BIOGRAPHY
American soprano Cyndia Sieden moves easily among the Baroque, classical, romantic and contemporary repertoires to worldwide acclaim. In addition, her performances and recordings of his works affirm her status as one of the sovereign Mozart interpreters of the present day.
Highlights of 2011 included performances in Morton Feldman's monodrama Neither for New York City Opera, Ariadne in Wolfgang Rihm's Dionysos at the Netherlands Opera and Soprano I in Luigi Nono's Prometeo at the Salzburg and Berlin Festivals. In contrast to these knotty modern works, she returned to Blondchen in Mozart's Abduction with Frans Brüggen and the Orchestra of the 18th Century at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, and on tour throughout Holland.
Sieden has starred at most of the world's great opera houses, including the Munich Bayerische Staatsoper, the New York Met, Paris's Opéra Bastille, the Wiener Staatsoper, Barcelona's Gran Teatre de Liceu, Brussels's La Monnaie, and London's Covent Garden and English National, as well as in Beijing and Australia. Her highly-praised Metropolitan Opera debut was as Berg's Lulu, and her success quickly led to reengagement in 2008 for Die Zauberflöte's Queen of the Night, one of her signature roles.
She is a brilliantly idiomatic interpreter of the works of Richard Strauss. She frequently performs Zerbinetta in Ariadne auf Naxos (Munich, Japan, Vienna), as well as Sophie in Der Rosenkavalier (Paris Châtelet) and Aminta in Die schweigsame Frau (Palermo and Munich).
Her performances in the high-flying role of Ariel in the premiere of Thomas Adès's The Tempest at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, ignited rave reviews and an astonished public. She has garnered equal enthusiasm and devotion for her Queen of the Night in Mozart's Die Zauberflöte and Blondchen in Die Entführung aus dem Serail, all over the world. Other specialties are Cunegonde in Leonard Bernstein's Candide, and the operas of Handel.
Sieden is much in demand for Orff's Carmina Burana, the oratorios and masses of Handel, Mozart, and Haydn, and works of Bach, Strauss and Mahler. She has sung with many of the most renowned symphony orchestras in the world, including the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Atlanta Symphony, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the London Symphony Orchestra, and at New York's Mostly Mozart Festival. In addition, her Lieder recitals are always highly-anticipated events.
Cyndia Sieden was born in California, USA, and received her first vocal instruction there. The significant milestone in her studies was work with Elisabeth Schwarzkopf in master classes in Carmel Valley, CA in 1982. Schwarzkopf then invited Sieden to become her private student, and also to work with her in master classes at the 1983 Salzburg Mozarteum. Sieden sang in the culminating concert/competition and won first place, the springboard for her first professional engagements.
In 1984, Cyndia Sieden made her European debut in Il Barbiere at the Bavarian State Opera; her American debut also took place in 1984, in La Fille du Regiment, in Tampa, Florida.
Click here to download a high res version of Cyndia Sieden's head shot.
Photo used by permission of Erica Keeling Photography
REPERTOIRE
COMPOSER |
ROLE |
WORK |
COMPANY / VENUE |
ADES |
Ariel |
The Tempest |
Royal Opera House; Oper Frankfurt; Santa Fe Opera; Copenhagen Opera House; Strasbourg Opera; Zaterdag Matinee - Radio Philharmonic Orchestra |
BACH |
soprano soloist |
Jauchzet Gott in allen Landen (BWV 51) |
Hollywood Bowl; Los Angeles Philharmonic; Milwaukee Symphony |
BACH |
soprano soloist |
St. Matthew Passion |
Concertgebouw Orchestra |
BELLINI |
Lisa |
La Sonnambula |
Washington Opera |
BERG |
Lulu |
Lulu |
Metropolitan Opera |
BERNSTEIN |
Cunegonde |
Arias from Candide |
Tribute to Leonard Bernstein, Alice Tully Hall |
BERNSTEIN |
Cunegonde |
Candide |
New York City Opera; London Philharmonic Orchestra - Barbican (concert performance) |
BRITTEN |
soprano soloist |
Les Illuminations |
Santa Fe Pro Musica |
CHIN |
Cheshire Cat |
Alice in Wonderland |
Geneva Opera |
DONIZETTI |
Marie |
La Fille du Regiment |
|
DONIZETTI |
Lucia |
Lucia di Lammermoor |
Seattle Opera |
FAURÉ |
soprano soloist |
Requiem |
Santa Rosa Symphony |
FELDMAN |
soprano soloist |
Neither |
New York City Opera |
GLIÈRE |
soprano soloist |
Concerto for Voice |
Napa Valley Orchestra |
HANDEL |
Morgana |
Alcina |
Opera de Lyon; Göttingen Handel Festival |
HANDEL |
Almirena |
Rinaldo |
Göttingen Handel Festival |
HANDEL |
soprano soloist |
The Messiah |
Handel & Haydn Society; Seattle Symphony; Seattle Baroque |
HANDEL |
Partenope |
Partenope |
New York City Opera |
HANDEL |
Rodelinda |
Rodelinda |
Halle Handel Festival |
HANDEL |
soprano soloist |
Arias written for Francesca Cuzzoni |
Tragicomedia - Concertgebouw; Pacific Operaworks |
HANDEL |
soprano soloist |
Arias |
Australian Braandenberg; Orchestra, Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra |
HAYDN |
soprano soloist |
The Creation |
Mostly Mozart Festival; Zürich Tonhalle; Gulbenkian Orchestra |
MONTEVERDI |
Minerva/Amore |
Il ritorno d'Ulisse in Patria |
Pacific Music Works; tour |
MOZART |
Blonde |
Abduction from the Seraglio |
Orchestra of the 18th Century; tour; Théâtre du Châtelet; Lisbon Opera; Boston Lyric Opera; Phoenix Symphony; Vancouver Symphony Orchestra |
MOZART |
soprano soloist |
C Minor Mass |
Salzburg Summer Festival; Salzburg Easter Festival; Concergebouw Orchestra; Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra; Cleveland Symphony; Pamplona, Spain; Orvieto Festival. |
MOZART |
soprano soloist |
Exultate, Jubilate |
Apollo's Fire - The Cleveland Baroque Orchestra |
MOZART |
Serpetta |
La finta giardiniera |
Welsh National Opera |
MOZART |
Cinna |
Lucio Silla |
The Netherlands Opera |
MOZART |
Aspasia |
Mitridate |
Salzburg Festival |
MOZART |
soprano soloist |
Ombra felice (K.255) |
Salzburg Festival (staged concert arias) |
MOZART |
Elisa |
Il Re Pastore |
The Netherlands Opera |
MOZART |
Aminta |
Il Re Pastore |
Théâtre des Champs Elysées |
MOZART |
soprano soloist |
Requiem |
Indianapolis Symphony; St. Martin in the Fields; Concertgebouw Orchestra |
MOZART |
Queen of the Night |
Die Zauberflöte |
Metropolitan Opera; English National Opera; Opéra Bastille; Barcelona Opera; Greater Miami Opera; Seattle Opera; Antwerp Opera; Gent Opera; Vienna Volksoper; Bayerische Staatsoper; Macao Music Festival; Beijing Music Festival; Santa Fe Opera; Metropolitan Opera |
MOZART |
Queen of the Night |
Concert Arias for Aloysia Weber and her sisters |
St. Paul Chamber Symphony; Orchestra of the 18th Century; Australian Brandenburg Orchestra; Aspen Music Festival; Mozart Now! Festival of London; Mostly Mozart Festival; Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra; Santa Fe Pro Musica; Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment; Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg; Malaysian Orchestra; Newcastle Philharmonic; Aspen Chamber Symphony; St. Paul Chamber Symphony |
NONO |
Soprano I |
Prometeo |
Salzburg Festival; Berlin Festival |
ORFF |
soprano soloist |
Carmina Burana |
Atlanta Symphony; Detroit Symphony; Los Angeles Philharmonic - Hollywood Bowl; Nashville Symphony; Oregon Symphony; St. Louis Symphony; Seattle Symphony; Vancouver Symphony Orchestra |
POULENC |
soprano soloist |
Gloria |
Santa Rosa Symphony |
PURCELL |
Belinda and First Witch |
Dido and Aeneas |
Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra |
RACHMANINOFF |
soprano soloist |
Vocalise |
Napa Valley Symphony |
REIMANN |
Helena |
Troades |
Bayerische Staatsoper (world premiere) |
RIHM |
Ariadne and Soprano I |
Dionysus |
The Netherlands Opera - Holland Festival |
SALONEN |
soprano soloist |
Wing on Wing |
Los Angeles Philharmonic - on tour; Hamburg Radio Orchestra |
J. STRAUSS |
soprano soloist |
Concert arias |
Seattle Symphony Orchestra; Malaysia Symphony |
J. STRAUSS |
Adele |
Die Fledermaus |
Scottish Opera |
R. STRAUSS |
The Fiakermilli |
Arabella |
Bayerische Staatsoper |
R. STRAUSS |
Zerbinetta |
Ariadne auf Naxos |
English National Opera; Bayerische Staatsoper; Wiener Staatsoper; Seattle Opera; Chautauqua Opera; Oper Bonn; Nikikai Opera Tokyo |
R. STRAUSS |
Sophie |
Der Rosenkavalier |
Théâtre du Châtelet |
R. STRAUSS |
Aminta |
Die Schweigsame Frau |
Palermo Opera; Munich Radio Symphony |
R. STRAUSS |
soprano soloist - "Zerbinetta's Aria" |
Der Bürger als Edelmann/Ariadne auf Naxos |
Barbican; Switzerland; Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra; Mostly Mozart Festival (concert performances) |
STRAVINSKY |
Le Rossignol |
Chicago Symphony (suite); Seattle Symphony (concert performance); Kansas City Symphony (concert performance) |
|
VERDI |
Oscar |
Un ballo in maschera |
Washington Opera |
VERDI |
Gilda |
Rigoletto |
Antwerp Opera, Gent Opera |
WAGNER |
Waldvogel |
Siegfried |
Seattle Opera |