Nicole Cabell

Cabell’s notable debuts have included Handel’s Alcina at Grand Théâtre de Genève, and Flavia in Eliogabalo at Dutch National Opera, both under Leonardo García Alarcón, alongside appearances in full lyric roles such as Violetta in La traviata at Royal Opera House Covent Garden and Mimi in La bohème for her debut at Opéra national de Paris.

In 2018 Cabell performed her first staged Bess in James Robinson’s acclaimed production of Porgy and Bess for English National Opera, conducted by John Wilson. This season, Nicole Cabell will make her debut at the Royal Swedish Opera as Donna Anna in Don Giovanni in a new production directed by Michael Cavanagh under Nil Venditti.

Recent appearances in the US have included her role debut as Fiordiligi in Così fan tutte at San Francisco Opera, Contessa in Le nozze di Figaro and Mimì  in La bohème at Pittsburgh Opera, Juliette in Roméo et Juliette at San Diego Opera, Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni at Detroit Opera and a return to Minnesota Opera as Violetta in La traviata.

On the concert platform last season, Cabell performed George Walker’s Lilacs with London Symphony Orchestra and Sir Simon Rattle in London, Stanford, California and subsequently performed the piece as part of BBC Proms 2022 with Chineke! Orchestra alongside Beethoven’s Symphony No.9. In addition, she sang Lilacs with Cleveland Orchestra under the baton of Franz Welser-Möst.

In 2022/23, Cabell joined NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester and Alan Gilbert for concert performances as Clara in Porgy and Bess. In the US, she joined Seattle Symphony Orchestra and Philadelphia Orchestra for Handel’s Messiah and Atlanta Symphony for Vaughan Williams’ Sea Symphony. She also gave a solo recital with Cincinnati’s Matinee Musicale and concerts of Barber’s Knoxville, Summer of 1915 with the Tucson Song Festival.  Cabell also appeared with Cincinnati’s May Festival in Beethoven’s Symphony no. 9.

Further opera credits include Hanna Glawari in The Merry Widow with Lyric Opera of Chicago, Rosalinda in Die Fledermaus with Cincinnati Opera, Violetta in La traviata and Giulietta in I Capuleti e I Montecchi with San Francisco Opera.  She has appeared as Adina in L’elisir d’amore with Lyric Opera of Chicago, Metropolitan Opera and at Gran Teatre del Liceu as well as Pamina in Die Zauberflöte with Lyric Opera of Chicago, Metropolitan Opera and Deutsche Oper Berlin.

Cabell has sung her signature role of La Contessa Almaviva in Le nozze di Figaro with Lyric Opera of Chicago, Grand Théâtre de Genève, Cincinnati Opera, Angers Nantes Opéra and Detroit Opera. She has appeared as Juliette in Roméo et Juliette with Deutsche Opera Berlin, Atlanta Opera, Palm Beach Opera and Cincinnati Opera.

Cabell has brought her interpretation of Micaëla in Carmen to the Metropolitan Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Deutsche Oper Berlin and Atlanta Opera and has sung Leïla in Les pêcheurs de perles with Lyric Opera of Chicago, Santa Fe Opera and the Royal Opera House Covent Garden.

The role of Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni has brought Cabell to the Deutsche Opera Berlin, Cologne Opera, New National Theater Tokyo, Cincinnati Opera, and Detroit Opera, among others.  Her early appearances as Musetta in La bohème saw her at Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires, Metropolitan Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Santa Fe Opera and Washington National Opera.

In concert, Ms. Cabell made her Paris debut in Poulenc’s Gloria with Charles Dutoit and in Poulenc’s Stabat mater in Lille, France with Jean-Claude Casadesus. She performed several times in Spain with Orquesta de Galicia in a Barber/Mahler program under the baton of Lawrence Renes.

She has appeared many times with the Boston Symphony Orchestra in such repertoire as Poulenc’s Gloria, Barber’s Knoxville, Summer of 1915 (both with Andris Nelson) Beethoven’s Symphony no.9 with Giancarlo Guerrero, Villa-Lobos’ Bachianas Brasileiras no. 5 with Marcelo Lehninger and in the operatic roles of Fiordiligi in Così fan tutte and Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni, both under the baton of Andris Nelson.

Further concert appearances include a Barber/Brahms program in Nashville with Giancarlo Guerrero, opera arias in concert with New York Philharmonic and Bramwell Tovey and in Brahms’s Ein deutsches Requiem with Cleveland Orchestra and Franz Welser-Möst.  She has appeared with Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra in Ravel’s, Schéhérazade with Ward Stare and as the soprano soloist in Mahler’s Symphony no. 2 with Andreas Delfs.

A fan of the Great American Songbook, Cabell has appeared with New York Philharmonic in a Cole Porter program with Bravo Vail Festival and Leonard Slatkin and as Bess in a concert performance of Porgy and Bess with Brian Stokes Mitchell under the baton of Bobby McFerrin. She has appeared with Boston Pops Orchestra in an evening of Gershwin songs and at Carnegie Hall in Duke Ellington’s Sacred Songs.

Cabell’s many appearances in London has seen her with BBC Concert Orchestra in Barber’s Knoxville Summer of 1915 with Keith Lockhart, London Symphony Orchestra in Debussy’s La Damoiselle élue with Donald Runnicles, BBC Symphony Orchestra in Elgar’s The Apostles and Britten’s A Child of Our Time with Sir Andrew Davis. She appeared with Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in Poulenc’s Gloria with Charles Dutoit and in Britten’s A Child of Our Time with Sir Andrew Davis.

Cabell’s many recordings include Silver Rain, the songs of Ricky Ian Gordon, Chanson D’Avril, a solo recording of French Mélodie with Craig Terry on the Delos label, Soprano, a solo recording of various songs and arias under the baton of Sir Andrew Davis and the London Philharmonic Orchestra for Decca and Sisters in Song, a recording of duets with longtime friend Alyson Cambridge on the Cedille label. In addition, Cabell has contributed solo offerings on the recordings of Lori Laitman (Are Women People, Too? and The Ocean of Eternity), the Grammy Nominated album Mademoiselle-Unknown Music of Nadia Boulanger with Lucy Mauro on Delos, Brahms Beloved, the music of Clara Schumann and Seattle Symphony Orchestra’s recording of George Walker’s Lilacs. She has recorded the role of Léontine in the first full recording of Joseph Bologne’s L’amant anonyme with Cedille records and Haymarket Opera, Clara in Porgy and Bess on the Decca label and Musetta in La bohème with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Betrand de Billy for Deutsche Grammophon.

Passionate about education, Nicole Cabell is currently on the voice faculty of her alma mater, the University of Rochester’s Eastman School of Music. Prior to this she served on the faculty of the DePaul School of Music and Roosevelt University’s Chicago College of Performing Arts.  She is the winner of the 2005 BBC Cardiff Singer of the World, as well as the recipient of the Echo Klassik Award and the Georg Solti Orphée D’Or for her album Soprano.

Nicole Cabell | American Soprano (nicole-cabell.com)

Photo by Erica Dufour