“... the music just pours out of her.”
    — The Orange County Register

 

“One does not just listen to Nicole Cabell with pleasure; she is also a joy to behold.”
    — Berliner Morgenpost

Photo © Marc Ginot / Opéra National de Montpellier

As Adina in L’Elisir d’Amore, Opéra National de Montpellier, November 2006

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“... a golden, creamy, evenly gauged voice from top to bottom; the music just pours out of her.”
    — The Orange County
       Register

“Cabell is now one of the most exciting lyric sopranos to grace the world’s concert halls.”
     — Chicago Magazine

“When Cabell opened that great smiling mouth, what we heard was liquid gold ... she was spellbinding ...”
    — The Times

“... the kind of star quality, and best of all the vocal resources, that bodes well for a long and successful international career.”
    — Chicago Daily Herald

“... a bright, expressive voice, as well as strong acting skills.”
    — Baltimore Sun

“Her sound was delicate and agile, her phrasing intelligent and secure, and her stage manner touching.”
    — Bloomberg

“One does not just listen to Nicole Cabell with pleasure; she is also a joy to behold.”
    — Berliner Morgenpost

Press acclaim for Nicole Cabell

2005 performance reviews

More performance and recording reviews:
2009, 2008, 2007, and 2006

 In a Classical Christmas Concert with the Indianapolis Symphony:

“Cabell was introduced during the Messiah excerpts. Possessing a full-bodied, well-projecting operatic soprano voice, this native Californian never crosses that boundary into the wobbly opulence so common among lesser singers. Her breath and vibrato control during the recitatives were astonishing enough — and she is young enough — that she seems destined to become one of our future international divas (hopefully without developing the ‘prima donna’ complex shown by some). She’s already within a hair’s breadth (or a diva’s breath) of being there.
    “Another Leppard arrangement followed, Lullaby for the Children of Christel House, adapted from Joachim Raff’s (1822-1882) Octet for Strings, with Cabell joining the choir. Finally, Leppard offered his arrangement of a sequence of six traditional carols he calls Past Three O’Clock, for voice and orchestra. Some of these are interconnected with chimes, coupling Christmas color with Cabell’s superlative voice.
    “The concert had to be encored with the universally loved Sheep May Safely Graze from Bach’s Cantata #208. And a Karen Moratz-Robin Peller flute duo provided luscious playing to complement Cabell’s luscious singing.”
    — Tom Aldridge, Nuvo.net, December 21, 2005

 In a Gala Concert with the Opéra de Montréal:

“The event of the evening was brief, but intense, and came from another soprano: Nicole Cabell, who seems to have literally fallen from heaven, and who sings the aria from ‘La Rondine’ better than Angela Gheorghiu with high pianissimo attacks that sound almost unreal.”
    — Christophe Huss, Le Devoir, December 5, 2005

 As Musetta in La Bohème with Michigan Opera Theater, Detroit:

“A recent Cardiff Singer of the World, soprano Nicole Cabell, was a deluxe Musetta. She’s clearly a singer to watch — a spirited actress with movie-star looks and brilliant high notes, who nearly stopped the show with the famous ‘Quando me’n vo’.”
    — John Koopman, Opera News, February 2006

“What’s good about MOT’s ‘Boheme’ is very good, and it starts with soprano Nicole Cabell’s electrifying Musetta. When Cabell sweeps into view in the Act II Christmas Eve scene in Paris’ Latin Quarter, the stage lights up with a quality missing altogether in the opening act. Call it presence or charisma; it’s a luminous spirit that seizes the imagination — even before Cabell has sung a note. But when she does, notably in a brilliant turn through Musetta’s famous waltz-song, the whole production rises to another level.”
    — Lawrence B. Johnson, Detroit News, November 7, 2005

“As Musetta, Nicole Cabell offered lots of Mae West sassiness and ravishing phrasing.”
    — Mark Slater, Detroit Free Press, November 6, 2005

 In Concert with the Lyric Opera of Chicago at Millenium Park, Chicago:

“Can any of today’s name-brand divas bring such exquisite legato phrasing to ‘Depuis le jour’ (from Charpentier’s ‘Louise’) as soprano Nicole Cabell? No wonder this star graduate of Lyric’s apprentice program won all hearts at this year’s BBC Singer of the World contest in Wales.”
    — John von Rhein, Chicago Tribune, September 12, 2005

 At a Concert of Broadway Repertoire at Bard College:

“And there was Nicole Cabell, who showed why she won the Cardiff Singer of the World competition in June with a light and outrageously beautiful soprano that traced the downward arc at the end of Gershwin’s ‘Summertime’ in chills along the listener’s spine. She was one of several fine singers ... in the sprawling Broadway set (Irving Berlin, Jerome Kern, Frank Loesser, George Gershwin, Leonard Bernstein, etc.) that formed the centerpiece of the ‘American Jewish Composer’ concert on Sunday afternoon.”
    — Anne Midgette, The New York Times, August 16, 2005

 Winning the 2005 BBC Singer of the World Competition in Cardiff:

“At last the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World has landed a good catch. ... The winner was Nicole Cabell from the US. At 27, she was the youngest of the five finalists, and already has a faultlessly gleaming soprano, a technique with no loopholes, and bags of confidence. It should not do any harm that she is also tall, slim and glamorous. Not many young singers would have dared to serenade the line-up of judges at this competition with such esoteric fare — a solo from Tippett’s A Child of Our Time, one of Ilia’s heart-stopping arias from Mozart’s Idomeneo and a nimble Gallic showpiece from Berlioz’s Benvenuto Cellini. But whatever this soprano chooses to sing, her voice makes wonderful music with it. The judges said this was the closest result for years, but Cabell was surely always going to be the winner.”
    — Richard Fairman, Financial Times, June 22, 2005

“Call it what you will — star quality, audience awareness, the wow factor — that, in the end, is what swings a jury. And when, at the weekend, they swung in favour of a 27-year-old American soprano called Nicole Cabell, there weren’t too many dissenting voices.
    “Cabell walks away with £10,000, a BBC and a Welsh National Opera engagement — and a memo, at the very least, in the diaries of opera intendants worldwide.
    “Earlier in the week, there had been murmurings. Cabell is from the Chicago Lyric Opera Centre, an institution not unknown to an erstwhile director of WNO. And she had already won a Marilyn Horne Foundation Recital. Horne was on the jury. And then, I suspect, there was the sour grapes factor: though it’s hardly Cabell’s fault if she has the glamour quotient of Shirley Bassey and Nefertiti combined.
    “When Cabell opened that great smiling mouth, what we heard was liquid gold: the real thing. Her finals programme, accompanied by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales under Carlo Rizzi, showed her sense of warm humanity, projected confidently within a technique strong enough to take it, in How can I cherish my man from Tippett’s A Child of our Time. Ilia’s aria Se il padre perdei from Idomeneo revealed Cabell as a stylish Mozartian. And she was spellbinding in her final cadenza from Entre l’amour et le devoir from Berlioz’s Benvenuto Cellini.”
    — Hillary Finch, The Times, June 21, 2005

“Windy City Wonder Blows Away the Competition
    “... There can be little argument over who deserved to walk away with the first prize.
    “I didn’t hear her during the heats, but, on the strength of her performance in the final, this year’s laureate, 27-year-old Chicagoan Nicole Cabell, has dazzling star potential.
    “Her gorgeous soprano is rich and even, rising to a sumptuous top. Although she sings with a broad generous passion rather than a finely detailing brush, there were moments of spine-tingling beauty in arias from Tippett’s A Child of our Time and Mozart’s Idomeneo; ‘Entre l’amour’ from Berlioz’s Benvenuto Cellini proved a harder nut to crack.
    “That she looks a complete smasher — tall and willowy, with a smile to die for — will do her career no harm whatsoever. Anyway, I can’t wait to hear and see Miss Cabell again.”
    — Rupert Christiansen, Daily Telegraph, June 21, 2005

 At the Song Prize Finals at the 2005 BBC Singer of the World Competition in Cardiff:

“Following her rapturous reception by the audience for Concert 3 in the Main Prize competition, it was fairly obvious that American soprano Nicole Cabell would win equal approval in this concert. She is a striking figure on stage: tall, slim and beautifully groomed (hers have been the most elegant ’frocks’ by far in the whole contest, for those interested in such things) she also has a voice of superb power and flexibility. Her programme consisted of pair of songs by Ravel ( Cinq mélodies populaires grecques, Nos 1 and 2) two pieces by Obradors (Canciones clássicas españolas Vol 1 Nos 1 and 6) and two items from Dvoràk (Gipsy Songs Op 55 No 4 , ’Als die alte Mutter,’ and No 5 ’ Reingestimmt die Saiten.’) The unusual Daybreak in Alabama by Ricky Ian Gordon completed her set, complementing the same composer’s Dream Variations,which she had sung in her Song Prize heat. The voice is certainly beautiful (faintly reminiscent of Renée Fleming sometimes) and she can do almost anything she chooses with it. This is what gives her such extraordinary audience appeal.”
    — Bill Kenny, Seen and Heard, June 20, 2005

 As the Soprano Solo in Tippett’s A Child of Our Time with the Chicago Symphony:

“The players and chorus were fully engaged in the effort; two of the vocal soloists — soprano Nicole Cabell and bass-baritone Christian van Horn, standing in at the last minute for Wayne Tigges — beautifully, atmospherically contributed to it.”
    — Alan G. Artner, Chicago Tribune, June 4, 2005

“Soloists Nicole Cabell, Guang Yang, Scott Ramsay and Christian Van Horn, all members or alums of the Lyric Opera Center for American Artists, navigated their difficult lines well for the most part. Soprano Cabell and bass-baritone Van Horn, a last-minute substitute, were particularly strong.”
    — Andrew Patner, Chicago Sun-Times, June 4, 2005

 As the Soprano Solo in Mahler’s Fourth Symphony with the Florida Orchestra:

“Soprano Nicole Cabell treated listeners with her sumptuous vocals on a text of innocence and heavenly pleasure.”
    — Kurt Loft, Tampa Tribune, May 22, 2005

 As the Soprano Solo in Brahms’ Deutsches Requiem with the Accademia di Santa Cecilia:

“The celestial flight of the Lied for soprano was given to Nicole Cabell, a young and beautiful American whose European debut this was; hers is an emotional and lyrical voice for this piece, but through her ‘wiedersehen’ (‘I shall see you again’) touched by grace, the audience was left with sincere emotion.”
    — Giorgio Pestelli, La Stampa, May 10, 2005

“The soloists were an extraordinary, moving and extremely well-controlled Thomas Hampson as well as a wonderful and most musical Nicole Cabell.”
    — Dino Villatico, La Repubblica, May 9, 2005

“... The melting sweetness of Nicole Cabell ...”
    — Pietro Acquafredda, Il Giornale, May 10, 2005

 In the Rising Stars concert at the Lyric Opera of Chicago:

“Nicole Cabell, now in her third year at Lyric, has been a singer to watch from the very start. Her ample, agile voice has a satiny edge, noticeable even in the flirtatious flights of the aria ‘Entre l’amour et le devoir’ from Berlioz’s ‘Benvenuto Cellini.’ In the Act II duet from Strauss’ ‘Der Rosenkavalier,’ Cabell’s lustrous tone was a lovely contrast to the brighter, more silvery soprano of Lauren Curnow.”
    — Wynne Delacoma, Chicago Sun-Times, May 2, 2005

 More performance and recording reviews: 2008, 2007, 2006 and 2005.

Represented by Columbia Artists Management

Photo © Decca/Kasskara