MARI MORIYA
soprano
Mari Moriya is one of today’s most versatile sopranos and garnered successes in opera and concert in Asia, the US, and Europe. Her “beautiful voice … and clean and precise coloraturas” (Der neue Merker) are but two of her notable assets in the dramatic coloratura as well as the spinto repertoire, which encompasses bel canto heroines Norma and Maria Stuarda as well as Puccini’s Butterfly.
In 2022, she can be heard in Japan as Cleopatra in Giulio Cesare and Cio Cio San (New National Theater Tokyo), La voix humaine (Tokyo Metropolitan Theater), Rusalka and Bernstein’s Symphony No.1 Jeremiah (Osaka Symphony Orchestra), Eva in Die Meistersinger (Biwako Hall), Alban Berg’s Drei Bruchstücke (Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra), Verdi’s Messa da Requiem (Aichi Chamber Orchestra), Beethoven’s Ninth (Orchestra Ensemble Kanazawa under Marc Minkowski) and Zemlinsky’s Lyrische Suite (Pacific Philharmonia Tokyo).
In Europe, she makes her house debut at Dresden’s Semperoper in her signature role Cio Cio San (May 2022).
In Japan, Mari Moriya scored successes as Elsa in Lohengrin, Freia in Das Rheingold, Sieglinde in Die Walküre, Gutrune in Götterdämmerung (Biwako Hall), Salome and Marschallin in Der Rosenkavalier, both under Sebastian Weigle, Cio-Cio San, Lulu (Tokyo Nikikai Opera Theatre), Elena in La donna del lago (Fujisawa City Opera), Leonora in Il trovatore (Mikawa City Opera), Lucia di Lammermoor and Konstanze in Die Entführung aus dem Serail (Nissay Theatre Tokyo), Donna Anna in Don Giovanni (Suntory Hall), Tytania in A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Hyogo Performing Arts Center) and many more.
In Europe, she sang Ms. Schlesen in Satyaraha, Queen Tye in Akhnaten (Opera Vlaanderen), Königin der Nacht in Die Zauberflöte (Oper Leipzig, Theater Basel, Scottish Opera, Volksoper Wien, Glyndebourne Touring Opera), Lara alias Chang’e in Moritz Eggert‘s Terra Nova oder Das weiße Leben, Violetta in La traviata, Lakmé, Maria Stuarda, Sophie in Der Rosenkavalier, Micaëla in Carmen, Fiordiligi in Così fan tutte, Clorinda in La Cenerentola, Gilda in Rigoletto, Mimì in La bohème, Pamina in Die Zauberflöte(Landestheater Linz), Micaëla (Stadttheater Klagenfurt), Clorinda (Salzburger Landestheater), Zerbinetta in Ariadne auf Naxos, Zerlina in Don Giovanni, Liù in Turandot (Opera Ireland), and Norma (Chopin Festival).
At the beginning of her career, she mostly performed in the US. Her roles encompassed Königin der Nacht (Metropolitan Opera New York, Palm Beach Opera, Pittsburgh Opera, Portland Opera, Baltimore Opera, Seattle Opera) as well as Amina in La Sonnambula (Opera Orchestra of New York), Linda di Chamonix (cover) (Caramoor Festival), Adina in L’elisir d’amore (Tulsa Opera) and Juliette in Roméo et Juliette (Center City Opera Philadelphia).
Mari Moriya was born in Oyama, Japan, and studied at the Musashino Academy of Music in Tokyo (Master of Music) and at the Mannes College of Music in New York (Professional Studies Diploma). She was a Grand Finalist at the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions in 2005 and won awards in major international singing competitions such as Cardiff Singer of the World (Concert Prize – 2007) and Belvedere Singing Competition (Hans Gabor Sonderpreis – 2008).
