January 2012

The mezzosoprano María José Montiel, who hails from Madrid, is now in rehearsal for the opera Andrea Chénier, by Giordano. She will portray the character of Madelon, and the production will open on the 28th January in a world class opera house, the Vienna Staatsoper. Her appearance in this dramatic role marks a return to the Austrian capital, where she has previously performed in Verdi´s Requiem in the Konzerthaus conducted by Riccardo Chailly, as the lead in Luisa Fernanda alongside Plácido Domingo in the Teather an der Wien, and has given two recitals in the famous Musikverrein.

In this return to Vienna, Montiel will be conducted by Pinchas Steinberg and fellow cast members include the tenor Johan Botha, the soprano Norma Fantini and the baritone Sergey Murzaev.

In the upcoming months the Spanish singer will go back to Italy with her acclaimed Carmen by Bizet (Lecce), an opera which she has just performed in Palermo, and as soon as the performances are over she will travel to Milan to join the Giuseppe Verdi Orchestra, with which she is to perform Mahler´s Das Klagende Lied. Afterwards she will return to Madrid, where she will give a recital of Turina en París as part of the series of recitals which the March foundation have dedicated to the Spanish composer Joaquin Turina.

Beforehand, on the 17th February, she will take part in the Campoamor Opera Awards Gala, where she will receive the prize for Best Opera Singer for the Spanish 2010-11 opera season for her performance of Carmen in the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona.

November 2011

Mezzosoprano María José Montiel has won the prize for best female singer in the 2011 Teatro Campoamor Opera Award Ceremony, where the most important awards of this kind in Spain are handed over every year in Oviedo. The singer, who hails from Madrid, has been awarded the prize for her Carmen in the Gran Teatre del Liceu, Barcelona, in October 2010, being the first Spanish singer to have been given a prize in this category in the history of the awards.

María José Montiel recently debuted in the Teatro Massimo in Palermo also as Bizet´s gypsy in a co-production of the Italian theatre company and the Barcelona Liceu directed by Calixto Bieito, who also won a prize for this production. Her next engagement is in her home city where she is to perform in Dvorak´s Stabat Mater which the RTVE Symphony Orchestra has programmed for the 1st and 2nd December in the Teatro Monumental, Madrid. After that, the Spanish mezzo will return to Italy to join the cast of artists who will be performing Beethoven´s Ninth Symphony with the Milanese Giuseppe Verdi Orchestra in the Milan auditorium on the 29th, 30th and 31st December and the 1st January.

Once these engagements in Italy are over, Montiel will travel to Vienna to perform in a production of Giordano´s Andrea Chénier, in which she will take the role of Madelon and which will take place in the Vienna Staatsoper on the 28th and 31st January and on the 3rd and 6th February 2012.

In the following months the singer will once again join the Giuseppe Verdi Orchestra to perform Mahler´s Das Klagende Lied, and will then return to Madrid, where she will give a recital of Turina en París as part of a season of concerts that the March Foundation has dedicated to the Spanish composer Joaquin Turina. Before that, on the 17th February, she will perform at the Campoamor Opera Awards prizegiving ceremony.

October 2011

The Spanish mezzosoprano María José Montiel will travel to the Sicilian capital to perform her own personal take on Bizet´s Carmen for the first time there. She has already taken the lead role in this Calixto Bieito production at the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona.

The singer, who hails from Madrid, is currently one of the most sought-after performers of opera´s most famous gipsy, having sung the role in prestigious theatres in Switzerland, Germany, France, Spain, Japan and Italy, where she has previously performed in cities such as Pisa, Lucca, Livorno, Trieste and Udino.

Montiel will be Carmen on the 19th and 22nd November and her Don José will be Jorge de León, from the Canary Islands; they will be joined by other soloists and the orchestra and choir at the Teatro Massimo and conducted by Karel Mark Chichon.

October 2011

Home again after taking the lead role in Carmen in the Republic of Buryatia, the mezzosoprano María José Montiel, who hails from Madrid, is getting ready to give a recital in which she will perform pieces by Falla and Debussy. The musical evening will take place on the 21st October in the National Auditorium in Madrid and the singer will be accompanied on the piano by the maestro Josep María Colom.

Afterwards, María José Montiel will travel to Italy, a country where she is regularly invited to sing, to perform Verdi´s Requiem with the Symphonic Orchestra and Choir of Milano Giuseppe Verdi, conducted by Aldo Ceccato. The three performances will take place on the 3rd, 4th and 6th November in the Milan Auditorium, where the Italian ensemble is based.

September 2011

The mezzosoprano María José Montiel has been invited to sing Bizet´s Carmen on the 1st and 3rd October in Ulan-Ude, capital of Buryatia, one of the Siberian Republics in the Russian Federation. The Spanish singer has portrayed the role of the most famous gypsy in opera in prestigious stages around Europe: in Switzerland, Germany, France, Italy and Spain. Now she will be performing the role in the Russian steppes, in an region which adjoins Mongolia, and she will be the first Spaniard to perform it in this remote area. She will then sing the role again at her debut in the Teatro Massimo in Palermo (Italy).

July 2011

The mezzosoprano from Madrid (Spain) has been invited to perform in the Carinthian Summer Music Festival, a festival now ranking among the most important in Austria, on july 18th. The concert will take place in Congress Center Villach, and Maria Jose Montiel will be singing alongside the Jove Orquestra Simfònica de Castelló and conducted by Sergio Alapont. They will be performing Tríptic de Mossèn Cinto, a piece written in 1935 for voice and orchestra by the Spanish composer Joaquín Rodrigo based on texts by Jacinto Verdaguer (1845-1902).

Montiel, currently one of the Spanish singers with most international exposure, has been performing in Austria many times at the Musikverein, Konzerthaus and Staatsoper in Vienna. In 2011, she has garnered great public and critical acclaim for her performances in the Milan Auditorium (Verdi´s Requiem), the Canary Island Music Festival (Rossini´s Stabat Mater), the Maria Cristina Concert Hall in Malaga (recital), The Bastille Opera House in Paris (Luisa Miller), the Teatro de La Maestranza in Seville (Beethoven´s 9th Symphony and Falla´s Atlántida), Teatro Villamarta in Jerez (Carmen) and the Teatro de La Zarzuela (benefit recital).

Her upcoming engagements include a recital in the Madrid Auditorium, Verdi´s Requiem once again in Milan, Carmen at the Massimo Theatre in Palermo and Dvořák´s Stabat Mater in Madrid with the RTVE Orchestra.