Representation: General Management
Credit: Paul Foster-Williams
Emma Bell trained at the Royal Academy of Music and at the National Opera Studio, and continues to study with Joy Mammen. Winner of the Kathleen Ferrier Prize in 1998, she was a BBC New Generation Artist in 1999. Emma is at the forefront of the younger generation of sopranos and is admired for her richly coloured voice and sensitive musicianship.
In 2002 she joined the Berlin Komische Oper, where she has sung Pamina Die Zauberflöte, Micaëla Carmen, Countess Le Nozze di Figaro, the title role in Alcina, Agathe Der Freischütz and Mimì La bohème. She has sung the title role in Rodelinda (Glyndebourne Festival Opera, Châtelet, Bilbao, Barbican, Vienna Konzerthaus); Female Chorus The Rape of Lucretia (Lausanne); Miss Jessel The Turn of the Screw (Geneva and Glyndebourne); Vitellia La Clemenza di Tito (ENO, Montreal); Leonore Maskarade (ROH); Violetta La traviata (ENO); Governess The Turn of the Screw (Leipzig); Alcina title-role (Opéra National de Paris); Elettra Idomeneo (La Scala, Barbican, Lisbon, Amsterdam and at the Teatro Real, Madrid).
Concert engagements include Rossini’s Stabat Mater (Accademia di Santa Cecilia in Dresden, Rome and Siena with Pappano); St John Passion (Châtelet); Concerts at the Teatro Real Madrid, and for the Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse; Mahler 4th Symphony with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and Otaka, St Matthew Passion with the Rotterdam Philharmonic and Yannick Nézet-Séguin and concert performances of The Rape of Lucretia with Ticciati (Vienna and Cologne). She has also sung at the Barbican, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Royal Festival , Lincoln Center, Wigmore Hall, BBC Proms and Mostly Mozart Festival. Emma has worked with Bickett, Christie, Andrew Davis, Haim, Labadie, Mackerras, Pappano and Slatkin.
Recordings include Handel’s Saul with Jacobs and two solo discs (a recital of lieder by Strauss, Marx and Walter and Handel Operatic Arias for Linn Records) both supported by an award from the Borletti-Buitoni Trust for whom she has given recitals in London, Amsterdam and Vienna. In June 2008 she gave a recital of Strauss songs with Emanuel Ax at the Wigmore Hall. Further engagements include Beethoven’s 9th Symphony with Noseda at the BBC Proms, Donna Elvira Don Giovanni with Pappano (ROH), Countess at the Liceu, Barcelona, War Requiem with Pappano and the Royal Opera House Orchestra & Chorus in Birmingham, Anne Truelove The Rake’s Progress at La Scala, concert performances of Mitridate with Sir Charles Mackerras for Welsh National Opera and Handel concerts with Harnoncourt at the Styriarte Festival. Recent engagements include Countess (Metropolitan Opera), Beethoven Missa Solemnis (Santa Cecilia), Donna Elvira (La Scala) and Elettra Idomeneo (ENO) and Edinburgh Festival.
Recent engagements have included Strauss Vier Letze Lieder in Iceland with the Helsinki Philharmonic, Governess Turn of the Screw (Teatro Real Madrid), Barber’s Knoxville at the Casa da Musica in Porto and a Wigmore Hall recital, Leonore Fidelio (Opera North with Sir Richard Armstrong), the title role in a new commission Miss Fortune by Judith Weir (Bregenz Festival) and Mozart Requiem at the BBC Proms, War Requiem (Royal Flanders Philharmonic) Eva Die Meistersinger (ROH with Pappano), Tina Miss Fortune (ROH) and Fox Cunning Little Vixen (Glyndebourne Festival with Jurowski).
Future plans include Countess Almaviva Le Nozze di Figaro (Opéra Bastille), Elsa Lohengrin (WNO), Leonore Fidelio (ENO), Donna Elvira Don Giovanni (Metropolitan Opera), Eva Meistersinger (Zurich Opera) and Madame Lidoine Dialogues des Carmélites (Covent Garden). She will also sing Britten’s Our Hunting Fathers with the Halle in Manchester and the Aldeburgh Festval, a solo concert with the OAE and Marin Alsop and performances of Beethoven’s 9th Symphony with the LPO in London and Paris conducted by Jurowski.
Promoters please note: if you wish to include this biography in a concert programme etc, please contact Hazard Chase to ensure that you receive the most up to date version.
Email: Lucie Davienne
