Biography
Hailed by The New York Times as “a radiant mezzo-soprano,” Irish singer Naomi O’Connell is the First Prize Winner of the 2011 Concert Artists Guild Victor Elmaleh Competition and the Altamura/Caruso International Voice Competition. She began 2012 starring on London’s West End in Terrence McNally’s Tony Award-winning play “Master Class,” in the role of an aspiring young opera singer opposite Tyne Daly who portrays the legendary Maria Callas. The Times called her performance “…spectacular,” and The Independent lauded her “…thrilling rendering of an aria from Verdi’s Lady Macbeth.”
Highlights of her 2012-13 operatic season include: Despina in the MET+Juilliard fall production of Mozart’s Così fan tutte, under the baton of Alan Gilbert and directed by Stephen Wadsworth. This spring, she appears in New York City Opera’s new production of Offenbach’s La Périchole. Featured recital appearances this season include her Carnegie Hall debut at Weill Recital Hall presented by CAG, as well as the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts, Purdue University Convocations, the Artist Series of Tallahassee and back in New York at Merkin Concert Hall and Trinity Church, for its Concerts at One series, co-presented by Joy in Singing.
A gifted musician and natural performer, Ms. O’Connell deftly balances her love of opera with that of art song, musical theatre and popular song with repertoire ranging from Schumann, Strauss and Ravel to Bernstein, Sondheim and Randy Newman. She has performed with the Marlboro Music Festival, Steans Musical Institute at Ravinia, the Juilliard FOCUS! Festival, and the New York Festival of Song, where critics hailed her performance as “evocative, appealing and expressive.”
Recent engagements include her professional operatic debut singing the title role in Offenbach’s La Périchole with Garsington Opera in June 2012, where London critics hailed her as “a star in the making.” Ms. O’Connell made her Lincoln Center debut in March 2011 in the Juilliard Honors Recital at Alice Tully Hall with pianist Brent Funderburk. She spent the summers 2011 and 2012 performing chamber music at the Marlboro Music Festival in Vermont, where her 2012 performance of Ravel’s Trois Poèmes de Stéphane Mallarmé was hailed by The Boston Globe as “outstanding – her voice cool, precisely controlled and perfect for this music.”
Brought up in County Clare, Ireland, Ms. O’Connell holds a Master of Music degree and Artist Diploma in Opera Studies from The Juilliard School. She studies in New York with voice teacher Dr. Robert White. Ms. O’Connell is generously supported by the Novick Career Advancement Grant from The Juilliard School. Past awards include the 2012 Leonard Ingrams Award from Garsington Opera, First Prize in Operetta at the 2008 International Hans Gabor Belvedere Competition and the Makiko Narumi Prize for outstanding mezzo-soprano from The Juilliard School. She began her studies with Archie Simpson and holds a BA Honors degree from the Royal Irish Academy of Music, where she studied with voice teacher Mary Brennan.
Ms. O’Connell has performed in venues throughout the United States, Europe, the UK and Ireland. Her recordings have been broadcasted on WQXR, BBC Three, RTE television, Lyric FM, Clare FM and Radio One. Her operatic roles include Monteverdi’s Ottavia, Ravel’s L’Enfant and Concepción, Purcell’s Dido, Mozart’s Cherubino, Bizet’s Carmen and Handel’s Ariodante. Ms. O’Connell has performed in master classes with artists such as Dame Gwyneth Jones, Joyce DiDonato, Sir Thomas Allen, Malcolm Martineau, Roger Vignoles and Ann Murray.
Multimedia
- Audio
Hugo Wolf: Das Köhlerweib ist trunken from Alte Weisenlisten
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Gioachino Rossini: Anzoleta dopo la regatta from La Regata Veneziana
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Henri Duparc: Au pays où se fait la guerre
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Havelock Nelson: Dirty Work
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Frank Bridge: Love went a-riding
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Wolf: Als ich auf dem Euphrat schiffte from Goethe Lieder
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Jonathan Dove: Adelaide's Aria from The Enchanted Pig
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Rossini: Anzoleta avanti la regatta from La Regata Veneziana
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John Hind: A Cradle Song
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Arthur Schwartz: Make the Man Love Me from A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
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Maurice Ravel:Nahandove from Les chansons Madécasses, Op.78
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Charles Marshall: I Hear You Calling Me
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- Video
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Rossini: La Regata Veneziana
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"Sein wir wieder gut" from Richard Strauss' Ariadne auf Naxos
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Press
- Quotes
“Naomi O’Connell was the outstanding mezzo-soprano, her voice cool, precisely controlled, and perfect for this music.”
- The Boston Globe“Naomi O’Connell and Robert Murray are unbeatable in the principal roles of La Périchole and Piquillo. Their sometimes tempestuous relationship is beautifully observed, and their singing is a joy to listen to. This is O’Connell’s UK operatic debut, and she’s very definitely a name to watch.”
- The Oxford Times“At the centre are two first-rate performances from the ingenue leads, Naomi O’Connell’s Perichole and Robert Murray’s Piquillo. Both of them sing with grace and style, she suitably sharp-witted and streetwise; he – something of a James Corden lookalike in a rumbustious comic performance – softer and more vulnerable. Between the two of them, they take every trick that comes their way.”
-The Stage“a title role performance with real star quality”
“The word “charm” applied particularly to the performance of Naomi O’Connell in the title role. O’Connell may not have the biggest voice you’ll ever hear, but it’s lovely to listen to (in tune, nicely lilted and unmarred by sharpness or excessive vibrato) and she has stage presence and magnetism to burn, helped by a gorgeously soft Irish accent. She also did a great job of the dance numbers – everything from the Spanish ones to a brief jig straight out of Riverdance.”
- Bachtrack – David Karlin“Feisty Irish singer-actor Naomi O’Connell is cast as Périchole, and Sams lets her and Robert Murray’s delightful Essex-boy Piquillo loose on a world of cut-glass accents and social snobbery.”
-The Guardian – Tim Ashley“…it’s hard to imagine how Geoffrey Dolton’s Viceroy, Naomi O’Connell’s Périchole and Robert Murray’s Piquillo could be bettered in these parts…this production is O’Connell’s UK operatic debut, and she is a star in the making. Hardly surprising, given that she’s a postgraduate of the Juillard who will make her Carnegie Hall debut in 2013.”
- Music OMH“In the title role and looking delectable, Naomi O’Connell’s creamy tone and elegant phrasing ravished the ear”
- Seen and Heard International, Robert J Farr - Reviews
Repertoire
- Programs
WITCHES, BITCHES & WOMEN IN BRITCHES
FEMALE PORTRAITS IN SONGPART ONE
THE VENETIAN SOCIAL CLIMBERGioachino Rossini: La Regata Veneziana
Anzoleta avanti la regata
Anzoleta co passa la regatta
Anzoleta dopo la regattaDAMAGED GOODS FROM FRANCE
Henri Duparc: Au pays où se fait la guerre
Alfred Bachelet: Chère Nuit
Francis Poulenc: La dame de Monte Carlo
Erik Satie: La diva de l’empireFEMALE PORTRAITS OF HUGO WOLF
Hugo Wolf: Das verlassene Mägdlein
Hugo Wolf: Das Köhlerweib ist trunken
Hugo Wolf: Die Zigeunerin
Hugo Wolf: Ich hab’ in Penna~INTERMISSION~
THE OLD WOMEN OF IRELAND
Havelock Nelson: Dirty Work
Charles Marshall: I hear you calling me
John Hind: Cradle Song
T.C. Kelly: The Mother
Granville Bantock: Song to the SealsLOVE, SEX AND MARRIAGE
Frank Bridge: Love went a-riding
Arthur Schwartz: Make the Man Love Me
William Bolcom: Amor
William Bolcom: Toothbrush Time
Jonathan Dove: Adelaide’s Aria (The Enchanted Pig)IMAGINE A MAGICAL MENAGERIE…SONGS OF THE ANIMAL KINGDOM
DES ANIMAUX ET DES OISEAUX
Georges Bizet: La Coccinelle
Ernest Chausso: Le Colibri
Emmanuel Chabrier: Villanelle des petits canards
Jacques Offenbach: Le corbeau et le renardFrancis Poulenc: Le Bestiaire
Le dromadaire
La chèvre du Thibet
La sauterelle
Le dauphin
L’écrevisse
La carpeSONGS FROM JAPAN
Kosaku Yamada: Rabbit-Ear Iride
Ikuma Dan: The Weasel
Ikuma Dan: Saury Fish
Yoshinao Nakada: Cherry Blossoms LaneO! FOR A HORSE WITH WINGS!
Claude Debussy: Chevaux de Bois
Henri Duparc: Le Manoir de Rosemonde
Frank Bridge: Love went a-riding~INTERMISSION~
BIRDSONG
Orlando Gibbons: The Silver Swan
Irish Traditional : The Lark in the Clear AirKLEINE TIERE
Franz Schubert: Der Schmetterling
Franz Schubert: Die Forelle
Hugo Wolf: Mausfallen Spüchlein
Hugo Wolf: Der RattenfängerMAGICAL ANIMALS
Granville Bantock: Song to the Seals
Manuel Rosenthal: La Souris D’Angleterre
Tom Lehrer: Poisoning Pigeons in the Park
