INDEPENDENT OPERA at Sadler's Wells · Artist support

Louise Collett Mezzo Soprano

Recipient of INDEPENDENT OPERA Vocal Scholarship at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama

Mezzo-soprano Louise Collett recently completed Scottish Opera’s Emerging Artists programme. She gained a First Class Honours Degree, Post-Graduate Diploma in Concert Singing, Master of Music and Master of Opera (all with Distinction) at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, and she is now studying with Karen Cargill.

Concert and Oratorio repertoire covers a wide spectrum for Louise, including Handel Messiah and Israel in Egypt, Bach Wienachts Oratorium, St John Passion and Magnificat, Mozart Requiem and Coronation Mass, Elgar Sea Pictures, Duruflé Requiem, Schumann Frauenliebe und Leben, and Britten Rejoice in the Lamb. Louise has performed alongside Sir Thomas Allen with the Parliament Choir, Southbank Sinfonia and Simon Over in Elgar The Apostles at Westminster Cathedral, sang Berio Folksongs with the Hebrides Ensemble and has appeared as a Samling scholar mezzo-soprano soloist in an opera gala concert at Wigmore Hall with Sir Thomas Allen and Malcolm Martineau.

Operatic roles include Olga The Merry Widow (Scottish Opera on Tour), as well as Lehrbube Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg and Mère Jeanne Les Dialogues des Carmelites both in concert performance at the Edinburgh International Festival. In summer 2007, Louise sang in the Chorus of the Bayreuth Festival, appearing in Parsifal, Tannhaüser and Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg. Roles performed at the RSAMD include Florence Pike Albert Herring, Arnalta L’incoronazione di Poppea, Older Woman in Jonathan Dove’s Flight, Third Woman in Judith Weir’s The Vanishing Bridegroom, Olga Eugene Onegin, La Prieure Les dialogues des Carméites and the title role in staged performances of Britten’s cantata Phaedra, also performed in Rostov-on-Don, Russia in April 2009.

During her year on the Scottish Opera Emerging Artist programme Louise covered the role of Isabella in L’italiana in Algeri, premiered a number of roles as part of the contemporary opera project Five:15, and was the mezzo-soprano soloist on the Essential Scottish Opera tour around Scotland.

Most recently, Louise has appeared as Wowkle in the Edinburgh International Festival’s concert performance of La fanciulla del West and in February this year she performed Le marteau sans maître (Boulez) and Upon Silence (George Benjamin) with The Theseus Ensemble at the Royal Opera House. Future engagements include the role of Maddalena in Verdi’s Rigoletto for Scottish Opera in May 2011.