Mary-Ellen Nesi-Mezzo-Soprano (Greece)

Mary-Ellen Nesi is a Canadian-born Greek mezzo-soprano noted for her rich tone, skillful coloratura and powerful stage presence. She concentrates on baroque, classical and belcanto music, having portrayed over 40 roles, and has recorded extensively in this repertoire.

Her main roles include the title roles in Carmen and Cenerentola, Oktavian (Der Rosenkavalier), Charlotte (Werther), Romeo (I Capuleti e i Montecchi), Rosina (Il Barbiere di Siviglia), Dorabella (Cosi Fan Tutte), Idamante (Idomeneo),Cherubino (Le Nozze di Figaro), Sifare (Mitridate), Giovanna Seymour (Anna Bolena), Adalgisa (Norma), Ramiro ( La Finta Giardiniera), Hansel (Hansel und Gretel), La Muse/ Nicklausse(Les Contes d’Hoffmann). Nesi particularly distinguished herself in principal roles in baroque operas by Monteverdi, Handel, Vivaldi. Porpora, Hasse, A. and D. Scarlatti, Pergolesi and Paisiello, and in operas by contemporary composers. 

Mary-Ellen’s extensive list of performance credits include appearances at the Bayerisches Staatsoper, the Frankfurt Oper, the Dresden Semperoper, the Theater des Champs-Elysees, the Royal Opera at Covent Garden, the Theater an der Wien,the Greek National Opera, the Margravial Opera House (Bayreuth), the Operas of Bologna, Ferrara, Rome, Versailles, Nice, Strasbourg, Lisbon, Bilbao, Nurnberg, Wiesbaden, Mannheim and venues such as the Carnegie Hall and Avery Fisher Hall in New York City, the Tchaikovsky Hall (Moscow), the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, the Brussels Bozar, the Montreal Place-des-Arts, the Kolner Hall in Toronto, the Cadogan Hall (BBC Proms-London), Chungmu Art Hall (Seoul), the Strathmore Hall (Washington DC) the Kölner Philharmonie (Cologne).

She has worked with conductors René Jacobs, Alan Curtis, George Petrou, Ivor Bolton, Ottavio Dantone, Charles Dutoit, Bruno Weil, Frans Brüggen, Julia Jones, Teodor Currentzis, Christophe Rousset, Diego Fasolis, Andrea Marcon, Jean-Christophe Spinosi, Federico Maria Sardelli, Emmanuelle Haim, J. Reilly Lewis, Ruben Dubrovsky, Vaclav Luks, Christopher Moulds, Stephen Stubbs, Paul O’Dette.

Mary-Ellen has recorded with Decca, Sony, MDG, Virgin, Arkiv, DHM, Dynamic, Berlin Classics, Tafelmusic Media and Naxos . For her solo album Archetypon, under George Petrou (MDG) -she was nominated for Singer of the year 2019-Opus Klassik awards.