May 2012

After a winter and spring of intense activity around the world, appearing on stage in the Republic of Buryatia, Madrid, Milan, Palermo, Vienna, Oviedo, Lecce and Lisbon, the Spanish mezzosoprano María José Montiel is getting ready for a summer with a Spanish accent: at the end of May she will travel to Valencia to take on four performances - on the 12th, 17th, 21st and 24th June- of the opera Medea, by Cherubini, alongside Violeta Urmana in a new production by the Palau de les Arts Reina Sofía directed by Gerardo Vera and conducted by Zubin Mehta, no less.

In July Montiel will return to her city of origin, Madrid, to appear in three performances, on the 13th, 14th and 15th July, of La Tempranica, by Gerónimo Giménez, at the Teatro de La Zarzuela and directed by Frühbeck de Burgos; the mezzo always includes Spanish repertoire among her engagements, having sung it internationally for many years. In the same month she will go to the Teatro Principal in Mahó (Menorca) to give a recital accompanied by the pianist Miquel Estelrich to raise money for the island’s orphans. Then in August she will travel to Andalucia to take on the role of one of her great characters, Bizet’s Carmen in the Teatro Falla in Cadiz at the end of the summer. This Carmen is the acclaimed production from the Jerez Teatro Villamarta and forms part of the events which are taking place this year to mark the bicentenary of La Pepa, the first Spanish constitution established in 1812.

February 2012

After being awarded the prize for Best Female Singer of the 2011-2012 season,on the 17th February, bestowed by the Oviedo Teatro Campoamor Opera Prize Foundation, María José Montiel faces a month packed with engagements. On the 7th and 10th March she will once again take on the role of Bizet´s Carmen, one of the characters who has brought her the most joy and success over the last few years and who the Spanish singer especially adores; this will take place in the Teatro Politeama Greco di Lecce (Italy) and will be conducted by Filippo Zigante. Also in Italy, Montiel will be appearing on the 15th, 16th and 17th with the Milan Giuseppe Verdi Symphony Orchestra - a regular engagement- this time they will be performing Das klagende Lied, by Mahler; afterwards she will travel to Lisbon to perform in Rossini´s Petite Messe Solennelle on the 24th March, and finally will go to Madrid, her city of birth, to give a recital which will end the Turina in Paris concert cycle on 28th at the March Foundation. The concerts have been programmed by the Foundation in homage to the years the Spanish Composer spent in the at that time highly creative and musical French Capital at the beginning of the 20th Century.

February 2012

The mezzo-soprano from Madrid is making the final preparations for her performance in the upcoming Teatro Campoamor Opera Awards Gala. These are the most important opera prizes in Spain and are awarded each year in the Campoamor Theatre, which is located in Oviedo. The Award Ceremony will take place on Friday 17th February and Montiel will receive the prize for Best Female Singer in the 2010-2011 season.

“For me, this award means recognition for my deep love of music, my vocation and my unconditional surrender to art” the singer declared, adding “I would like to thank everyone who has made this possible”.

Montiel, who hails from Madrid, has been awarded the prize for her performance in the role of Carmen in the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona in October 2010, being the first Spanish singer to be selected in this category since the awards began.

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.