Mezzo-Soprano Rebecca Jo Loeb
Biography
Hailed as “a theatrical performer whose rise to watch” by Opera News, Rebecca Jo Loeb’s recent reprisal of Garderoberie/Gymnasiast/ein Groom in Lulu with Franz Welser-Möst conducting the Cleveland Orchestra, Bach’s St. John Passion with the Florida Orchestra, Weill’s The Firebrand of Florence at Tanglewood and in Boston, as well as her Kennedy Center debut, returning to the role she created in the critically-acclaimed world premiere of Reid’s PRISM, Lumee, were all cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Her first performances of PRISM were at Los Angeles Opera before repeating the work at the Theatro Municipal de São Paulo and with Beth Morrison Projects in New York, all company debuts as well. Other recent performances include a return to the Deutsche Oper Berlin for Schönberg’s Pierrot Lunaire with Donald Runnicles conducting, Sciarrino’s Vanitas with the Oldenburg Ballet, as well as returns to the New York Festival of Song for Blitzstein’s No for an Answer, Weill’s Der Silbersee, and to reprise Bernstein’s Arias and Barcarolles.
Ms. Loeb spent five seasons in the ensembles of the Deutsche Oper Berlin and Hamburgische Staatsoper, at which her performances included Cherubino in Le nozze di Figaro, Rosina in Il barbiere di Sviglia, Siebel in Faust, Hänsel in Hänsel und Gretel, Orlofsky in Die Fledermaus, the Fox in The Cunning Little Vixen, Oreste in La Belle Helene, Francis in Britten’s Gloriana, Mercedes in Carmen, Flosshilde in Die Walküre, Dryad in Ariadne auf Naxos, the Page in Salome, Zweite Magd in Elektra, and Zweite Dame in Die Zauberflöte. Following her performances of Bellante in Händel’s Almira in Hamburg, she reprised the role at the Innsbrucker Festwochen der Alte Musik.
Other recent engagements include her debuts with the Metropolitan Opera as Flora in La traviata; Oper Köln as The Fox in The Cunning Little Vixen; Dutch National Opera and Teatro Municipal de Santiago as Eine Theater Garderoberie/Gymnasiast/ein Groom in Lulu, directed by William Kentridge; Festival d`Aix-en-Provence as the Second Angel and Marie in the world premiere of Benjamin’s Written on Skin; Dallas Opera as Fyodor in Boris Godunov, Theater Freiburg as Susan in Weill’s Love Life, and Teatro Regio di Torino as a Blumenmädchen in Parsifal
In concert Rebecca has performed with the Hamburg Ballet in Handel’s Messiah and Bach’s St. John Passion and with the CPE Bach Chor as soloist in Bach’s St. Mark Passion and The Jenny and Johnny Project at both the Kurt Weill Festival in Dessau and the Brecht Festival in Augsburg. She joined James Conlon in a concert performance of Mahagonny Sonspiel at the Ravinia Festival and sang Mendelssohn ́s Midsummer Night’s Dream with the New York City Ballet, Bach ́s Mass in B minor at Carnegie Hall, and made her Alice Tully Hall debut singing Bolcom ́s acclaimed Cabaret Songs. Other roles to her credit are Meg Page in Falstaff, Grimgerde in Die Walküre, Alisa in Lucia di Lammermoor, Zweite Magd and Dritte Magd in Elektra, Jenny in The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny, Elmire in Tartuffe, Paquette in Candide, Madame Brillante in L’italiana in Londra, Dorthée in Cendrillon, and Second Witch and the Spirit in Dido and Aeneas. Additionally, she has performed with the Mark Morris Dance Company, The Glimmerglass Festival, New Hampshire Symphony, Tanglewood Music Center, Central City Opera, and Aspen Opera Theatre.
A champion of new music, Rebecca Jo has recorded songs of Stephan Wolpe and Ursula Monk on Bridge Records and performed songs of Wolpe in Weill Concert Hall. She performed roles in Lucrezia and Bastianello (operas commissioned for the New York Festival of Song by William Bolcom and John Musto, respectively) at Moab Music Festival, the role of the Swiss Grandmother in Adams’ Death of Klinghoffer with Mr. Adams conducting, as a one-woman opera in Sciarrino ́s Vanitasat the Hamburg State Opera ́s Black Box Theater, and the songs of Tom Cipullo and Ricky Ian Gordon with the composers at the piano. Equally at home in musical theater, Rebecca Jo joined the Boston Pops as Carrie in Carousel, Petra in A Little Night Music, and on its Bernstein Tour. She made her Broadway debut Ladies Who Sing Sondheim starring Angela Lansbury and Patti Lupone.
Her awards include a Sullivan Educational Award, the Curt Englehorn Scholarship from the Opera Foundation, first prize in the Lotte Lenya Competition, a 2009 Career Bridges grant, and the Ginney and John Starkey Young Artist Award at Central City Opera. She is a proud graduate of the Juilliard School, The Manhattan School of Music, and especially the University of Michigan, from which she received the Stanley Medal.
“Rebecca Jo Loeb, her mezzo textured and agile, made a notable Met debut as Flora Bervoix.”
—New York Times
Raves
“...a theatrical performer whose rise to watch.”
— Opera News
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