Susan Bickley

The British mezzo-soprano Susan Bickley commands an unusually broad range, encompassing repertory from the early Baroque era through to the present day. Substantial German and Russian parts that demand both vocal heft and commanding stage presence have formed a significant portion of her work. Born in Liverpool, she was raised by parents who nurtured her musical interests; her father worked as a school music teacher and administrator. A recording captures her at age three performing Christopher Robin is saying his prayers. After studying at City University in London she transferred to the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, where she earned the institution’s gold medal for singers and began securing engagements shortly after completing her training. Her first operatic appearance took place in Florence at the Maggio Musicale, when she sang Prosperpina in Monteverdi’s Orfeo. In 1991 she made her Royal Opera House debut in Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov and has since returned to the company in other Slavic assignments, including Aksinya in Shostakovich’s Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District, the Old Countess in his The Nose, Lyudmila in Smetana’s The Bartered Bride, and Babulenka in Prokofiev’s The Gambler. During the 2018-2019 season she appeared there again as Marfa Ignatevna Kabanova in Janacek’s Katya Kabanova. Bickley has maintained a strong connection with English National Opera, performing Herodias in Strauss’ Salome, Eduige in Handel’s Rodelinda, and creating roles in the world premieres of Ryan Wigglesworth’s The Winter’s Tale and Tansy Davies’ Between Words. Additional engagements have taken her to other leading English and Welsh companies, as well as to Opera Vlaanderen, where she sang Countess Geschwitz in Lulu. On the concert platform she has performed Fricka in Wagner’s Das Rheingold and Die Walküre and Waltraute in Götterdämmerung; in the United States she has portrayed Herodias in San Francisco and Dallas. Her recital work has included partnerships with Roger Vignoles at the Kennedy Center in Washington and Iain Burnside at Wigmore Hall. Her extensive recorded output began with a 1996 collection of songs by Reynaldo Hahn and extends across releases on Hyperion, NMC, Chandos, Black Box Classics, Naxos, Signum Classics, Warner Classics, Delphian, and Nimbus. In 2019 the final label issued her recording, made with soprano Claire Booth, of songs by Debussy, Satie, Fauré, and Dove.