Cecelia Hall

Hailed by the Financial Times for her “easy flexibility, arresting poise and enveloping warmth,” Cecelia Hall has appeared since 2014 in leading roles at many of the world’s finest stages, including Munich’s Bayerische Staatsoper, The Santa Fe Opera, Seattle Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Canadian Opera Company, Opera Philadelphia, and Oper Frankfurt, where she is a member of the ensemble.

Cecelia Hall returns to Oper Frankfurt for the 2019-2020 season in several important debut roles: Idamante in Idomeneo, Irene in R.B. Schlather’s new production of Tamerlano, and Octavian in Der Rosenkavalier. In the 2018-19 season at Oper Frankfurt, Ms. Hall debuted Hänsel in Hänsel und Gretel and Marguerite in La Damnation de Faust, appeared in a Liederabend with Hilko Dumno, and sang Cherubino in Le Nozze di Figaro. In concert, Ms. Hall performed Les Nuits d’Eté with the Bay Atlantic Symphony and Trouble in Tahiti with the Lexington Philharmonic.

Ms. Hall began the 2017-18 season with a return to Opera Philadelphia, where she starred in War Stories (a double bill of Monteverdi’s Il combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda and Beecher’s I Have No Stories To Tell You) as part of the Festival 017, for which she was featured on the cover of Opera News in August 2017. She then returned to Oper Frankfurt to debut the title role of Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas and the leading lady in the world’s first staging of Zelenka’s Il Serpente di Bronzo. Ms. Hall’s other roles in Frankfurt included Dorabella in Così fan tutte and Vlasta in Die Passagierin.

Ms. Hall joined the ensemble at Oper Frankfurt in 2016-17 and was featured as Fulvia in Gluck’s Ezio, Zerlina in Don Giovanni, and Zweite Dame in Die Zauberflöte. She also made her Russian debut singing Komponist in Ariadne auf Naxos with Maestro Vladimir Jurowski and the Moscow Philharmonic Society, followed by a return to the USA to sing Cherubino in Le Nozze di Figaro with Opera Philadelphia and Sesto in La Clemenza di Tito with Opera Theatre of Saint Louis.

Ms. Hall’s 2015-16 season included performances of Dorabella in Così Fan Tutte with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, followed by recitals with the Metropolitan Opera Rising Stars Concert Series, Zerlina in Don Giovanni with NYC’s Venture Opera, and her role debut as Ruby Thewes in the east coast premiere of Jennifer Higdon’s Cold Mountain with Opera Philadelphia. Ms. Hall also returned to North Carolina Opera to sing Rosina in Il Barbiere di Siviglia and to Opera Theatre of Saint Louis to sing the Composer in Ariadne on Naxos. Her season concluded with performances of Geisha/Dhia in Mascagni’s Iris with Bard Summerscape and with her Mostly Mozart debut as the mezzo soloist in Mozart’s Mass in C minor and Requiem with Maestro Louis Langrée.

The 2014-15 season included Ms. Hall’s return to the Metropolitan Opera as Javotte in Manon, a debut at the Canadian Opera Company as Rosina in Il Barbiere di Siviglia and at the Bayerische Staatsoper as Cherubino in Le Nozze di Figaro, and a return to the Seattle Opera as Zerlina in Don Giovanni. Other highlights included a return to Carnegie Hall for the 2015 Marilyn Horne Song Celebration, a Metropolitan Opera-sponsored Mozart recital at the NJPAC and her debut at the Santa Fe Opera as Don Ramiro in La Finta Giardiniera.

In 2013-14, Ms. Hall debuted as Dorabella in Così Fan Tutte with North Carolina Opera and Zerlina in Don Giovanni with Opera Philadelphia, sang a Spotlight Recital with The Song Continues at Carnegie Hall, and returned to Lyric Opera of Chicago to sing Annio in La Clemenza di Tito. In concert, Ms. Hall appeared as the Page in Salome with the Philadelphia Orchestra. Over the summer, she made her Aix-en-Provence Festival debut as Zaida in Rossini’s Il Turco in Italia. She then sang a concert of Baroque Masterworks with La Jolla Music Society’s SummerFest, and finished the summer with the Bard Music Festival as Florinda in Schubert’s Fierrabras.

An alumna of the Metropolitan Opera’s Lindemann Young Artist Development Program and the Lyric Opera of Chicago’s Ryan Opera Center, Ms. Hall appeared at the Lyric Opera as Third Maid in Elektra, Alisa in Lucia di Lammermoor, and Second Lady in Die Zauberflöte, among other roles. She recently made debuts with the Seattle Opera as Wellgunde and Rossweisse in their 2013 Ring des Nibelungen and with the Fort Worth Opera as the Komponist in Ariadne auf Naxos (a role she previously sang with the Palau de les Arts in Valencia, Spain and at the Tanglewood Music Festival).

Ms. Hall received much critical acclaim for her performance in the title-role of Handel’s Teseo at Chicago Opera Theater, and she has also debuted at the Metropolitan Opera as the Second Priestess in Iphigénie en Tauride. At the Castleton Festival, she has appeared as Rosina in Il Barbiere di Siviglia and L’Enfant in Ravel’s L’Enfant et les Sortilèges. At Juilliard Opera she was featured as Concepción in L’Heure Espagnole, Nerone in L’Incoronazione di Poppea, Cherubino in Le Nozze di Figaro, and in the title role of Ariodante.

A noted recitalist, Cecelia Hall has appeared several times at Carnegie Hall, both with the Horne Foundation and with Carnegie’s Ensemble ACJW. As a Samling Artist, she sang in recital at Wigmore Hall. An alumna of The Juilliard School and DePaul University, Ms. Hall is a recipient of a 2011 Sara Tucker Study Grant, a 2012 Brian Dickie Outstanding Young Singer Award, the 2013 Lynne Harvey Foundation Scholarship from the Musician’s Club of Women, and Third Prize from the 2013 Gerda Lissner Foundation.