Marjorie Owens
Vocalists
— Soprano
-
Manager: Michael Benchetrit
Management Territory: Worldwide
"First among equals, as Leonora, is soprano Marjorie Owens, a Virginia native and Baylor graduate who is clearly headed toward operatic superstardom. Owens owns a particularly spectacular upper range. She has volume to spare, and, apparently, the lungs of a pearl diver, enabling her to sustain high notes that are not only intense but beautiful. Although Leonora is not a role one associates with subtlety and finesse, Owens, drawing on a fine sense of musicality, created a constantly engaging rendition of an impetuous, love-stricken, and ultimately brave young woman. She is the sort of singer whose voice and presence on the stage enlivens an entire performance." —Wayne Lee Gay, D Magazine, May 23, 2011
“Soprano Marjorie Owens gave a marvelous performance as the Prima Donna/Ariadne, building upon the Prima Donna's arrogance from the prologue in a way that few singers do to add just a touch of self-dramatization to Ariadne's sorrow in the opera proper. Noble and affecting as the abandoned princess, she gave a luminous reading of ‘Ein Schönes war, hieß Theseus-Ariadne’ (How beauteous once were Theseus and Ariadne) that captured the hollow devastation of a betrayed and broken heart.” —Kalen Ratzlaff, Opera News, June 2010
About
A member of the Ensemble 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 young dramatic sopranos to have recently come to the public’s attention.
This season, Marjorie Owens returns to the Dresden Semperoper to make her debut as Senta in a new production of Der Fliegende Holländer and will continue to perform Italian roles such as Elisabetta in Don Carlo, Cio-Cio-San in Madama Butterfly, . . . Mimi in La Bohème and Amelia in Un Ballo in Maschera. She will return to the Fort Worth Opera for one of her signature roles, the title role in Strauss’ Ariadne auf Naxos. Her extensive repertoire in Dresden also includes Elsa von Brabant in Lohengrin, Leonora in Il Trovatore, Dorotka in Joramir Weinberger’s Švanda Dudák (new production), the Foreign Princess in Rusalka (new production), Elisabeth in Tannhäuser, Countess Almaviva in Le Nozze di Figaro, First Lady in Die Zauberflöte and Donna Anna in Don Giovanni.
Recent performances in the United States include Donna Anna in Don Giovanni with Des Moines Metro Opera and Leonora in Il Trovatore with the Fort Worth Opera.
Prior to that Ms. Owens was heard as the title role in Ariadne auf Naxos at the Boston Lyric Opera and covered the title role in Aida at the Metropolitan Opera before making her debut as Gerhilde in Die Walküre with the Opéra National de Paris. In concert she also sang a recital for the George London Foundation in New York City, a concert of music by East German composers with the American Symphony Orchestra at Avery Fisher Hall and a recital of music by Weber at Bard College.
Marjorie Owens was a member of the Lyric Opera of Chicago’s Ryan Opera Center for two seasons. After receiving her Bachelors of Music from Baylor University, she was accepted into the Houston Grand Opera Young Artist Studio where she studied for four seasons. During her time there Ms. Owens sang Countess Almaviva in student matinees of Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro with HGO. She was also seen on the main stage in La Traviata, Jenufa, Lucia di Lammermoor, Il Trovatore, and Mark Adamo’s Lysistrata. In her first year with the Lyric Opera of Chicago, she covered Liù in Turandot and Madame Lidoine in Dialogues des Carmelites and in her second year she sang Annina in La Traviata, covered Alice in Falstaff and Tatyana in Eugene Onegin, apart from singing scenes from Barber’s Antony and Cleopatra with the Waukesha Symphony. In the summer of 2008 Ms. Owens sang the roles of Giulietta in Verdi’s Un Giorno di Regno and Ariadne in Ariadne auf Naxos at Wolf Trap, both to great critical and public acclaim. She also performed the Soprano solo in Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with the National Symphony and Emil de Cou.
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.
Updated September 2012
