Creative Spaces Opera Masterclass  ~  Elizabeth Connell

©Clive Barda

In December 2008 Elizabeth Connell had a triumphant success at the opening night of Turandot at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, her most recent role added to her repertoire, which for the past two seasons she has also sung in Hamburg and before that for Opera Australia.

In May and June 2010 she will be singing in a new production of Tristan und Isolde at the State Opera Prague, conducted by Jan Latham-König, and on 15 June 2010 she will be a guest star at Richard Bonynge's 80th anniversary gala concert in London.

Her 2010 performances also include Elektra in Auckland as well as a solo recital in London St John's Smith Square. In April 2011 she will be returning to Opera Australia in Melbourne for Verdi's Macbeth.

Elizabeth Connell is acclaimed for her performances of the great Strauss, Verdi and Wagner heroines. Most recently she sand Elektra in Las Palmas, Gertrude (Hänsel und Gretel) for the Royal Opera (with worldwide Telecast and DVD release) and concerts of Jenufa with the London Symphony and Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestras and Daniel Harding and of Fidelio with the London Philharmonic Orchestra.

Other recent engagements include Brünnhilde, the Kostelnicka, Ortrud and Ariadne in Australia; Ortrud, Fidelio and Isolde in Berlin / Staatsoper, Senta in Hamburg and Berlin and Elektra in Berlin, Madrid, Bordeaux and Montreal and the Färberin in a new production of Die Frau ohne Schatten in Frankfurt and at the Deutsche Oper Berlin. During the recent seasons she sang Norma, Abigaille and for Opera Australia, and Abigaille and Isolde in Hamburg.

In 2008 two important CD releases have been added to her discography: Her first operatic recital, singing great scenes by Wagner and Strauss for ABC classics, conducted by Muhai Tang, as well as Britten’s Owen Wingrave, conducted by the late Richard Hickox.

Following her debut at Wexford Opera Festival in 1972 she sang at the opening of the Sydney Opera House in War and Peace in 1973, and has continued to have a special relationship with Opera Australia ever since.  Following a five-year association with English National Opera she has been a freelance artist with the major opera houses.

She has appeared at the opera houses of London, Paris, Vienna, Berlin, Munich, Hamburg, New York (Metropolitan Opera), San Francisco, Milan (La Scala), Naples and Geneva in a wide repertoire including Lohengrin, Tannhäuser, Der Fliegende Holländer, Tristan und Isolde, the Ring, Elektra, Ariadne auf Naxos, Nabucco, Macbeth, Attila, Don Carlos, Fidelio, Jenufaand Peter Grimes.  She has had a successful collaboration with conductors such as Abbado, Muti, Sinopoli, Giulini, Sawallisch, Mackerras, Downes, Sir Colin Davis, Maazel, Levine, Ozawa and Elder. She has sung at the Bayreuth (Lohengrin, Tristan und Isolde and Der Fliegende Holländer), Salzburg (Idomeneo and Elektra), Orange (Elektraand Nabucco), Verona (Norma and Nabucco) and Glyndebourne (Idomeneo) Festivals.

In concert her performances have included Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony in London with Claudio Abbado, Missa Solemnisin Florence with Carlo Maria Giulini and Mahler’s Eighth Symphony with Maazel, Sinopoli and Boulez.  She has also sung in Euryanthe in London and Oberon in London, Tanglewood and Rome.  In recital she has appeared with Geoffrey Parsons, Graham Johnson, Eugene Asti and Lamar Crowsen in Milan, Geneva, Sydney, Johannesburg and at the Wigmore Hall.  She has recently sung the Strauss Vier Letzte Lieder with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and Jonathan Nott and with the West Australian Symphony Orchestra under Matthias Bamert.

Her many recordings include Rossini's Guillaume Tell (Decca / Chailly), Mahler's Eighth Symphony (EMI / Tennstedt), Mendelssohn's Second Symphony (DG / Abbado), Franz Schreker's Die Gezeichneten (Decca / Zagrosek), Donizetti's Poliuto, Verdi's I Due Foscari (Philips / Gardelli), Schönberg's Gurrelieder (Denon/Inbal), Wagner's Lohengrin(Philips/Friedrich) and Schubert Lieder with Graham Johnson, as part of Hyperion’s Complete Schubert Edition.