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Elizabeth Campbell

MEZZO-SOPRANO

Elizabeth Campbell is one of Australia’s most distinguished mezzo-sopranos. She is a graduate of the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, and was awarded a Music Students Overseas Study Foundation Scholarship and an Australian Musical Foundation grant for study in London and Europe. She was a finalist in the Munich International Competition, winner of the Elly Ameling Lieder Prize in the ‘s-HertogenboschSinging Competition and has represented Australia in the Singer of the World Competition in Cardiff. In 1997 she was awarded the Bayreuth Scholarship.

This year Elizabeth’s  performances will include one of her signature roles, Mrs Sedley in Peter Grimes with Sydney Symphony Orchestra (David Robertson conducting), and Christina in Christina’s World with State Opera South Australia.

Elizabeth made her operatic debut as Carmen with the West Australian Opera and since then has featured regularly with the state opera companies and Opera Australia. Her extensive operatic repertoire includes leading roles in Così fan tutteEugene OneginCarmenXerxesGiulio CesareAlcinaThe Marriage of FigaroLa clemenza di TitoBoris Godunov, The Rake’s ProgressIl trittico, Die Meistersinger von NurnbergLes TroyensLes contes d’HoffmannWertherHansel and GretelLa forza del destinoIl trovatoreNabuccoMadama Butterfly (for which she was twice awarded the Green Room Award), LuluPeter GrimesDie FledermausL’incoronazione di PoppeaThe Ring CycleCapriccioRigolettoAndréa ChénierThe Turn of the ScrewLittle WomenDead Man Walking (for which she won a Helpmann Award) and the world premières of Summer of the Seventeenth DollBataviaLindy and The Love of the Nightingale (Richard Mills).

More recently Elizabeth has been heard in the roles of The Soreceress in Dido and Aeneas, Amneris in Aida, Niobe/Nurse/Narrator in The Love of the Nightingale, Maddalena in Rigoletto, Teresa in La Sonnambula, Mrs Sedley in Peter Grimes, and Grimgerde in Die Walküre and First Norn in Götterdämmerung, all for Opera Australia; Public Opinion in Orpheus in the Underworld, Herodias in Salome and Amneris (for which she won a Helpmann Award) for State Opera of South Australia; her role debut as Klytemnestra in Elektra, Acuzena in Il trovatore and Mrs Sedley in Peter Grimes for West Australian Opera; and Fricka in Das Rheingold for Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra.  In addition to recitals in South Australia and Victoria last year her performances included Elijah as well as returns to State Opera of South Australia for semi-staged versions of La Vida Breve and Gianni Schicchi and the Verdi Spectacular.

One of Australia’s leading concert artists and recitalists, Elizabeth appears regularly with leading Australian symphony orchestras, choirs and festivals and has a wide repertoire which includes works by many contemporary Australian composers including Peter Sculthorpe, Richard Mills, Ross Edwards and Graeme Koehne. Internationally, she has performed Handel’s Messiah at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, toured the USA with the Sydney Symphony, and given recitals at the Wigmore Hall, in Den Haag and Antwerp.

Other concert engagements have included appearances as a special guest artist with the Adelaide Youth Orchestra in Elgar’s Sea Pictures, at the Woodend Festival, Beethoven’s Symphony No.9 with the Adelaide and West Australian Symphony Orchestras, Australian World Orchestra and Australian Youth Orchestra, Die Walküre with WASO, Handel’s Messiah with Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, performances at the Huntington Festival and Coriole Music Festival as featured vocalist, Verdi’s Requiem for State Opera of South Australia, and the world premiere performances of Richard Mills’ Passion according to St Mark for the Tasmanian, West Australian and Queensland Symphony Orchestras.

Elizabeth’s recordings include Banquo’s Buried (Vol.1 of the Anthology of Australian Song Series) for 2MBS, Mahler’s Symphony No.2, Elgar’s Sea Pictures, Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis and Symphony No.9, Graeme Koehne’s Three Poems by Byron, Handel’s Messiah, The Australian Opera’s Giulio CesareSummer of the Seventeenth Doll, Margaret Sutherland’s The Woman and the Child, Woman’s Song, Australian settings of Judith Wright poems, and State Opera of South Australia’s Ring Cycle.