© Coline Jourdana
SYDNEY MANCASOLA
Soprano
Described by Opera News as “enchanting […] radiant and glittering,” soprano Sydney Mancasola is quickly establishing herself as one of the most engaging singing actresses of her generation. Sydney trained in the US before becoming member of the ensemble at Oper Frankfurt, where her roles included Gilda in Rigoletto, Musetta in La bohème, Pamina in Die Zauberflöte and the Italian Singer in Capriccio amongst many others.
More recently, notable debuts have included her house debut at the Metropolitan Opera as Pamina The Magic Flute and as Frasquita Carmen, which was broadcast to theatres around the world as part of the Met’s Live in HD program, as well as her debut as Bess in a new production of Breaking the Waves at the Adelaide Festival Centre in Australia and Edinburgh International Festival, where she was awarded a Herald Angel for her performance. Last season, Sydney returned to English National Opera to sing Musetta in their unique outdoor ‘Drive & Live’ production of La bohéme held at Alexandra Palace, produced in response to the Covid-19 crisis.
News
House debut: L'Elisir d'amore in Paris
Sydney makes her company debut at the Opéra national de Paris, singing Adina in Donizetti's L''Elisir d'amore.
Under the baton of Italian conductor Giampaolo Bisanti in a production by Laurent Pelly, Sydney sings alongside a cast that includes Matthew Polenzani as Nemorino, Simone Del Savio as Belcore, Carlo Lepore as Dulcamara and Lucrezia Drei as Giannetta.
L'Elisir d'amore opens at the Opéra Bastille on 28 September 2021 with performances running through to 9 November. Sydney then returns to the Komische Oper Berlin in the winter to sing Eurydice Orpheus in der Unterwelt and the Four Heroines in Offenbach's Les Contes d'Hoffmann.
Media
Repertoire Includes
Opera
BEETHOVEN
Fidelio (Marzelline)
BIZET
Les pêcheurs de perles (Leïla)
Carmen (Frasquita)
BRITTEN
A Midsummer Night's Dream (Tytania)
Peter Grimes (First Niece)
Paula Bunyan (Fido/Goose)
CIPULLO
Glory Denied (Young Alyce)
DEBUSSY
Pelléas et Mélisande (Mélisande)
DONIZETTI
L'elisir d'amore (Adina)
La fille du régiment (Marie)
GLUCK
Ezio (Onoria)
GOUNOD
Roméo et Juliette (Juliette)
HANDEL
Giulio Cesare (Cleopatra)
Semele (Semele)
Jeptha (Iphis)
MASSENET
Manon (Manon)
Don Quichotte (Pedro)
MAZZOLA
Breaking the Waves (Bess McNeil)
MOZART
Die Zauberflöte (Pamina)
La clemenza di Tito (Servilia)
Cosi fan tutte (Despina)
Le Nozze di Figaro (Susanna)
La Betulia liberata (Soprano II)
OFFENBACH
Orphée aux enfers (Eurydice)
Les contes d'Hoffmann (Four Heroines)
PUCCINI
La bohème (Musetta)
La Rondine (Lisette)
ROSSINI
Il barbiere di Siviglia (Rosina)
Le comte Ory (Comtesse Adèle)
STRAUSS, J.
Die Fledermaus (Adele)
STRAUSS, R.
Arabella (Zdenka)
Der Rosenkavalier (Sophie)
Capriccio (Italian Singer)
SZYMANOWSKI
Król Roger (Roxana)
TCHAIKOVSKY
Pique Dame (Prilepa)
VERDI
Rigoletto (Gilda)
La Traviata (Violetta)
Concert
J.S. BACH
Magnificat
BARBER
Knoxville: Summer of 1915
BRAHMS
Liebeslieder Walzer
BEETHOVEN
Symphony No. 9
HANDEL
Messiah
HAYDN
Die Schöpfung
Nelson Mass
MENDELSSOHN
Hear My Prayer
MOZART
Exsultate, jubilate
ORFF
Carmina Burana
SCHUBERT
Mass No. 2 in G Major
STRAUSS
Brentano Lieder
Press
Donizetti L'ELISIR D'AMORE / Opéra National De Paris
“Sydney Mancasola is sparkling, mischievous and lively. Every moment is a feast for the ears and eyes. The soprano twirls like an elf, full of charm and mischief and performs vocal wonders in the belcanto register.”
John-Christophe Mary, Toute La Culture (September 2021)
"Sydney Mancasola is a strong and determined Adina with the disarming ability to reach her high range with ease. The very open vowels bring intelligibility to her Italian, as do the well-timed midrange or the refined phrasing."
Tania Bracq, Forum Opera (September 2021)
Handel SEMELE / Komische Oper Berlin
“Sydney Mancasola shone in the title role, the whole performance building up to a bravura performance of her final air, ‘No, no, I’ll take no less/Than all in full excess!’ That full excess, alas, was to be truly hers, but was also seen and heard to characterize an exuberant performance from beginning to end.”
Mark Berry, Seen and Heard International (February 2020)
”The vocal set is dominated by Sydney Mancasola's performance in the title role. The American, who has gained a foothold in Europe in recent years (she was a member of the Frankfurt Opera troupe for three years) and who now flies on her own, signs a performance both stage and vocal that must be warmly saluted. Present on stage almost from beginning to end, she embodies a Semele ravaged by pride, doubt, impossible love, despair and then madness. She holds the distance vocally and strings her four consecutive arias to the III thanks to a confounding energy. She is the fire on stage out of the ashes, and closing her eyes (a feat anyway, as Kosky rivets the viewer's gaze on the stage!), we heard accents that reminded us of Daniele de Niese, who a few years ago was a magnificent Semele at the Tec. Her triumph with the public was well deserved. .”
Thierry Verger, Forum Opera (February 2020)
“Mancasola communicated her ambitions clearly with a lyrical vulnerability”
Zenaida des Aubris, Bachtrack (February 2020)
Mozart THE MAGIC FLUTE / Washington National Opera
“Pamina was American soprano Sydney Mancasola making her WNO debut and offering a master class in how to follow the column of sounds p and down the rigorous aria, Ach itch fühl’s…”
Whitney Fishburn, DC Metro Theater Arts (November 2019)
”Pamina, soprano Sydney Mancasola never sounded anything but clear as a bell and winsome as the moon rising behind her.”
Sydney Boyd, Bachtrack (November 2019)
”Sydney Mancasola’s Pamina brings a master class of a performance in “Ach ich fühl’s” fully using the legato lines to demonstrate the character’s sadness and allowing her voice to travel up and down fully and freely, which is not easy to do in that aria.”
Daniella Ignacio, DC Theatre Scene (November 2019)
”No need to go to New York this year; you can hear the same thing here in Washington. Of the three Mancasola sounded the best to me on Saturday night, singing with a rich lyric sound and considerable affect.”
Anne Midgette, The Washington Post (November 2019)
Missy Mazzoli BREAKING THE WAVES/ Edinburgh International Festival
”It’s masterful, and it’s brought to life by an extraordinarily committed cast, led by Sydney Mancasola as Bess. She’s a marvel, extracting every scintilla of possibility from her soprano voice, from euphoria to misery via delirium. This is a total tour de force, and the show is worth seeing for her alone.”
Simon Thompson, Seen and Heard International (November 2019)
Sydney Mancasola’s Bess is a compelling tour de force, encompassing every emotional extreme, forcibly dominating a cast that is equally well-served.”
Ken Walton, The Scotsman (November 2019)
“American soprano Sydney Mancasola gave a towering performance, barely off the stage throughout, her physical journey from vulnerable God-fearing girl through a series of increasingly dangerous on-stage sexual encounters completely wrapped up in her misplaced religious convictions.”
David Smythe, Bachtrack (November 2019)
“As Bess in Missy Mazzoli’s 2016 opera…Mancasola is hardly off stage and charts the descent of her character from shy Skye bride to Christ-like victim with laser-like power and desperate vulnerability. Part of you wants to shake her out of it. Most of you wants to hug her. It’s an extraordinarily gutsy performance.
Neil Fisher, The Times (November 2019)
”…bravely enacted by Sydney Mancasola as Bess, an excellent soprano, who gives her all in a performance of touching sincerity.”
Rupert Christiansen, The Telegraph (November 2019)
“A top-class cast is led by the outstanding American soprano Sydney Mancasola as God-fearing Bess, febrile and loving”
Fiona Maddocks, The Guardian (November 2019)
”Sydney Mancasola is vocally and physically unstinting in attempting to realize the troubled figure of Bess.”
George Hall, The Stage (November 2019)
