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Mezzo-Soprano Marjorie Elinor Dix was acclaimed
by Opera News for her portrayal of the Composer in excerpts from
Richard Strauss’s Ariadne auf Naxos performed in concert with the
Metropolitan Opera Orchestra. Leighton Kerner wrote “Dix was on
emotional fire, and she made ‘Musik ist eine heilige Kunst’ the
evening’s most exultant moment.” Reviewing her debut as Isolde in
Tristan und Isolde with Virginia Opera in 2004-2005, OperaOnline
wrote, “Ms. Dix was, in a word, exceptional. She maintained the
difficult, long and vocally tasking music right up to her beautiful
finale…. At no point did she appear stretched or tired. Indeed, even
in the final moments of the opera her voice was strong; her delivery
poignant; and her stage presence, commanding.” The combination of
her impressive instrument, musicianship and theatrical instincts is
bringing Miss Dix to the attention of opera companies and orchestras
worldwide.
A graduate of the Metropolitan Opera’s
Lindemann Young Artist Development Program, Ms Dix made her
Metropolitan Opera debut as Gerhilde in performances of Die Walküre
conducted by James Levine in 1999.
In
2008-2009 she covered Masha in the
Queen of Spades.
In 2004-2005, Miss Dix was responsible
for the role of Ortlinde in Die Walküre. As a guest artist in
2003-2004, she performed Falcon in Die Frau ohne Schatten in
performances conducted by Phillipe Augin. In the 2002-2003 season,
she appeared as the Second Maid in Elektra in performances conducted
by James Levine. She was also responsible for the roles of Composer
in Ariadne auf Naxos and Didon in Les Troyens. In earlier seasons,
while still a member of the Lindemann Young Artist Development
Program, she performed the roles of Dunyasha in Prokofiev’s War and
Peace, the High Priestess in Aida,
which had Luciano Pavoratti in his final performances of Radames and
she covered Helena in Britten’s A
Midsummer Night’s Dream.
She is particularly sought after as an
interpreter of the major operatic works of the twentieth century.
One of her signature roles is Marie in Berg’s Wozzeck. In summer
2006, she performed the role to great critical acclaim in Nancy,
France for Opéra National de Lorraine and in 2003 at Opera Festival
of New Jersey. Seiji Ozawa invited her in 2004 to understudy Marie
at the Saito Kinen Festival Matsumoto, and she covered the role at
the Metropolitan Opera in the 2001-2002 season as well as in
2005-2006. Other engagements of her 2005-2006 season were the role
of 2nd Maid in Elektra under the baton of James Levine at the
Tanglewood Music Festival, Janacek’s Glagolitic Mass with the Dallas
Symphony Orchestra, a work she repeated in 2007 with the Longwood
Symphony Orchestra in Boston, and two concerts at the Alliance
Française in New York, where she sang Wagner’s Wesendonck Lieder and
Chausson’s Chanson Perpétuelle.
Prior to joining the Metropolitan Opera, Ms Dix
performed Fiordiligi in Palm Beach Opera’s production of Così fan
tutte under the baton of Anton Guadagno, and performed with the
Little Orchestra Society at New York’s Alice Tully Hall Britten’s
The Rescue of Penelope. She performed Eduige in Rodelinde and
Fiorilla in Rossini’s Il Turco in Italia, both at the Pittsburgh
Opera Center at Duquesne University. She also performed Frasquita in
the Pittsburgh Opera production of Carmen and was seen as the
Countess in Le nozze di Figaro at the International Vocal Arts
Academy and as understudy as Madame Lidoine in Les Dialogues des
Carmélites at Tulsa Opera.
Equally committed to concert repertoire, Ms Dix
has performed works ranging from Bach to Harbison and including
Beethoven and Wagner. With the American Symphony Orchestra, she
appeared in concert presentations of Hindemith’s one-act operas
Mörder, Hoffnung der Frauen and Das Nusch-Nuschi. With the
Metropolitan Opera Chamber Ensemble and James Levine she performed
John Harbison’s Between Two Worlds, a work that she repeated at the
Harbisons’ Token Creek Music Festival. She also performed Debussy’s
Chansons de Bilitis and Brahms’s Liebeslieder Waltzer (Op. 52 and
65) with the Metropolitan Opera Chamber Ensemble and Maestro Levine
at Weill Recital Hall. In 2003-2004, she returned to Carnegie Hall
to perform Harbison’s North and South, also with James Levine. In
the summer of 2003 Ms Dix appeared in SummerFest at la Jolla
performing the Schoenberg arrangement of Mahler’s
Das Leid von der Erde conducted by Alan Gilbert.
In the previous season, Ms Dix made her
Houston Symphony debut performing Bruckner’s Te Deum. Pittsburgh
audiences have enjoyed her performances of Handel’s Messiah, Fauré’s
Requiem and Mozart’s Coronation Mass. With the Spokane Symphony she
performed Mendelssohn’s Lobgesang, and at Lehigh University she
performed the orchestral version of Wagner’s Wesendonck Lieder. The
soprano also joined the Manchester Music Festival Quartet for a
performance of Respighi’s Il Tramonto and added Britten’s War
Requiem and Beethoven’s Symphony no. 9 to her repertoire as an
artist in residence at Lehigh University. She has appeared in
recital at the Cerritos Performing Arts Center in California, at the
Morgan Library, and at Lincoln Center under the auspices of the
Metropolitan Opera Lindemann Young Artist Development Program.
Ms Dix holds a Bachelor of Music degree from Duquesne University and
has received an artist’s certificate from the Pittsburgh Opera
Center. In 2001 she received both the Robert Launch Memorial Grant
from the Wagner Society and a William Mattheus Sullivan Foundation
Grant. In 1995 she was the First Prize Winner in The Licia
Albanese-Puccini Foundation, a Finalist in the Luciano Pavarotti
Competition and the Recital Winner in the Pittsburgh Concert Society
Competition.
Marjorie Elinor Dix may be heard on Plácido
Domingo’s Deutsche Grammophon recording of Verdi’s tenor arias.
In
2009 a Labor Records recording will be released of Marjorie singing
Alben Berg’s Vier Lieder.
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