© 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 Rigoletto, Musetta La bohème, Pamina Die Zauberflöte and the Italian Singer Capriccio. She also retains a close relationship with the Komische Oper Berlin, where her recent roles have Eurydice Orpheus in the Underworld, Cleopatra Cesare, Servilia Clemenza di Tito and title role Semele.
Last season Sydney made her house debut at the Opera National de Paris, as Adina L’Elisir d’amore in Laurent Pelly’s production at the Opera Bastille, and in the 2022-23 season she will return to Metropolitan Opera as Pamina The Magic Flute, make her house and role debut as Melisande in David McVicar’s production of Pelleas et Melisande for Los Angeles Opera, sing Mahler Symphony No. 2 with James Gaffigan and the Orquestra de la Comunitat Valenciana, and return to the role of Bess in Missi Mazzoli’s Breaking the Waves for the Opera Comique; the role she created at the Adelaide Festival and subsequently at the Edinburgh International Festival, where she was awarded a Herald Angel for her performance.
News
Sydney Mancasola makes debut as Tytania
Sydney returns to Des Moines Metro Opera to make her debut as Tytania in Benjamin Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream in a production by Chas Rader-Shieber.
Conducted by Elizabeth Askren, the cast will include John Holiday as Oberon, Barnaby Rea as Bottom and Isaiah Bell, Alexander Birch Elliott, Tamara Gura and Susanne Burgess as the four lovers.
A Midsummer Night's Dream opens on Saturday 2 July with further performances on 10, 15 and 23 July.
Following her performance as Tytania, Sydney remains in the US where she begins her 22-23 season with a return to the Metropolitan Opera in New York, singing Pamina in their 'Holiday Presentation' of Mozart's The Magic Flute.
For more information visit the production page here.
Posted on 28/06/2021.
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)
