Ashley Dixon

Mezzo-soprano Ashley Dixon is a bright shining star on today’s opera and concert stages. This season she performs Les Nuits d’été of Hector Berlioz with the Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra under the baton of Matthew Kraemer and joins the roster of Lyric Opera of Kansas City to cover Rosina in Il Barbiere di Siviglia with a team that includes conductor James Lowe and stage director Morris Panych. Ms. Dixon will also conduct a masterclass at the University of Indiana. Last season she performed with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra as The Queen in Mendelssohn’s oratorio Elijah with James Conlon on the podium; returned to the San Francisco opera to sing Zweite Dame in Die Zauberflöte in the inventive production from Barrie Kosky and Suzanne Andrade with Music Director Eun Sun Kim on the podium; joined Houston Grand Opera to cover the role of Elizabeth Van Lew in the world premiere of Intelligence, a new work from composer Jake Heggie and librettist Gene Scheer, conducted by Kwamé Ryan; and sang the demanding role of Adalgisa in Bellini’s bel canto masterpiece Norma with Palm Beach Opera led by conductor Carlo Montanaro and director Keturah Stickann as well as with the Boston Youth Symphony conducted by Federico Cortese and Joshua Major on stage direction. Her concert appearances included the Elgar’s Sea Pictures with the Coastal Symphony of Georgia led by Music Director Michelle Merrill on the podium; Mozart’s Requiem with the Fort Wayne Philharmonic conducted by Andrew Constantine; and joining a gala celebration with New Orleans Opera as a guest for Lisette Oropesa in Concert conducted by Joseph Colaneri.

Recent engagements include her critically acclaimed debuts with LA Opera in Roberto Devereux (Sara) under the baton of Eun Sun Kim and alongside bel canto veterans Ramon Vargas and Angela Meade as well as Amarillo Opera in Il barbiere di Siviglia (Rosina). On the concert stage she made debuts with Erie Philharmonic in Mozart’s Requiem and Boston Philharmonic for performances of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 at Symphony Hall in Boston and Carnegie Hall, and returned to the Ravinia Festival for Beethoven Symphony No. 9 and Die Zauberflöte (Zweite Dame); debuts at Opera Louisiane in the title role of Bolcom’s Lucrezia, Hawaii Opera Theatre in The Tragedy of Carmen (Carmen), Festival Opera in Norma (Adalgisa), and Tel Aviv Summer Opera in Carmen (title role); and a return to the Ravinia Festival for La clemenza di Tito (Annio) conducted by James Conlon and San Francisco Opera for a Schwabacher Debut Recital. She also embarked on a duet recital tour with her husband tenor Carlos Santelli. ​Ms. Dixon has made formidable debuts with Detroit Opera (née Michigan Opera Theatre) in Copland’s The Tender Land (Mrs. Splinters); Ravinia Festival in Ravel’s Shéhérazade. ; Des Moines Metro Opera in La Traviata (Flora); and workshopping Laura Kaminsky’s Hometown to the World: Postville (Linda Larsen) in addition to participating in San Francisco Opera’s “Opera for all Voices.”

​Ms. Dixon made her San Francisco Opera main stage debut in the world premiere of Heggie’s It’s a Wonderful Life (Angel First Class). During her two-year tenure as an Adler Fellow, she was seen in Carmen (Mércèdes), Rusalka (Third Wood Sprite), Manon Lescaut (Italian Singer), and Hansel and Gretel (Sandman). As a two-year participant in the Merola Opera Program, she was seen in Gianni Schicchi (La Ciesca), Menotti’s The Medium (Mrs. Nolan), Walton’s The Bear (Popova), and ended her summer season on the stage of the War Memorial Opera House, singing an aria from Cendrillon as part of the Merola Grand Finale concert.

Ms. Dixon continued to perform amid the pandemic joining The Atlanta Opera for her house and role debut as Carmen; was also a soloist in San Francisco Opera’s Holiday Gala alongside Michael Fabiano and Sondra Radvanovsky; and appeared as a featured guest artist with Opera San José as well as joining West Edge Opera for Elizabeth Cree (Doris). Ms. Dixon has cultivated a passion for French repertoire ranging from Baroque to Berlioz, with roles including Gluck’s Orphée, Cendrillon, Marguerite (La damnation de Faust), and Carmen. Additional roles in her formidable arsenal include the title roles of Ariodante, Giulio Cesare, and Angelina (La Cenerentola). Conductors with whom she has collaborated with include Marin Alsop, Patrick Summers, David Neely, Benjamin Zander, Jorge Parodi, Christopher Ocasek, Christopher Franklin, Clinton Smith, Robert Mollicone, Michael Ching, Bryan Nies, and Emily Senturia, in productions and stage appearances working with stage directors James Robinson, Tomer Zvulun, Fenlon Lamb, Mark Foehringer, and Karen Tiller,

Ms. Dixon earned her Bachelor of Music at the Louisiana State University and Master of Music at the University of Michigan, where she was seen in Handel’s Giulio Cesare (title role) and Heggie’s Dead Man Walking (Sister Helen Prejean). Ms. Dixon is a Grand Finals Winner of The Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions.

Contact

Worldwide Management
Muse Artists International
Jayme Burzette, Managing Director
333 West 57th Street, Suite 102
New York, New York 10019
Tel/WhatsApp: +1 347 489 1247
Email: jburzette@muse-artists.com

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REVIEWS

The three other winners struck me as more fully formed. The appealing, technically solid mezzo-soprano Ashley Dixon, 26, excelled in arias from Gluck’s “Orphée et Euridice” and Massenet’s “Cendrillon.”- Anthony Tommasini, New York Times

Mezzo-soprano Ashley Dixon, … , returned for a darkly arresting account of Marguerite’s “D’amour l’ardente flamme” from “The Damnation of Faust” by Berlioz, and the two [Image] wound up their evening with glittering passagework in parallel during an exquisite excerpt from Donizetti’s “Siege of Calais.”- Joshua Kosman, San Francisco Chronicle

Later on, her [Dixon] attentive and focused reading of Copland’s “I’ve heard an organ talk sometimes” winnowed out every implication in the song’s eight Emily Dickinson lines. Dixon made the most of the swerving comic narrative that Dinah, the unhappy wife sings in Trouble in Tahiti’s “What a Movie!” It made one of the big sustained splashes of the night, as Dixon surfed a musical tide from modal scales to a rhumba, a military march, and a tango.- Steven Winn, San Francisco Classical Voice

But let’s begin with the program’s most newsworthy selection — mezzo-soprano Ashley Dixon’s phenomenal performance of the aria “Dopo notte” from Handel’s opera Ariodante. After two years as an Adler, Dixon is far from an unknown quantity, yet this was the first time she had ever sung anything here from the Baroque repertoire. It turns out she’s a master at it. She’s got a robust instrument full of beguiling vocal colors (OK, that we knew), as well as the formidable technical command to unleash streams of glittering coloratura with precision and panache. From her throaty low register to her commanding high notes, all of it was delivered with equal assurance. This would have been a showstopper under any circumstances, but the fact that Dixon’s Handelian wizardry was such a well-kept secret only added to the jolt. It was like watching an ordinary person walk into a phone booth and emerge with a hitherto unsuspected superpower. - Joshua Kosman, San Francisco Chronicle

Another equally captivating performance is that of mezzo-soprano Ashley Dixon who, making her LA Opera debut, portrays Sara, Duchess of Nottingham, Queen Elizabeth’s close friend, and Devereux’s lover. She has the first sung performance of the night, and Dixon does not disappoint. Through impeccable vocal control, Dixon maneuvers the delicate vibratos, soft high notes, and chesty low notes that make up Sara’s aria in which she wrestles with her position as both close confidant to the queen, and betrayer of her trust. Dixon is able to show the complexities of this character through her performance, highlighting the lack of consent that surrounds Sara at various moments of her life, an issue that culminates in her final act of the opera, a moment of agency in which she brings Elizabeth proof of her involvement in Devereux’s betrayal. She wear blue as a counter to Elizabeth, and yet Dixon’s performance showcases the immense strength that this character possesses. - Flaunt

Mezzo-soprano Ashley Dixon, … , returned for a darkly arresting account of Marguerite’s “D’amour l’ardente flamme” from “The Damnation of Faust” by Berlioz, and the two [Image] wound up their evening with glittering passagework in parallel during an exquisite excerpt from Donizetti’s “Siege of Calais.”- Joshua Kosman, San Francisco Chronicle

The young mezzo-soprano Ashley Dixon made a winsome, sweet-toned Adalgisa. Her agile phrasing, emotional commitment and appealing stage presence produced a convincing portrait of the young aspiring priestess. -David Fleshler, South Florida Classical Review

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