Sarah Connolly mezzo-soprano
Born in County Durham, mezzo-soprano Sarah Connolly studied piano and singing at the Royal College of Music, of which she is now a Fellow. She was made CBE in the 2010 New Year’s Honours List.
In opera, her recent appearances have included Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden; at La Scala, Milan and at La Monnaie, Brussels; Komponist (Ariadne auf Naxos) and Clairon (Capriccio) at the Metropolitan Opera, New York; the title role in ‘Giulio Cesare’ and Brangäne (Tristan und Isolde) at the Glyndebourne Festival; Sesto (La clemenza di Tito) at the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence; Gluck’s Orfeo and the title role in ‘The Rape of Lucretia’ at the Bayerische Staatsoper, Munich; Sesto (Giulio Cesare) at the Paris Opera and Nerone (L’Incoronazione di Poppea) at the Gran Teatro del Liceu in Barcelona and at the Maggio Musicale in Florence.
She has also sung the title role in ‘Maria Stuarda’ and Romeo (I Capuleti e i Montecchi) for Opera North; Komponist for the Welsh National Opera and Octavian (Der Rosenkavalier) for Scottish Opera. A favourite at the English National Opera, her roles there have included Octavian; Handel's Agrippina, Xerxes, Ariodante and Ruggiero (Alcina); the title role in ‘The Rape of Lucretia’; Ottavia (L'Incoronazione di Poppea); Dido (Dido and Aeneas / The Trojans); Romeo, Susie (The Silver Tassie) and Sesto (La clemenza di Tito) - for which she was nominated for an Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement in Opera.
Her future engagements include returns to the Paris Opera; the Gran Teatro del Liceu in Barcelona; the Glyndebourne Festival, the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, the English National Opera and the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden.
She has appeared in recital in London and New York and her many concert engagements include appearances at the Aldeburgh, Edinburgh, Lucerne, Salzburg, Tanglewood and Three Choirs Festivals and at the BBC Proms where, in 2009, she was a memorable guest soloist at The Last Night. Other recent engagements have included ‘The Dream of Gerontius’ with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Sir Colin Davis; Mahler’s Symphony no. 2 with the Leipzig Gewandhausorchester and Chailly; 'Das Lied von der Erde' with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and Harding; ‘Des Knaben Wunderhorn’ with L’Orchestre des Champs-Elysées and Herreweghe; ‘Tristan und Isolde’ with the OAE and Rattle; ‘La mort de Cléopâtre’ with the Hallé and Elder and the ‘Kindertotenlieder’ with the LPO and Jurowski. Committed to promoting new music, her world premiere performances include Mark-Anthony Turnage’s ‘Twice through the heart’ with The Schoenberg Ensemble conducted by Oliver Knussen; Jonathan Harvey’s ‘Songs of Li Po’ at the Aldeburgh Festival and, most recently, Sir John Tavener’s ‘Tribute to Cavafy’ at the Symphony Hall, Birmingham.
A prolific recording artist, her many discs include Purcell’s ‘Dido and Aeneas’ with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment; ‘Des Knaben Wunderhorn’ with L’Orchestre des Champs-Élysées and Herreweghe (winner of an Edison Award); Elgar’s ‘Sea Pictures’ with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra and Simon Wright (nominated for a Grammy Award); Britten's 'Phaedra' with the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Edward Gardener and Mozart’s ‘Mass in C Minor’ and Haydn’s ‘Scena di Berenice’ with the Gabrieli Consort and McCreesh. Her roles on DVD include Giulio Cesare, Nerone, Clairon and Purcell’s Dido. Her recording of Handel arias with The Sixteen and Harry Christophers was described as ‘the definition of captivating’ and her two solo recital discs ‘The Exquisite Hour’ and ‘Songs of Love and Loss’ have both won universal critical acclaim. Her third solo recital disc ‘My true love hath my heart’, an English song recital with Malcolm Martineau, has just been released by Chandos to universal critical acclaim. She has recorded the soundtrack, ‘Fragments of a Prayer’ by Sir John Tavener, for the feature film ‘Children of Men’.