Hailed by Opera for her “warmly-rounded sound with ease and impact at the top” and “crystalline diction,” French-Canadian mezzo soprano Nora Sourouzian opened season 2021/22 with her first Amneris in Aida with Den Jyske Opera after Lied der Waldtaube in Gurrelieder with Sønderjyllands Symfoniorkester in spring 2021. Before she was Ježibaba in Rusalka with Theater St. Gallen and Opéra National du Rhin and Azucena in Il trovatore at Saarländisches Staatstheater Saarbrücken in the 2020/21 season.
Nora Sourouzian now appears frequently in the more dramatic repertoire. In spring 2022 she sang Eboli in Don Carlo at Aaltotheater Essen as well as Amneris in Aida at Burgplatz Open Air in Braunschweig and in season 2022/23 Amneris again at the Royal Danish Opera Copenhagen.
She also sang Verdi Requiem with Aarhus Symfoniorkester in November 2019, after a series of Azucena in Il Trovatore with Seattle Opera, the Royal Danish Opera, Aaltotheater Essen, St. Galler Festspiele and Oper Graz. She made her company debut as Marguerite in La damnation de Faust with Opera Nacional de México at the Palacio de Bellas Artes. Nora Sourouzian appeared at Bard Summerscape as Marfa in Dvorak’s Dmitrij, and as Anita in Massenet’s La Navarraise, sang Mahler’s Symphony No. 3 with Orchestra Sinfónica de Chile in Santiago, and Frank Martin’s Die Weise von Liebe und Tod des Cornets Christoph Rilke with the Orchestre de Chambre de Genève.
Nora Sourouzian has sung many roles by Massenet, such as Thérèse and Anita in a double bill of Thérèse and La Navarraise which was highly acclaimed at Wexford Festival. Dulcinée in Don Quichotte at Teatro Massimo di Palermo, Myrtale in Thaïs at Théâtre du Chatelet Paris and Charlotte in Werther at Latvian National Theatre in Riga. She is known for her numerous interpretations as Carmen in over 20 productions over the globe, amongst other at Welsh National Opera, Den Norske Opera, Opéra de Québec, Oper Leipzig, Oper Köln, Latvian National Opera, Teatro Lirico di Cagliari, Teatro Comunale di Bologna, Teatro Amilcare Ponchielli Cremona, Oper Klagenfurt, Opernfestspiele St. Margarethen, Teatro Sociale di Como, and Opéra de Lausanne, both in Lausanne and on tour to Japan.
Her repertoire includes roles of rarities like Michael Daugherty’s Jackie O where she interpreted the role of Maria Callas (DVD recording of Jackie O by Michael Daugherty released by Dynamic), the role of Zulema in Aben Hamet by Théodore Dubois, Phaedra by Benjamin Britten or Pénélope by Gabriel Fauré, Nefertiti in Akhnaten by Philip Glass or Hérodiade in Salome by Mariotte.
While in the ensemble at Staatstheater Kassel she sang Idamante in Idomeneo, Romeo in I Capuleti e i Montecchi, Annina in Der Rosenkavalier, Dritte Dame in Die Zauberflöte. Prior to joining the ensemble in Kassel, Ms. Sourouzian was a young artist at the International Opera Centrum Nederland in Amsterdam where she sang the title role in The Rape of Lucretia. She was finalist in both the Hans Gabor Belvedere Singing Competition and Internationaler Gesangswettbewerb für Wagner Stimmen.
She has been working with conductors such as Michele Mariotti, Julia Jones, Christoph Eschenbach, Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Marc Minkowski, Leif Segerstam, Riccardo Frizza, Paolo Carignani, Andrea Sanguineti, Michael Balke, Srba Dinić or Modestas Pitrenas; and with stage directors such as David Pountney, Damiano Michieletto, Guy Montavon, Calixto Bieito, Roland Schwab, Nicola Raab, Vera Nemirova, Renaud Doucet, Rosetta Cucchi, Robert Carsen, Ben Baur or Patrice Caurier & Moshe Leiser.