
Greek
mezzo-soprano Mary-Ellen Nesi has received
the highest critical acclaim for her
performances in opera, concert and recital.
She has appeared in many
major operatic roles such as the title roles in
Handel’s Serse, Oreste, Rodrigo and Faramondo, Ruggiero
in Alcina,
Andronico in
Tamerlano, Megacle in the first
world revival of Paisiello’s
L’Olimpiade,
Orfeo
in Orfeo ed Euridice,
Adalgisa in Norma, Rosina in Il Barbiere di
Siviglia,
Giovanna Seymour in Anna Bolena, Ottavia in
L'Incoronazione
di Poppea,
Penelope in Il Ritorno d’Ulisse
in Patria, Antiope in the first world revival of
Vivaldi’s Ercole su’l Termodonte (in
Spoleto Festival 2006 under Alan Curtis), Anastasio in
Vivaldi’s Giustino, Mitrena in Vivaldi’s
Motezuma, Octavian in Der Rosenkavalier,
Dorabella in Cosi Fan Tutte, Cherubino in Le
Nozze di Figaro, Ramiro in La Finta
Giardiniera, Hansel in Hansel und Gretel,
Bradamante in Orlando Furioso, Teresa in La
Sonnambula, Lola in Cavalleria Rusticana,
Maddalena in Rigoletto,Tebaldo in Don Carlos and principal roles in
operas by contemporary Greek composers such as Helen of
Sparta, in The Return of Helen by Thanos
Mikroutsikos, Night in Manuel Salinas by Periklis
Koukos and others.
Mary-Ellen Nesi has appeared at major
international venues such as the Carnegie
Hall, the Avery Fisher Hall (NY),
the Places des Arts (Montreal),
the
Bayerische Staatsoper (Munich), the
Théâtre de Champs-Elysées (Paris),
the Concertgebouw (Amsterdam), the Teater an der Wien (Vienna), the
Arriaga (Bilbao), the Sao Carlos
Opera (Lisbon), the Comunale of
Florence, Ferrara and Modena,
the
Municipale of Piacenza, the
Baden-Baden Festspielhaus, the Frauenkirche
(Dresden), the Tonhalle (Duesseldorf),
the
Monumental (Madrid), the Caio
Melisso (Spoleto), the
Wiesbaden Opera House, the
Teatro de la Maestranza (Seville), the
Teatro Olimpico (Rome) and
festivals such as the Spoleto Festival, the Göttingen and the Halle Händel
Festspielen, the Semana de la Musica
Religiosa di Cuenca, the Santiago de Compostela
Festival, the Athens Festival and she is
a regular guest at the Greek National
Opera, the Megaron of Athens, the
Megaron of Thessaloniki, the Opera
of Thessaloniki.
As a soloist, she has performed with the
Montreal Symphony Orchestra under Charles
Dutoit, the RTV Orchestra of Spain under
M.Gomez-Martinez, the Complesso Barocco under Alan Curtis, the
Bayerische Staatsorchester under Ivor
Bolton, the Venice Baroque Orchestra under
Andrea Marcon, the Washington Bach Consort
under J. Reilly Lewis, the
Barocchisti under Diego Fasolis, the Al Ayre Espanol under E.López-Banzo, the Camerata Stuttgart, the Orchestra of Patras,
the Athens and Thessaloniki State
orchestras, the Camerata-Friends of Music
Orchestra, the Greek Radio Orchestra, the
Orchestra of Colors, and the orchestras of
the City of Athens and the City of
Thessaloniki.
Her recordings of Handel’s
operas Oreste (as Oreste), Arianna in Creta (as Teseo) and
Tamerlano (as Andronico) under George Petrou (by MDG,
Germany) were received with the highest
praise from the international press.
She
performs Antiope in the DVD of Ercole su'l
Termodonte, Polinesso in the DVD of
Ariodante and Mitrena in the DVD of
Motezuma,
under Alan Curtis (Dynamic). She has also
recorded D. Scarlatti's Tolomeo (as Dorisbe)
(Deutsche
Grammophon),
Handel's Berenice (as Arsace)
(Virgin),
and recently a solo CD Salve Regina
(Deutsche Harmonia Mundi), under Alan Curtis
and also Handel's Giulio
Cesare (as Sesto) (by MDG), under George
Petrou.
Mary-Ellen Nesi has given many recitals and
baroque music concerts and has premiered
works by contemporary Greek composers at
home and abroad.
Ιn 2003 she founded the Opera Festival of
Ancient Corinth, which stages operas
inspired by ancient Greece in the
archeological site of Ancient Corinth.
Born in Montreal, Canada, of Greek parents,
Mary-Ellen Nesi studied in Athens under Misa
Ikeutsi, graduating with distinction in
1994. She also studied at the Mayer-Lismann
Opera Center in London and took voice
lessons from Ernst Haefliger in Zurich,
Arrigo Pola in Modena, Frangiskos Voutsinos
and Kostas Paskalis in Athens. |