MARJORIE OWENS
PC: Simon Pauly
“Soprano Marjorie Owens could project over the huge ensembles but also sing with delicate pianissimo at crucial points for the role (“Numi, pietà” and “O patria mia”). In those exquisite moments of Verdi soprano suffering, as the libretto puts it, Owens’s pain was indeed sacred (“il suo dolor mi è sacro,” as Amneris puts it), something meant for delectation.”
Aida at Wolf Trap; Charles T. Downey,
Ionarts, July 27, 2015
A former member of the Sächsische Staatsoper in Dresden and a Grand Finals Winner of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, soprano Marjorie Owens is receiving a great deal of acclaim as one of the most exciting dramatic sopranos to have recently come to the public’s attention.
This season Marjorie Owens makes debuts with the Dallas Opera as the title-role in Elektra, with the Pittsburgh Opera as Senta in Der fliegende Holländer and with the Washington Opera as the title-role in Turandot. Future projects include a debut with Theater Erfurt in a leading role.
Last season marked Ms. Owens’ return to the Canadian Opera Company in one of her signature roles, Senta in Der fliegende Holländer, a role she also sang for the Vancouver Opera.
In recent seasons, Ms. Owens made her Canadian Opera Company and role debuts as the title-role in Turandot; she also made her Boston Youth Symphony Orchestra debut as Aida. Last season she also appeared in a concert with Pittsburgh Concert Opera.
Previously, Marjorie Owens returned to the Metropolitan Opera’s roster for a variety of roles and made her debut with the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino and Fabio Luisi in her signature-role of Senta in Der fliegende Holländer. She was also heard with the Greek National Opera and Utah Opera as the title-role in Norma. Finally, Ms. Owens appeared in recital with her alma mater, Baylor University.
Prior to that, Ms. Owens made her Hong Kong debut in the title role of Aida with Opera Hong Kong, returned to Dresden as Senta in Der fliegende Holländer and to the roster of the Metropolitan Opera. She was heard in recital with the George London Foundation with baritone Quinn Kelsey.
In the 2016-2017 season, Marjorie Owens returned to the Semperoper Dresden as Dorotka in Schwanda, to the Washington Concert Opera for the title-role in Beethoven’s Leonore, and to the roster of the Metropolitan Opera. In concert, she was heard as Senta in Der fliegende Holländer with the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra and David Robertson.
Ms. Owens’s 2015-2016 season included her role and company debut in the title-role of Norma at the English National Opera, her company debut with Opera Theatre of St Louis in the title-role of Ariadne on Naxos, her return to the Semperoper as Senta in Der fliegende Holländer, a production she premiered in that theater, and a return to the Metropolitan Opera’s roster.
Ms. Owens has won many awards and competitions; including being a Grand Finals winner of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, Top Prize in the 2010 Gerda Lissner Foundation Competition, the 2009 Leonie Rysanek award from the George London Foundation, Second Place in the 2009 Licia Albanese Puccini Foundation, a William Matheus Sullivan Grant, First Place in the Ft. Worth Marguerite McCammon Competition, First Place and the Audience Choice award in the Dallas Opera Guild Career Development Grant for Singers Competition, and Second Place in the McCollum Competition. Ms. Owens attended the Aspen Opera Theater Center in the summer of 2003, where she sang scenes from Tosca with David Zinman, and again in 2004 where she performed Ms. Jessel in The Turn of the Screw with Richard Bado. She also performed Viktor Ullmann’s Sechs Lieder with James Conlon and the Aspen Chamber Orchestra and then again with the Maestro and the Cincinnati Linton Chamber Orchestra. In the summer of 2005 at Wolf Trap, Ms. Owens sang Donna Anna in Don Giovanni with Ari Pelto. In past summers, she sang Fiordiligi in a concert version of Cosi fan tutte with the Lyric Opera Center for American Artists and Mimi in La Bohème with the Northwest Indiana Symphony.
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