Tuesday, May 02, 2006

Nicole Cabell interviewed in Chicago Sun-Times

Excerpts from an article entitled In competitive field, young voices heard from The Chicago Sun-Times:


"If you're fortunate," [Gianna] Rolandi, [director of vocal studies at Lyric's Center for American Artists] said, "you'll get with a good manager who can help guide you into the kind of roles you should be doing. We do that in the kind of guidance at the center, and it has to continue. Young singers have a hard time saying no."

After the Cardiff win "catapulted" Cabell's career, a part-time job at Starbucks was no longer part of the equation. Opera companies plan their seasons years in advance, and while Cabell is looking at roles at Lyric and the Metropolitan Opera in a few years hence, she sang Pamina in The Magic Flute in Madison, Wis., this spring and Musetta in La boheme last fall at Michigan Opera Theater.

"I'm so thankful and still in disbelief about the competition," Cabell said, "but I'm actually at a point where I have to work to get time off. The business is fickle, and if you win a competition like Cardiff or you have an amazing opening night like Erin [Wall], people knock on your door. You take roles and pay your dues by working really, really hard for a couple of years."

But Cabell is aware that too much work or inappropriately heavy roles can tear a young voice to shreds.
"I have these great people in my life," she said, mentioning Rolandi and her manager at Columbia Artists Management, Inc. "They help me stay away from the dangerous stuff and pick the healthy things. We're trying to take light repertoire now. It's tricky. Age 28 is not super-young, but also you can't just do anything you want."



By Wynne Delacoma
The Chicago Sun-Times
April 30, 2006

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