Susan Bickley

Susan Bickley is firmly established as one of the most versatile mezzo-sopranos, equally at home in the opera house or on the concert platform, with a wide repertory encompassing the Baroque, the great 19th Century dramatic roles and the music of today.

UK highlights include Kostelnicka Jenufa, Kabanicha Katya Kabanova, Baba the Turk The Rake's Progress, Ghost in Birtwistle's The Last Supper for Glyndebourne Festival; Donna Elvira Don Giovanni, Irene Theodora, Kostelnicka for Glyndebourne Touring Opera; Feodor Boris Godunov, Aksinya Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk for Covent Garden; Dorabella Così fan tutte, Andromache King Priam, Cassandra The Trojans, Juno Semele, Turnage’s Twice through the Heart, Sidonie von Grasenab in the world premiere of Gerald Barry's The bitter tears of Petra von Kant for English National Opera; Romeo I Capuleti e i Montecchi for Grange Park Opera; Florence Pike Albert Herring, Jeji Baba Rusalka for Opera North; Brangaene Tristan und Isolde and Storge Jephtha for Welsh National Opera and Juno for Scottish Opera.

Abroad, engagements include Kabanicha for Paris Opera, Octavian Der Rosenkavalier for Hong Kong Arts Festival, Herodias Salome for San Francisco Opera; Kostelnicka for New Israeli Opera; Geschwitz Lulu and Sorceress Dido and Aeneas for Flanders Opera; Penelope Il ritorno d'Ulisse with The Sixteen in Lisbon; Ottavia Poppea in Japan; Maria Thins Writing to Vermeer, Netherlands Opera; and Ghost The Last Supper at Staatsoper Unter den Linden conducted by Daniel Barenboim.

Susan Bickley has a busy concert career working with all of the major British symphony orchestras as well as ensembles such as the Gabrieli Consort, The Sixteen, Nash Ensemble, London Sinfonietta, Sinfonia 21, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Fretwork and The Purcell Quartet. Her work abroad has included engagements with Hong Kong Philharmonic, Les Arts Florissants, Ensemble Intercontemporain and Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie. She made her debut at Carnegie Hall singing Stravinsky's Requiem Canticles; sang Ligeti's Requiem and George Benjamin's Upon Silence at the Salzburg Festival, and her Proms appearances have included works by Simon Bainbridge, Leonard Bernstein, Thomas Adès and Nicholas Maw.

Recent engagements include Ludmilla The Bartered Bride at Covent Garden, Mistress Quickly Falstaff, Opera North, Storge Jephtha WNO and in concert with the NDR Hannover; Dido and Aeneas, Opera North and in concert with the Northern Sinfonia; Robert Devereux, Buxton Opera; Wesendonck Lieder, Hallé Orchestra; Adès’ America in Paris and London; recitals with the Nash Ensemble at the Wigmore Hall, the John F Kennedy Center in Washington and in Spain with Roger Vignoles, in Ludlow and Leeds with Iain Burnside, in London with Julius Drake and at the Edinburgh International Festival.

Forthcoming engagements include: Begbick Rise and Fall of the City of Mahogany in the opening concert of the Edinburgh International Festival under HK Gruber; Kostelnicka Jenufa, Welsh National Opera; Mrs Peachum The Beggar’s Opera, Royal Opera House, Covent Garden; Baba the Turk and Mother Goose The Rake’s Progress, Garsington Opera as well as concerts with the Ensemble Intercontemporain, an appearance at the BBC Proms with the London Sinfonietta, Alexander Nevsky with the Hallé Orchestra at the Bridgewater Hall and Elijah with the Hallé in Sheffield.

Her many recordings can be heard on EMI, Deutsche Grammophon, BMG, Hyperion and Nimbus and include Handel Serse, Theodora, Solomon; Purcell The Fairy Queen, Dido and Aeneas; Vivaldi Juditha triumphans; Reynaldo Hahn Songs; George Benjamin Upon Silence; Thomas Adès' America, a prophecy; and Simon Bainbridge's Ad ora incerta and Primo Levi songs.