Mezzo-soprano Alice Coote is regarded as one of the great artists of our day. Equally famed on the great operatic stages as in concert and recital she has been named the “superlative British Mezzo” (San Francisco Chronicle). Her performances have been described as “breath-taking in [its] sheer conviction and subtlety of perception” (The Times) and her voice as “beautiful, to be sure, but, more importantly, it thrills you to the marrow.” (The Daily Telegraph).
The recital platform is central to her musical life, and she performs throughout the UK, Europe and the US, at the Wigmore Hall (where she has been a resident artist), the BBC Proms, Concertgebouw, Vienna Konzerthaus, Lincoln Centre NY and Carnegie Hall, among many other prestigious venues. Most recently, she debuted Schubert’s Winterreise at “The Stars of the White Nights’’ Mariinsky Festival in St Petersburg.
She is acclaimed in particular for Strauss, Mahler, Berlioz, Mozart, Händel and Bach with orchestras such as London Symphony Orchestra, Boston Symphony Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, OAE, The English Concert, Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, Hallé and Concertgebouw.
In her operatic engagements, Coote spends a large part of her time engaged abroad, and in the UK, interpreting male and female roles, such as Dejanira Hercules, Leonore La Favorite,the title role in Carmen, Charlotte Werther, Dorabella Così fan tutte, Lucretia The Rape of Lucretia, Marguerite Damnation de Faust, Penelope Ulysses, Octavian Der Rosenkavalier, Composer Ariadne auf Naxos, Orfeo Orfeo ed Euridice, IdamanteIdomeneo, Poppea and Nerone L’incoronazione di Poppea, Hänsel Hänsel und Gretel, Sesto and Vitellia La Clemenza di Tito, Sesto Giulio Cesare, Maffio Orsini Lucrezia Borgia, Le Prince Charmant Cendrillon, Ruggiero Alcina and the title role in Ariodante. She has performed these roles at Opera North, Welsh National Opera, Scottish Opera, English National Opera, Glyndebourne and the Royal Opera House. In Europe she has appeared at opera houses including Opéra de Paris and the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, in Amsterdam, Geneva, Munich, Frankfurt, and Salzburg. USA and Canadian appearances include Lyric Opera of Chicago, Seattle, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Toronto and the Metropolitan Opera New York.
Her many recordings and DVD appearances include on CD: Mahler Song Cycles (Pentatone); an album of English Song, The Power of Love (Hyperion); Songs by Robert Schumann and Gustav Mahler (EMI); Händel’s Messiah and Mahler 2 (EMI); Angel Dream of Gerontius and The Apostles (Hallé); Composer Ariadne auf Naxos (Chandos); Orfeo (Virgin Classics); Choice of Hercules (Hyperion); Brahms Alto Rhapsody (Tudor); Schubert’s Winterreise (Wigmore Hall Live); Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde(Pentatone); On DVD: Händel’s Messiah (EMI); Hansel Hanseland Gretel (EMI); Nerone L’incoronazione di Poppea (Decca); Ruggiero Alcina (Arte) Maffio Orsini Lucrezia Borgia (Medici Arts).
Most recent engagements include the title role in Gluck’s Orpheus and Eurydice at English National Opera; Berlioz Roméo et Juliet with the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Michael Tilson Thomas; Mahler Symphony No. 8 with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra conducted by Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla. Coote was a Hallé Associate Artist for the 2019/20 season.
The 2020/21 season saw Coote perform Winterreise with Christian Blackshaw and a Schumanniade with Ian Bostridge and Julius Drake, both at Wigmore Hall. She appeared in a livestream at the Royal Festival Hall in a widely praised assumption of Britten’s Phaedra with Sir John Eliot Gardiner and the Philharmonia. In addition, an evening of Tchaikovsky songs depicting the composer’s inner life narrated by Ralph Fiennes with Christian Blackshaw at the piano was live-streamed from Wigmore Hall in April 2021 to critical acclaim.
Coote’s 2021/22 season in concert will include recitals at the Wigmore Hall with Graham Johnson, Mahler in concert at Middle Temple City of London, Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde with the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra and Mahler’s second Symphony with Michael Tilson Thomas with the National Symphony in Washington. Operatic roles will include the title role in Händel’s Agrippina at Staatsoper Hamburg; Mère Marie in Poulenc’s Dialogues des Carmélites at Opernhaus Zürich and Baba the Turk in Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress at The Metropolitan Opera. Tchaikovsky Songs with Christian Blackshaw narrated by Ralph Fiennes will be streamed for a month from The Library of Congress, Washington.
In 2018 she was awarded an OBE for services to music.