Zheng Cao

Zheng Cao is a regular guest of leading companies here and abroad. A personal favorite of Seiji Ozawa, she has appeared with him as Marguerite in a concert presentation of La Damnation de Faust at the Saito Kinen Festival, mezzo-soprano soloist in Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony for the recent Winter Olympic Games in Japan, and as Suzuki in Madama Butterfly for her debut with the Boston Symphony Orchestra.

She began her professional career with the San Francisco Opera as an Adler Fellow and has subsequently performed Idamante in Idomeneo, Cherubino in Le Nozze di Figaro, Dorabella in Così fan tutte, Nicklausse in Les Contes d’Hoffman, Siebel in Faust, and Suzuki, and the world premiere of Bonesetter’s Daughter. She has also performed at Los Angeles Opera as Zerlina in Don Giovanni and Penelope in Il Ritorno di Ulisse in Patria, and at Houston Grand Opera as Varvara in Katya Kabanova, their world premiere production of Salsipuedes and as Cherubino.

On the concert stage, she has performed Ravel’s Sheherazade with the Honolulu Symphony, Mahler’s Des Knaben Wunderhorn with the San Francisco Ballet, Handel’s Messiah with the National Symphony Orchestra and the Warsaw Philharmonic, and Mendelssohn’s Midsummer Night’s Dream with the Boston Symphony. She has also appeared in recital at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C.

She holds a Bachelor’s degree from the Shanghai Conservatory of Music and a Master’s Degree from the Curtis Institute of Music. She was a 1992 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions finalist and a winner of the 1993 Palm Beach Opera International Vocal Competition.