Mezzo-soprano Sarah Connolly, a native of County Durham, England, studied piano and voice at the Royal College of Music in London. She began her career as a member of the BBC Singers but in the mid-1990s switched to a solo career, singing the title role of Handel’s Serse at the English National Opera. Since then Connolly has appeared with leading international companies in a wide-ranging repertoire that encompasses operas by Monteverdi, Handel, Purcell, and Gluck and the trouser roles of Mozart, Bellini, and Strauss, as well as works by Bartók and Britten. She recently appeared at Covent Garden in London as Purcell’s Dido and at La Scala in Milan and the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie as the Composer in Strauss’s Ariadne auf Naxos; in addition she has performed Annio in Mozart’s La clemenza di Tito and Clairon in Strauss’s Capriccio at the Metropolitan Opera in New York and Lucretia in Britten’s The Rape of Lucretia at the Bavarian Staatsoper, and she undertook her first Wagnerian role as Brangäne in Tristan und Isolde at the Glyndebourne Festival. She has also been invited to sing at the Aix-en-Provence, Aldeburgh, Edinburgh, Salzburg, and Tanglewood Festivals. In 2009 she appeared at the legendary Last Night of the Proms. Connolly has worked with such conductors as Riccardo Chailly, Colin Davis, Daniel Harding, Philippe Herreweghe, Paul McCreesh, and Simon Rattle. She is also a sought-after performer of contemporary music and has premiered works by Turnage, Harvey, and Tavener. Connolly was nominated for a Lawrence Olivier Award for her portrayal of Sesto in La clemenza di Tito; her recording of Mahler’s Des Knaben Wunderhorn won the Edison Award. In 2010 she was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire.
Sarah Connolly makes her LUCERNE FESTIVAL debut this summer.
July 2011