Susan Bickley

Recent operatic highlights include Hecuba & Victoria in Foccroulle Cassandra at the Staatsoper Berlin and La Monnaie, Kabanicha in Janáček's Katya Kabanova at Glyndebourne, Auntie in Britten's Peter Grimes for the Bayerische Staatsoper and Mrs Sedley in Peter Grimes for the Royal Danish Opera. Bickley also has long-standing relationships with English National Opera and The Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. For the latter, highlights include Grandmother in the world premiere of Turnage's Festen, Mother in Humperdinck's Hansel and Gretel, Kabanicha in Katya Kabanova and Matron in Shostakovich's The Nose. For English National Opera, previous roles include Dame Carruthers in Gilbert and Sullivan's Yeomen of the Guard, Fricka in Wagner's The Valkyrie, Offred’s Mother in Ruders's The Handmaid’s Tale, Marcellina in Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro, Herodias in Strauss's Salome and Eduige in Handel's Rodelinda. Bickley has also created the roles of Paulina in Ryan Wigglesworth's The Winter’s Tale, Mother in Tansy Davies's Between Worlds and Jocasta in Julian Anderson's The Thebans, all world premieres.

Bickley’s wide-ranging repertoire has seen her perform roles including Genevieve in Debussy's Pelléas et Mélisande, Mrs Grose in Britten's The Turn of the Screw, Kostelnicka in Janáček's Jenůfa, Kabanicha in Káťa Kabanová, Waltraute in Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen, Marcellina in Le Nozze di Figaro, Herodias in Salome, Baba the Turk in Stravinsky's The Rake’s Progress, Madre in Nono's Al gran sole carico d’amore and Ludmilla in Smetana's The Bartered Bride at houses including Garsington Opera, Glyndebourne Festival Opera, Opera North, Opéra de Paris, Welsh National Opera, Dallas Opera, San Francisco Opera, Staatsoper Berlin and the Salzburg Festival.

Recent highlights on the concert stage include Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 with The Hallé, Auntie in Peter Grimes with the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Edward Gardner, Dido in Purcell's Dido and Aeneas in Boston with the Handel and Haydn society conducted by Harry Christopher, Fricka in Wagner's Das Rheingold with the Hallé and Mark Elder, Adès America: A Prophecy with the BBC Philharmonic, and George Benjamin's Into the Little Hill at Lincoln Center. Bickley has also sung Irene in Handel's Theodora with the Internationale Händel-Festspiele Göttingen, Tippet's A Child of Our Time with the Orquestra Sinfônica do Estado de São Paulo and Beethoven's Missa Solemnis with the Hallé, Knussen's Where the Wild Things Are with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, Stravinsky's Requiem Canticles at the Carneige Hall, Ligeti's Requiem and George Benjamin's Upon Silence at the Salzburg Festival and appeared regularly at Edinburgh International Festival and the BBC Proms.

On the recital stage, Bickley has appeared with Roger Vignoles at the Kennedy Center in Washington, with Iain Burnside at the Wigmore Hall and at the Spitalfields Festival, and with Julius Drake at St John Smith’s Square and Oxford Lieder Festival.

Bickley’s other recorded repertoire includes songs by Ivor Gurney with Iain Burnside; Handel's Serse, Theodora, Solomon; Purcell's The Fairy Queen, Dido and Aeneas; Vivaldi's Juditha triumphans; Reynaldo's Hahn Songs; George Benjamin's Upon Silence; Thomas Adès's America: A Prophecy; and Simon Bainbridge's Ad ora incerta and Primo Levi songs.

Bickley was awarded the prestigious Singer Award at the 2011 Royal Philharmonic Society Awards, the highest recognition for live classical music in the UK.

2025/26 season / 615 words. Not to be altered without permission.