Mary Plazas

Mary Plazas made her operatic debut in 1992 with English National Opera as the Heavenly Voice Don Carlos, and was a former company principal. Roles have included Mimì (ENO/Opera North/Bregenz Festival/West Australian Opera/Royal Albert Hall), Anne Trulove (Bayerisches Staatsoper/New Israeli Opera/Opera Factory), Donna Elvira (ENO/Glyndebourne on Tour/Valladolid), Nedda I Pagliacci, Cio-Cio-San, Fiordiligi, Dorabella, Leila, Adina, Nannetta, Micaëla, Marzelline Fidelio, Lauretta, Oscar and the title role in The Cunning Little Vixen (ENO), Juanita in Weill's Kuhhandel, Salud La Vida Breve, Susanna Le Nozze di Figaro and Elisetta Il matrimonio segreto (Opera North), Heavenly Voice (Royal Opera at the BBC Proms), Angelic Voice Palestrina (Royal Opera in London and New York), Duchess Powder Her Face (Almeida/Aldeburgh/Channel 4/LSO at the Barbican), Mum Greek (London Sinfonietta at the Barbican),

 
Mrs Coyle Owen Wingrave (Concertgebouw), Alexina Le Roi Malgré Lui (Grange Park Opera) and Elisabetta Roberto Devereux and title role Lucrezia Borgia (Buxton). She created two roles in operas by Jonathan Dove, Tina Flight (Glyndebourne) and Blue Fairy Pinocchio (Opera North) and she sung Karin in the world premiere of Gerald Barry's The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant (National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland/Dublin), also recorded. She recently made her debut in France singing the title role in Peter Ëotvös's Lady Sarashina (Opéra Comique). Other recordings include Mercadante's Emma d'Antiocchia for Opera Rara's 100 years of Italian Opera, Pacini's Maria Regina d'Inghilterra with the Philharmonia under David Parry also for Opera Rara, and L'Enfant et les Sortilèges with the London Symphony Orchestra under André Previn for Deutsche Grammophon.

 

 
For Chandos Records she has recorded Marguerite Faust, Adina, Zerlina, Liu Turandot and Micaëla. Mary Plazas has given many recitals and concerts including solo recitals at the Wigmore Hall, Purcell Room, and the Karajan Centre in Vienna. She has also performed at the Aldeburgh, Bath, Brighton, Cheltenham, Chester and Brighton Festivals. Concert engagements include Mahler's Symphony No 8 (RPO/Sinopoli), Mozart Requiem (Hallé/Skrowacewski), Brahms' German Requiem (CBSO/Oramo), Shostakovich Symphony No 14 (Irish Chamber Orchestra/Maksymiuk), Schumann's Paradies und die Peri (OAE/Elder), Canteloube's Songs of the Auvergne (Hallé/Elder), Beethoven's Symphony No 9 (BBC NOW/Daniel), Saint-Saens' The Promised Land (BBC NOW/Hickox), Bach's Magnificat (BBC Philharmonic/Noseda) Janacek's Glagolitic Mass (Philharmonia/Fischer) and Britten's Les Illuminations (Britten Sinfonia/Poppen).

 

She sung in the first performance in St Petersburg of Tippett's A Child of Our Time. Mary Plazas studied at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, where she was awarded the Curtis Gold Medal, and at the National Opera Studio. She won the 1991 Kathleen Ferrier Memorial Scholarship and the NFMS/Esso Award for Young Singers, and has received support from the Peter Moores Foundation.

 

REVIEWS

"Elizabeth was nothing if not a self-styled diva, and Mary Plazas's scintillating coloratura becomes an explosive expression of the queen's histronics..the outstanding Plazas is supported by a strong cast." (Roberto Devereux/Buxton) The Guardian 2007
".there's a truly great central performance from Mary Plazas as Mimì, gloriously voiced and suggesting a woman clinging to the pleasures of life in the face of death." (La Boheme/RAH)
Tim Ashley in The Guardian February 28, 2004

 

"..and it is a measure of Mary Plazas' touching performance in the title role that she too makes the puppet real for us.she is a musician through and through and her wealth of experience brings much that is personal and touching, not least the way cadences melt away, now hopeful, now hopeless."
Edward Seckerson, The Independent, November 2005
".Mary Plazas, sensational in all respects as Salud."
Michael Tanner, The Spectator, April 24, 2004
".Mary Plazas took the house by storm as Salud, singing with rapturous tone."
Michael Kennedy, The Sunday Telegraph, April 25, 2004