Biography 443 words
Download biography as pdf Download biography as word docWorld renowned Mezzo-soprano Alice Coote is regarded as one of the great artists of our day. Equally famed on the great operatic stages as in concert and recital she has been named the 'superlative British Mezzo' (San Francisco Chronicle). Her performances have been described as 'breathtaking in [its] sheer conviction and subtlety of perception' (The Times) and her voice as 'beautiful, to be sure, but, more importantly, it thrills you to the marrow.' (The Daily Telegraph).
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Renowned on the great recital, concert and opera stages of the world, Alice Coote's career has taken her from her beginnings in the north of England (born in Cheshire) in local singing festivals and playing Oboe in the Cheshire Youth Orchestra to being regarded as one of the great artists of today.
She trained at GSMD, RNCM and The National Opera Studio, receiving during this time the Decca Kathleen Ferrier Prize and the Brigitte Fassbaender Prize for Lieder Interpretation.
The recital platform is central to her musical life. Alice performs throughout the UK, Europe and the US at the Wigmore Hall, the BBC Proms, the Concertgebouw, the Lincoln Centre and Carnegie Hall in New York, among many others. She has performed Schubert's Winterreise in Chicago and Frankfurt and forthcoming recital tours take her farther afield to Philadelphia and Washington. Judith Weir's 'The Voice of Desire" was written for her. This season, she will appear at the Wigmore Hall in a series of concerts in partnership with Julius Drake, the Nash Ensemble and with the English Concert and Harry Bicket, featuring Mahler's Rueckertlieder, Schubert's Winterreise and arias by Handel.
Acclaimed in particular for Mahler, Berlioz, Mozart, Handel and Bach with orchestras such as LSO, Boston Symphony Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Concert D'Astree, Halle and Concertgebouw she has collaborated with conductors including Gergiev, Dohnanyi, Belohavek, Elder and Boulez.
Spending a large part of her time engaged abroad interpreting male and female roles, such as Dejaneira/ Hercules, Prince Charming / Cendrillon, Poppea, Carmen, Charlotte, Dorabella, Lucretia, Marguerite, Penelope and Octavian, Composer, Orfeo, Idamante, Nerone, Hansel, Sesto/Cesare, Sesto/Tito, Maffio Orsini , Ruggiero and Ariodante. These she has performed at Opera North, WNO, Scottish Opera, ENO, Glyndebourne and the Royal Opera House and abroad: Paris Opera, Paris TCE, Amsterdam, Munich Frankfurt, Salzburg, Chicago Lyric Opera, Seattle, Los Angeles, San Francisco and the MET.
Forthcoming engagements include concert performances of 'La Clemenza di Tito' with Louis Langree and the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, Oktavian in Geneva, Mahler's 'Lied von der Erde' with the Netherlands Philharmonic and 'Rueckertlieder' with the BBC Symphony Orchestra under Neeme Jaervi, 'La Favorite' (title role) at the Theatre des Champs-Elysees in Paris and a return to the MET as Sesto in 'Giulio Cesare'.
On CD: an album of English Song, The Power of Love, for Hyperion, Songs by Robert Schumann and Gustav Mahler, Messiah/Handel and Mahler 2 (EMI) Angel/Dream of Gerontius (Halle) Composer/Ariadne auf Naxos (Chandos), Orfeo (Virgin Classics) , Choice of Hercules (Hyperion) , Brahms Alto Rhapsody(Tudor)
On DVD: Messiah/Handel EMI , Hansel /Hansel and Gretel EMI, Nerone/ Poppea (Decca) Maffio Orsini/Lucrezia Borgia (Medici Arts)
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Reviews
"[...] Thank heavens for Alice Coote...she alone heard the sounds of silence, she alone carried the rapture of the piece and connected words to feeling. Her singing of the line “I seek rest for my lonely heart” in “Der Abschied” said it all.""
Edward Seckerson, The Independent
"Four years ago, Alice Coote took her Wigmore Hall audience on one of the most harrowing winter journeys they had ever experienced. Her understanding of Schubert's Winterreise, already dark and unsparing, has now deepened, and her mezzo-soprano has evolved, too, making her performance at the weekend another formidable landmark in her career. [...] The voice had a feverish brightness to it - Coote's top register becomes ever more searing in its clarity and intensity - and her glimpse of a shadow in the moonlight set the spine tingling. If this Winterreise was to be emotionally highly charged, then it was musically rigorous enough [...] Indeed, everywhere the music's sense of obsessive repetition and circling was perfectly shaped. [...] And the final question of all, that the hurdy-gurdy man should grind his melodies to the wanderer's own tune, became one of the most heart-rending pleas I've ever heard in this cycle."
Hilary Finch, The Times.
"The clear vocal standout was Alice Coote who proved simply sensational as the Composer. The English singer completely embodied the frustrated and idealistic young artist whose masterpiece is being systematically destroyed by the plans of her obtuse (and unseen) benefactor. Coote’s ample high mezzo fits this trousers role like a perfectly tailored glove and her fearless vocalism and emotional commitment in the aria in praise of music provided the high point of the evening. "
Lawrence A. Johnson ,Chicago Classical Review
"The Composer (Alice Coote) marvelous in a trouser role ...Unlike many mezzo-sopranos, Coote can open up into the ascending phrases of the Composer's music without strain. Her singing in the middle and lower registers, moreover, has the necessary warmth, expansion and carrying power to make the duet with Zerbinetta glow with erotic longing. The British singer, so memorable here last season in Handel's "Hercules," made her character the impetuous yet vulnerable nerve-center of the Prologue. "
John von Rhein, chicagotribune.com
"Fully convincing musically and dramatically, English mezzo Alice Coote made you wish the Composer's role was not confined to the Prologue. "
Andrew Patner, Sun Times.