Amanda Roocroft

Amanda Roocroft has secured an international reputation as one of Britain's most exciting singers, in opera, concert, and in recital. She graduated from the Royal Northern College of Music and studies with Paul Farrington.

In concert she has appeared with leading orchestras throughout Europe and North America with conductors including Sir Simon Rattle, Zubin Mehta, Mariss Jansons, Ivor Bolton, Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Daniele Gatti, Sir Neville Marriner, Sir Andrew Davis, Sir Charles Mackerras, Valery Gergiev and Bernard Haitink.

She enjoys a close relationship with the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, the Glyndebourne Festival, the English National Opera, the Welsh National Opera and the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich, and her roles in these houses have included Fiordiligi/Cosi fan Tutte, Countess/Le Nozze di Figaro, Donna Elvira/Don Giovanni, Desdemona/Otello, Amelia/Simon Boccanegra, Mimi/La Boheme, Eva/Die Meistersinger, the title roles in Madama Butterfly, Katya Kabanoba and Jenufa, Genevre/Ariodante, Cleopatra/Giulio Cesare, Jenifer/The Midsummer Marriage, and Tatiana/Eugene Onegin. Recent opera highlights include Elisabetta/Don Carlos in Amsterdam conducted by Riccardo Chailly and directed by Willy Eecker; Ellen Orford/Peter Grimes with Sir Simon Rattle and Trevor Nunn in Salzburg; a tour of Japan (Countess/Le Nozze di Figaro) with the Bayerische Staatsoper and Zubin Mehta; Tatiana/Eugene Onegin for Welsh National Opera; and the title role in Jenufa in Berlin, Barcelona and, most recently, at the English National Opera for which she won the 2007 Laurence Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement in Opera.

A noted recitalist she has appeared at London’s Wigmore Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall, the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, the Musikverein in Vienna, New York’s Lincoln Center, La Monnaie in Brussels and in Munich, Frankfurt, Paris, Valencia and Lisbon.

Photo: Anthony Roocroft