Susan Bickley is firmly established as one of the most versatile and characterful 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.
Opera highlights include Kabanicha Opéra de Paris and Glyndebourne, Herodias Salome San Francisco Opera, Kostelnicka New Israeli Opera and Glyndebourne; Geschwitz Lulu and Sorceress Dido and Aeneas, De Vlaamse Opera; Penelope Il ritorno d'Ulisse with The Sixteen in Lisbon; Baba the Turk The Rake's Progress for Garsington Opera and Glyndebourne and Ghost in Birtwistle's The Last Supper at Staatsoper Unter den Linden conducted by Daniel Barenboim. Susan also created roles in Writing to Vermeer, Netherlands Opera; Turnage’s Twice through the Heart and Gerald Barry's The bitter tears of Petra von Kant both for English National Opera.
Other UK opera highlights include; Irene Theodora; Feodor Boris Godunov, Aksinya Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk Royal Opera House, Covent Garden; Andromache King Priam, Cassandra The Trojans, Juno Semele, Florence Pike Albert Herring, and the title role in Dido & Aeneas for Opera North; Brangaene Tristan und Isolde and Storge Jephtha for Welsh National Opera and Juno for Scottish Opera.
On the international concert platform Susan has performed with the Les Arts Florissants, the Ensemble Intercontemporain, the Hong Kong Philharmonic and the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie. She made her Carnegie Hall debut singing Stravinsky's Requiem Canticles; has sung 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. She also works regularly with all of the major British symphony orchestras and ensembles and has sung Begbick Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny in the opening concert of the Edinburgh International Festival under HK Gruber as well as Wesendonck Lieder with the Hallé Orchestra and premiering Adès’ America: A prophecy in Paris and London with the BBC Symphony Orchestra.
Susan excels in the recital sphere and has appeared with the Nash Ensemble and Roger Vignoles at the Kennedy Center in Washington, with Iain Burnside in Ludlow and at the Spitalfields Festival, and with Julius Drake at St John Smith’s Square and Oxford Lieder Festival. Her disc of songs by Ivor Gurney with Iain Burnside is due for release later this year.
Engagements in 08/09 season include Kostelnicka Jenufa, Welsh National Opera; Mrs Peachum The Beggar’s Opera, Royal Opera House, Covent Garden; Into the Little Hill with the London Sinfonietta; Dido Dido and Aeneas for English National Opera; recitals with Iain Burnside at Kings Place and with Julius Drake at the Wigmore Hall; Bach B minor Mass at the Barbican, Messiah with the Ulster Orchestra; Alexander Nevsky with the Hallé Orchestra, Waltraute Götterdämmerung in concert under Mark Elder, Irene Theadora at the London Handel Festival, Delius Mass of Life with the Bach Choir 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.
Susan Bickley is represented by Intermusica.
November 2008 / 540 words. Not to be altered without permission. Please destroy all previous biographical material.