Biography
Praised for her “warm mezzo” (The Telegraph) and “velvet-voice” (Daily Telegraph), British-Spanish mezzo soprano Marta Fontanals-Simmons recently made critically acclaimed house and role debuts at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden as Siébel in David McVicar’s production of Faust and creating the role of Hel in the world premiere of Gavin Higgins’ The Monstrous Child at the ROH Linbury Theatre.
Looking forward to the 2022/23 season, Fontanals-Simmons performs Jack The Wreckers with the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin and Robin Ticciati; recitals with Iain Burnside at Wigmore Hall and the Lammermuir Festival; Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde at the Roman River Festival and Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius with the Worcester Festival Choral Society. Marta also reprises her role in Gavin Higgins’ The Faerie Bride with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales following a very well received world premiere in 2022.
In the 2021/22 season, Fontanals-Simmons joined the Ensemble at Grand Théâtre de Genève, performing Matriosha in a new Calixto Bieito production of Prokofiev’s War and Peace and Erste Magd Elektra. She also returned to Glyndebourne Festival to perform Jack in a much-anticipated production of Ethel Smyth’s The Wreckers. On the recital platform, she performed at Wigmore Hall; Oxford Lieder; Blackheath Halls; Zeist Lieder Festival; Cowbridge Festival; and Aldeburgh Festival, premiering a new cantata for mezzo-soprano, baritone and chamber orchestra The Faerie Bride by writing duo, Gavin Higgins and Francesca Simon. On the concert platform, she performed Beethoven Mass in C with the Oxford Philharmonic and Stanford’s Requiem with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra.
Read moreReviews
Marta Fontanals-Simmons’s vocal and dramatic glamour makes Eurydice touchingly, at times amusingly, human.”
“The astonishing Marta Fontanals-Simmons…has real stage presence and threw herself physically into the role. But it was vocally that she was most mesmerising, a perfect mix of power and musicality – and accuracy. Birtwistle’s endless melodies, it seems, come as easily to her as a Schubert song.”
More Reviews
Harrison Birtwistle: The Mask of Orpheus (Euridice the Woman)
English National Opera, London
“If Peter Hoare had an aura of vocal indestructability – and how he displayed that in the second act procession of arches – he was absolutely equalled by the astonishing Marta Fontanals-Simmons, whose recent disc I and Silence with superb pianist Lana Bode on Delphian was such an unforgettable eye-opener. Fonanals-Simmons has real stage presence and threw herself physically into the role. But it was vocally that she was most mesmerising, a perfect mix of power and musicality – and accuracy. Birtwistle’s endless melodies, it seems, come as easily to her as a Schubert song.” (Seen and Heard)
“The staging is eye-catching and the singers engage heroically with the production and the music. Peter Hoare is an abject Orpheus, while Marta Fontanals-Simmons’s vocal and dramatic glamour makes Eurydice touchingly, at times amusingly, human.” (Evening Standard)
“Amid the surfeit, isolated moments of lyrical and emotional truth hit home: the first entry of Eurydice (an exemplary Marta Fontanals-Simmons) as a gorgeous white insect creature against a pink nimbus; the insidious snakebite; her disappearance, sucked back into Hades, when Orpheus looks back” (The Guardian)
Eurydice the Woman was sung with seductive melancholy by Marta Fontanals-Simmons (MusicOMH)
Gounod: Faust (Siebel)
Royal Opera House, Covent Garden
Marta Fontanals-Simmons brings an ardent, warm mezzo to Siébel.” (The Telegraph)
“Marta Fontanals-Simmons is the touching Siébel.” (The Guardian)
“British-Spanish mezzo-soprano Marta Fontanals-Simmons… captured Siébel’s adolescent gaucheness and frustration… offering a welcome freshness amid the dark goings-on.” (Opera Today, April 2019)
“Marta Fontanals-Simmons as a lush-voiced hapless Siébel” (Classical Source, April 2019)
“Marta Fontanals-Simmons’ plum-toned mezzo made for a lovely Siébel” (Bachtrack)
Gavin Higgins: The Monstrous Child (Hel)
ROH Linbury
“Hugely impressive individual stage performances, especially from the mezzo Marta Fontanals-Simmons, who is on stage throughout as Hel. She dominates…” (Guardian)
“The show’s most impressive aspect is the velvet-voiced mezzo-soprano Marta Fontanals-Simmons” (Daily Telegraph)
“An awesome performance from Marta Fontanals-Simmons in the title role. Fontanals-Simmons anchors the whole thing with panache, actively involved in every minute of the opera, shifting seamlessly between sardonic wisecracks and true pathos, drawing you into empathy with her fantastic character. We are looking at a creature whose lower body has merged with a giant, fetid mound of rotting vegetation around which she drags herself, and yet Fontanals-Simmons gets us completely inside her head, sharing in Hel’s hopes, illusions, hatred, despair. It’s an excellent vocal performance also, strong through the range and proving that beauty of lyrical timbre needn’t prevent perfect diction with every word intelligible (no surtitles were provided, nor were they needed) (Bachtrack)
“Hel, expertly sung and acted by Marta Fontanals-Simmons…The mezzo amazes throughout; capturing the self-absorbed, under-confidence of a depressed teenage girl through every hand wring, scratch and eye roll.” (Rhinegold)
“Hel, vividly acted and sung by Marta Fontanals-Simmons” (The Times)
“it’s Marta Fontanals-Simmons as Hel who is the dramatic pulse of the show. Immobilised within an enormous, overspilling mound of rotten flesh she must do all with face and voice, and does.” (The Arts Desk)
