Qiulin Zhang
Encyclopedia
Qiulin Zhang is an opera
contralto
of Chinese descent. Zhang was born in 1964 into a family of traditional Chinese Opera
singers. Her father was a local opera singer of Qinqiang
and play writer. Zhang is the winner of the Grand Prix of the International Contest of Marmande
in 1995 and winner of the Masters of French Song in Paris the same year. She appears regularly in European opera houses such as the Toulouse Théâtre du Capitole
, Opéra Bastille
in Paris, the Dublin Opera, and others in London, Amsterdam, and Madrid. Known for her performances in Wagner's operas, in 2010, she sang Erda (one of her signature roles) in the Paris Opera
's first performance of the complete Ring Cycle in 53 years.
, China, in 1984, and was a soloist at the Symphony Orchestra of Xi'an until 1995. Zhang began singing in France in 1989. Educated in Paris at the Schola Cantorum, and then at the Conservatoire de Toulouse she won in the 1995 Grand Prix du Concours International de Chant de Marmande and was winner of the Masters of French Chant in Paris in the same year.
She sang Maddalena in Rigoletto
at the Opéra de Rennes, Sesto in La clemenza di Tito
at the Opéra Saint-Étienne, Suzuki in Madama Butterfly
at the Opéra Saint-Étienne and Opéra de Marseille
, Carmen
at the Hong Kong Arts Festival
with the Orchestre national de Lille, Ute in Die lustigen Nibelungen by Oscar Straus
in Caen. At the Théâtre du Capitole in Toulouse she was Mother Marie in Dialogues of the Carmelites
, Néris in Cherubini's Médée
, Third Dame in The Magic Flute
, Erda and First Norn in in Robert Wilson
's 2005 Paris production of Der Ring des Nibelungen
at the Théâtre du Châtelet
, the voice of Antonia's mother in The Tales of Hoffmann, A Voice From Above in Die Frau ohne Schatten
, a Theban Woman in Enescu's Œdipe. She sang Roßweiße and Schwertleite in Die Walküre
at the Opera in Amsterdam
and at the Teatro Nacional de São Carlos
in Lisbon. With the Orchestre de Paris
, she was Erda in Siegfried
at the Royal Albert Hall
in London and in the Escorial
in Spain.
In concert, she performed Das Lied von der Erde
by Mahler with the Orchestre de Paris directed by Christoph Eschenbach
and the Orchestre national de Lille conducted by Jean-Claude Casadesus
. She sang Verdi's Requiem
with the Orchestre de Besançon, Poème de l'amour et de la mer
with the Orchestra Festival Marmande, Mozart's Requiem
and Mendelssohn's Elijah
with Symphony Orchestra Tours, the Stabat Mater by Pergolesi
and Respighi
's Il Tramonto with the National Chamber Orchestra of Toulouse, Mahler
's Des Knaben Wunderhorn
with Opera Rouen, the Alto Rhapsody
by Brahms with the Orchestre national de Lille, The Diary of One Who Disappeared
by Janáček in Brussels.
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
contralto
Contralto
Contralto is the deepest female classical singing voice, with the lowest tessitura, falling between tenor and mezzo-soprano. It typically ranges between the F below middle C to the second G above middle C , although at the extremes some voices can reach the E below middle C or the second B above...
of Chinese descent. Zhang was born in 1964 into a family of traditional Chinese Opera
Chinese opera
Chinese opera is a popular form of drama and musical theatre in China with roots going back as far as the third century CE...
singers. Her father was a local opera singer of Qinqiang
Qinqiang
Qinqiang or Luantan is the representative folk Chinese opera of the northwest Province of Shaanxi, China, where it was called Qin thousands of years ago. Its melodies were originated from the rural areas of ancient Shaanxi and Gansu...
and play writer. Zhang is the winner of the Grand Prix of the International Contest of Marmande
Marmande
Marmande is a commune in the Lot-et-Garonne département in south-western France.-Geography:Marmande is located 35 km north-west of Agen, on the southern railway from Bordeaux to Sète. The town is situated at the confluence of the Trec with the Garonne on the right bank of the latter river, which...
in 1995 and winner of the Masters of French Song in Paris the same year. She appears regularly in European opera houses such as the Toulouse Théâtre du Capitole
Théâtre du Capitole
The Théâtre du Capitole de Toulouse is an opera house and ballet company located within the main administration buildings, the Capitole, of the city of Toulouse in south-west France....
, Opéra Bastille
Opéra Bastille
L'Opéra Bastille ' is a modern opera house in Paris, France. It is the home base of the Opéra national de Paris and was designed to replace the Palais Garnier, which is nowadays mainly used for ballet performances....
in Paris, the Dublin Opera, and others in London, Amsterdam, and Madrid. Known for her performances in Wagner's operas, in 2010, she sang Erda (one of her signature roles) in the Paris Opera
Paris Opera
The Paris Opera is the primary opera company of Paris, France. It was founded in 1669 by Louis XIV as the Académie d'Opéra and shortly thereafter was placed under the leadership of Jean-Baptiste Lully and renamed the Académie Royale de Musique...
's first performance of the complete Ring Cycle in 53 years.
Career
Zhang earned her first diploma from the College of Music of Xi'anXi'an
Xi'an is the capital of the Shaanxi province, and a sub-provincial city in the People's Republic of China. One of the oldest cities in China, with more than 3,100 years of history, the city was known as Chang'an before the Ming Dynasty...
, China, in 1984, and was a soloist at the Symphony Orchestra of Xi'an until 1995. Zhang began singing in France in 1989. Educated in Paris at the Schola Cantorum, and then at the Conservatoire de Toulouse she won in the 1995 Grand Prix du Concours International de Chant de Marmande and was winner of the Masters of French Chant in Paris in the same year.
She sang Maddalena in Rigoletto
Rigoletto
Rigoletto is an opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi. The Italian libretto was written by Francesco Maria Piave based on the play Le roi s'amuse by Victor Hugo. It was first performed at La Fenice in Venice on March 11, 1851...
at the Opéra de Rennes, Sesto in La clemenza di Tito
La clemenza di Tito
La clemenza di Tito , K. 621, is an opera seria in two acts composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to an Italian libretto by Caterino Mazzolà, after Metastasio...
at the Opéra Saint-Étienne, Suzuki in Madama Butterfly
Madama Butterfly
Madama Butterfly is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini, with an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa. Puccini based his opera in part on the short story "Madame Butterfly" by John Luther Long, which was dramatized by David Belasco...
at the Opéra Saint-Étienne and Opéra de Marseille
Opéra de Marseille
L’Opéra de Marseille, known today as the Opéra Municipal, is an opera company located in Marseille, France. In 1685, the city was the second in France after Bordeaux to have an opera house which was erected on a tennis court....
, Carmen
Carmen
Carmen is a French opéra comique by Georges Bizet. The libretto is by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy, based on the novella of the same title by Prosper Mérimée, first published in 1845, itself possibly influenced by the narrative poem The Gypsies by Alexander Pushkin...
at the Hong Kong Arts Festival
Hong Kong Arts Festival
Hong Kong Arts Festival , founded in 1973, is a focus programmes for the Culture of Hong Kong, in order to provides a wide range of art programmes from all over the world....
with the Orchestre national de Lille, Ute in Die lustigen Nibelungen by Oscar Straus
Oscar Straus (composer)
Oscar Nathan Straus was a Viennese composer of operettas and film scores and songs. He also wrote about 500 cabaret songs, chamber music, and orchestral and choral works...
in Caen. At the Théâtre du Capitole in Toulouse she was Mother Marie in Dialogues of the Carmelites
Dialogues of the Carmelites
Dialogues of the Carmelites , is an opera in three acts by Francis Poulenc. In 1953, M. Valcarenghi approached Poulenc to commission a ballet for La Scala in Milan; when Poulenc found the proposed subject uninspiring, Valcarenghi suggested instead a screenplay by Georges Bernanos, based on the...
, Néris in Cherubini's Médée
Médée (Cherubini)
Médée is a French language opéra-comique by Luigi Cherubini.The libretto by François-Benoît Hoffmann was based on Euripides' tragedy of Medea and Pierre Corneille's play Médée....
, Third Dame in The Magic Flute
The Magic Flute
The Magic Flute is an opera in two acts composed in 1791 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to a German libretto by Emanuel Schikaneder. The work is in the form of a Singspiel, a popular form that included both singing and spoken dialogue....
, Erda and First Norn in in Robert Wilson
Robert Wilson (director)
Robert Wilson is an American avant-garde stage director and playwright who has been called "[America]'s — or even the world's — foremost vanguard 'theater artist'". Over the course of his wide-ranging career, he has also worked as a choreographer, performer, painter, sculptor, video...
's 2005 Paris production of Der Ring des Nibelungen
Der Ring des Nibelungen
Der Ring des Nibelungen is a cycle of four epic operas by the German composer Richard Wagner . The works are based loosely on characters from the Norse sagas and the Nibelungenlied...
at the Théâtre du Châtelet
Théâtre du Châtelet
The Théâtre du Châtelet is a theatre and opera house, located in the place du Châtelet in the 1st arrondissement of Paris, France.One of two theatres built on the site of a châtelet, a small castle or fortress, it was designed by Gabriel Davioud at the request of Baron Haussmann between 1860 and...
, the voice of Antonia's mother in The Tales of Hoffmann, A Voice From Above in Die Frau ohne Schatten
Die Frau ohne Schatten
Die Frau ohne Schatten is an opera in three acts by Richard Strauss with a libretto by his long-time collaborator, the poet Hugo von Hofmannsthal. It was written between 1911 and either 1915 or 1917...
, a Theban Woman in Enescu's Œdipe. She sang Roßweiße and Schwertleite in Die Walküre
Die Walküre
Die Walküre , WWV 86B, is the second of the four operas that form the cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen , by Richard Wagner...
at the Opera in Amsterdam
De Nederlandse Opera
De Nederlandse Opera , in Amsterdam, is a Dutch opera company based in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Its present home base is the Het Muziektheater, a modern building designed by Cees Dam which opened in 1986....
and at the Teatro Nacional de São Carlos
Teatro Nacional de São Carlos
The Teatro Nacional de São Carlos is an opera house in Lisbon, Portugal. It was opened on July 30, 1793 by Queen Maria I as a replacement for the Tejo Opera House, which was destroyed in the 1755 Lisbon earthquake...
in Lisbon. With the Orchestre de Paris
Orchestre de Paris
The Orchestre de Paris is a French orchestra based in Paris. The orchestra performs most of its concerts at the Salle Pleyel.-History:In 1967, following the dissolution of the Orchestre de la Société des Concerts du Conservatoire, conductor Charles Munch was called on by the Minister of Culture,...
, she was Erda in Siegfried
Siegfried (opera)
Siegfried is the third of the four operas that constitute Der Ring des Nibelungen , by Richard Wagner. It received its premiere at the Bayreuth Festspielhaus on 16 August 1876, as part of the first complete performance of The Ring...
at the Royal Albert Hall
Royal Albert Hall
The Royal Albert Hall is a concert hall situated on the northern edge of the South Kensington area, in the City of Westminster, London, England, best known for holding the annual summer Proms concerts since 1941....
in London and in the Escorial
El Escorial
The Royal Seat of San Lorenzo de El Escorial is a historical residence of the king of Spain, in the town of San Lorenzo de El Escorial, about 45 kilometres northwest of the capital, Madrid, in Spain. It is one of the Spanish royal sites and functions as a monastery, royal palace, museum, and...
in Spain.
In concert, she performed Das Lied von der Erde
Das Lied von der Erde
Das Lied von der Erde is a large-scale work for two vocal soloists and orchestra by the Austrian composer Gustav Mahler...
by Mahler with the Orchestre de Paris directed by Christoph Eschenbach
Christoph Eschenbach
Christoph Eschenbach , born February 20, 1940, Breslau, Germany is a German-born pianist and conductor. He currently holds positions in Washington, D.C. as music director of the National Symphony Orchestra and music director of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.-Early...
and the Orchestre national de Lille conducted by Jean-Claude Casadesus
Jean-Claude Casadesus
Jean-Claude Casadesus is a French conductor.Casadesus was born in Paris on December 7, 1935, the son of actress Gisèle Casadesus and her husband Lucien Pascal...
. She sang Verdi's Requiem
Requiem (Verdi)
The Messa da Requiem by Giuseppe Verdi is a musical setting of the Roman Catholic funeral mass for four soloists, double choir and orchestra. It was composed in memory of Alessandro Manzoni, an Italian poet and novelist much admired by Verdi. The first performance in San Marco in Milan on 22 May...
with the Orchestre de Besançon, Poème de l'amour et de la mer
Poème de l'amour et de la mer
The Poème de l'amour et de la mer , op. 19, is a song cycle for voice and orchestra by Ernest Chausson. It was composed over an extended period between 1882 and 1892 and dedicated to Henri Duparc...
with the Orchestra Festival Marmande, Mozart's Requiem
Requiem (Mozart)
The Requiem Mass in D minor by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was composed in Vienna in 1791 and left unfinished at the composer's death. A completion by Franz Xaver Süssmayr was delivered to Count Franz von Walsegg, who had anonymously commissioned the piece for a requiem Mass to commemorate the...
and Mendelssohn's Elijah
Elijah (oratorio)
Elijah, in German: Elias, is an oratorio written by Felix Mendelssohn in 1846 for the Birmingham Festival. It depicts various events in the life of the Biblical prophet Elijah, taken from the books 1 Kings and 2 Kings in the Old Testament....
with Symphony Orchestra Tours, the Stabat Mater by Pergolesi
Giovanni Battista Pergolesi
Giovanni Battista Pergolesi was an Italian composer, violinist and organist.-Biography:Born at Iesi, Pergolesi studied music there under a local musician, Francesco Santini, before going to Naples in 1725, where he studied under Gaetano Greco and Francesco Feo among others...
and Respighi
Ottorino Respighi
Ottorino Respighi was an Italian composer, musicologist and conductor. He is best known for his orchestral "Roman trilogy": Fountains of Rome ; Pines of Rome ; and Roman Festivals...
's Il Tramonto with the National Chamber Orchestra of Toulouse, Mahler
Gustav Mahler
Gustav Mahler was a late-Romantic Austrian composer and one of the leading conductors of his generation. He was born in the village of Kalischt, Bohemia, in what was then Austria-Hungary, now Kaliště in the Czech Republic...
's Des Knaben Wunderhorn
Des Knaben Wunderhorn
Des Knaben Wunderhorn is a collection of German folk poems edited by Achim von Arnim and Clemens Brentano, and published in Heidelberg, in the Grand Duchy of Baden, between 1805 and 1808...
with Opera Rouen, the Alto Rhapsody
Alto Rhapsody
The Alto Rhapsody, Op 53, is a work for contralto, male chorus, and orchestra by Johannes Brahms. It was written as a wedding gift for Robert and Clara Schumann's daughter, Julie. Brahms scholars have long speculated that the composer may have had romantic feelings for Julie, which he may have...
by Brahms with the Orchestre national de Lille, The Diary of One Who Disappeared
The Diary of One Who Disappeared
The Diary of One Who Disappeared is a song cycle for tenor, alto, three female voices and piano, written by Czech composer Leoš Janáček.- Background :...
by Janáček in Brussels.
External links
- Musicaglotz Artists' Management. Biography: Qiulin Zhang
- Madame Butterfly, Opéra de Marseille. Production photographs and review on Forum Opéra