Welcome to the spanish soprano website
The spanish soprano Estrella Cuello was born in Zaragoza (Spain). She began singing studies with Pilarín Andrés, piano with Jesús Gutierrez and harpsichord with Begoña Pérez at the Città di Roma Conservatory, graduating as a teacher in these specialties. Estrella is a FIDAH scholarship holder and finishes studies of Pedagogy of the Musical Language in the High School of Music of Aragon with the Pedagogue Judith Faller. At the same time, the spanish soprano finishes studies of singing in the High School of Music of the Liceu Great Theater of Barcelona under the tutoring of the soprano Enriqueta Tarrés. She also studied musicology at the University of La Rioja and perfected her vocal technique and repertoire with internationally renowned Maestros such as Montserrat Caballé, Teresa Berganza, Virginia Zeani, Antonio Marcenò, Paul Farrington, Robert Expert, Rinaldo Alessandrini, Eduardo López Banzo, Ana María Sánchez, Ana Luisa Chova, Carlos Chausson, Raul Jiménez, Isabel Rey, Josefina Arregui, Eliberto Sánchez-Brau and Miguel Zanetti between others. She has been a finalist in the Montserrat Caballé Scholarship, the Germans Pla Competition and the International Music Tournament.
In the 2009 season, the spanish soprano Estrella Cuello debuted with the role of Violeta of Verdi’s Traviata together with the tenor Eduardo Aladrén, conducted by the maestro Juan Luis Martínez in the Mozart Hall of the Zaragoza Auditorium. In the 2010 season Estrella was cover of the soprano Ainhoa Arteta in the opera Puccini’s Bohème (role of Mimí and Musetta) and in December of 2011 she returns to interpret in Bologna the role of Musetta of La Bohème under the batton of the Maestro Giuseppe Sforza . In the 2011 season she debuts in the role of Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute), with great success of public and press, as the magazine Opera Actual (September 2011). Currently, the extensive repertoire of the spanish soprano Estrella Cuello covers almost all of the great roles of lyric soprano in opera, zarzuela and oratory. Highlight her participation as a soloist in Schumann’s Requiem performed in September of 2018 in the Principal Theater of Burgos with the Youth Symphony Orchestra of Burgos and the Orfeón Cántabro, conducted under the baton of maestro Pedro Bartolomé Arce, the Beethoven Choral Fantasy performed in Santander Cathedral in December 2018 and Mozart’s Requiem performed with great success (Diario Alert de Cantabria) in December 2019 at the Casyc Theater of Santander with the Cantabria Philharmonic Association Symphony Orchestra, AEDEA orchestra and the Orfeón Cántabro, Jorge Manrique choir, Atalaya chori and Tomás Luis de Victoria choir, directed by maestro Cesar Vinagrero.
The spanish soprano has performed and recorded in Milan the operas Vanna (Vanna role) of Pavanelli, Pinotta (role Pinotta) and Cavalleria Rusticana (rol Lola) of Mascagni for the Operabook label, under the musical batton of the maestros Vito le Ro, Piergiorgio di Cola and Francesco Ledda, with the orchestra and choirs of Bergamo and Milano. And in the field of early music, Estrella Cuello has recorded the first integral edition of the madrigals and arias of Le Nuove Musiche (1602) by Giulio Caccini for the Ibs Classical label at the Sanctuary of Las Caldas in Cantabria and the Manuel de Falla Auditorium in Granada, accompanied by the baritone David Rubiera, Ars Polyphonic, the harpsichordist Dario Moreno, conductor of the Baroque Orchestra of Granada and the tiorba and baroque guitar Francisco López. Docenotas magazine (June 2019) dedicates a beautiful review describing it as “Document, work of art and sound book”, seconded by Scherzo Magazine (September 2019) with another wonderful review.The work was premiered in December of 2017 at the Euskalduna Palace in Bilbao and was represented in the Sala Bianca of the Palazzo Pitti, on the occasion of the fourth centenary of the death of Giulio Caccini, an event organized by the Galleria degli Uffizi. Other works are the recording as solo soprano of the albums “La Ópera, todo emoción”, commercialized worldwide and recommended by specialized magazines like Melómano (February 2011) and “Noches de Ópera y Zarzuela” with the tenor Alberto Núñez for the Several Records label. She has also recorded “Tango En-Canto” and “Pasión Española: De la Copla a la Zarzuela” conducted the orchestra by the maestro José Marco. She is currently preparing the recording of the album “Mozart’s Requiem” conducted by the maestro Cesar Vinagrero.
The spanish soprano Estrella Cuello has performed many oratory, lied, opera and zarzuela concerts in important auditoriums of Europe, America and Asia. Also like soprano soloist she has released songs dedicated to her by the cantabrian composer Luis Ángel Martínez and she has released works of the contemporary composers as Jesus Navarro and Luis Mateo Acín conducted by maestro Nacho de Paz. Within the avant-garde currents, she has worked for the Botín Foundation collaborating with the English painter, composer and designer Martin Creed, being an interpreter of his performance Friends.
In the last years, the spanish soprano has also managed and performed artistic lyric productions in stages such as the Municipal Theater Concha Espina, Casyc Theater and Santander Cathedral, Cantabria Festival Palace, Paraninfo of the Cantabria University and the Bilbao Euskalduna Palace: operas Don Giovanni and Le nozze di Figaro (Mozart ), Dido & Aeneas (Purcell), zarzuelas as Luisa Fernanda (Moreno Torroba), La Verbena de la Paloma (Tomás Breton) and La Gran Vía (Chueca/Valderde), oratorios as The Messiah (Händel), Messe des Pêcheurs and Requiem (Fauré), the Musical Jesus Christ Superstar (A.Lloyd Webber), the Musical West Side Story (L. Bernstein) and the show “Una Gala de Cine” with fragments of musicals as Grease, Miserables, Chicago and The Lion King among others, accompanied by the Municipal Band of Santander and Orchestra of the Philharmonic Association of Cantabria under the musical batton of the maestros Vicent Pelechano and Cesar Vinagrero.
The Spanish soprano is a cum laude Doctor in History, University of Zaragoza, where she also studied Laws and Economics. She is currently a lawyer at the ICAC and President of the Cultural Association Masquevoces. Estrella has combined his artistic and business career with the pedagogy of music in public secondary education institutes, conservatories and in the Faculty of Education of the University of Zaragoza. She has been teacher at the Città di Roma Conservatory in Zaragoza, Miguel Fleta Conservatory in Monzón (Huesca), Oreste Camarca Conservatory in Soria, Ataulfo Argenta Conservatory in Santander and currently she works at the Torrelavega Conservatory, that belongs to the Ministry of Education and Culture in Cantabria (Spain), where she teaches the specialties of singing, choir and voice workshop.
Spanish soprano who is known for blending expressive singing with intense acting.
Discover this soprano and singing pedagogue’s education and career, as well as her opera, zarzuela, oratorio, lied, art song and musical repertoire.
Discover the lyric soprano roles that she has performed, and the educational projects she has managed.
Diario El Mundo
15th April 2015 (J.V.Pérez)
“Faith, if it is illuminated by a Star (Mrs. Cuello) so much better for a kind of faith that moves mountains (schools of music, dance, art and more). Faith, stars, and hope, because without hope, without any rehearsals, without work and involvement from many people, this opera production would not have been possible”
Opera Actual
Melómano
February 2011
CD with the Chamber Orchestra Más que Voces:
“She owns a beautiful and unique voice quality of lyric soprano coloratura. Her album offers a serious selection of opera arias with intelligent, unpretentious arrangements that obtain, however, a more than brilliant result”.
Heraldo de Aragón
7th December , 2020 (F.J. Aguirre)
Concert Nights of opera and zarzuela at the Sala Galve of the Zaragoza Auditorium: “Estrella Cuello’s firm, round, fleshy, bright voice, with a wide tessitura and well-managed fiat brought color to the program. The interest of the concert was reinforced with the two final interventions outside the program by the singers. The soprano performed a poem of her own entitled “The girl looked sad” with music by Miguel del Castillo, which was a pleasant novelty in another vocal register. Tapia’s piano was always a firm endorsement, with skill and security. The duet of the Traviata was the final tip of the artists, who individually and jointly had an outstanding performance “
28th January 2013 (M. García)
Concert of the Circuit of Scenic Arts of Aragon:“Light lyric Soprano with good coloratura, she has a wide repertoire: She is comfortable both in the mozartian roles and in the role of Mimi in La Bohème. She has performed in Spain, France, Italy and Portugal, and every time she goes on stage is for her a small personal triumph”
10 th March 2011 (L.A. Bes)
Concert on International Women’s Day, Mozart Hall, Saragossa Auditorium (Spain): “Estrella Cuello’s subtle voice was successful and homogenous in ‘Casta Diva`, by Vicenzo Bellini, a very difficult aria that tests the most refined fiato”
Música y Educación
March 2011
CD “La Ópera, todo emoción”:
“The soprano Estrella Cuello and the chamber group Más que Voces introduce us The opera, all emotion, a recreation of the secret concerts that took place throughout the 17th century in the Court of Ferrara. This record will delight those who listen to it.”
Diario Alerta
December 17, 2019 (M.E.Pérez)
Requiem, KV626, Mozart – Teatro Casyc:
“The voice of Estrella Cuello illuminated the introitus of the Mozartian Requiem merging with the choir. During her interventions, the soprano showed a good fiato and vibrant squillo, which in a large room like the Casyc Auditorium, not amplified and with full capacity, it made she have no difficulty in projecting her clear tone.”
January 30, 2021 (M.E.Pérez)
Stabat Mater, Pergolesi – Teatro Casyc:
“Cuello offered a really beautiful performing of the Stabat Mater, with a velvety timbre and a high register with a long, settled and covered journey, which did not shy away from any of the difficulties on her part, for example, in her first solo number, Cuius animam gementem, with the treble marking the syllables of the word “pertransivit”, which she also managed to give an expressive intention. Musicality that reached its maximum development in a sensational Vidit suum dulcem natum, in which there was room for the most painful singing on piano (morientem, desolatum) drifting to the forte, to end almost in a thread of voice that dissolves, helped here for a marked ritardando with an overwhelming effect ”.
Scherzo Magazine
September 2019 (N.Castellanos)
“Cuello tells the sorrows, secrets, desires and loves of Rinuccini, Guarini or Chiabrera with a sincere voice, devoid of operatic resonances that obscure the singer in the abyss of sound. The word comes first. Even sometimes it seems that we hear the breaking of her voice through the small oscillation caused by the beating of the heart on the most perfect instrument: the voice”.
Doce Notas Magazine
18th June 2019 (A.A.Chirinos Amaro)
“Document, work of art and sound book: Not every day do we attend the edition of a volume of pieces that is completely recorded from the scientific rigor. Estrella Cuello brings us the famous collection by Giulio Caccini, whose texts and valuable preface were analyzed and translated poetically into Spanish by the solo soprano in this production as part of her PhD studies in modern history. The first CD, dedicated to the madrigals, uses the tiorba as an accompaniment, being the skill of the instrumentalist and the expressiveness of the singer which fill with color the tour of these twelve pieces.”
Diario Del Alto Aragón
4th August 2012 (E. Fortuño)
Concierto del Festival Internacional de la Ribagorza “XVI Ciclo Clásicos en la Frontera”:
“Excellent concert by Cuello and Tapia at La Puebla de Castro: The soprano and the pianist dazzled the audience that filled the parish church. People attending the recital fell in love with Saragossan soprano Estrella Cuello’s beautiful voice quality and musicianship”
5th December 2011 (T. Pueyo)
Concert of the Circuit of Scenic Arts of Aragon (Spain):
“Estrella Cuello stood out with her great fluency and scenic presence when staging and feeling each of the roles”
Diario Montañés
2nd December 2016 (R. Ruiz)
Concert Tribute “Cien años sin Granados” – Conservatory of Torrelavega:
“The Singing Class of the teacher Estrella Cuello at the Conservatory of Torrelavega celebrated the centennial of Granados with a concert in which fourteen of the composer’s most popular songs were performed. The young interpreters, wrapped by a large audience, showed technique and quality on stage, and great respect for the works of the Maestro, one of the most outstanding authors of the 19th century”
9th April 2017 (R. M. R.)
Fauré’s Requiem – Cathedral of Santander:
“Fauré’s Requiem was conducted by Estrella Cuello, teacher of Canto and Coro at the conservatory belonging to the Ministry of Culture of the regional government. Since this soprano from Zaragoza took charge of the Aula de Canto of the Torrelavega Conservatory, the students, mostly children, successfully face more and more complicated challenges, from a tribute to Granados to a varied program of opera and zarzuela that took them to the Casino of the capital of Besaya for the first time.”
