Delores Ziegler

Delores Ziegler (born 4 September 1951) is an American mezzo-soprano who has had an active international performance career since the late 1970s. A former resident artist at the Cologne Opera, she has performed leading roles with many of the world's best opera houses, including La Scala, the Lyric Opera of Chicago, the Metropolitan Opera, the San Francisco Opera, and the Vienna State Opera. She is currently a professor of voice at the University of Maryland. While she has performed a broad repertoire, she is widely admired for her performances in operas by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Richard Strauss; particularly Cherubino in The Marriage of Figaro, Dorabella in Così fan tutte, Idamante in Idomeneo, and Octavian in Der Rosenkavalier.

Born in Atlanta, Ziegler earned a Bachelor of Music degree from Maryville College (1973) and a Master of Arts degree in vocal performance from the University of Tennessee where she was a pupil of Edward Zambara. After first performances in concert, she made her operatic debut as Flora in Verdi's La traviata in Oxfield, Tennessee in 1978. In 1979 she was a finalist in the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. That same year she performed the role of Maddalena in Verdi's Rigoletto at the Opera Theatre of Saint Louis.

After an apprenticeship with the Santa Fe Opera, Ziegler went to Germany to pursue further studies in opera with bass-baritone Hans Hotter; making her European debut soon after at Theater Bonn in 1981 as Emilia in Verdi's Otello. This performance was followed by return engagements at that opera house as Dorabella in Mozart's Così fan tutte and Octavian in Strauss' Der Rosenkavalier. In 1982 she became a resident artist at the Cologne Opera where she achieved critical success as Cherubino in Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro in 1983, Prince Orlovsky in Die Fledermaus by Johann Strauss in 1985, and as Octavian. She married a fellow resident artist at the Cologne Opera, tenor Randall Outland.