Hailed by the Financial Times for her “easy flexibility, arresting poise and enveloping warmth,” mezzo-soprano Cecelia Hall is a member of Oper Frankfurt’s prestigious ensemble and appears regularly as a guest artist on many of the world’s finest stages. Recent successes include the title roles of Ariodante, Serse, Carmen, La Cenerentola, and I Capuleti e i Montecchi, as well as concerts conducted by Jaap van Zweden, Harry Bicket, Jean-Christophe Spinosi, and Thomas Guggeis.
Highlights of Cecelia’s 2024-25 season include Der Komponist in Strauss’ Ariadne auf Naxos at Seville’s Teatro de la Maestranza conducted by Guillermo García Calvo and directed by Joan Antón Rechi, and four new productions at Oper Frankfurt: Henze’s Der Prinz von Homburg conducted by Takeshi Moriuchi and directed by Jens-Daniel Herzog, Berg’s Lulu conducted by Thomas Guggeis and directed by Nadja Loschky, Magnard’s Guercoeur conducted by Marie Jacquot and directed by David Hermann, and Reimann’s Melusine conducted by Karsten Januschke and directed by Aileen Schneider. In concert, she sings Mozart’s Requiem with Utah Symphony conducted by Christopher Allen, and Mendelssohn‘s Lobgesang at the Alte Oper Frankfurt conducted by Thomas Guggeis.
Cecelia’s opera engagements outside Frankfurt over the past two seasons included title role debuts in new productions of La Cenerentola for Boston Lyric Opera (for which Operawire’s João Marcos Copertino praised her “beautiful lyrical instrument”) and Bizet’s Carmen for Austin Opera conducted by Timothy Myers, as well as Xerxes for the Komische Oper Berlin and Ariodante for The Israeli Opera. Her concert engagements included Megacle in Vivaldi’s L’Olimpiade with Jean-Christophe Spinosi and Ensemble Matheus in London, Mozart’s Requiem in a series of concerts at New York’s Lincoln Center with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Jaap van Zweden, Bach’s St John Passion on tour with the Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century conducted by Daniel Reuss, and a performance of Mendelssohn’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream at New York’s Carnegie Hall with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s conducted by Harry Bicket with narration by David Hyde Pierce.
Recent seasons in Frankfurt have included several notable debuts for Cecelia: title role Serse, title role in Mozart’s Ascanio in Alba, Charlotte Werther, Irene Tamerlano, Hänsel Hänsel und Gretel, Marguerite La Damnation de Faust, Dido Dido & Aeneas, Idamante Idomeneo, and Fulvia in Gluck’s Ezio. Frankfurt audiences have also seen her as Cherubino Le nozze di Figaro, Dorabella Cosi fan tutte, Zerlina Don Giovanni, and Zweite Dame Die Zauberflöte. Other European highlights include Cherubino Le Nozze di Figaro at the Bayerische Staatsoper with Ivor Bolton, Zaida Il Turco in Italia in Aix-en-Provence, led by Christoper Alden and Marc Minkowski, and her debut at Opera Holland Park in the title role of Handel’s Serse. Cecelia made her Russian debut singing Komponist Ariadne auf Naxos with Vladimir Jurowski and the Moscow Philharmonic Society, a role she has also performed at the Palau de les Arts Valencia conducted by Sir Andrew Davis and in the US at the Tanglewood Festival conducted by Christoph von Dohnanyi.
Highlights of Cecelia’s work in North America include an acclaimed debut as Romeo in Bellini’s I Capuleti e i Montecchi in a new production directed by James Darrah and conducted by Christopher Allen at Opera Omaha. Kevin Hanrahan of Opera News wrote, “It was Cecelia Hall who outshone them all as Romeo. The dynamic flexibility with which Hall sang, shaping every phrase with dramatic intention, was a delightful example of bel canto singing.” Other highlights include Don Ramiro La Finta Giardiniera at the Santa Fe Opera, conducted by Harry Bicket and directed by Tim Albery; Rosina Il Barbiere di Siviglia at the Canadian Opera Company, cond. Rory MacDonald, dir. Joan Font; Sesto La Clemenza di Tito with Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, cond. Stephen Lord, dir. Stephen Lawless; and the Page Salome with the Philadelphia Orchestra, cond. Yannick Nézet-Séguin. Cecelia has sung multiple times with Opera Philadelphia: as Ruby Thewes in the east coast premiere of Jennifer Higdon’s Cold Mountain, cond. Corrado Rovaris, dir. Leonard Foglia; and as Clorinda and Sorrel in War Stories (a double bill of Monteverdi’s Il combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda and Beecher’s I Have No Stories To Tell You), cond. Gary Wedow, dir. Robin Guarino as part of the inaugural Festival 017, for which she was featured on the cover of Opera News. Cecelia sang Wellgunde and Rossweisse in Seattle Opera’s Ring des Nibelungen, cond. Asher Fisch, dir. Stephen Wadsworth, which was recorded and released commercially.
An alumna of the Lyric Opera of Chicago’s Ryan Opera Center, Cecelia received much critical acclaim for her turn there as Annio La Clemenza di Tito with Sir Andrew Davis and David McVicar and for her performance in the title-role of Handel’s Teseo at Chicago Opera Theater. As an alumna of the Metropolitan Opera’s Lindemann Young Artist Development Program, she has appeared at the Met as Javotte Manon and as Second Priestess Iphigénie en Tauride.
A noted recitalist, Cecelia has appeared several times at Carnegie Hall, in a Spotlight recital and gala with the Marilyn Horne Foundation and with Carnegie’s own Ensemble ACJW. In Frankfurt, she gave a much-lauded Liederabend with Hilko Dumno. As a Samling Artist, she sang in recital with Sir Thomas Allen and Malcolm Martineau at Wigmore Hall. Cecelia made her Mostly Mozart debut as the mezzo soloist in Mozart’s Mass in C minor and Requiem with Maestro Louis Langrée and appeared with the Bay Atlantic Symphony singing Les Nuits d’Eté.
An alumna of The Juilliard School and DePaul University, Cecelia is a recipient of a 2011 Sara Tucker Study Grant, a 2012 Brian Dickie Outstanding Young Singer Award, the 2013 Lynne Harvey Foundation Scholarship from the Musician’s Club of Women, and Third Prize from the 2013 Gerda Lissner Foundation.
Photo Credit: Dario Acosta
Updated October 2024.
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