Nicole Cabell - Soprano

28 year old American soprano Nicole Cabell came to the attention of the opera world overnight when, in June 2005, she won what has become the most important competition for young opera singers and was crowned BBC Cardiff Singer Of The World. The competition jury included legendary singers Dame Joan Sutherland and Marilyn Horne and the win placed Nicole Cabell in a distinguished line of Cardiff prize-winners that includes Karita Mattila, Dmitri Hvorostovsky and Bryn Terfel. Nicole Cabell’s debut album with the London Philharmonic Orchestra includes arias and songs in Italian, French and English; operatic favourites as well as less well-known music (such as the arias by Menotti and Tippet) which she made her own in the BBC competition. The flirtatious Musetta in Puccini’s La Bohème has become a 'calling card' role and her much loved Waltz Song ‘Quando me’n vo’ was a natural choice to start the album. Puccini is also represented on her debut album by the sublime ‘O mio babbino caro’ from Gianni Schicchi and Doretta’s heavenly aria of young love from La Rondine ‘Chi bel sogno… ’. Nicole’s thrilling performance of the coloratura showpiece aria from Berlioz’ Benvenuto Cellini was one of the highlights of the Cardiff competition and it’s included on the album along with other French favourites from Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette, Charpentier’s Louise and Delibes’ French vision of Spain in his popular song ‘Les Filles de Cadix’. The bel canto operas of Donizetti and Bellini reveal another facet of this hugely gifted young singer - an ability to sculp lines of aching lyrical beauty. The album includes the capricious aria from Donizetti’s Don Pasquale as well as Bellini’s ravishing entrance aria for the heroine of his ‘Romeo & Juliet’ opera I Capuletti e I Montecchi. Nicole Cabell regards singing in English as an important aspect of her artistic identity so the album includes her gorgeous performance of Gershwin’s ‘Summertime’ from Porgy & Bess (which she also sings on the recent Decca complete recording) as well as the rapturous aria from Gian Carlo Menotti’s The Old Maid & The Thief and the deep humanity of the selection from Sir Michael Tippett’s oratorio A Child Of Our Time.