The British Mezzo Sara Fulgoni is an outstanding vocal and dramatic talent, performing at major opera and concert venues worldwide in a huge variety of repertoire, all to critical acclaim. The full, rich and lustrous quality of her voice, as well as her remarkable stage presence, have distinguished her operatic performances and Bizet’s Carmen has become a foundation of her work. She has sung the role for Santa Fe Opera, Toulouse (under Michel Plasson), English National Opera, Welsh National Opera, the Palau de les Arts Valencia (under Lorin Maazel), Geneva Opera and at the Beijing Music Festival where she became the first western interpreter of the role to be presented in the capital of China since the Cultural Revolution.Sara created the title role in the world premiere of Tobias Picker’s opera Thérèse Raquin at Dallas Opera (also recorded for Chandos). Further notable appearances include Hänsel/ Hänsel und Gretel and Amando/Le Grand Macabre with San Francisco Opera, Judith/Bluebeard’s Castle with the Canadian Opera Company, Welsh National Opera and the Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona, the title role in The Rape of Lucretia for VARA Radio in Amsterdam and for Radio France, Marguerite/La Damnation de Faust with the Brooklyn Academy of Music in New York, Tippett’s A Child of Our Time and Waltraute /Götterdämmerung with English National Opera, Orfeo ed Euridice in Valladolid and La Coruna, Dian /La Calisto under René Jacobs in Montpellier, Lyon and Salzburg, Béatrice/Béatrice et Benedict for De Nederlandse Opera, Lola/Cavalleria Rusticana with the Geneva Opera and Penelope/Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria with the Bayerische Staatsoper, the Royal Danish Opera in Copenhagen and the Geneva Opera. Sara sings regularly with Welsh National Opera, where roles have included Béatrice, Orlofsky/Die Fledermaus and Kundry/Parsifal, conducted by Vladimir Jurowski. She made her debut at the Royal Opera House as Federica/Luisa Miller.Recent highlights include Juno/Semele at the Opernhaus Zurich, Baba the Turk/The Rake’s Progress in Rome with Daniele Gatti and at the Teatro Comunale di Bologna, Sorceress/Dido and Aeneas at La Scala under Christopher Hogwood, Juno and Waltraute with De Vlaamse Opera, Margret/Wozzeck for La Monnaie and Adalgisa/Norma for Grange Park Opera.
In previous seasons Sara returned to De Vlaamse Opera for the title role in The Rape of Lucretia and to the Royal Opera House as Sorceress and Maddalena/Rigoletto.
A committed concert artist, Sara has worked with Riccardo Chailly, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Riccardo Muti, Jukka-Pekka Sarastre, Richard Hickox, Josep Pons, and the late Giuseppe Sinopoli. She has sung both Mahler Symphony No. 8 and Urlicht from Des Knaben Wunderhorn with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra under Riccardo Chailly both of which were also recorded by Decca. More recently she performed John Adams’ El Nino in concert with the Flanders Philharmonic Orchestra. In recital Sara has appeared at the Concertgebouw, Wigmore Hall, the Montreux-Vevey Festival and in the Chatelet’s Midis-Musicaux series.
Other recordings include Elijah for Decca under Paul Daniel after performances at the Edinburgh Festival, Verdi’s Oberto for Philips under Sir Neville Marriner, Suor Angelica for EMI under Antonio Pappano and the Cherubini Mass in D Minor with Riccardo Muti at La Scala for EMI. She also took part the acclaimed television series entitled “The Genius of Beethoven” for the BBC.
Appearances in the 2009/10 season included Duchess of York/Richard III at the Opera National du Rhin in Strasbourg, a return to Grange Park Opera for Strauss’ Capriccio, ‘3 Abschied’, a dance project by choreographer Anne Terese De Keersmaeker based on Gustav Mahler’s song ‘Abschied’ and commissioned by La Monnaie in Brussels, with consecutive performances in Lille, Theater an der Wien, Japan and Paris in the 2010/11 season.
This season sees performances of ‘3 Abschied’ in, Dresden, 1.Norne/Götterdämmerung at the Opera National du Rhin, Brangäne/Tristan und Isolde for Grange Park Opera and Fricka/Die Walküre at the St Endellion Festival of music in Cornwall.
Future plans include Béatrice for Welsh National Opera, Schumann’s Faust Scenes at the Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona, ‘3 Abschied’ at Sadler’s Wells and Paulina/Queen of Spades and Suzuki/Madama Butterfly for Grange Park Opera.
A graduate of the Royal Northern College of Music, Sara Fulgoni is the recipient of numerous awards including second prize in the Kathleen Ferrier Awards in 1993.
