Professional Engagements

Operas and Concerts with orchestras

• Detroit Symphony
• Boston Symphony
• Cleveland Orchestra
• St. Louis Orchestra
• Ravinia Summer Festival
• Wolf Trap
• Aspen Summer Festival
• Carnegie Hall, New York City
• Kennedy Center, Washington DC
• Lincoln Center, New York City
• Royal Opera House at Covent Garden, London, England
• War Memorial Opera House, San Francisco, California
• Los Angeles Opera Theater
• Philadelphia Lyric Opera
• New Orleans Opera Theater
• Netherland's Opera, Holland
• Aix en Provence Opera Festival, France
• Marseille Opera, Marseille, Paris, France
• Concert at Piazza di Spania, Rome, Italy
• Ottawa National Opera, Ottowa, Canada
• Summer Festival, Salsburg, Austria
• Linz, Austria
• Concert, Vienna, Austria
• Vancouver Opera, Vancouver, Canada
• Concert Series and Opera, Ann Arbor, Michigan
• Toledo Opera, Toledo, Ohio
• Athens, Cyprus, Thessalonica, Greece
• Cairo and Alexandria, Egypt
• Moscow, St. Petersburg, Minsk, Kiev, Baku, Odessa, etc. , Russia
• Concert and Opera Halls: Amman, Jordan; Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Israel
• Beirut, Lebanon;
• Warsaw and Trannsylvania, Poland
• Istanbul, Turkey;
• Hungary

Great Artists Performed With

(Lead Roles)

Operas and Concerts

• Luciano Pavarotti
• John Alexander
• Franz Allers
• Norman Ayerton
• Richard Bonynge
• Frank Corsaro
• Placido Domingo
• Reginal Giovanninetti
• Martin Katz
• Charles Nelson Reilly
• Marilyn Horne
• George London
• Beni Montressor
• Jean-Pierre Ponelle
• Samuel Ramey
• John Reardon
• Louis Quilico
• Eric Tappy
• Alan Titus
• Ingvar Wixel

Films

• Robert Altman
• Paul Newman
• Burt Lancaster
• Geraldine Chaplin
• Shelly Duvall
• Joel Gray
• Harvey Keitel
• Kevin McCarthy
• Eric Tappy
• Allen Titus

Opera And Concert Repertoire

Opera:

• Bellini...I Puritani...Elvira
• La Sonnambula...Anina
• Norma...Norman
• Britten...A Midsummer Night's Dream...Helena
• Busoni...Doktor Faustus...Elena
• Donizetti...Anna Bolena...Anna
• Gounod...Faust...Marguerite
• Handel...Rinaldo...Armide
• Rodelinda...Rodelinda
• Semele...Semele
• Lehar...Die lustige Witwe...Die Witwe
• Leoncavallo...Pagliacci...Nedda
• Massenet...Thais...Thais
• Monteverdi...L'incoronazione di Poppea...Poppea
• Montemessi...L'amore di tre re...Fiora
• Mozart...Die Zauberflote...Koenigen der Nacht
• La clemenza di Tito...Vitellia
• Cosi fan tutte...Fiordiligi
• Don Giovanni...Donna Anna
• Die Entfuhrung aus dem Serail...Konstanze
• Offenbach...Les Contes D'Hoffman...Olympia Antonia Giulietta
• Puccini...La Boheme...Mimi Musetta
• Tosca...Tosca
• Strauss J...Die Fledermaus...Roselinda
• Tschaikovsky...Eugene Onegin...Tatania
• Thomas...Mignon...Philine
• Verdi...Ernani...Elvira
• Il Trovatore...Leonora
• La Traviata...Violetta
• Othello...Desdemona
• Rigoletto...Gilda
• Von Weber...Der Freischutz...Agatha
• Wagner...Lohengrin...Elsa
• Tannhauser...Elisabeth
• Ward...The Crucible...Abigail

Concert:

• Bach...Cantata 51:
  Cantata 202: Magnificat;
  St. John Passion;
  St. Matthew Passion
• Beethoven...Christus am Olberg;
  Mass in C; Mount of Olives;
  Symphony No. 9
• Bernstein...Recipes
• Brahms...Requiem, Art Songs
• Faure, and other French Composers...Art Songs
• Haydn...The Creation; The Seasons
• Handel...The Messiah; Samson;
  Songs
• Milhaud...Catalogue de Fleurs;
  Quatre Chanson de Ronsard
• Mozart...Ch-io ma Scordi di te;
  Vorrei, spiegarvi;
  Mass in c minor; Requiem;
  Vesperae di Solennis de Confessori
• Rossini...Stabat Mater
• Schumman...Art Songs
• Strauss, R. ...Art Songs
• Villa Lobos...Bachianas Brazilieras
  No. 5
• Wolf...Art Songs

Films and Recordings

Films:

• Buffalo Bill and the Indians, (Mimi) Director, Robert Altman, Paul Newman, Burt Lancaster, Geraldine Chaplin, Joel Gray, Harvey Keitel, Kevin McArthur, Shelly Duval, etc.
• Clemenza di Tito, (Vitellia) filmed in Marseille
• Grace and Beauty, (the designer model), filmed in Paris, Andre Charbonne

Recordings:

• Sister Angelica, (Angelica) Premiere and Recording
• Mignon, Massanet, (Philine)
• Rinaldo, Handel, (Armida)
• Thais, Massenet, (Thais)
• Pagliacci, Leoncavallo, (Nedda) San Francisco-live radio broadcast
• WCNA Chicago, program of arias and art songs
• Austrian Radio Broadcast and recordings, Salzburg and Linz, Austria
• Radio Hostess: HR Frankfurt-Main Radio
• SFB Radio

Speaker—Presenter:

• James Bond Expo. ARTE TV
• Milan Art Expo. 1996 ARTE TV
• Space 2000 US-German Doc. TV Series, Skanda Productions
• Equal Indignity – Inside the Justice System, Skanda Productions

Narrator—Voice Over: Recorded

• TV Series, Hosted by Omar Sharif
• Documentary: Espionage (History of World Intelligence)
• K2 – Daring Death and Destiny (Bibo Productions, Germany)

Buffalo Bill and the Indians

A note on Buffalo Bill

Awards and Critical Acclaim

AWARDS:

1st place winner

• Carnegie Hall: Recital contest
• Weyerhauser: Metropolitan Opera National Contest
• National Endowment for the Arts Contest: Washington DC
• Cleveland Opera and Artist Contest
• WCAN Chicago National Contest
• Worcester Massachusetts Artist Contest – Boston Symphony
• Detroit Grinnel Contest – Detroit Symphony
• Rockefeller Center for the Arts
• Musical America, front cover, Young Artist of the Year
• Honors and Award – graduated with “distinction” UM
• University of Tampa – Professor of the Year

Critical Acclaim:

• New Orleans Opera: "We haven't had a reaction like this from our audience since the Beatles performed here."



• New York: L'amore di tre re: "She makes magic happen on the stage." Beni Montressor



• New York: La Traviata "She doesn't only sing Violetta exquisitely, she BECOMES Violetta." Boris Goldovsky, Metropolitan Opera Intermission Interviewer, conductor and author



• WQXR Radio broadcast – Opera Singers: "Noëlle Rogers is without a doubt the most believable of operatic actresses, able to bring the audience into multitudes of emotions both with the sounds she makes with the dark, dramatic, colorful voice and her convincing portrayals".



• Review of Poppea from LA Times: "Did she sing the role superbly? Yes, she did, but to be honest, I was so taken by her beauty that I might have been influenced in my judgment."



• Review of Clemenza di Tito – Coriere della Sera, Milan, Italy (translation) "Noëlle Rogers not only sang the role of Vitellia with her big exciting sound, with thrilling runs and stunning legato that make her the Mozart interpreter of this decade, but her appearance and interpretation of the role make her a most believable actress, something unique in the opera world."



• Opera Magazine—London: about Covent Garden review. "Noëlle Rogers brought the house down in the first act scene with a dark and exciting voice, thrilling high notes, and stunning appearance. All in all, an auspicious debut for this young American soprano."



• A personal note from Noëlle:

I have had a truly wonderful and rewarding life and am so very privileged to have performed and known such great artists as those listed above. There are two in particular to whom I wish to pay a special homage, Dame Joan Sutherland and conductor Richard Bonynge.

This tale they have heard a number of times and I am grateful to be allowed to refer to Joan as my sister, but more importantly, someone I have always tried to emulate and, if I were allowed to idolize anyone, it would be she and her husband Richard Bonynge.

Here is the true story.

At home as an 8 year old on our big farm in Michigan with my six brothers and sisters, I would practice my french horn and sing—to the dismay of the rest of the household, until finally, the piano was moved into the barn where I could practice into the night with only the animals to hear me.

I loved stretching my voice to broaden its range both up and down the scales. It was referred to by my siblings as “screeching”. My dear Mother, Norma, knowing my deep passion for music and singing, purchased a radio for me and I listened every Saturday to the Metropolitan Broadcasts. One afternoon, upon hearing the most exquisite voice I had ever heard, I ran with goose bumps to my Mother exclaiming, “Listen Mom, someone is SINGING those high notes that I 'screech'.” She told me it was Joan Sutherland and then bought me her recordings. I listened to them religiously never dreaming that I would sing opera one day, much less to meet Joan and perform operas with Mr. Bonynge.

I continued on to graduate from the University and when my career began with a quick start in New York, I was called one day by my manager, Sara Tornay and was told that Richard Bonynge wanted to hear me sing. Crying in the taxi with the thrill that I was about to sing for and meet Mr. Bonynge, I finally arrived at Carnegie Hall, where I had participated in a concert some years before. I recall the nerves and excitement. I avoided looking at him for fear that I would break into tears. I sang Ernani, involami and Sempre libera from La Traviata quite well. Then I heard his voice asking me to sing Leise, leise from Der Freischutz. The recitative has a beautiful pianissimo F which I always relished floating and sustaining, but I had just heard his voice and made the error of looking at him and the tears were dropping into my throat and of course dropped right onto my cords just at the sustained pianissimo. I stopped and he, startled, asked me what the problem was. I then blurted out what an event this was for me and shared my childhood story about my love for him and Joan and the hours of listening to their recordings. To this he replied: That is all very nice my dear, now just take a deep breath and sing the aria; and, by the way, I love your voice and we will be doing many things together.

After that aria, he dismissed the pianist and accompanied me on many other arias right then and there. It was heaven. I never got over my awe of him and Joan and even though I had the great joy of singing many times to his baton, I could never relax in his presence, due to my continuous and endless admiration for him and his wife, the great Dame Joan Sutherland. I feell truly honored and blessed that they have been a part of my life.

Thank you both, with all my heart.

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I have had many great moments in my short but very full career.

One of these highlights was a recital in “Carnegie Recital Hall with Martin Katz, one of the most outstanding greats of the performing world. Soon after, I was chosen to premiere Handel's Rinaldo with Marilyn Horne and Samuel Ramey. Martin realized the score and wrote the coloratura passages for me and the others in the cast.

It was unspeakably marvelous to work this closely with a great artist like Marty. Sam Ramey and I got our starts together along with Alan Titus. Both singers went on to have outstanding careers and both were wonderful artists to perform with. One of the most rewarding experiences was performing opposite Marilyn Horne in this premiere at the Houston Grand Opera and later in Ottawa, Canada.

Marilyn must have sensed my great and awed reverence for her artistry and professionalism. She was supportive and gave me great advice. In her grandness, she was always helping others with outstanding talent, who were beginning their careers She told me I had what it takes to be where she, Joan Sutherland, Luciano Pavarotte and Placido Domingo were and then told me what I needed to do to get there.

She is as commanding in person as she is on stage and with music!!!!!

Thank you Marilyn.

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I had the immense joy of working on films—both as an actress and voice-overs. In the film, Buffalo Bill and the Indians, I was young and just starting in my career. It was a highlight for me, naturally working with such illustrious artists as Robert Altman, Paul Newman, Burt Lancaster, Geraldine Chaplin, Joel Gray, Kevin McCarther, Harvey Keitel, Shelly Duvall, etc. It was a close family-like cast.

I would be singing all day while production activities were going on and while waiting for my call. Everyone was interested in the other's experience and ideas and the actors liked my singing on the site. There was such respect and support amongst all the performers. Robert Altman asked me to do another film, but I was on my way to operatic stardom and couldn't see how to fit a film career into my life at that time.

The experience gave me the best of training in that I participated with these greats and they fed me artistically. Burt Lancaster was a lover of opera and a great talker, sharing many anecdotes and opinions. Paul Newman was like a mentor and told me that I had great acting instincts and that I could trust them in my work in opera. This gave me confidence to reach to new heights in making my roles real in the operas.

Paul Newman shared my love for pop-corn. He always made some for our looking at the rushes of the day. He and Mr. Altman were always playing practical jokes on one another. One time Mr. Altman filled Paul's van with popped pop corn. This was all before Paul came out with his food line, which of course, includes his own brand of pop corn.

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During my singing years, I refused to read the critiques. When someone pointed out to me a good review I had gotten, I resisted reading it thinking, "If I react to raves I must also be affected when slammed". Therefore I haven't saved much memorabilia on my career and have had to dig it back up to make this website.

In performing I wanted to remain unaffected by aught but the performance with the audience and felt it my duty to do my best for them. My best performances were those when I was most able to subdue the ego and allow that wonder of Creation that happens – those magical moments that transcend all the preparations and concerns of the art form and lift the performer and audience to another realm. On those rare occasions on the stage, that creative force is able to flow through, unobstructed by fear or ego, and the performer feels almost like an observer. I recall getting goose bumps at times while singing when this wonderful phenomenon took place.

I believe this very thing is what makes artists strive and work for perfection – as with athletes and all forms of exercise, including the sciences – where we are enabled to supersede the physical limitations and set new records.

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