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Young American mezzo-soprano Michelle Rice brings to her work a rich lyric mezzo voice and notable performance intensity.
Her portrayal of Mrs. Grose in Britten's The Turn of the Screw at the Kennedy Center, conducted by Maestro Lorin Maazel, was described as “nuanced and sensitive” (Washington Post), “dramatically charged and vocally superlative” (dcist.com), and having a “firm, warm vocalism [that] made every phrase speak” (Baltimore Sun).
On the opera stage, her performances include the roles of
Lola in Cavalleria Rusticana, Suzuki in Madama Butterfly, Berta in Il Barbiere di Siviglia, and Zweite Dame in Die Zauberflöte with Annapolis Opera;
Mercedes in Carmen with the Summer Opera Theatre Company;
Gertrude in Cleveland Opera's Roméo et Juliette;
Mrs. Grose in The Turn of the Screw, Flora in La Traviata, and Mrs. Segstrom in A Little Night Music with Opera Cleveland;
Anna in the American premiere of Jonathan Dove's Tobias and the Angel, Mrs. Grose in The Turn of the Screw, and Irene in Tamburlaine with Opera Vivente;
Savitri in Holst's Savitri with the In Series;
the Witch and the Mother in Hänsel and Gretel and the Gypsy in Rachmaninoff's Aleko with Bel Cantanti Opera;
Carmen in the Olney Theatre Center's production of Peter Brook's adaptation, Le tragédie de Carmen;
and the opera pastiche Fatal Song, or The Great Opera Murders with the Opera Theatre of Northern Virginia.
Ms. Rice's concert performances include the mezzo solo in a lauded performance of the Verdi Requiem with James Morris, Sharon Sweet, and Benjamin Warschawski,
about which the Washington Post remarked, "Rice [sang] credibly and fervently, in true Verdian style, as though she'd just stepped out of 'Aida.'"
She sang the role of Carmen in Carmen, the role of Albina in Rossini's La donna del lago, Mahler's Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen, the alto solos in Mozart's Coronation Mass, Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, and Vivaldi's Gloria, and several recitals,
with groups including MidAmerica Productions at Carnegie Hall, the Washington Concert Opera, the Janiec Opera Company, Ovation Artists, Masterworks Chorale and Orchestra, the Cathedral of St. Matthew, Friends of the Arts, Annapolis Opera, the University of Maryland and University of Washington Symphonies, the Seattle Early Music Guild, and the Seattle Symphony Summer Sings program.
She has also performed in works such as the In Series' Of Love and War, featuring spoken word, and Noel & Cole: Songs of Noel Coward and Cole Porter with the UM Cabaret Today series.
Ms. Rice created the title role in Clara, a new work by Robert Convery based on the life of Clara Schumann, commissioned for the Maryland Opera Studio.
Of that performance, culturevulture.net heralded Ms. Rice as a "standout performer", and the Washington Post declared, "Rice was…reflective and confident in both her singing and acting…excelled at dramatic subtleties and pierced scenes with her presence and clarity of voice --
especially compelling during revelatory biographical moments."
Ms. Rice studied voice at the University of Washington (Bachelors of Music in Vocal Performance) and the University of Maryland (Masters of Music in Opera Performance with the Maryland Opera Studio), where she studied with Delores Ziegler and Leon Major.
Ms. Rice has been awarded prizes from the American Bach Society, the Annapolis Opera Vocal Competition, the Seattle Musical Art Society, the Mary Levine Scholarship Fund, the Bell T. Ritchie Awards, and the Classical Singer Convention.
