montreal Opera’s annual gala. She also sang in a Classical Christmas program with the Indianapolis Symphony. Later in the season, Nicole Cabell returned to Rome for concerts of Britten’s Les Illuminations and Mahler’s 4th Symphony with James Conlon and the Accademia di Santa Cecilia. In the summer, Miss Cabell made her London concert debut at the Proms in Britten’s Les Illuminations with the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Sir Andrew Davis; she returned to the Ravinia Festival for a crossover concert with James Conlon and to the Pasadena Pops for evenings of music from around the Mediterranean.

While a member of the Lyric Opera of Chicago’s Center for American Artists, Nicole Cabell had the opportunity to sing the title-role in Janacek’s The Cunning Little Vixen in student matinees as well as to cover the roles of Marzelline in Fidelio and Rita Billingsly in the world premiere of William Bolcom’s A Wedding. Miss Cabell made her extremely successful Orchestra Hall debut with the Chicago Symphony in concerts of Tippett’s A Child of Our Time with Sir Andrew Davis conducting. She also made her European debut in concerts of Brahms’ Ein deutsches Requiem with the Accademia di Santa Cecilia in Rome with Antonio Pappano and Thomas Hampson; she appeared with the Florida Orchestra as the Soprano Soloist in Mahler’s 4th Symphony with the Florida Orchestra and Stefan Sanderling and in Villa-Lobos’ Bachianas Brasileiras No. 5 with the Baltimore Symphony. Nicole Cabell was heard in recital in Little Rock, AK.

The preceding year she sang Barbarina and covered Susanna in Le Nozze di Figaro and appeared as Isabel in The Pirates of Penzance at the Lyric Opera, having sung with the same company the role of Crobyle in Thaïs in the fall of 2002. In concert, she made her debut with the Oregon Symphony as the Soprano Soloist in Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 with Carlos Kalmar and repeated Barbarina with the Chicago Symphony and Daniel Barenboim at the Ravinia Festival. In the summer, Miss Cabell was also heard live on A Prairie Home Companion in a celebration of Ravinia’s 50th season and sang the role of Lauretta in Gianni Schicchi with the Grant Park Festival.

In concert, Nicole Cabell was a featured soloist in Ravinia's All Gershwin Concert with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra under the baton of David Alan Miller, and participated in Ravinia's opening day concert, accompanied by Welz Kauffman. Miss Cabell has appeared as a soloist in Chicago's Grant Park Festival and Lyric Opera Center for American Artists Rising Stars in Concert.

Past roles include La Princesse in Ravel's L'Enfant et les Sortilèges, La Femme in Poulenc's La Voix Humaine, Miss Jessel in The Turn of the Screw, Arsamenes in Xerxes, and La Ciesca in Gianni Schicchi.

Awards include first place in both the Palm Beach Opera Vocal Competition and the Women's Board of Chicago Vocal Competition. Nicole Cabell was a semi-finalist in the 2005 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions and earned first place in the American Opera Society competition in Chicago. She is the 2002 winner of the Union League's Rose M. Grundman Scholarship, and the 2002 Farwell Award with the Woman's Board of Chicago.

******

Nicole Cabell was born in Panorama City, California, USA on 17 October 1977. She studied at the Chicago's Lyric Opera Center for American Artists and the Eastman School of Music. Nicole enjoys writing, working out, collecting music and shopping.

In 'Romeo et Juliette,' love is colorblind

2006-05-30T16:55:00.000+01:00

Casting decisions in two productions at this year's Spoleto Festival USA might put a smile on the faces of some Parisian theater students.

Young actors who attend opera director Jean-Philippe Clarac's talks on the influence of politics on European theater often ask why more actors of color aren't chosen for theatrical roles traditionally played by white actors.

The French students wonder if it is possible for a thespian who is not white to be believed in a European drama set in the Middle Ages, Clarac said.
In theater, where the audience is asked to suspend reality to accept the unbelievable, the answer is usually yes. But with some roles, reality is vital to understanding the part.

The answer was yes Friday as the curtain rose on "Romeo et Juliette" at the Gaillard Municipal Auditorium.

Nicole Cabell, an emerging opera diva who describes herself as multiracial, sings the role of Juliette, which has traditionally been played by a Caucasian. Juliette's cousin, Tybalt, is played by Victor Ryan Robertson, who is black.

And for the second consecutive year, baritone Nmon Ford, who is black, will play the title role in "Don Giovanni" when the Italian opera based on Spanish lover Don Juan opens Thursday on an elaborate set at Memminger Auditorium.
Two decades ago, eyebrows were raised as colorblind casting emerged in American theater. It is still rare to see a black actor in a role written for a white character, but the trend is becoming more widely accepted, said Clarac, who along with Olivier Deloeuil co-directs "Romeo et Juliette."
The stage directors said they didn't make the opera's casting decisions. But they are happy to have Cabell, a soprano, because of the quality of her voice. Her ethnicity fits their updated version of Shakespeare's classic set in America.

While Charles Gounod's score will carry the drama, Cabell's mix of African-American, Korean and European ancestry helps her embody the role of a modern-day Juliette, Clarac said.

"The fact that she is black is not a problem because that is America today. It is a multicultural society," Deloeuil said. "Opera has to speak to the society who attends it. Most of the time, the period setting and period costumes keeps it far away from you. If you see something that looks like your neighborhood, it speaks to you directly, and I think that is most important."

In an operatic performance, Cabell said, the performer's voice is more important than the singer's ethnicity or race. Society, she said, has relaxed the rules that reserve classical roles for whites.

For example, she said, operatic stars Leontyne Price and Marian Anderson "have paved the way to make it possible for people like me to come onto the scene." But the number of black opera performers is still small, she said, making their appearance rare.

Emanuel Villaume, Spoleto's artistic director for orchestral music, said a literal interpretation that the actor who plays Julius Caesar, for example, must look like Caesar, has been "an excuse for discrimination." He added: "Fortunately, this is changing."

Villaume selected Cabell after she won the prestigious BBC Cardiff Singer of the World contest last year in Wales.

"People are accepting more and more the idea of an African-American singer for a role that is not originally an African-American role," he said. "After all, Otello was always played by great white tenors who were putting black faces on themselves. People accepted that. So why couldn't they accept it the other way around?"

Unlike their Parisian counterparts, young actors at the College of Charleston have seen colorblind casting in campus productions. For more than a decade, Todd McNerney, chairman of the college's theater department, has put the idea of colorblind casting before new students. Few have been surprised, he said.

Although McNerney said the best available actor should be cast in a role, regardless of race, that comes with one condition. McNerney said colorblind casting should be ignored if the race of a character is important to convey a specific political or sociological message. Colorblind casting fits better with classical pieces that tend to be mythical, unlike a contemporary play that is more realistic.

Art Gilliard, artistic director for Art Forms and Theatre Concepts, agrees.

Gilliard is directing Javon Johnson's play "Hambone," a Piccolo Spoleto production that opened Friday at the Footlight Players Theatre on Queen Street. "Hambone," in part, is the story of a black family's struggle to hide the secret that the lead character, Bishop, was fathered by a white man.
In this play, Delvin Williams, a black man, plays Bishop. It is important that a black actor portrays Bishop, Gilliard said. If not, the play loses its meaning, he said. Colorblind casting "is fine as long as it does not stop the story from being told."

Herb Frazier
Charleston Post and Courier
Photo Credit: Devon Cass

Roméo et Juliette at Spoleto: Reviews

2006-05-30T00:56:00.000+01:00

Creamy Coloratura

This was the Carolinas’ first look at Chicago-based soprano Nicole Cabell after her 2005 triumph as BBC Cardiff Singer of the World. The soprano displayed creamy coloratura and a warm dramatic tone, plus stamina enough to deliver the long Act IV monologue and Act V duet with firm control. She’s an expressive actress, with a long, high-cheekboned face that would have interested Modigliani, and she supplied the action with the sense of doom directors Clarac and Deloeil wanted from the start.

Lawrence Toppman,
Opera News,
August 2006

Palmetto Pleasures
Spoleto Festival operas challenge and illuminate

Charleston’s yearly Spoleto Festival USA is a heady whirlwind of the arts is a lovely setting, with history, cuisine, and leisure opportunities almost too numerous to explore. And yes, there’s a gay vibe afloat if you look.

[My] quarry was operatic—“Roméo et Juliette,” suddenly and deservedly popular again. [The opera] featured outstanding ensemble work from soloists and chorus alike—sometimes hampered, sometimes aided by aggressively activist directors. Gounod’s Shakespearean tragedy was successful largely due to the stylistic conviction and lavish vocal gifts of its highly attractive leading couple. 2005 “Singer of the World” Nicole Cabell showed herself a finely detailed tragic actress, with truly a lovely sound and presence. Consonants could occasionally have been more distinct but she phrased with utmost musicality and feeling; the difficult potion aria was absolutely thrilling.

Take notice—the next major francophone tenor may be young Québecois Frédéric Antoun, who enacted Roméo with disarming sincerity as a dreamy loner. His darkish lyric voice offered admirable dynamic variety and beautifully forward diction. Despite occasional flatting in the tricky transitional “passagio,” high notes above it were secure and exciting. Both Cabell and Antoun have the goods for major careers.

The production by Opéra Français de New York’s Jean-Philippe Clarac/Olivier Deloueil drew some audience puzzlement—the action took place in a corporate funeral home, seemingly protected by a Mafia boss Duke (the veteran Malcolm Smith, very creditable). The Capulets were soulless technocrats and the Montagues a loose bunch of “retro hip” slackers; any sense of rival houses vanished.

Some touches misfired—flashlights in the audience’s eyes, a tired pseudo-Brechtian device which need never, ever be used again, and a gratuitous drag scene for Mercutio during his “Mab” narration, serving only to obscure the notably excellent style and voice of Paris-trained Kevin Greenlaw. However, certain scenes showed unusual flair and psychological insight, like a playfully sexy “Ange adorable” that really seemed like two adolescents meeting and an affecting, improvised-seeming wedding scene—in a lab room!

As Capulet, Brian Mulligan—so far only given crumbs at the Met—exhibited a fine, strong leading baritone. Despite iffy French, Rosendo Flores made a sonorous Laurent, here a mortuary priest and doctor. Christine Abraham and Victor Ryan Robertson brought fiery personality and good sound to Stéphano and Tybalt. Tomasso Placidi led with Romantic sweep but supported the singers’ phrasing, never neglecting Gounod’s coloristic detail.

By David Shengold
Gay City News
June 15 - 21, 2006

[Frédéric Antoun's] Juliette is Chicago-based soprano Nicole Cabell. She was the 2005 winner of the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World competition, the top prize for emerging opera talent. Cabell is tall and beautiful with a distinctive voice. Hers is a bright sound with bite. She also has the all-important middle and low notes that extend her repertoire possibilities beyond the chirper status. Her voice is gilded with a dusky overcoat that adds sensuality and gives sophisticated colour to her freshness. Her formidable coloratura placement is pitch perfect. Cabell's connection with text is also an actor's dream.

Paula Citron
Globeandmail.com

Nicole Cabell sang her heart out in “Romeo et Juliette.” We just wish she had even more to sing.

Jeffrey Day
The State
11 June 2006

Ovation continues for 'Romeo et Juliette'

As part of Spoleto Festival USA, a new production of Charles Francois Gounod's grand opera "Romeo et Juliette" opened Friday night at the Gaillard Municipal Auditorium to a packed house which [...] offered at the end a standing ovation that might have run on without end if the stage lights had not been dimmed.

[Maestro Tommaso] Placidi was lucky to have an exquisite Juliette in soprano Nicole Cabell, who portrayed one of the star-crossed lovers with genuine feeling and a rich imagination. Her voice is powerful and beautiful in style and color. She delivered, with grace and ease, some intensely moving and stratospheric vocal pyrotechnics, literally breath-taking. In addition to looking the part, her lyric-coloratura voice was second to none.

Tenor Frédéric Antoun as Romeo mirrored the high-caliber style of Cabell, with an impressive and fiery creation.

The Post and Courier
Charleston.Net
May 27, 2006

And, ah, the soloists. The title roles are beautifully filled. Nicole Cabell’s buttery, gleaming soprano caresses the ear nonstop, and she shows a true diva’s instincts onstage. She manages the transition from giddy young girl to fate-stricken woman very credibly. Her delivery of the harrowing “potion aria” — with its own mini-“mad scene” — is potent, vocally spectacular, and utterly convincing. She’s a true star in the making.

Frédéric Antoun is the perfect moonstruck adolescent. His rich tenor is smooth and even from top to bottom, despite a slight airy quality to some of his highest notes. His soft pianissimo passages are to die for. This young man was born to sing the French repertoire — he handles the language better than anybody (no surprise from a French Canadian).

Lindsay Koob
Charleston City Paper

And now to the main event? the new production of Charles Gounod's 1867 opera "Romeo et Juliette." [...] presented a modernized telling of the story, set in New Jersey of the 1960s or '70s, judging by appearances... [...] In this contemporary incarnation, the famous tale seemed more vital than ever? an extraordinary achievement, considering it's a plot that everyone knows. [...] In fact, there was not a single dull stretch. Much of the credit for this goes to the young stars, Frédéric Antoun (Romeo) and Nicole Cabell (Juliette), who seemed like two impulsive, love-struck kids, coincidentally possessed of superbly trained singing voices. Despite the lofty musical standards of the performance (and it sounded gorgeous), Antoun and Cabell - and indeed, the entire cast - were first and foremost dramatically credible. This is a challenge in a piece where, 10 minutes after meeting Romeo for the first time, Juliette has to say, "If I cannot be his, let my grave be my bridal bed." Cabell sang it and meant it.

The Post and Courier
Charleston.Net

May 29-30, 2006

Spoleto's Juliet is a joy to behold

2006-05-29T01:37:00.000+01:00

Heroine in festival's operatic production has voice that justifies hype

CHARLESTON - It sounds at first like typical marketing hype: The British Broadcasting Corp. calls its vocal contest Singer of the World. Next thing you know, somebody will dream up a competition that declares its winner an idol.

But Nicole Cabell, who won the BBC's prize in 2005, makes the contest's name sound a lot more reasonable. When she's on stage at Spoleto Festival USA as the heroine of Charles Gounod's Romeo and Juliet, it's hard to imagine who in the world could make Juliet more compelling.

Cabell's Juliet exudes the passion of young love. Her voices sparkles and glows. No matter how high Gounod's rapturous melodies soar, Cabell exults in them. No matter how fierily she opens up in the music's big moments, her voice's shine is undimmed.

Even an operatic Juliet needs more than voice, of course. Cabell, youthful and svelte, is instantly believable as a girl swept up in romance.

Her broad smile must gleam all the way to the back row of Charleston's Gaillard Municipal Auditorium, where the production opened Friday night. Her lustrous eyes capture a wealth of feelings -- especially the darker ones that Spoleto's staging, big on death wish, plays up.

Frederic Antoun, just as youthful in sound and appearance, cuts an ardent figure as Romeo. His voice doesn't sail aloft as easily as Cabell's, but it rings. After Juliet leaves Romeo at the end of the balcony scene, his tender tones give her one last caress.

There and in the other two duets at the opera's heart -- the duo's meeting and the climactic tomb scene -- Cabell and Antoun have a magnetism that practically tells the story. That's lucky for Gounod, because they're surrounded by a staging that doesn't necessarily make sense.

This is the second time in recent years that Spoleto has shifted the immortal love story into the present. In 2004, for Vincenzo Bellini's I Capuleti e i Montecchi Spoleto turned the clans into warring crime families. Now, directors Jean-Philippe Clarac and Olivier Deloeuil have cast Juliet's family as the owners of an ultramodern mortuary and mausoleum. Carol Bailey's sets give the production shape through Spartan but imposing panels.

That yields one moment of visual magic: During the balcony scene, the light that from yonder window breaks is coming from Juliet, lighting a bank of candles in a chapel.

But there's no hint as to what Romeo's family does or why they're at odds with Juliet's. Is the funeral business so cut-throat? Why does a funeral home need a phalanx of guards wielding billy clubs? Why does the mortuary let Friar Laurence -- decked out in clerical collar, lab coat and surgical gloves -- hang around with a corpse?

But the cast follows the leading duo's model, surmounting the questions through their energy, commitment and secure voices. Baritone Kevin Greenlaw's Mercutio is especially lively -- and unintimidated by the directors' gambit of having him sing about Queen Mab by turning into her in improvised drag, complete with bare breasts.

The festival orchestra, led by Tommaso Placidi, plays not only with power, but with a sleekness that suits Gounod's French elegance. The chorus mirrors that. Shakespeare's romance prevails.

Steven Brown
Charlotte Observer

Moving Fast

2006-05-22T11:38:00.000+01:00

"Young soprano on the fast track" was how Anne Midgette, New York Times critic, described Nicole Cabell in a recent article.

Nicole to sing Gounod's Juliette at Spoleto, SC

2006-05-22T10:53:00.000+01:00

CHARLESTON — Sitting in a hotel courtyard near a gurgling fountain, Nicole Cabell would draw anyone’s attention. She is tall and slim, her glowing skin framed by a cascade of dark curls falling onto her shoulders. She wears a flowing black skirt belted by a splash of rhinestones and a snug top.

She reaches down to rummage in her purse, pulls out a tissue, turns her head and blows.
“Very attractive,” she says with a smile. “I’m allergic to Charleston.”

Cabell, a 28-year-old California native, will make her debut at the Spoleto Festival USA this week as Juliette in the 1867 opera “Romeo et Juliette” by French romantic composer Charles Gounod. The festival is one of many callers Cabell has received since last summer, when she was named the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World in what is considered a top vocal competition. Cabell, who now lives in Chicago, was one of 24 finalists.

She knows how important the prize is, but she can joke about it.“It sounds kind of like a wrestling title,” she says with a laugh.“You should get a big belt if you win it.”

Landing at the top of the operatic heap isn’t something Cabell ever expected; she didn’t even know she could sing until she was 15. As a child, she was most interested in writing, pursing it with a passion even at a young age. Her mother encouraged her to take music lessons to be well-rounded, so she started studying flute at 12.

“It was opposite of writing —going from something that you do alone to being a performer,” Cabell says.

And she didn’t take to the performance part: “I’d shake — my whole body would shake.”

Still, she kept at it, until prompted by her mother again.

“I was singing around the house and my mother said I sounded good,” Cabell recalls. “She encouraged me to look around for a choir to sing in.”

Turns out a local chamber choir was holding auditions the next day, so she tried out and became part of the group. At 15, she started doing musical theater, mostly musical revues. A big fan of pop music, Cabell grew up listening to ’60s and ’70s sounds, thanks to her mom, “a former hippie.” She was a fan of ’80s music by The Police and Sade, and ’90s grunge.

“I love Pearl Jam,” Cabell said.

Deciding that she should continue singing, she went to a vocal teacher. “After a few weeks, she said, ‘I think you should study with my teachers,’” Cabell says. For the next two years, Cabell studied opera, a form she’d had no exposure to or experience with. She graduated from the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, N.Y., in 2001 and was accepted into the graduate program at the Juilliard School.

“I was there for three days — well, actually two days,” Cabell says.

As soon as she started, the Lyric Opera of Chicago offered her a three-year residency at its center for young singers.

“When Nicole first got up to sing in my class, after three notes I knew she had it,” Lyric Opera center director Richard Pearlman told The Chicago Tribune last year. “The sound of her voice was so distinctive, the musicianship was at such an Olympian level, you couldn’t keep your eyes off her.”

Others sing her praises, but Cabell is very un-diva-like. She notes that she selected works to perform at the Singer of the World competition that “weren’t too taxing.”

Opera seemed to her to be an “unattainable, complicated thing.”

She mentions more than once that she was “afraid of forgetting the words.”

She was shocked she won the competition.

“At first I just didn’t want to make a fool of myself,” she said.

The heady praise she has received hasn’t gone to her head.

“I’m being very cautious in investing too much in reviews,” Cabell says. “You can’t take it too seriously.”
The closest she comes to bragging is talking about her first day in Charleston.

”I thought the first rehearsal was May 2, but it was May 1,” she says. “As soon as I got here, we had to sing the whole opera. If I can get off a plane, deal with allergies and sing that, I can do this.”

By Jeffrey Day
The State

Photo Credit: Renee Ittner McManus

Talent gets spotted at Spoleto

The next bright young thing often shines first at festival.

One of the strongest legacies of the Spoleto Festival USA in Charleston, S.C., which celebrates its 30th anniversary this year, is the discovery of new talent.

This tradition started in 1958, when composer Gian Carlo Menotti began the festival in Italy, and it continued when the American festival started in 1977.

Early Spoleto discoveries were soprano Kathleen Battle, cellist Yo-Yo Ma and opera sensation Jessye Norman.

The new singer all eyes are on this year is Nicole Cabell, in the role of Juliet.

By JEFFREY DAY
Kansas City Star

Santa Fe Opera's 2007 Season

2006-05-11T09:19:00.000+01:00

The Santa Fe Opera season opens on June 29 with La bohème, by Puccini, The opera will be conducted by Corrado Rovaris and staged by Paul Curran. Kevin Knight makes his company debut as set and costume designer; Nicole Cabell makes her company debut as Musetta.

More details of Nicole's performance schedule can be seen here.

Nicole Cabell interviewed in Chicago Sun-Times

2006-05-02T13:09:00.001+01:00

Excerpts from an article entitled In competitive field, young voices heard from The Chicago Sun-Times:

"If you're fortunate," [Gianna] Rolandi, [director of vocal studies at Lyric's Center for American Artists] said, "you'll get with a good manager who can help guide you into the kind of roles you should be doing. We do that in the kind of guidance at the center, and it has to continue. Young singers have a hard time saying no."

After the Cardiff win "catapulted" Cabell's career, a part-time job at Starbucks was no longer part of the equation. Opera companies plan their seasons years in advance, and while Cabell is looking at roles at Lyric and the Metropolitan Opera in a few years hence, she sang Pamina in The Magic Flute in Madison, Wis., this spring and Musetta in La boheme last fall at Michigan Opera Theater.

"I'm so thankful and still in disbelief about the competition," Cabell said, "but I'm actually at a point where I have to work to get time off. The business is fickle, and if you win a competition like Cardiff or you have an amazing opening night like Erin [Wall], people knock on your door. You take roles and pay your dues by working really, really hard for a couple of years."

But Cabell is aware that too much work or inappropriately heavy roles can tear a young voice to shreds.
"I have these great people in my life," she said, mentioning Rolandi and her manager at Columbia Artists Management, Inc. "They help me stay away from the dangerous stuff and pick the healthy things. We're trying to take light repertoire now. It's tricky. Age 28 is not super-young, but also you can't just do anything you want."

By Wynne Delacoma
The Chicago Sun-Times
April 30, 2006

'Shakespeare in Love' in Milwaukee: Reviews

2006-04-29T17:18:00.000+01:00

Excerpts of reviews of Shakespeare in Love, Milwaukee Symphony's program of music related to the Bard's plays and scenes from them.

[Nicole] Cabell's voice is as smoky, deep and delicious as a great single-malt scotch. She blended beautifully with the capable [Carmella] Jones in the dreamy "Vous soupirez, madame," the Act 1 duet from Berlioz's Beatrice and Benedict. Her canny, seductive interpretation of Porter's "So in Love" showed great stylistic range and topped the whole program. She should have had more to sing...

By Tom Strini
Journal Sentinel music critic
April 28, 2006

A lovely but rather static duet from the same opera [Berlioz's Beatrice and Benedict] was uplifted by soprano Nicole Cabell, a clear and expressive lyric voice, and mezzo-soprano Carmella Jones... Nicole Cabell showed a deep, versatile talent in going from opera to Broadway.

By Rick Walters
Shepherd Express
May 4, 2006

'Magic Flute' sparkles

2006-04-23T10:21:00.000+01:00

"The musical performance was crowned by the passionate, womanly Pamina of Nicole Cabell, recent winner of the BBC/Cardiff Singer of the World. Cabell’s "Ach, ich fühl’s" was a lovely piece of vocalism, intelligently shaped with meticulous attention to dynamic shading, her vibrant lyric soprano exquisitely floated above the staff."
Mark Thomas Ketterson
Opera News
July 2006

"Not enough can be said about the performances of [Sumi] Jo and Cabell, both of whom elicited enthusiastic responses from the audience... Cabell brought warmth and grace to her role along with her magnificent soprano, which floated effortlessly throughout the performance. Cabell, currently with the Lyric Opera of Chicago, is at the very beginning of what will likely be a brilliant operatic career, something few in Friday's audience would likely dispute. "

By Michael Muckian
Special to The Capital Times .

"Of the primary hero and heroine, lyric soprano Nicole Cabell had slightly the better of it, primarily because she has the most brilliant of the arias, which she sang with sweet and mellow power... "

By John Aehl
The Wisconsin State Journal.

Nicole Cabell in "The Magic Flute "

2006-04-16T11:34:00.000+01:00

By GAYLE WORLAND in
The Wisconsin State Journal

It's the first day of rehearsals for Madison Opera's production of "The Magic Flute," and Nicole Cabell has just arrived in Madison - from Barcelona, that is, via Rome and Chicago, getting separated from her luggage along the way.

But somehow, Cabell has it all together.

Strolling through the Concourse Hotel lobby with her long, slender frame, her striking features and thick dark hair pulled back into a ponytail, Cabell could easily be mistaken for a dancer or simply an exotic beauty. In fact, she's a 28-year-old, rising opera star - a "diva," technically, but without an ounce of the pretension that label might imply.

Though she's here for an opera role (she'll play Pamina in Mozart's "Magic Flute" Friday and Sunday, April 23 in Overture Hall), the down-to-earth Cabell is intent on developing a varied, well-rounded career for herself.
"I want to be a classical singer, not just an opera singer," she says, wearing jeans and sipping green tea in the hotel coffee shop. "I enjoy concert work, chamber music and recitals. I like to split my time up amongst all of them."

Lately, that splitting has been nonstop. Since she won the prestigious BBC Cardiff "Singer of the World" competition in Wales last June, Cabell has been traveling the world - including this month's stops in Rome and Barcelona. In December she recorded her first solo album in London under an exclusive contract with Decca Records. In January, she made a quick stop in Wisconsin for a Madison Opera-sponsored recital and audience chat.

"I've had a week off here and there," says Cabell, who also played Pamina in a Palm Beach Opera production in February. "But that's not really time off, because you have to prepare roles."

That's what happens when The New York Times calls one's voice "a light and outrageously beautiful soprano," the Chicago Tribune describes it as "limpid radiance," or The Detroit News praises one's Musetta in "La Boheme" as "electrifying."

"For the next year, (life) will be a little busy for my taste," says Cabell, reaching to turn off a ringing cell phone. "But - you have to pay your dues. I have to learn all these roles and do all these concerts because I have to build my repertoire. When you're starting out, you take the offers, because you want to work, you want to show people that you are enthusiastic about this business."

A self-described "Disneyland junkie" who loves movies and shopping as well as writing fiction, Cabell grew up in the "safe and predictable" California beach town of Ventura. She never really heard classical music as a kid, but she did play the flute in junior high band. And she played basketball with a friend who, like Cabell, loved to clown around imitating opera singers.

"Both of us had this weird inner knowledge that we could do it," says Cabell, whose ancestry is African American, Korean and Caucasian. "You know, you sing along with the radio, and I thought, 'Hmm, I can keep a tune.'"

Her mother encouraged her to join the school choir; she tried out for a school musical and was a hit. Only at age 15, Cabell began to notice that "People obviously can hear something, even if I can't," she says. "That's sort of how it's been: I've been walking through doors as they've been presented to me."

After three years of private lessons in high school (one voice teacher quickly referred Cabell to her voice teachers), Cabell attended the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, N.Y. She then headed to the Lyric Opera Center for American Artists in Chicago, now her home base, where opera talents undergo a three-year paid training program in everything from acting and stage combat to foreign languages and music. She found mentors in the center's director, Richard Pearlman, and opera superstar Marilyn Horne, among others.

"For me, it's important to go slow with opera," says Cabell, who also loves singing tunes from the Great American Songbook and mentions Dawn Upshaw, an opera singer known for delving into a wide range of styles, as a sort of career role model.

"Singing opera can be demanding on the voice if you take on the wrong roles."

Fortunately, Mozart's Pamina feels right. The character is the daughter of the Queen of the Night (played in the Madison Opera production by operatic superstar Sumi Jo), and has been abducted by Sarastro, the high priest of a brotherhood dedicated to wisdom and enlightenment. The Queen asks the prince Tamino (Richard Troxell) and her birdcatcher Papageno to rescue Pamina. In the end, Pamina joins with Tamino and both set off on a higher path.

"I think sometimes she can be played so reserved - and I think that makes for a dull Pamina," says Cabell. "The music is so beautiful and the lines are - perfect. It's difficult; it's exposed singing, with very light orchestra, and some of the most difficult pianissimo lines and high notes.

"But for me, if the character is too much like the music, she can be two-dimensional," she says. "I like to play her with a little more passion. She is never a fluffy person."

Link:
• Madison Opera

Photo Credit: Devon Cass

From the Royal Albert Hall to Carnegie Hall

2006-04-02T12:07:00.000+01:00

Exciting highlights of Nicole Cabell's year.

Having recorded her first recital disc for Decca in London last December, Nicole Cabell has since taken part in a new recording of Porgy and Bess and is due to record the title role in Imelda de’ Lambertazzi for Opera Rara in London next March, in conjunction with a concert performance of this rarely performed Donizetti opera.

As I write this, Nicole is currently in Rome scheduled to sing the soprano solo in the Mahler IVth and Britten's song cycle, Les Illuminations under the baton of James Conlon at the Academy of Santa Cecilia. From there, she goes to Barcelona for a performance of the same programme .

Proms, Covent Garden, Spoleto!

In the coming year, Nicole will be making a number of important debut appearances. She is due to make her Proms debut in London in August. Once again, she will be singing Les Illuminations, Britten's settings of Rimbaud's prose poems .

Royal Albert Hall, London

Also in London, she will sing Eudoxie in Halévy's La Juive for the Royal Opera House in concert at the Barbican . She will sing Juliette in Gounod's Roméo et Juliette at the Spoleto Festival, SC, Adina in Donizetti's L'Elisir d'Amore at the Opéra de Montpellier and the Countess in Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro for Boston Lyric Opera.

In addition, she is scheduled to give her first London solo recital at St John's, Smith Square and to appear in a wide variety of concerts in Cologne, Chicago, Minneapolis, St Louis and Carnegie Hall, New York.

Carnegie Hall, New York

Complete details of Nicole's Performance Schedule can be seen here.

Nicole in Royal Opera House Debut

2006-03-29T10:46:00.000+01:00

The Royal Opera House Covent Garden has just announced its plans for its 2006/2007 Season. These include two concert performances of Halévy's La Juive. Nicole will make her debut in the role of Princess Eudoxie. The performances, which will take place at the Barbican on September 19 and 21, will be conducted by Daniel Oren and mark the return of Dennis O'Neill to the Royal Opera House.

Soprano Cabell takes your breath away

2006-01-24T10:28:00.000Z

In the world of art songs, it's sometimes necessary to apply the "Summertime" test, an informal measurement that charts a soprano's ability to bring vibrancy and finesse to the familiar George Gershwin number from "Porgy and Bess."
The bluesy melody draws a soprano to her limits, with notes so brilliant and transparent that it's impossible for singers to hide behind vocal pyrotechnics if they don't have the chops.
Nicole Cabell, who served a residency with the Lyric Opera of Chicago before being dubbed the BBC's 2005 Cardiff "Singer of the World" this past June, took the number's final trill to its apex, her voice then falling like drops of dew rapidly descending a gossamer thread with a shimmering luminescence.
Cabell not only passed the test, but set a new performance standard. The 150 people who gathered at the Madison Masonic Center for Sunday's "Opera Up Close" recital rewarded her with enthusiastic applause, but by then it no longer mattered. The 28-year-old soprano had already won our hearts.
Sunday's event was one of a series designed to provided greater access to opera and song and broaden the Madison Opera's three-show season. Those who turned out for Cabell's art song recital can congratulate themselves for the wisdom of attending so personal a performance by opera's next great star on the eve of her career.
Cabell focused almost solely on an art song repertoire, noting the difficulty of such performances during a later audience talkback session. Unlike an opera, art songs require mastery of many different styles, composers and even languages. Ably assisted by the Lyric Opera's Elizabeth Buccheri on piano, Cabell covered 24 numbers in five languages, conquering them all with her magnificent tone and control.
The singer opened with the sprightly "Canciones Clasicas Espanolas," five popular songs by Fernando Obradors. The numbers allowed Cabell to warm the audience with lively Spanish rhythms, while demonstrating a variety of vocal techniques that would serve her well throughout the afternoon.
Cabell followed with Samuel Barber's "Knoxville, Summer of 1915," an operatic representation of writer James Agee's memoirs of his youth in the Tennessee town. The number's inherent nature required a much different rendering from Cabell, who later said she'd like to record the work for Decca, a label that has lately put her under contract. The touching presentation brought tears to at least one audience member's eyes, something he shared during the talkback session.
The "Zigeunermelodien" or "Gypsy Melodies" of Antonin Dvorak, seven numbers that drew on the composer's Eastern European roots, followed a brief intermission. "Cinq Melodies Populaires Grecques" by Maurice Ravel followed that, and it was here that Cabell rose to some of her finest moments, particularly during the elegantly rendered "Chanson des cueilleuses de lentisques."
Five numbers from the great American songbook, including "Summertime" and "Someone to Watch Over Me," both by Gershwin, closed the formal performance.
Then came a magnificent encore performance of the "O mio babbino caro" aria from "Gianni Schicchi."
Her performance of Puccini's work, like the rest of the afternoon, was sublime.
January 23, 2006

Michael Muckian The Capital Times

Christmas Concert with the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra

2006-01-07T16:44:00.000Z

Last Saturday, we heard a soprano voice on the cusp of greatness. Nicole Cabell, 28, BBC Cardiff Singer of the World in 2005, joined [Raymond] Leppard in one of his most interesting programs, mixing periods and styles, yet tying them together with a neat Christmas bow.

Cabell was introduced during the Messiah excerpts. Possessing a full-bodied, well-projecting operatic soprano voice, this native Californian never crosses that boundary into the wobbly opulence so common among lesser singers. Her breath and vibrato control during the recitatives were astonishing enough — and she is young enough — that she seems destined to become one of our future international divas (hopefully without developing the “prima donna” complex shown by some). She’s already within a hair’s breadth (or a diva’s breath) of being there.

Leppard offered his arrangement of a sequence of six traditional carols he calls Past Three O’Clock, for voice and orchestra. Some of these are interconnected with chimes, coupling Christmas color with Cabell’s superlative voice... The concert had to be encored with the universally loved “Sheep May Safely Graze” from Bach’s Cantata #208. And a Karen Moratz-Robin Peller flute duo provided luscious playing to complement Cabell’s luscious singing.

Tom Aldridge

DECCA announces exclusive recording contract with Nicole!

2005-12-12T12:01:00.000Z

Decca is delighted to announce the signing of an exclusive recording contract with Nicole Cabell.

Nicole's debut album will be a disc of arias in Italian, French and English with the London Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Sir Andrew Davis - one of Nicole Cabell's most important musical mentors. The album will be recorded in London at the end of 2005 for a Summer 2006 release.

"One of the most beautiful voices to have emerged recently. Nicole is going to have a wonderful life in music, and I personally look forward to hearing that special sound, many, many times…."
Marilyn Horne, November 2005

"I am extremely honoured and excited to be recording for Decca. When I look at the incredible list of Decca artists I am joining, I feel especially humbled and look forward to this wonderful new collaboration. As a young artist, I couldn't ask for a more amazing opportunity!" Nicole Cabell

"We are thrilled that Nicole has agreed to join the Decca family. She has style, beauty, class and what a voice!" Costa Pilavachi, President Decca. "When I heard Nicole I was immediately seduced by her glorious voice and stature. She is a major artist" added Chris Pope, Vice President A&R Decca who signed Nicole to the label.

Nicole Cabell shot to international stardom in June with a stunning performance which earned her the title BBC Cardiff Singer of the World 2005. Press reaction to her triumph at the competition was unanimous in its praise:

"… already has a faultlessly gleaming soprano, a technique with no loopholes, and bags of confidence. It should do no harm that she is also tall, slim and glamorous … whatever this soprano chooses to sing, her voice makes wonderful music with it"
Richard Fairman, Financial Times, 22 June 2005

"… when Cabell opened that great smiling mouth, what we heard was liquid gold: the real thing."
Hilary Finch, The Times, 21 June 2005

Born in California, Nicole Cabell's first serious vocal studies were at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, NY, where her teacher was John Maloy (his previous students include Renée Fleming and Ben Heppner). It was her intention to continue her studies at the Juilliard School when she discovered she had been accepted into the training programme of the Lyric Opera of Chicago. Cabell has recently completed three years at the Lyric Opera's Center for American Artists where her teacher was the Director of Vocal Studies, Gianna Rolandi.

Music Director of the Lyric Opera, Sir Andrew Davis, was one of several people in the company who thought of Cabell for a variety of roles — all of which helped her to develop as an all-round artist, giving her valuable stage experience and the opportunity to work with established stars. She entered the Lyric as an extremely promising vocal talent and has emerged as a genuine World-class singer.

The BBC Cardiff Singer of the World Competition (founded in 1983) is now regarded as among the most important competitions in the World, with the final broadcast live to a global television and radio audience. Past prize winners include Bryn Terfel, Dmitri Hvorostovsky and Karita Mattila.

In the first rounds of the competition Nicole Cabell sang works by Bellini, Mozart, Menotti, Ravel, Obradors and Dvorák, and went on to perform arias from Mozart's Idomeneo, Tippett's A Child of Our Time and Berlioz's Benvenuto Cellini in the final — none of this typical competition fare. The selection of repertory alone is an indication of Cabell's integrity as a singer and of her musical maturity.

So far Cabell has sung a variety of roles in both opera and concert repertory that range from Handel to Mahler, Beethoven to Ravel and beyond. She recently made her Chicago Orchestra Hall debut in A Child of Our Time (with Andrew Davis); her European debut was in Brahms's Ein deutsches Requiem in Rome when she sang alongside Thomas Hampson with the Accademia di Santa Cecilia under the baton of Antonio Pappano; and at the Ravinia Festival she has sung in Le nozze di Figaro with Daniel Barenboim and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Very recently a concert at Millennium Park in Chicago drew rave notices:

"Can any of today's name-brand divas bring such exquisite legato phrasing to 'Depuis le jour' as soprano Nicole Cabell?"
John von Rhein, Chicago Tribune, 12 September 2005

Since her victory, the offers of further engagements have poured in. The coming season will see her as Pamina (Die Zauberflöte) and Musetta ( La Bohème), and in concert repertory including Poulenc Gloria, Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, Mahler's Fourth, and Britten's Les Illuminations.

Before Cardiff Nicole Cabell had already planned an audition tour of European opera houses and she herself welcomed this as an opportunity for further study of European languages and cultures. This is clearly one intelligent singer who, despite hitting such dizzying heights in Cardiff, has her feet firmly planted on the ground.

Photo Credit: Devon Cass

Reviews of La Bohème at Michigan Opera Theatre

2005-11-08T12:45:00.000Z

As Musetta, Nicole Cabell offered lots of Mae West sassiness and ravishing phrasing.
Mark Slater, Detroit Free Press

What's good about MOT's "Boheme" is very good, and it starts with soprano Nicole Cabell's electrifying Musetta. When Cabell sweeps into view in the Act II Christmas Eve scene in Paris' Latin Quarter, the stage lights up with a quality missing altogether in the opening act. Call it presence or charisma; it's a luminous spirit that seizes the imagination -- even before Cabell has sung a note. But when she does, notably in a brilliant turn through Musetta's famous waltz-song, the whole production rises to another level.
Lawrence B. Johnson, Detroit News Music Critic

Recent pictures of Nicole

2005-09-21T14:40:00.000+01:00

Nicole with her accompanist, Spencer Myer

Reception after Nicole's recital at the University of Pittsburgh at Bradford.
From L to R, Spencer Myer, Mrs Evelyn Alexander , Nicole, Dr Livingston Alexander, President
of the University.

Nicole Cabell's Performance Schedule

2005-08-18T11:00:00.000+01:00

2006-2007
September 19, 21
ROH Presentation at the Barbican Centre, London
La Juive (Eudoxie)
(Oren)

*
October 14
Sanders Theater, Harvard
Bernstein Tribute: Kaddisch Symphony, "I Hate Music", "Dream with Me"
(Clurman)

*
October 19, 21
Oslo Philharmonic
Carmina Burana/Honey and Rue/Vocalise
(Previn)

*

October 26, 27
Mt Vernon Foundation
Patriotic Songs
Opening of New Hall
(Pianist tbd)

*
November 2, 3, 5
Minnesota Orchestra
Gorecki 3rd Symphony
(Vänskä)

*
November 29, December 1, 3, 5
Opéra de Montpellier
L’Elisir d’Amore (Adina)
(Davin)

*
December 15, 16, 17
San Diego Symphony
Messiah (Mozart Version; Soprano Solo)
(Ling)

*

February 3
Spokane Symphony
Gershwin Concert
(Preu)

*
February 10
New Jersey Symphony
Gershwin Concert
(Tipton)

*

February 21
St. John’s Smith Square,
London Solo Recital
(Simon Lepper, piano)

*

February 23-March 10
Opera Rara Recording and Concert, London
Imelda de’ Lambertazzi (Donizetti)
Royal Festival Hall
(March 10)
(Elder)

*

March 19
Carnegie Hall, NYC
Poulenc Gloria
w/Orchestra of St Luke’s (Jessop)

*

April 12, 14, 17
Bayerische Rundfunk, Munich
La Bohème (Musetta)
W/Recording for DGG
(De Billy)

*

May 11, 12
Indianapolis Symphony
Opera Arias (Venzago)

*

May 20
Central Synagogue, NYC
Kurt Weill Concert
(Clurman)

*

June 4-August 25
Santa Fe Opera
La Bohème (Musetta)
(Rovaris)

Please note: Schedule subject to change.

*********************************
Nicole Cabell is represented by:

Michael Benchetrit
Columbia Artists Management LLC (CAMI)
1790 Broadway New York, NY 10019
Phone: (212) 841 9559
Fax: (212) 841 9557
Email: mcjb@cami.com
*********************************

2004-2005

August 19, 20
Pasadena Pops
Crossover Concert
(R. Woerby, cond.)

August 21
Martin Theater, Ravinia
Crossover Recital
(W. Kauffman, piano)

2005-2006

September 10
Lyric Opera Stars at Grant Park, Chicago
French Repertoire
(J. Mauceri, cond.)

September 17
Bradford, PA
Recital, All-American Program
(Spencer Myer, piano)

September 25
George Weston Recital Hall, Toronto
Tribute to André Previn:
"Honey and Rue","I Want Magic" + Jazz Selections tbd
(A. Previn and P. Oundjian, cond.)

October 26
French Consulate, New York City
Private Recital for Marilyn Horne Foundation
French and American Songs and Arias
(W. Jones, piano)

November 5, 6 (m), 9, 11, 12, 13 (m), 17
Michigan Opera Theatre, Detroit
La Bohème (Musetta)

December 4
Montreal Opera
Annual Gala
(repertoire tbd)

December 8, 9, 10, 11
Baltimore Symphony
Messiah
(E. Polochick, cond.)

December 17
Indianapolis Symphony
Classical Christmas Concert
(R. Leppard, cond.)

January 20
Solo Recital, Chicago
(E. Buccheri, piano)

January 27
Zankel Hall, New York City
Marilyn Horne Foundation
Annual Gala
Theme: "Americans in Paris"
Review

February 8
Buffalo, NY
Recital
(program and pianist tbd)

February 25, 27
Palm Beach Opera
Die Zauberflöte (Pamina)

March 24, 25, 26
Louisville Orchestra
Poulenc "Gloria", Beethoven 9th
(R. Leppard, cond.)

April 1, 3, 4

Nicole Cabell sarà la voce solista per la IV Sinfonia di Mahler e Les Illuminations di Britten. Sul podio dell'Orchestra di Santa Cecilia il gradito ritorno del direttore americano James Conlon
Accademia di Santa Cecilia, Rome
Mahler 4th, Britten’s Les Illuminations
(James Conlon, cond.)

April 5
Accademia di Santa Cecilia, Barcelona
Mahler 4th, Britten’s Les Illuminations
(James Conlon, cond.)

April 21, 23
Madison Opera
Die Zauberflöte (Pamina)

April 27, 28, 29
Milwaukee Symphony
Shakespeare-Themed Program
(Berlioz, Mendelssohn, Porter)
(N. McGegan, cond.)

May 26, 29, June 3 and 9
Spoleto Festival, USA
Roméo et Juliette (Juliette)
Article
Review
More reviews

June 5
Spoleto Festival, USA
Mozart Mass in C Minor (Soprano I)
(Flummerfelt)

July 1
Ravinia Festival
Crossover Concert
(Conlon, cond.; Kauffman, piano)

August 2
Proms,
Royal Albert Hall, London
Britten’s Les Illuminations
(Sir Andrew Davis)

August 6, 7
St Louis, MO
Crossover Concerts

August 11
Bard College
Franz Liszt Lieder

August 13
Bard College
Opera Aria(s) associated with Franz Liszt

August 18, 19
Pasadena Pops
Bella Vita (Mediterranean Program)
(Worby)

What the critics said

2005-07-12T10:29:00.000+01:00

Winning the 2005 BBC Singer of the World Competition in Cardiff:

“At last the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World has landed a good catch. […] The winner was Nicole Cabell from the US. At 27, she was the youngest of the five finalists, and already has a faultlessly gleaming soprano, a technique with no loopholes, and bags of confidence. It should not do any harm that she is also tall, slim and glamorous. Not many young singers would have dared to serenade the line-up of judges at this competition with such esoteric fare - a solo from Tippett's A Child of Our Time, one of Ilia's heart-stopping arias from Mozart's Idomeneo and a nimble Gallic showpiece from Berlioz's Benvenuto Cellini. But whatever this soprano chooses to sing, her voice makes wonderful music with it.
The judges said this was the closest result for years, but Cabell was surely always going to be the winner.”
Richard Fairman, Financial Times, June 22, 2005

The BBC Singer of the World competition has always been a testing week, but its extension to include a separate song competition has introduced an element of survival of the fittest. Thus, the emergence of the coolly accomplished American soprano Nicole Cabell as winner was predictable, her slender frame belying a remarkable stamina.
Crucially, Cabell's programme was more adventurous than most, with Mozart flanked by impassioned Tippett and a technically demanding aria from Berlioz's Benvenuto Cellini. It was the joyful gleam of the Berlioz's final high cadenza that set the seal on her success.
Rian Evans, The Guardian, June 21, 2005

“Call it what you will — star quality, audience awareness, the wow factor — that, in the end, is what swings a jury. And when, at the weekend, they swung in favour of a 27-year-old American soprano called Nicole Cabell, there weren’t too many dissenting voices.

Cabell walks away with £10,000, a BBC and a Welsh National Opera engagement — and a memo, at the very least, in the diaries of opera intendants worldwide.

Earlier in the week, there had been murmurings. Cabell is from the Chicago Lyric Opera Centre, an institution not unknown to an erstwhile director of WNO. And she had already won a Marilyn Horne Foundation Recital. Horne was on the jury. And then, I suspect, there was the sour grapes factor: though it’s hardly Cabell’s fault if she has the glamour quotient of Shirley Bassey and Nefertiti combined.

When Cabell opened that great smiling mouth, what we heard was liquid gold: the real thing. Her finals programme, accompanied by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales under Carlo Rizzi, showed her sense of warm humanity, projected confidently within a technique strong enough to take it, in How can I cherish my man from Tippett’s A Child of our Time. Ilia’s aria Se il padre perdei from Idomeneo revealed Cabell as a stylish Mozartian. And she was spellbinding in her final cadenza from Entre l’amour et le devoir from Berlioz’s Benvenuto Cellini.”
Hillary Finch, The Times, June 21, 2005

Windy City Wonder Blows Away the Competition

… There can be little argument over who deserved to walk away with the first prize.
I didn't hear her during the heats, but, on the strength of her performance in the final, this year's laureate, 27-year-old Chicagoan Nicole Cabell, has dazzling star potential.
Her gorgeous soprano is rich and even, rising to a sumptuous top. Although she sings with a broad generous passion rather than a finely detailing brush, there were moments of spine-tingling beauty in arias from Tippett's A Child of our Time and Mozart's Idomeneo; "Entre l'amour" from Berlioz's Benvenuto Cellini proved a harder nut to crack.
That she looks a complete smasher - tall and willowy, with a smile to die for - will do her career no harm whatsoever. Anyway, I can't wait to hear and see Miss Cabell again."
Rupert Christiansen, Daily Telegraph, June 21, 2005

At the Song Prize Finals at the 2005 BBC Singer of the World Competition in Cardiff:
"Following her rapturous reception by the audience for Concert 3 in the Main Prize competition, it was fairly obvious that American soprano Nicole Cabell would win equal approval in this concert. She is a striking figure on stage: tall, slim and beautifully groomed (hers have been the most elegant 'frocks' by far in the whole contest, for those interested in such things) she also has a voice of superb power and flexibility. Her programme consisted of pair of songs by Ravel ( Cinq mélodies populaires grecques, Nos 1 and 2) two pieces by Obradors (Canciones clássicas españolas Vol 1 Nos 1 and 6) and two items from Dvoràk (Gipsy Songs Op 55 No 4 , 'Als die alte Mutter,' and No 5 ' Reingestimmt die Saiten.') The unusual Daybreak in Alabama by Ricky Ian Gordon completed her set, complementing the same composer's Dream Variations, which she had sung in her Song Prize heat. The voice is certainly beautiful (faintly reminiscent of Renée Fleming sometimes) and she can do almost anything she chooses with it. This is what gives her such extraordinary audience appeal."
Bill Kenny, Seen and Heard, June 20, 2005

Nicole receiving her award from Dame Joan Sutherland.

Nicole Cabell, lauréate du BBC Cardiff Singer of the World
Après Dmitry Hvorostovsky et Bryn Terfel (ex-aequo) en 1989 mais aussi dans la masse des lauréats, de Monica Groop à Hillevi Martinpelto et une certaine Karita Mattila, le célèbre Concours lyrique de Cardiff a couronné dimanche 22 juin Ms Nicole Cabell, une Américaine de 27 ans.Elle était la plus jeune des 5 finalistes. La presse anglo-saxone salue une soprano particulièrement complète, à la technique sûre et d'une belle assurance en plus d'une réelle intelligence et... (last but not least?) un certain glamour. Elle aura séduit le Jury avec "esotérisme", choississant d'interpréter un solo de Tippett: A Child of Our Time, une aria d'Ilia (Mozart, Idomeneo) et une autre de Benvenuto Cellini de Berlioz.Quelque soit le répertoire abordé, les critiques ont soulignés sa parfaite musicalité.
Lachlan, Opéra Passion

Nicole Cabell was stunning visually, and a beautiful elegant singer also. Who else could possibly have won this heat? Her diction was also very near perfect. The stunning diminuendo at the end of the Menotti aria was sensational. She made this second rate music sound wonderful..and how many singers can do accomplish that? She could be the new sensation...it's somehow important that the audience should have an input. All the old folks on the jury know their stuff, but in the end, what matters is the singer's impact on the audience..that's what happens in the theatre. No one would choose John Tomlinson, for example, as a great singer based solely on tonal quality, but the impact he has in the theatre, his physical presence, his connection with the audience, exemplify what I mean. Having said that, I found the vocal quality of Nicole Cabell also very alluring. So I hope she goes far...
Roger D Bell

It was good to see Nicole Cabell sing Tippett (gloriously) and I think she has a fantastic career ahead of her.
David Harbin

As the Soprano Solo in Tippett’s A Child of Our Time with the Chicago Symphony:

"The players and chorus were fully engaged in the effort; two of the vocal soloists — soprano Nicole Cabell and bass-baritone Christian van Horn, standing in at the last minute for Wayne Tigges — beautifully, atmospherically contributed to it."
Alan G. Artner, Chicago Tribune, June 4, 2005

"Soloists Nicole Cabell, Guang Yang, Scott Ramsay and Christian Van Horn, all members or alums of the Lyric Opera Center for American Artists, navigated their difficult lines well for the most part. Soprano Cabell and bass-baritone Van Horn, a last-minute substitute, were particularly strong."
Andrew Patner, Chicago Sun-Times, June 4, 2005

As the Soprano Solo in Mahler’s Fourth Symphony with the Florida Orchestra:

"Soprano Nicole Cabell treated listeners with her sumptuous vocals on a text of innocence and heavenly pleasure."
Kurt Loft, Tampa Tribune, May 22, 2005

As the Soprano Solo in Brahms’ Deutsches Requiem with the Accademia di Santa Cecilia:

"The celestial flight of the Lied for soprano was given to Nicole Cabell, a young and beautiful American whose European debut this was; hers is an emotional and lyrical voice for this piece, but through her "wiedersehen" ("I shall see you again") touched by grace, the audience was left with sincere emotion."
Giorgio Pestelli, La Stampa, May 10, 2005

"The soloists were an extraordinary, moving and extremely well-controlled Thomas Hampson as well as a wonderful and most musical Nicole Cabell."
Dino Villatico, La Repubblica, May 9, 2005

"… The melting sweetness of Nicole Cabell…"
Pietro Acquafredda, Il Giornale, May 10, 2005

In the Rising Stars concert at the Lyric Opera of Chicago:

"Nicole Cabell, now in her third year at Lyric, has been a singer to watch from the very start. Her ample, agile voice has a satiny edge, noticeable even in the flirtatious flights of the aria "Entre l'amour et le devoir'' from Berlioz's "Benvenuto Cellini.'' In the Act II duet from Strauss' Der Rosenkavalier, Cabell's lustrous tone was a lovely contrast to the brighter, more silvery soprano of Lauren Curnow."
Wynne Delacoma, Chicago Sun-Times, May 2, 2005

Récital Opéra de Montréal Le Xe Gala:

Il est difficile, voire impossible de faire un compte-rendu complet et équitable d’une telle Odyssée lyrique. Retenons tout de même, du côté des voix féminines... la soprano Nicole Cabell, inconnue à ce jour, [qui] a chanté de façon admirable le « Chi il bel sogno di Doretta ? »
Jacques Hétu, ResMusica.com, December 7, 2005

... Ceux qui croyaient avoir tout vu... ont eu des surprises encore plus grandes dans la seconde partie. Car le choc de la soirée a été bref mais intense, avec une autre soprano : Nicole Cabell, créature littéralement tombée du ciel, qui chante l'air de La Rondine mieux qu'Angela Gheorghiu avec des attaques pianississimo filées quasiment irréelles.
Christophe Huss, LeDevoir.com, December 5, 2005

Lyric Opera at Millennium Park, Chicago, Sep 2005

The big surprise of the evening was Nicole Cabell’s Depuis le jour. This young soprano really knows what this aria is about and her singing was simply superb.
Marc Musnick