KITTY WHATELY

MEZZO SOPRANO

"Whately is a captivating live performer... In an age of glossily interchangeable international artists, this one isn't afraid to tell us her story. I, for one, want to hear more... Gramaphone Magazine

Kitty Whately is one of the UK’s most characterful mezzo sopranos of the operatic stage and concert platform, and a highly acclaimed interpreter particularly of contemporary opera and art song.

She has performed leading roles in world and UK premieres of opera by Mark Anthony Turnage, Missy Mazzoli, Mark Adamo and Vasco Mandonça, alongside song cycles written especially for her by Jonathan Dove, Sally Beamish, Steven Hough, Juliana Hall and Tarik O’Regan. She has received critical acclaim for performances of opera by Benjamin Britten and Bernard Hermann, as well as a huge variety of roles from the core canon of classical opera. 

Recent opera engagements include Lel in the English Touring Opera production of The Snow Maiden, Jocasta for Scottish Opera’s Oedipus Rex at the Edinburgh International Festival, Marcellina in Le Nozze di Figaro for the Verbier Festival, the title role in  L'Incoronazione di Poppea for The Grange Festival. She played the role of Isabelle in Missy Mazzoli’s one-woman opera Song from the Uproar staged at The Barbican with BBC Symphony Orchestra and BBC Singers. Future operatic roles include her mainstage debut at the Royal Opera House, playing Michelle in the World premiere of Mark Anthony Turnage’s new opera Festen, and Suzuki for the Grange Park Opera production of Madame Butterfly. Other recent highlights include Dorabella Cosi fan Tutte (The Grange Festival), Hermia in the Robert Carson production of A Midsummer Night's Dream(Opéra de Rouen), Pallas The Judgement of Paris (Cambridge Baroque Opera), Hansel Hansel and Gretel and Donna Elvira Don Giovanni (Scottish Opera). In recent years she has also played Meg in Opera Holland Park’s UK premiere of Little Women by Mark Adamo, Kate Owen Wingrave (Opera National de Lorraine and Grange Park Opera), Annina Der Rosenkavalier (Garsington Opera), and Dog / Forester's Wife / Woodpecker / Owl The Cunning Little Vixen with the CBSO in Birmingham, Paris, Hamburg and Dortmund. Further operatic engagements include Isabella in Bernard Herman’s Wuthering Heights (Opera National de Lorraine), Paquette Candide (Bergen National Opera), she created the role of Mother/Other Mother in the world premiere of Mark-Anthony Turnage’s Coraline (Barbican produced by the Royal Opera House, and The Grange Festival), the world premiere of Vasco Mendonça’s The House Taken Over directed by Katie Mitchell (Aix-en-Provence, Antwerp, Strasbourg, Luxembourg, Bruges and Lisbon), Rosina Il barbiere di Siviglia and Stewardess Flight (Opera Holland Park), Nancy Albert Herring (The Grange Festival), Hermia (Bergen and on tour with Aix-en-Provence Festival in Beijing); Ippolita / Pallade in Cavalli’s Elena (Montpellier and Versailles, Aix-en-Provence Festival), and Sesto Giulio Cesare (ETO). 

As a past winner of the Kathleen Ferrier award, and former BBC New Generation Artist, Kitty is in high demand as a recitalist and concert artist. She has sung with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, and her frequent performances with the BBC orchestras include De Falla’s The Three Cornered Hat (BBC National Orchestra of Wales), her BBC Proms debut in Sir Peter Maxwell Davies’ Suite from Act II of Caroline Mathilde, as well as recordings of Ravel’s Sheherezadewith BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, Canteloube’s Songs of the Auvergne with John Wilson and BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, and songs by Rodgers & Hammerstein, Jerome Kern and Cole Porter with BBC Concert Orchestra. Recent concert performances have included Mahler Das Lied von der Erde at the Mizmorim Festival in Basel, The Dream of Gerontius with Crouch End Festival Chorus at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, Beethoven’s 9th Symphonywith BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, Mahler’s 2nd Symphony with the orchestra of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and Mahler’s 8th Symphony with the Symphony Orchestra of Chetham’s School of Music. 

Kitty regularly performs recital programmes in all the major chamber venues in the UK, partnering most often with Simon Lepper, Joseph Middleton, and Anna Tilbrook, among many others. Kitty makes regular appearances on BBC Radio 3, in concert and in recordings made for Radio 3’s Composer of The Week series. She features on several discs of song, including three solo albums, as well as collaborations with other singers including Roderick Williams, Mary Bevan and Gareth Brynmor John. She is a passionate champion of women composers, and her most recent album Befreit: A Soul Surrendered, with Joseph Middleton, included world premiere recordings of songs by Johanna Müller-Hermann and Margarete Schweikert. She is currently recording a complete vocal works of the Anglo-American composer Rebecca Clarke with Anna Tilbrook and Nicholas Phan for Signum Records. Later this year she will record a new album of French song to include world premiere recordings of songs by Hedwige Chrétien and Marguerite Canal on the Chandos label.

Kitty is the co-founder of the charity SWAP’ra (Supporting Women And Parents in Opera). For more info click here.