Marjorie Elinor Dix

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.