Diane Elias

2005 Regional Judge

American mezzo-soprano Diane Elias is equally comfortable on both the operatic and concert stages. She is also an avid recitalist. Her extensive operatic repertory includes roles as varied as the title roles in Carmen and Orfeo, Charlotte in Werther, Dorabella in Cosi fan Tutte, Komponist in Ariadne auf Naxos, Oktavian in Der Rosenkavalier, and Preciosilla in La Forza del Destino. Her concert repertory includes the Verdi Requiem, Rossini's Stabat Mater, Mahler's Symphonies 2, 3 &8, Beethoven's Missa Solemnis and 9th Symphony, Handel's Messiah, Brahm's Alto Rhapsody Bach’s Weihnacht Oratorium, Matthias and Johannes Passions and Mendelssohn's Elijah.

The 2004 - 2005 season finds Ms. Elias returning to the Metropolitan Opera singing roles in six different operas. She also maintains a small private vocal studio in New York City and is an Adjunct Professor at the CWPost Campus of Long Island University.

An active concert singer, she has worked with many leading conductors including James Levine, Riccardo Muti, Giuseppe Sinopoli, and Christian Thielemann; Orchestral performances include solo engagements with the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, Wiener Philharmoniker, Wiener Symphoniker, Mozarteum Orchestra, the Rundfunk-Symphonie-Orchestra of the Bayerische Rundfunk, the ORF Orchestra-Wien, the RAI Orchestra-Turin and the Academia Nationale Orchestra-Santa Cecilia-Rome.

Miss Elias sang with the Vienna Volksoper from 1982-1987, and with the Nuremberg Opera from 1984-1995 where she was the company's leading mezzo-soprano. While in Europe she also performed in the opera houses in Graz, Linz, Salzburg, Austria; Liege, Belgium; Nice, France; Aachen, Bremen, Essen, Hannover, Karlsruhe, Kassel, Krefeld, Ludwigshafen, Frankfurt, Mainz, Mannheim, Munich, Saarbrucken, Wiesbaden, Germany; Rome, Turin, Italy; Nagoya, Osaka, Tokyo, Japan; Moscow, Russia and in Luxemburg City, Luxemburg. She sang her American Debut at the Metropolitan Opera in the 1996-97 season. Miss Elias participated in World Premiere performances of works by Von Einem, Hauer and Rubin, among others.

Ms. Elias was born in Bridgeport, Connecticut and raised in Southern California. She received her Bachelor of Music from California State University at Fullerton, and her Master of Music degree from Indiana University at Bloomington. Ms. Elias was a participant in the Merola Opera Program of the San Francisco Opera, the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara, CA, and in the Houston Opera Studio.

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