’OA likes to re−engage performers who have successfully adopted the company’s intense performance style... Now they can add Mireille Lebel to their roster. She commands the stage absolutely as the impetuous young man, Annio. She was trained in Toronto and Montreal, and has been singing in Erfurt, Germany. Repatriation, please!’
www.concertonet.com
Canadian mezzo−soprano Mireille Lebel grew up in Vancouver and studied music at the University of Toronto and the University of Montreal. Following her studies she was awarded major grants by the Canada Council and the Jacqueline Desmarais Foundation and furthered her artistic training as a member of the Atelier Lyrique de l’Opéra de Montréal. In 2009, she was a winner of the Jeunes Ambassadeurs Lyriques Competition that earned her an invitation to join the Ensemble of Theater Erfurt. Currently a member of the Ensemble, she is singing leading roles in the lyric mezzo fach. In addition to her work in Erfurt, she is making critically successful debuts with opera companies and orchestras in Europe and North America.
In 2012/2013, Mireille makes her début at the Schwetzingen Festival in a new production of Purcell's The Indian Queen conducted by Hervé Niquet. She will also sing a series of leading roles at Theater Erfurt which include her stage début as Carmen in a new production; her début as Sesto in Giulio Cesare in Egitto directed by Stephen Lawless, and Margaret in the world premiere of the opera Die Frauen der Toeten, composed by Alois Broeder, and based on a story by Nathaniel Hawthorne.
In 2011/2012 Mireille made role débuts as Sesto in concert performances of La Clemenza di Tito, Fenena in Nabucco, and Zweite Dame in Die Zauberfloete, as well as singing the title role in Haensel und Gretel for Theater Erfurt. She also sang in France as Idamante in Idomeneo for Opéra de Tours and as Dorilla in Scarlatti’s Il Tigrane for Opéra de Nice. She returned to the Edmonton Symphony for two programmes; Les nuits d’été conducted by Jean−Marie Zeitouni and Christmas pops with conductor Bob Bernhardt. Her season concluded with performances of Beethoven's Mass in c minor with Yannick Nezet-Séguin at the Lanaudière Music Festival. 2011 saw the release of the Boston Early Music Festival's recording of Venus and Adonis with Mireille in the role of Cupid.
In the 2010/2011 season, she made two important Mozart role débuts as Annio in La Clemenza di Tito with Toronto’s Opera Atelier and Idamante in Idomeneo with Theater Erfurt. She also made her début with the New Jersey Symphony in Mahler’s 3rd Symphony conducted by Jacques Lacombe. Other projects included Bach Cantatas with Les Violons du Roy broadcast on CBC radio 2, Orlovsky in Die Fledermaus with Theater Erfurt, and Mahler’s 3rd Symphony with l’Orchestre Symphonique de Trois−Rivières.
In 2009/2010 she became a member of the ensemble at Theater Erfurt. Her roles with the company included Cherubino in Le Nozze di Figaro, the title role in L’Enfant et les Sorilèges and Ottone in Handel's Agrippina. She returned to Montreal to sing the role of Dorothée in the Doucet−Barbe production of Cendrillon for Opéra de Montréal and sang Brahms' Zwei Gesange Op.91 with pianist Francis Perron and violist Marcus Thompson at the Montreal Chamber Music Festival. She made débuts with the Malaysian Philharmonic in the title role in Carmen (in concert) conducted by Bernard Labadie and with the Calgary Symphony in Handel’s Messiah conducted by Ivars Taurins.
Her 2008/2009 season saw a busy mix of opera and concert work including Mahler’s 2nd Symphony with Jacques Lacombe and l’Orchèstre Symphonique de Trois−Rivières, a program of Vivaldi and Handel arias at TelAviv’s Blumental Festival with Jeanne Lamon and Les Violons du Roy, Haydn’s Stabat Mater with Bernard Labadie (broadcast on Espace Musique), Cupid in Venus and Adonis with the Boston Early Music Festival, The Messiah with Jean−Marie Zeitouni and the San Antonio and Houston Symphonies, Dorabella in Cosi fan Tutte with l’Atelier Lyrique de l’Opéra de Montréal, Myrtale in Massenet’s Thais with Pacific Opera Victoria, the role of Messagiera in Monteverdi’s Orfeo, and the world premiere of a chamber work written for her by Canadian Michael Matthews, broadcast by the CBC.
In the 2007/2008 season she made important debuts with the André Turp Musical Society (Schubert recital) the Edmonton and Houston Symphony Orchestras(both for The Messiah) the Edmonton Opera (Carmen) and with Bernard Labadie and Les Violons du Roy in a Schubertiade recorded for broadcast on Radio Canada’s Espace Musique. As a member of the Atelier Lyrique de l’Opéra de Montréal from 2006−2009 she performed various roles with the company including Flora in La Traviata, Mallika in Lakmé (broadcast on National Public Radio), and Kate Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly. With the Atelier lyrique she has appeared as Concepcion in l’Heure Espagnole and Lisetta in Il Mondo della Luna.
She can be heard on disc with the Boston Early Music Festival as Junon in Actéon and on their recordings of Lully’s operas Thésée and Psyché, both nominated for a Grammy Award. In the field of contemporary music, she toured Wales and England (including appearances at the Buxton Festival) in Welsh−Canadian composer John Metcalf`s comic opera A Chair in Love, and she made her Linbury Theatre, Royal Opera House debut in Canadian Ana Sokolovic’s opera, The Midnight Court, with Toronto’s Queen of Puddings Music Theatre.
December 2012
