Rocky Duval, American mezzo-soprano, has been hailed as “extravagant” (NY Times), “beautiful - visually and vocally,” (Deviant Opera), and “deeply moving” (NYPL-LPA).
The 2024-2025 season brought Ms. Duval to Seattle Opera to reprise her role as Eda in Paige Hernandez’s Stomping Grounds, as well as to Princeton University to play Anne Bonny in a workshop of Kamala Sanakram’s opera, Custom of the Coast, a co-production with the Guggenheim’s Works and Process. In New York, she played Iro in Monterverdi’s Il Ritorno d'Ulisse with ARTEK Early Music. She was the mezzo-soprano soloist in Bach’s Magnificat at the Burlington Baroque Festival. As a recitalist, Ms. Duval sang with Theotokos Early Music in Scenes from the Life of Mary featuring works by Strozzi, Sances, Scarlatti, and Purcell.
In 2023-2024, Ms. Duval debuted her work Hildegard, Reborn at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts in Lincoln Center to wide acclaim. She sang Erismena in L’Erismena by Cavalli at the Amherst Early Music Festival, and was a part of many recording sessions with Fourth Wall Ensemble, including Emmy-winning composer Jeff Beal’s The Cabinet of Dr. Caligary which debuted at Carnegie Hall. She was a resident artist at 2B&2C Gallery in the East Village, and was a young artist at Tafelmusik Baroque Summer Institute, where she sang solos in works by Bach, Handel, and Charpentier.
During the 2021-2022 season, she was a soloist at the Montreal Bach Festival, won first place in Japan’s Isa-Shima Singing Competition, sang Jack Frost in a workshop of The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus with American Opera Projects, and debuted as Hansel in Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel with Playground Opera NY.
In the 2020-2021 season, Ms. Duval was accepted to American Bach Soloists, made her debut with Experiments in Opera singing various roles in the podcast opera, Aquanet and Funyuns. She was a featured soloist in Opera Steamboat’s gala, and sang the role of Hekya in Jeffrey Leiser’s Freydis and Gudrid, which can be found on IMdB, and streaming on Amazon. Her voice was also featured in a McDonald’s Christmas Commercial in 2021.
In 2016-2017, Ms. Duval made her Glimmerglass debut singing Eda in Paige Hernandez’s Stomping Grounds, sang Pamina in Die Zauberflöte with Playground Opera NY, covered Carmen and Michaela for Royal Caribbean Cruise lines, and debuted as Damon in Handel’s Acis and Galatea with the Westchester Baroque Festival. She was also a featured singer at a MET Opera Guild Masterclass with Jane Marsh. She sang her first Messiah with L’Harmonie des Saisons, as the mezzo soloist.
Also in 2016, Ms. Duval made her debut with Opera Steamboat singing Rosalba in Daniel Catán Florencia en el Amazonas, and sang Paula in Rio de Mujeres by Hector Armienta in her Ópera Cultura debut. She was a session singer with the London Philharmonic in Nilda Scalise’s Symphony of Poems.
NOTABLE CONCERT WORK
Ms. Duval’s soloist concert experience includes Mozart Requiem, Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater, Haydn Creation, Handel Messiah, Bach Magnificat, St, John Passion, St. Matthew Passion, Vivaldi Stabat Mater, Gloria, Faure Requiem, Mendelssohn Midsummer, Grancini Dulcis Christis, Isaac Missa la Spagna, Sances Stabat Mater, Scarlatti Stabat Mater.