Dame Felicity Palmer

Felicity Palmer has had a career spanning some four decades, firstly as a concert soprano
and, during the 1980s, as an operatic mezzo soprano.

Her early work included a wide variety of repertoire, from baroque music (with Sir
Roger Norrington, Sir John Eliot Gardiner and concerts and recordings with Nikolaus
Harnoncourt), to contemporary works with The London Sinfonietta and David Atherton
and work with Pierre Boulez, with whom she recorded and toured Messiaen's “Poèmes
pour Mi” with the BBC Symphony Orchestra. She met the composer when she later
performed the same work with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Zubin Mehta.

During her soprano years she made a tour of Australia for the ABC and worked, among
others, with Sir Colin Davis, Gennady Rozhdestvensky (Shostakovich Symphony
No 14 and "The Trojans" at the Proms), Raymond Leppard (recording of "Messiah"),
Sir Charles Mackerras (recording of "Judas Maccabaeus" for DGG, many concerts
and Proms) as well as concerts with all the major London orchestras, the New York
Philharmonic and the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Sir Simon Rattle in Shostakovich
14.

Recital work formed a key part of those years: with Geoffrey Parsons, Graham Johnson
and the Songmakers’ Almanac, Roger Vignoles, Malcolm Martineau, Julius Drake and
a great deal with John Constable, who, after a QEH concert early on, played for three
French song records for Argo Records and two of Victorian ballads.

Becoming a mezzo led to operatic engagements, which soon included regular
appearances at Glyndebourne, the Royal Opera House (including "Sweeney Todd"
and "Elektra"); her debut at the Metropolitan Opera, New York in Wagner's Ring with
James Levine and many subsequent appearances; "Rheingold" and "Walküre" in Munich
with Zubin Mehta, "Dialogues des Carmélites" with Riccardo Muti at La Scala and with
Michel Plasson in Zurich and Toulouse, as well as work in Amsterdam, Chicago, San
Francisco, Paris and English National Opera in London.

Felicity Palmer has recorded "Elektra" with the WDR Orchestra and Semyon Bychkov
and recently, two concerts of the same opera were recorded for the LSO label with Valery
Gergiev at the helm. There is also a recording of "Dialogues des Carmélites" with ENO
and Paul Daniel.

Since the late 1990s Felicity Palmer has been working from home with students, when
time allowed, and has developed her own ideas about singing technique and the approach
towards singing and performing. She has given masterclasses at Trinity College, for
Frankfurt Oper Young Artists, for the National Opera Studio in the Linbury Theatre
at the Royal Opera House, for the Danish Song Society, in week-long courses for the
Samling Foundation, and at the Metropolitan Opera, New York. She has worked
privately with singers at the Royal Opera House, with young artists in Chicago as part of
Lyric Opera’s Young Artists’ programme, and at the Royal Danish Academy of Music in
Copenhagen.

Later in 2011, she begins a new venture working on English diction at the Metropolitan
Opera, and privately with young artists/singers – a direction she hopes can be expanded
over the coming years.

Future plans include "Elektra" for Rome Opera, "Peter Grimes" at La Scala and a revival
of "Dialogues des Carmélites" at the Metropolitan Opera, New York, as well as recitals
with Simon Lepper.

She was made a CBE in 1993 and a Dame in 2011