Palmer’s pioneering emphasis on text, and its capacity to transform music, has defined her success as an artist throughout her career. In recent years she has been working to bring this approach to the opera rehearsal process, and her work has contributed to award winning productions at English National Opera (Shostakovich Lady Macbeth of Mtensk, Janáček Jenůfa, Verdi Force of Destiny, Mozart The Magic Flute, Berg Lulu) and Glyndebourne (Britten A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Thomas Hamlet).
As an operatic mezzo-soprano, her extensive credits includes regular appearances at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden (Strauss Elektra, Janáček Káťa Kabanová, Sondheim Sweeney Todd), the Metropolitan Opera, New York (Wagner Ring Cycle, Poulenc Dialogues des Carmélites, Debussy Pelléas et Mélisande, Tchaikovsky The Queen of Spades), Bayerische Staatsoper (Wagner Das Rheingold and Die Walküre) as well as work with Zurich, Toulouse, Amsterdam, Chicago, San Francisco, Paris and English National Opera. She has collaborated with many conductors, including James Levine, Sir Simon Rattle, Antonio Papanno, Ricardo Mutti and Zubin Mehta. She has been a regular guest at the BBC Proms and with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, New York Philharmonic, Philharmonia, London Symphony and London Philharmonic.
Pamlmer started her career as a concert soprano, and during these years she toured Australia for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and collaborated with many artists, including Sir Colin Davis, Rozhdestvensky (Shostakovich Symphony No.14 and Berlioz The Trojans), Raymond Leppard (with a recording of Handel Messiah), Sir Charles Mackerras (including a recording of Handel Judas Maccabaeus for DGG) as well as concerts with many of the major orchestras across Europe and North America.
Highlights of her considerable catalogue of recordings include Elektra with the WDR Orchestra and Semyon Bychkov, and with the London Symphony Orchestra and Valery Gergiev, as well as Dialogues des Carmélites with English National Opera and Paul Daniel. She recorded three celebrated disks of French song for Argo Records with John Constable and the Nash Ensemble, directed by Sir Simon Rattle, and recorded and toured Messiaen Poemes pour Mi with the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Pierre Boulez, in collaboration with the composer.
She was made a CBE in 1993 and a Dame of the British Empire in 2011.
2023/24 season / 421 words. Not to be altered without permission.