Emma Bell
Representation: General Management
She trained at the RAM and NOS, and continues to study with Joy Mammen. Winner of the Kathleen Ferrier Prize in 1998, she was a BBC New Generation Artist in 1999. She 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 Almaviva Le nozze di Figaro, the title role in Alcina, Agathe Der Freischütz and Mimì La bohème.
She has sung the title role in Rodelinda (GFO, GOT, Châtelet, Bilbao, Barbican, Vienna Konzerthaus); Female Chorus The Rape of Lucretia (Lausanne); Miss Jessel The Turn of the Screw (Geneva); Vitellia La Clemenza di Tito (ENO, Montreal); Leonore Maskarade (ROH); Elettra Idomeneo (La Scala). Other engagements include Rossini's Stabat Mater (Accademia di Santa Cecilia in Dresden); Violetta La traviata (ENO); Governess The Turn of the Screw (Leipzig); St John Passion (Châtelet) and Miss Jessel (Glyndebourne) in 2007; concerts at the Teatro Real Madrid and for the Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse. She has also sung at the Barbican, QEH, RFH, Lincoln Center, Wigmore Hall, BBC Proms and Mostly Mozart Festival. She has worked with Bickett, Christie, Andrew Davis, Haim, Labardie, 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.
Recent engagements include Alcina title-role (Opéra National de Paris), Rossini's Stabat Mater (Rome and Siena) with Pappano, Mahler 4th Symphony with the BBC NOW and Otaka, St Matthew Passion with the Rotterdam Philharmonic and Yannick Nézet-Séguin, concert performances of The Rape of Lucretia with Bostridge and Ticciati (Vienna and Cologne), Elettra Idomeneo (Barbican, Lisbon and Amsterdam Madrid Teatro Real), Beethoven's 9th Symphony with Noseda at the BBC Proms, Donna Elvira Don Giovanni with Pappano (ROH), Countess Almaviva at the Liceu, Barcelona, War Requiem with Pappano and the Royal Opera House Orchestra & Chorus in Birmingham and concert performances of Mitridate with Sir Charles Mackerras for Welsh National Opera.
Future plans include Countess Almaviva at the Metropolitan Opera, New York, Anne Truelove in The Rake's Progress at La Scala, Beethoven's Missa Solemnis with Pappano for the Accademia di Santa Cecilia in Rome and Handel concerts with Harnoncourt at the Styriarte Festival. In 2010 she will sing the Fox in Vixen with Mackerras at Covent Garden and Donna Elvira at La Scala, Milan with Langrée. In 2011 she will return to Covent Garden to sing Ellen Orford in Peter Grimes with Sir Andrew Davis and in 2012 she will sing Eva in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg at Covent Garden with Pappano.
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: Rosie Goddard
