Sally Dibblee
Soprano
“Sally Dibblee as Susanna is top-notch, her soaring soprano a delight and her acting full on nuance.”
– The Edmonton Sun
Soprano Sally Dibblee continues to enjoy success on stages and concert halls throughout North America. Her engagements in 2007-2008 and beyond include Violetta in La traviata in New Brunswick, Nedda in I pagliacci for the Vancouver Opera, her role debut as Cio-Cio San in Madama Butterfly for Opera Pacific Victoria, Donna Elvira in Calgary, and Mimi in La bohème with the Toronto Symphony.
Miss Dibblee’s performances in 2006-2007 included Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni for Opera Ontario, Desdemona in Verdi’s Otello in Ottawa and Manitoba, and recitals at venues such as the Indian River Festival and the newly opened Waterloo Entertainment Centre. She opened the 2005-2006 season as Liu in Turandot for both the Vancouver and Calgary Operas, followed by Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni for Opera Ontario, and Mimi in La Bohème in Edmonton. In the 2004-05 season Miss Dibblee’s engagements included her company debut as Mimi for The Atlanta Opera, recitals in Edmonton, Calgary and Fredrickton, Mahler’s 2nd Symphony with the Utah Symphony, and her first Verdi Requeim at the Elora Festival in Toronto.
Miss Dibblee opened the 2003-04 season as Marguerite in Faust with Utah Opera, was Liù with Edmonton Opera, made her role début as Nedda in I pagliacci and Carmina Burana with Opera Pacific in Costa Mesa, California. and a company début at Arizona Opera as Mimì in La bohème. She opened the 2002-03 season as Mimì in La bohème with Opera Ontario and continued with Violetta in La traviata with Calgary Opera. She made concert appearances with symphony orchestras in Edmonton, Ontario and Calgary. In 2001-02, Miss Dibblee made her role début as Violetta in La traviata for Opera Pacific Victoria. The soprano was next heard as Blanche in Calgary Opera’s Dialogues of the Carmelites and Liù in the New Orleans Opera production of Turandot. She rounded out the season as Musetta for Opera Lyra Ottawa. Recent performances also include Fiordiligi in Così fan tutte for Edmonton Opera, the title role in The Ballad of Baby Doe for Utah Opera, Micaëla in Carmen for New Orleans Opera and Liù in Turandot for Kentucky Opera.
Miss Dibblee’s successful Canadian career has included Susanna in Edmonton’s production of Le nozze di Figaro, Marguerite in Faust with Winnipeg Opera and Rosalinde in Die Fledermaus for Calgary Opera. She also starred in a series of gala concerts for the Canadian Opera Company and repeated her celebrated Carmina Burana in Halifax. In the summer of 2000 Miss Dibblee created the role of Blossom in Game Misconduct, a new opera by composer Leslie Uyeda for Festival Vancouver.
Acclaimed by Vancouver critics for her “floating high pianissimos” and “tender, rapturous, and pure” singing as Susannah in Carlisle Floyd’s homonymous opera, Miss Dibblee reprised this role for Opera Ontario and Opera in Concert. In the 1998-99 season Miss Dibblee sang Musetta in Vancouver Opera’s La bohème, the Governess in The Turn of the Screw with Manitoba Opera and Zerlina in Don Giovanni for Opera Ontario in Kitchener and Hamilton. Other roles with Opera Ontario include Despina in Così fan tutte and Musetta in La bohème.
A former member of the Canadian Opera Company Ensemble Studio, Miss Dibblee made her COC main stage début as Frasquita in Carmen, followed by the leading role of Camilla in the world premiere of Randolph Peters’ Nosferatu, as well as Musetta, and Lauretta in Gianni Schicchi. She triumphed at short notice as Pamina in Calgary Opera’s Die Zauberflöte and has been a frequent guest artist with the opera companies of Winnipeg and Edmonton as well as the Banff Centre for the Performing Arts.
On the concert stage, she has been soloist with the Calgary Philharmonic for Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony and Lloyd Webber’s Requiem, with Messiah for the Winnipeg Symphony, the Elora Festival Singers, and the Bach-Elgar Choir of Hamilton. Carmina Burana has been her starring vehicle with the Edmonton Symphony, Kingston Symphony, Bach-Elgar Choir, and the Elmer Iseler Singers of Toronto. Audiences for the Huronia and North York symphonies have enjoyed Miss Dibblee in programs devoted to the music of Barber and Puccini, and she appeared as soloist in Mozart’s Requiem for Chorus Niagara in St. Catherine’s, Ontario. In recital, Miss Dibblee appears often with The Aldeburgh Connection in Toronto, on CBC, and at the Elora Festival. Her performance of Le Souvenir: Canadian Songs for Parlour and Stage, a recording of Canadian Heritage Songs, has been released as a CD on CBC Centredisc label.
