Marion Seidel
Dramatic Mezzo-Soprano

A native of Darmstadt, the dramatic soprano studied voice at the Music Conservatories of Cologne and Hamburg where she was under the tutelage of Prof. Josef Metternich and Prof. Gisela Litz. She graduated with an opera diploma and a diploma as a teacher of voice.

She completed further studies and master courses studying with Christa Ludwig, Ingrid Bjoner, Elsa Cavelti, Anna Reynolds, the Wagner tenor Jean Cox, Jewgenij Nesterenko, and the Italian basso Lorenzo Gaetani in Venice.

During her studies she was engaged as a guest at Theater Hagen, Hamburg State Opera, and in the role of Dorabella in “Cosi fan tutte” at Theater Lübeck. She was also a Bayreuth Festival scholarship recipient and a finalist in the “Competition for Wagner Voices” in Bayreuth.

Marion Seidel made her professional debut in the role of Agathe in “Der Freischütz” at the theater Passau in Germany. This was followed by fixed engagements and guest contracts in dramatic soprano and mezzo-soprano at the theater Passau, Pforzheim, Lucerne, Kassel, Flensburg, Osnabrück, Freiburg, and the theater Augsburg. She sang roles such as Agathe (Freischütz, von Weber), Elisabetta (Don Carlos, Verdi), Foreign Princess (Rusalka, Dvorak), Santuzza (Cavallerina rusticana, Mascagni), Woman (La Voix Humaine, Poulenc), Hermia, Hippolyta (A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Britten), Boulotte (Barbe-bleue, Offenbach), Erda, Flosshilde (Rheingold, Wagner), and as the mezzo-soprano in “Verdi Requiem”.

An active concert schedule nationally and internationally was highlighted by performances at the Cologne Philharmonic, the Feierabendhaus at BASF Ludwigshafen, the theater Marl (Verdi Requiem), the Netherlands (Delft, Verdi Requiem), several times in Italy (Ascoli Piceno Festival), Spain (Barcelona), Czech Republic (Ostrava, Opava), Switzerland (Sils Maria), the Cedar Hall in Fugger Mansion Kirchheim, and the State Theater Darmstadt.

Another focus of the singer is classical song. She gave recitals at the Richard Wagner Association Baden-Baden and Freiburg i.Br, the Orangerie Darmstadt, the Toscana- Hall of Würzburg Residence, Staatstheater Darmstadt, and the Baltic House Darmstadt.

Her repertoire ranges from works of romanticism and late romanticism by Brahms, Schumann, Schubert, Liszt, and Wagner, to French and Russian song repertoire by Duparc, Berlioz, Tschaikowsky, Glinka and Rachmaninov, and includes works of classical modernism by Strauss, Mahler, Schönberg, Berg, Schreker, Krenek, and Weill.

Marion Seidel has sung under the direction of the conductors Klauspeter Seibel, Michael Hofstetter, Olaf Henzold, Peter Leonard and  Mstislav Rostropovich, and has worked with directors such as Philipp Himmelmann, Thomas Münstermann, Michael Schlüter-Padberg, Jean-Claude Auvray and Wolf Seesemann. She has also given concerts and song recitals with the pianists and accompanists Rainer Armbrust, Denette Whitter, Johannes Schmeller and Geoffrey Abbott, and has enjoyed a close and regular musical collaboration with the Russian pianist Irina Loskova.