Dolora Zajick

Dolora Zajick has been acclaimed on the international scene as that rare voice type, a true dramatic Verdi mezzo-soprano typified by the composer's most famous and difficult mezzo-soprano roles, Azucena, Amneris and Eboli (in "Travatore", "Aida", and "Don Carlo" respectively). She has sung these parts with such companies as the Metropolitan Opera in New York, Chicago's Lyric Opera, the San Francisco Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Italy's La Scala, the Vienna State Opera, London's Covent Garden, Berlin's Staatsoper, Paris' Opera Bastille, the companies of Naples, Florence, Barcelona, Rome, Bilbao, Munich, Madrid, Hamburg and Bologna, the Salzburg and Orange Festivals and the mammoth Arena of Verona.

In addition to the above Verdi roles, to which she has added Ulrica in "Ballo in Maschera" and Lady Macbeth in "Macbeth", she has sung the Princess in Cilea's "Adriana Lecouvreur", Marfa in Moussorgsky's "Khovanshchina", Jezibaba in Dvorak's "Rusalka", Santuzza in Mascagni's "Cavalleria Rusticana", Adalgisa in Bellini's "Norma" and the title-roles of Tchaikovsky's "Joan of Arc", Donizetti's "Favorita", Saint Saens "Samson and Dalila", Bizet's "Djamileh" and Massenet's "Herodiade". Future parts include the title role in Gluck's "Iphigenie en Tauride" and Ortrud in "Lohengrin".

She has appeared in opera and in concert with some of the foremost conductors of today (in alphabetical order): Bruno, Bartoletti, James Conlon, Daniele Gatti, Valery Gergiev, James Levine, Lorin Maazel, Charles McKerras, Zubin Mehta, Riccardo Muti, Mitislav Rostropovich, Michael Tilson Thomas, to mention a few.

Among her recordings are "Aida", "Travatore' and "Don Carlo", all three with Levine (Sony); "La Forza del destino" and the Verdi Requiem with Muti (EMI); "Alexander Nevsky" with Rostropovich and "Herodiade" with Gergiev (Sony); "Rusalka" with Mackerras (Decca). Recently released was her first solo disc "Dolora Zajick: The Art of the Dramatic Mezzo-Soprano" (Telarc) on which she sings not only dramatic mezzo-soprano arias for which she is famous, but also Rossini mezzo coloratura and actual soprano arias. Charles Rosenkrantz conducts the London Royal Philharmonic. ON TV she has been seen in "Aida" and "Travatore", both from the Metropolitan Opera; in a number of Richard Tucker Galas (having been a winner herself early I her career); on several Pavarotti Plus Galas; in two anniversary Galas fro the Met stage, one commemorating the 25th anniversary o the Met at Lincoln Center and the other th 20th Met anniversary of Luciano Pavarotti. She has also been seen on a number of televised concerts of the Verdi Requiem, both her and abroad.

She has received rave review world-wide - -too many to mention here. However one story is particularly noteworthy, not only because it was written by an eminent critic, Anthony Tommasini, in the New York Times, but also because in it he quotes two of the greatest singers of the 20th century - Birgit Nilsson and Marilyn Horne. Under the headline "A Mezzo in a Class by herself" the article began with:

"Commenting on the current generation of opera singers the great Birgit Nilsson said that the voice of American mezzo-soprano Dolora Zajick was "the only one existing today without any competition in the world." And then Mr. Tommasini went on to say:" Since Ms. Nilsson made that statement a few years ago there has been a boomlet in mezzo-sopranos. Yet the essential truth remains in her estimation of Ms. Zajick. Most of the new mezzos are lighter-voiced lyric singers who excel in Mozart, Rossini and the bel canto repertory. Ms/ Zajick is a dramatic mezzo-soprano with a powerful voice and an enormous range, a much rarer type of vocalist. Her admirers include Marilyn Horne, the reigning mezzo-soprano of the previous generation, who knows the difference. "There are mezzos, and then there are mezzos" says Ms. Horne, "who are really light sopranos singing mezzo repertoire with maybe half the voice of the great mezzos of the past. Zajick, on the other hand, is a force of nature. And it's not just her amazing voice; it's what she can do with her voice because of her superb technique and dedication." The article goes on to analyze Zajick's voice and artistry in much greater detail, but in essence it reflects what the majority of critics all over the world have said about the phenomenon of that voice - an instrument which can ascend in full voice to the high F's of Mozart's Queen of the Night and which can also sing the most delicate pianissimo.

Oregon born but Nevada raised, Dolora Zajick studied voice with Ted Puffer, the conductor and former Artistic Director of the Nevada Opera (and who now teaches at the Manhattan School of Music in New York). She came to his attention when she joined the chorus of the Nevada Opera, while she was in pre-med at the University of Nevada. Switching to music, she eventually graduated from the University with both a Bachelor's and a Master's degree in music before going to New York for further music studies at the Manhattan School of Music. After winning the Bronze Medal at the 7th International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow and being accepted in the San Francisco Opera's Merola Program, she mad he big-time operatic debut with the San Francisco Opera as Azucena in "Il Travotore" which launched her to international stardom.

During the 2000/2001 season she sang almost exclusively the works of Verdi, since 2001 was the centenary year of his death, In demand in almost every major opera house, she accepted the new "Travatore" production at the Metropolitan, new "Aida" productions in Bilbao, Barcelona, Bologna, and at the Orange Festival, and "Don Carlo" productions in Vienna and Paris, the Verdi Requiem in Munich and Verdi Galas in London and San Sebastian. But let no one make the mistake of type-casting her as a Verdi singer to exclusion of other repertoires. As she demonstrated when she sand Adalgisa in the new production of "Norma" at the Metropolitan, she is a formidable exponent of Bel Canto, a fact which is known especially throughout the European music scene, ever since she triumphed both in Barcelona and Madrid in the title-role of Donizetti's "La Favorite" (the original French version).

Her dominance in the Verdi scene is, perhaps, best summed up by the reviews she received for the new "Travatore" at the Metropolitan: "Dolora Zajick's powerhouse voice and stage presence has never seemed more welcome. IT was as if she had decided that whatever else was going on around her, she was going to sing Verdi's music with all her soul and be Azucena" (New York Times) -"By rights, the opera should have been retitled "Las Madre del Travatore', since Doora Zajick as the troubadour's gypsy mother Azucena, hoisted much of the evening herself. A formidable actress with a big gripping mezzo soprano she egged the characters on to mutual assured destruction, sounding like the voice of age-old feuds" (New York Newsday). -"But the cheers went to Dolora Zajick, whose gritty intense Azucena obliterated everything else around her" (New York Post)

Highlights of the 2003-2004 season are among others, Azucena in "Il Travtore" at the Florence Opera, Opera Las Bastille in Paris and at the Los Angeles Opera; Aida's Amneris in Monte Carlo and Toulouse; Jezibaba in Rusalka" at the Metropolitan and Eboli of "Don Carlo" in Munich. Between opera performances she continues to concertise in the United States and abroad.

In her spare time Dolora Zajick paints, writes poetry and tends to the garden of her house in Reno, Nevada.