Angela Mortellaro
“It seemed at times that Massenet’s score was tailored specifically for her voice. She glittered, sparkled, screamed and cried her way, operatically of course, through this three-hour production.”
“The contrast between the perky and vibrant act one priestess and the morose act two woman is sharply defined. When the crown comes off, so does the act. With not a note to be sung, Mortellaro sold the moment.”
– Thaïs – Florida Grand Opera
Soprano Angela Mortellaro possesses a captivating stage presence and consistently delivers in a wide range of characters and vocal demands. She has sung leading roles in Lucia di Lammermoor, Roméo et Juliette, Thaïs, La traviata, L’elisir d’amore, and has created roles in new operas including Charlie Parker’s Yardbird, Silent Night, and The Manchurian Candidate.
Coming soon, Angela will debut Micaëla in Carmen with Central City Opera, and Susanna in Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro with Minnesota Opera. She will be featured as the soprano soloist with the Dayton Philharmonic presenting Ralph Vaughan Williams A Sea Symphony. Additionally, Angela will debut with Chicago Opera Theater in a double-bill of Donizetti’s works, Il pigmalione and Rita: his first work and one of his last. She will sing Galatea in Il pigmalione and the title role in Rita.
Engagements in the 2016–2017 season included two exciting role debuts:Juliette in Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette with the Minnesota Opera, and Norina in Don Pasquale with the Sarasota Opera. “As Juliette, Angela Mortellaro’s crisp and agile soprano voice offers a fluttering girlishness to the role, and her energetic performance draws the eye throughout. In her sure-footed rendition of Act I aria “Je veux vivre,” Mortellaro shows a pleasing mix of delicacy and acrobatics in vocal interpretation, all while traversing tabletops and chairs …” (Twin Cities Arts Reader) Ms. Mortellaro also reprised the role of Doris Parker in Charlie Parker’s Yardbird with both Madison Opera and Lyric Opera of Chicago’s Lyric Unlimited.
The summer of 2015 brought a memorable role debut as Adina in Donizetti’s L’elisir d’amore with the Dorset Opera Festival in Dorset, England. Other engagements during the 2015–2016 season included both Musetta in La bohème and Despina in Così fan tutte with Sarasota Opera, and Fiorilla in Rossini’s Il turco in Italia with Opera Southwest. Angela starred in a premiere of The Book Collector, a one-act opera by composer Stella Sung and libretist Ernest Hilbert, performed as a prequel to a fully-staged Carmina burana featuring the Dayton Performing Arts Alliance. Angela was featured in the role of Anna and as the soprano soloist.
The soprano completed two other exciting world premiere productions in 2015: the role of Doris Parker, wife of Charlie Parker, in Opera Philadelphia’s Charlie Parker’s Yardbird and Jocie in Minnesota Opera’s production of The Manchurian Candidate.
Other performances of note include Gretel in Hänsel und Gretel with the Minnesota Opera, Violetta in La traviata for Opera North, Anna in Nabucco with Opera Philadelphia, Adele in Die Fledermaus with Sarasota Opera, and Jean Acker in Dominick Argento’s The Dream of Valentino with the Minnesota Opera. She sang the title role in Lucia di Lammermoor with Opera North and Dayton Opera where she was praised as “Her mad-scene was riveting – and heart-wrenching” (Times Argus), the title role of Thaïs for Florida Grand Opera, Galatea in Handel’s Acis and Galatea with Madison Opera, and Madeleine Audebert in Kevin Puts’ opera Silent Night, winner of the Pulitzer Prize in Music, with Opera Philadelphia.
Angela has appeared in concert singing as the soprano soloist in Carmina burana, Bach’s Magnificat, Beethoven’s Mass in C, Mahler Symphony No. 2, Mahler’s Symphony No. 4, Poulenc’s Gloria, Handel’s Messiah, James Whitborne’s Annaleise, Samuel Barber’s Knoxville Summer of 1915, and has presented programs of Rogers and Hammerstein and Bernstein with Sarasota Orchestra and Orlando Philharmonic. She has appeared in recital with the Artist Series of Sarasota, and as a soloist in gala events presented by Opera Orlando and the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra.
While a resident artist with the Minnesota Opera, Ms. Mortellaro sang numerous leading and secondary roles. She sang a “saucy, hammy” and “foxy” Despina in Così fan tutte, garnering high praise for her portrayal as the sisters’ maid. While there she also performed Madeleine Audebert and covered Anna Sörensen in the company’s world premiere of Kevin Puts’ Silent Night. She sang Sophie in Werther for Minnesota Opera’s first ever web broadcast, portraying her character with a “welcoming lightness and physicality.” Her debut as Lucia in Lucia di Lammermoor proved to be the highlight of her experience as a resident artist with the company. Additionally, Ms. Mortellaro performed as Amore in Orfeo ed Eurydice alongside countertenor David Daniels and the renowned Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, under the baton of Harry Bicket while in Minnesota.
Among her first professional opera experiences, Ms. Mortellaro performed Gretel in Hänsel und Gretel for both the Sarasota Opera and Opera Maine, and again enjoyed high marks for her performances. She currently resides in Chicago, Illinois.
