Hailed as ‘a most promising talent' (Le Devoir) mezzo-soprano Mireille Lebel is fast
becoming one of Canada's most sought after young performers.

She recently completed her tenure as a young artist at the Montreal Opera and spends much of the coming season with Theatre Erfurt, making her European début as Cherubino in Le nozze di Figaro, and adding Ottone in Handel's Agrippina and the title role in L'Enfant et les sortileges to her repertoire.
She also adds the title role in Carmen which she will perform in her début with the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra. Further plans for the season include a recording of Blow's Venus and Adonis with the Boston Early Music Festival, and Handel's Messiah in her début with the Calgary Philharmonic.

Her 2008-2009 season saw a busy mix of opera and concert work including Mahler's 2nd Symphony with Jacques Lacombe and l'Orchèstre Symphonique de Trois-Rivières, a program of Vivaldi and Handel arias at Tel Aviv's Blumental Festival with Jeanne Lamon and Les Violons du Roy, Christmas Pops with Bob Bernhardt and the Edmonton Symphony, Haydn's Stabat Mater with Bernard Labadie (broadcast on Espace Musique), Cupid in Venus and Adonis with the Boston Early Music Festival, The Messiah with Jean-Marie Zeitouni and the San Antonio and Houston Symphonies, Dorabella in Cosi fan Tutte with l'Atelier Lyrique de l'Opéra de Montréal, Myrtale in Massenet's Thais with Pacific Opera Victoria, the role of Messagiera in Monteverdi's Orfeo, and the world premiere of a chamber work written for her by Canadian Michael Matthews, broadcast by the CBC.

In the 2007-2008 season she made important debuts with the André Turp Musical Society (Schubert recital) the Edmonton and Houston Symphony Orchestras (both for The Messiah) the Edmonton Opera (Carmen) and with Bernard Labadie and Les Violons du Roy in a Schubertiade recorded for broadcast on Radio Canada's Espace Musique.  As a member of the Atelier Lyrique de l'Opéra de Montréal from 2006-2009, she performed various roles with the company including Flora in La Traviata, Mallika in Lakmé (broadcast on National Public Radio), and Kate Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly. With the Atelier lyrique she has appeared as Concepcion in l'Heure Espagnole and Lisetta in Il Mondo della Luna.

She can be heard on disc on the Grammy nominated recordings of Lully's Thésée and Psyché on the German CPO label with the Boston Early Music Festival. Her work in Thésée was highly praised, the Frankfurter Allgemeine citing her performance as, ‘an ecstatic mixture of linguistically oriented delivery, shapeliness of phrase and a rich spectrum of vocal colors brought together with high musicianship.' In the field of contemporary music, she toured Wales and England (including appearances at the Buxton Festival) in Welsh-Canadian composer John Metcalf`s comic opera A Chair in Love, and she made her Linbury Theatre, Royal Opera House debut in Canadian Ana Sokolovic's opera, The Midnight Court, with Toronto's Queen of Puddings Music Theatre.

Ms. Lebel is the recipient of a Canada Council emerging artist grant. Awarded the Abbé Gadbois Bursary for French opera and mélodie from the University of Montreal, Ms. Lebel graduated there on scholarship with a Masters of Music. She received her Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Toronto.

Cosi fan tutte, Atelier lyrique de l'Opéra de Montréal - Montreal, mars et avril 2009 -Jacques Hétupour ResMusica.com le 01/04/2009

"D'emblée, c'est toute l'équipe qui nous fait vivre des moments délicieux et du bon théâtre. Une talentueuse Fiordiligi, tenue par Caroline Bleau, belle prestance sur scène, voix un peu verte pour un rôle aussi exigeant mais avec des qualités évidentes. La mezzo-soprano Mireille Lebel en Dorabella, campe un personnage certes plus extérieur, plus spontané sans doute parce que le rôle l'exige. Deux voix qui méritent toute notre attention. Chacune à sa façon habite son personnage avec subtilité et brio : complémentaires et complices en amour. Les deux jeunes femmes, sémillantes, pieds-nus au premier acte, ne sont pourtant pas interchangeables. On ne s'ennuie pas avec de tels partenaires."

Greenmountain Opera Festival, Opera Gala, March 2009 - By Jim LoweTimes Argus - 11 mars 2009

‘Venus' strives for mythical beauty
By Christine Fernsebner | Monday, December 1, 2008 | http://www.bostonherald.com | Arts & Culture
Like the hostess of an abnormally talented garden party, Mireille Lebel presided over the gathering, catalyzing action with graceful, long-limbed gestures, and lending her delicious mezzo-soprano to an 8-year-old Cupid

Thais, Pacific Opera Victoria, October 2008
Timothy Vernon/Renaud Doucet et Andre Barbe
Role of Myrtale

www.reviewvancouver.org, 2008
The smaller roles of Crobyle and Myrtale were impressively taken by Julie Daoust and Mirielle Lebel, yet more fine singers from Quebec, which seems to have no end of them these days.
J.H. Stape

L'Heure Espagnole, Atelier lyrique de l'Opéra de Montréal
Monumnet Nationale, Montréal, mars et avril 2008
Alain Trudel/Gilbert Turp
Role de Concepcion
Le Devoir, 28 Mars 2008, Christophe Huss
'Beau plateau, donc, dominé par le ténor raffiné Antoine Bélanger et le charme de Mireille Lebel, qui s'affirme, après les Michèle Losier, Philipp Addis, Marie-Josée Lord, Étienne Dupuis, Marianne Fiset et d'autres, comme la vedette de cette promotion de jeunes chanteurs.
La Presse, 28 Mars 208, Claude Gingras
'À la première, mercredi, Mireille Lebel a incarné l'aguichante Concepcion de Ravel avec une bonne voix, une excellente diction et de l'intelligence.'
Schubertiade, Les Violons du Roy, Montreal et Quebec, March 2008
Bernard Labadie

Le Soleil, 8 mars 2008, Quebec
« Schubertiade au Palais Montcalm : une soirée délectable»
...La contribution de la mezzo-soprano Mireille Lebel aura été aussi courte qu'appréciée. Cette jeune et grande rousse pleine de spontanéité est apparue dans une flamboyante robe écarlate pour chanter la Sérénade. Sa jolie voix transparente faisait penser à l'air du matin, fraîche et légèrement piquante...
Richard Boisvert

"Retenons au premier acte, le charmant duo avec Mireille Lebel, Viens, Mallika, où les voix comme des lianes en fleurs s'entrelacent à un jardin suspendu, dans la douceur d'un matin parfumé...

...Mention particulière à la Mallika de Mireille Lebel, pour l'excellente d'une voix chatoyante et sa présence sur scène" (Resmusica , Jacques Hétu, 02/2007)

"Quant a Mireille Lebel, elle me semble le talent le plus prometteur des pensionnaires de l'Atelier lyrique" (Le Devoir, Christophe Huss, 02/2007)

"No wonder that during the first intermission of Opéra de Montréal's production of Lakmé half the guys in the queue to the washroom were either humming or whistling the Flower duet. Great as the British Airways versions are, if you're in Montreal you can hear the melody as it was meant to be heard, beautifully sung by Canadian sopranos Aline Kutan (Lakmé) and Mireille Lebel (Mallika) in this first co-production with Opera Australia." (The Globe and Mail, Alan Conter, 02/2007)

"Mezzo-soprano Mireille Lebel from the OdeM Atelier program, supported Kutan admirably in the famous Act 1 duet." (The Gazette, Arthur Kaptainis, 02/2007)

“And Mireille Lebel demonstrates in the three roles of Dorine, Venus and Sheperdess, what perfect baroque singing can be: an ecstatic mixture of linguistically oriented delivery, shapeliness of phrase and a rich spectrum of vocal colors brought together with high musicianship. “(Gerhard Rohde, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung -11 August 2007) (Translated from German) 

“Doch vor allen ist die Mezzosopranistin Mireille Lebel in den Rollen als Dorine und Venus hervorzuheben: Perfekte Technik, souveräne Gestaltung und insbesondere eine ganze Palette von Farben adeln ihren Gesang. Mit einem sehr persönlichen Timbre gelingt ihr ein sinnlicher, in den bedeutungsschwangeren Vokalschattierungen hinreißender Vortrag.” (Christoph Vratz , Opernwelt, August 2007) 

“Mireille Lebel, Suzie Leblanc et Olivier Laquerre sont parfaits dans leurs rôles de personnages légers, dont les conflits anodins mettent en valeur, par un jeu d'ombres chinoises, ceux des acteurs principaux ”. (Philippe Gervais, La Scena Musicale, Juillet-août 2007 )

"Une mention pour la Flora de Mireille Lebel, pensionnaire de l’Atelier lyrique dont on suivra l’evolution avec interet."(Opéra Magazine, Christophe Huss, 01/2007)

"Supporting roles were all effectively done, particularly mezzo-soprano Mireille Lebel's effervescent Flora."(Times Argus, Jim Lowe, 11/2006)

"A fabulous chorus of four women, who double as musical instruments for much of the score, is played with panache by Xin Wang, Hanah Shelton, Mireille Lebel, and Catharin Carew".(Toronto Star, John Terauds, 06/2005)

"The title character, a teenaged boy, was played by a twentysomething woman, Montreal-based mezzo soprano Mireille Lebel. This exercise in gender-bending worked remarkably well, given that Lebel was a commanding presence and that Kaspar represents innocence corrupted by experience."(Winnipeg Free Press, Morley Walker, 05/2005)