Ann Murray DBE

Introduction

Ann Murray has been acclaimed for her performances of the great Handel, Strauss and Mozart roles in the opera houses of  Hamburg, Dresden, Brussels, Paris, Berlin, Cologne, Zurich, Amsterdam, the Chicago Lyric Opera, the Metropolitan Opera, New York, La Scala Milan, the Vienna State Opera and the Salzburg Festival.  She has particularly strong links with English National Opera, the Royal Opera, Covent Garden and the Bavarian State Opera.  In 1998 Ann Murray  was made a Kammersängerin of the Bavarian State Opera and in 2002 was appointed an honorary DBE in the Queen's Golden Jubilee Birthday Honours.

Her recent and forthcoming engagements include her return to the English National Opera (“The Turn of the Screw”), the Royal Opera, Covent Garden ('La Fille du Regiment') and to both the Metropolitan Opera, New York and to the Paris Opera ('Le nozze di Figaro').

This is for information only and should not be reproduced. Please contact us for a full biography and for performance details.

Biography

Please contact Phillippa Cole for a current biography

Press Reviews

Donizetti: La Fille du Régiment / Covent Garden / 2010

Stalwarts include Donald Maxwell's busybody Hortensius, snobbish major-domo to the even more snobbish Marquise of Berkenfield, played with unerring skill by Ann Murray, whose touching acknowledgement of her lost daughter brings about the happy resolution of her marital prospects.
George Hall / The Guardian / 20 May 2010

Ann Murray, wreathed in fox furs, has replaced Felicity Palmer as La Marquise de Berkenfeld in a feisty and beautiful turned performance.
She stands her own when confronted — in this production’s Act II coup — by the redoubtable presence of Dawn French as La Duchesse de Crackentorp.
Hilary Finch / The Times / 19 May 2010

... she does a thoroughly stylish job, making this dotty old dame a study in faded elegance
Rupert Christiansen / The Daily Telegraph / 19 May 2010

…the haughty extravagance of Ann Murray’s ripely spoken Marquise de Berkenfeld
The Independent / 18 May 2010

Ann Murray, the only newcomer to the cast, evokes fond memories of her double-act with Felicity Lott as a piano-playing, comically sardonic Marquise de Berkenfeld.
What’s On Stage / 18 May 2010

The Turn of the Screw / English National Opera, 2009

Mrs Grose was sung here by Ann Murray who was not only the biggest name in the cast but brought a dimension to the housekeeper that rescued her from standard lawks-a-mercying and made her a more central figure than you’d credit. It was an textbook case of how a great perfomance can lift a middle-status part to prominence. And this, like all around it, was a great performance
Michael White / Telegraph / 23 October 2009

Rebecca Evans and Ann Murray, resectively the Governess and Mrs Grose, are a dual lynchpin of great voices, great characters and complete verbal clarity.
Jessica Duchen / The Independent / 23 October 2009

Hansel and Gretel / Royal Opera House, 2008

Ann Murray's Witch, though never even faintly scary, had wonderful deadpan charm. More glamorous granny than ferocious hag, she shimmied round her Zimmer frame as if recalling a distant, pole-dancing past. Murray, an unfailingly elegant musician who three decades after her ROH debut still has a proper voice, delights in her cannibalistic lifestyle, baking her victims into blue designer ovens and taking them out crisp.
Observer / Fiona Maddocks

But as the Witch, Ann Murray's tight-lipped Mrs Danvers figure offered a fascinatingly different approach from Anja Silja's monstrous grotesque – and Murray sang it better too.
The Telegraph/ Rupert Christiansen

The Marriage of Figaro / Royal Opera House 2008

Ann Murray and Robert Lloyd as Marcellina and Bartolo make a splendid pair of would-be conspirators turned genial parents.
Evening Standard / Barry Millington

...a fire-eating Marcellina from Ann Murray.
The Spectator / Michael Tanner

The smaller roles included a brilliant cameo from Ann Murray as a waspish Marcellina.
The Financial Times / Richard Fairman

They need to learn something from the sheer focus, flair and robust imagination of the Marcellina of Ann Murray and the Bartolo of Robert Lloyd – a formidable and beautifully detailed double act.
The Times / Hilary Finch

Duet recital with Philip Langridge / Wigmore Hall

I would have liked this lunchtime concert to have gone on until dusk...Murray still sustains a pianissimo legato line like a silken thread, and hits her top notes with fearless clarity...Murray sang them with lilting charm.
The Times / Richard Morrison

The Turn of the Screw / English National Opera 2007

A special joy of the production was hearing Ann Murray in a new role: vocally incisive and miraculously flexible as the housekeeper Mrs Grose. It's a change for once to have her played lean and imposing, rather than as a cuddly old biddy.
Evening Standard / Fiona Maddocks (November 2007)

Mrs Grose is passionately realised in the power casting of Ann Murray, who personifies Victorian moral outrage, but does so with real heart.
The Independent / Edward Seckerson (July 2007)

Ann Murray is the imposingly shrewish Mrs Grose.
Financial Times / Andrew Clarke

Discography

BACH: Magnificat
ASMF / Marriner
EMI

BACH: Mass in B Minor
Dresden Staatskapelle / Schreier
Philips

BACH: Cantata 93
Stuttgart Bach Collegium / Rilling
Hanssler

BEETHOVEN: Soundtrack from Immortal Beloved
London Symphony Orchestra / Solti
Sony

BELLINI: Norma
National Philharmonic / Levine
Sony

BERNSTEIN: Symphony No. 3
BBC Symphony / Slatkin
Chandos

BOULANGER: Psalm 130
BBC Philharmonic / Tortelier
Chandos

BRITTEN: Phaedra
ECO / Bedford
Naxos

BURGON: Requiem
CLS / Hickox
Decca

CHARPENTIER: Magnificat / Te Deum
ASMF / Marriner
EMI

DEBUSSY: Le Martyre de St. Sebastien
London Sympyony / Tilson-Thomas
Sony

DONIZETTI: Lucia di Lammermoor
New Philharmonia / Lopez-Corbos
Philips

DURUFLE: Requiem
Baer / English Chamber Orchestra /Cleobury
EMI

DURUFLE: Requiem
Thomas Allen / ECO / Best
Hyperion

GAY (arr Britten): The Beggar's Opera
Aldeburgh Festival / Bedford
Decca /Argo

GOUNOD: Romeo et Juliette
Orch Capitole Toulouse / Plasson
EMI

HANDEL: Ariodante
Bayerische Staatsoper / Bolton
BSO

HANDEL: Ariodante
English National Opera / Bolton
ENO DVD

HANDEL: Giulio Cesare
Bayerische Staatsoper / Bolton
BSO

HANDEL: Xerxes
English National Opera
ENO DVD

HANDEL: Arias
OAE / Mackerras
Novalis

HANDEL / MOZART: Arias
SCO / Leppard
EMI

HAYDN: Die Schoepfung
Vienna Philharmonic / von Karajan
DG

HAYDN: Masses
Dresden Staatskapelle / Marriner

HUMMEL: Mass Op 80
Collegium Musicum 90 / Hickox
Chandos

HUMPERDINCK: Hänsel und Gretel
Dresden Staatskapelle / Colin Davis
Philips

MAHLER: Lieder aus Des Knaben Wunderhorn
Thomas Allen / LPO / Mackerras
Virgin

MASSENET: Thais
New Philharmonia / Maazel
EMI

MONTEVERDI / HENZE: Il ritorno d'Ulisse in Patria
Salzburg Festival / Tate
Orfeo

MOZART: Il re pastore
Concentus Musicus / Harnoncourt
Teledec

MOZART: La Clemenza di Tito
Concentus Musicus / Harnoncourt
Teledec

MOZART: Don Giovanni
London Philharmonic / Solti
Decca

MOZART: Don Giovanni
La Scala Milan
Opus Arte DVD

MOZART: Die Zauberfloete
Dresden Staatskapelle / Colin Davis
Philips

MOZART: Le nozze di Figaro (Cherubino)
Vienna Philharmonic / Muti
EMI

MOZART: Le nozze di Figaro (Marcellina)
Royal Concertgebouw / Harnoncourt
Teledec

MOZART: La finta semplice
CPE Bach Chamber Orchestra / Schreier
Philips

MOZART: Cosi Fan Tutte (Dorabella)
Vienna Philharmonic / Levine
DG

MOZART: Cosi Fan Tutte (Despina)
Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment / Rattle
EMI

MOZART: Idomeneo
Royal Opera House / Daniel
Kultur DVD

MOZART: Requiem
Paris Symphony Orchestra / Barenboim
EMI

MOZART: Masses
ECO / Cleobury
Decca

MOZART: Choral Works
ECO / Somary
Vanguard

OFFENBACH: Les Contes d'Hoffmann
Orchestre de la Monnaie / Cambreling
EMI

PUCCINI: Tosca
Royal Opera House / Colin Davis
Philips

PUCCINI: Madama Butterfly
Philharmonia / Maazel
CBS

PURCELL: Dido and Aeneas
Concentus Musicus / Harnoncourt
Teledec

PURCELL: The Fairy Queen
The Sixteen / Christophers
Coro

ROSSINI: Messa di Gloria
ASMF / Marriner
Philips

ROSSINI: La Cenerentola
Vienna Philharmonic / Chailly
Salzburg DVD

STRAVINSKY: Pulcinella
Rolfe Johnson / Estes / EIC / Boulez
Erato

TIPPETT: King Priam
London Sinfonietta / Atherton
Chandos

VAUGHAN WILLIAMS: A Serenade to Music
LPO / Norrington
Decca

VERDI: La battaglia di Legnano
Austrian RSO / Gardelli
Philips

VERDI: Don Carlos
La Scala Milan / Abbado
Philips

VERDI: Rigoletto
Philharmonia / Rudel
EMI

VIVALDI: Gloria
ASMF / Marriner
EMI

VIVALDI: Juditha Triumphans
The King's Consort / King
Hyperion

VIVALDI: Choral Works
ECO / Negri
Philips

Recitals

Beethoven: The Complete Folksongs
Malcolm Martineau
DG

Bizet: Songs
Graham Johnson
Hyperion

Brahms: Songs Op 105
Stephen Kovacevic
EMI

Brahms: 2 Songs Op 91
Nobuko Imai / Stephen Kovacevic
EMI

Chausson: Songs
Graham Johnson
Hyperion

Gounod: Songs
Graham Johnson
Hyperion

Schubert: Complete Schubert Edition Vol 3
Graham Johnson
Hyperion

Schubert: Complete Schubert Edition Vol 32
Graham Johnson
Hyperion

Schubert: Complete Schbert Edition Vol 33
Graham Johnson
Hyperion

Schbert: A Songmaker's Almanac Schubertiade
Graham Johnson
Hyperion

Schumann: Complete Schumann Edition Vol 9
Graham Johnson
Hyperion

Espana: The Songmaker's Almanac
Graham Johnson
Hyperion

The Last Rose of Summer
Graham Johnson
Hyperion

Souveniers de Venise: The Songmaker's Almanac
Graham Johnson
Hyperion

Voices in the Night: The Songmaker's Almanac
Graham Johnson
Hyperion

Glyndebourne Cenetenary Gala / Welser Moest
EMI

Duets with Felicity Lott
Graham Johnson
EMI

Irish Songs
Graham Johnson
Forlane

Duets with Philip Langridge
Roger Vignoles
Forlane

Schumann, Britten, Mahler
Malcolm Martineau
Avie (Crear Classics)

Contact

Peter Bloor

Phillippa Cole

World Management: Askonas Holt

Schedule

Guildhall, Londonderry
30 September 2010 20.00

Kings Place, London
2 October 2010 19.00

Opera Bastille, Paris
26 October 2010 19.30

Opera Bastille, Paris
28 October 2010 19.30

Opera Bastille, Paris
31 October 2010 19.30

Opera Bastille, Paris
3 November 2010 19.30

Opera Bastille, Paris
6 November 2010 19.30

Opera Bastille, Paris
9 November 2010 19.30

Opera Bastille, Paris
11 November 2010 19.30

Opera Bastille, Paris
15 November 2010 19.30

Opera Bastille, Paris
18 November 2010 19.30

Opera Bastille, Paris
21 November 2010

Opera Bastille, Paris
24 November 2010 19.30