John Malveaux: The Arts Desk Q&A: Soprano Nicole Cabell: The outstanding American singer on winning Cardiff, crying in performance and Kate Bush

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John Malveaux

The Arts Desk Q&A
by David NiceMonday, 07 April 2014

DAVID NICE: I don’t know how you’ve felt about that Cardiff performance since, but it seemed close to perfect to me.

NICOLE CABELL: I appreciate that – it’s an incredible compliment. It’s funny because we singers reckon hell will freeze over before we win something like that, and now I look at it and think, there’s a million things I did wrong and could do better now. Of course I guess if I got to the point where I didn’t see a flaw in my voice I should probably retire.

So how in your perception has the voice matured since then?

It has been a long time. There are certainly things in the Mozart performances which strike me when I see it, because I hadn’t sung a complete Mozart opera at all up to that point, I’d never even performed any of Ilia’s arias [from Idomeneo]. And 2006 was my first Pamina [in The Magic Flute] at Palm Beach, Florida: I learned through the course of that how to approach Mozart. Otherwise, stylistically things have changed a lot. In terms of the voice, my middle range is developing, and the sound is getting a little bit fuller, and this is the direction I wanted to go in then. But we’re almost 10 years on, and I’m singing some repertoire which is a little bit more reflective of that, so Mimì's coming up [in Puccini’s La Bohème].