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The American mezzo-soprano, Majie Zeller, has received critical praise for the "opulent tone" and "warmth of expression" she brings to her performances as a soloist in opera and oratorio, as well as in contemporary and chamber music.
Her operatic credits include the title role in Rossini's La Cenerentola with the Michigan Opera Theatre touring company, the Second Lady in Die Zauberflöte with Granite State Opera, and the Third Lady with Monadnock Music, as well as Rosina in The Barber of Seville, Dorabella in Cosí fan tutte, Nicklausse in Tales of Hoffman, Hansel in Hansel and Gretel, Cherubino in The Marriage of Figaro, and Prince Orlovsky in Die Fledermaus. She made her Boston Lyric Opera debut in 2000 as one of Akhnaten's daughters in Philip Glass's Akhnaten, and has returned as Butterfly's Aunt in Madama Butterfly and in several roles in Tod Machover's Resurrection. Last season she was featured as Nancy T'ang in Opera Boston's highly acclaimed production of Nixon in China.
Noted for her oratorio performances in both mezzo and soprano roles, Majie Zeller has appeared with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Cantata Singers, Emmanuel Music and many other choruses and orchestras in works ranging from Heinrich Schütz to John Harbison. The last several seasons have included her "vibrant" performance in last fall's East Coast premiere of John Harbison's Four Psalms,
J.S. Bach's St. Matthew Passion (BWV 244),
B Minor Mass (BWV 232), and Magnificat (BWV 243) with the Cantata Singers under David Hoose, as well as appearances as cantata soloist with Emmanuel Music under Craig Smith, and Copland's In the Beginning with the Brookline Chorus under William Cutter. She has also been featured in the Requiems of Mozart and Maurice Duruflé, George Frideric Handel's Messiah, Mozart's Vesperae solennes de confessore, and the Mozart Mass in C Minor Mass in the original Latin as well as with Lorenzo Da Ponte's Italian text, Davidde penitente.
Twice a vocal fellow at the Tanglewood Music Center, Majie Zeller has presented premieres of works by several American composers, including James Yannatos' Death Songs and Amazing Grace, Bret L. Silverman's The Tree of Life with PALS under Johanna Hill Simpson, and John McDonald's set of songs, A Tale of Jack & Jill. She has also sung Arvo Pärt's Stabat Mater with Emmanuel Music under Craig Smith, and presented Arnold Schoenberg's seminal 30-minute twelve tone song cycle, Das Buch der hängenden Gärten, at Tanglewood. She is the soprano soloist on the recording of John Harbison's Four Psalms on New World Records (released 2004). |
