Paula Murrihy

Murrihy opens her 2026/27 season with a return to Oper Frankfurt as Gismonda in Handel’s Ottone directed by Jetske Mijnssen and conducted by Václav Luks. Further opera highlights of the season include Komponist in Strauss’s Ariadne auf Naxos for the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie, directed by Mariusz Treliński and conducted by Ariane Matiakh, and Dejanira in Barrie Kosky’s acclaimed production of Handel’s Hercules for the Royal Ballet & Opera Covent Garden, conducted by Stefano Montanari. On the concert platform, she collaborates with conductor Elias Grandy performing Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 at Stuttgart’s Liederhalle with the Stuttgart Philharmonic Orchestra, and Martinů’s Nipponari song cycle at Smetana Hall with the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra. She sings the role of Gräfin Geschwitz in Berg’s Lulu at the Cologne Philharmonie with the Gürzenich-Orchester Köln conducted by Sakari Oramo and performs Mahler’s Des Knaben Wunderhorn at the National Concert Hall Dublin with the National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland conducted by Peter Whelan. She also appears in recital at London’s Wigmore Hall with pianist, Tanya Blaich.

Notable operatic highlights of recent seasons include Ariane in Dukas’s Ariane et Barbe-Bleu at the Teatro Real, Madrid, Euryale in the world premiere of Iain Bell’s Medusa at La Monnaie, Waitress in a new production of Kaija Saariaho's Innocence at the Semperoper Dresden, both Fox in The Cunning Little Vixen and Prince Charmant in Massenet’s Cendrillon for the Opéra de Paris, Fox Cunning Little Vixen and Komponist in Ariadne auf Naxos at the Gran Teatre del Liceu, Barcelona, Octavian in Der Rosenkavalier for Santa Fe Opera, Donna Elvira in Mozart’s Don Giovanni at the Royal Ballet & Opera, Covent Garden, title role Ariodante at Moscow’s Bolshoi Theatre, Stéphano in Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette at the Metropolitan Opera, Idamante in Handel’s Idomeneo at the Salzburg Festival, Sesto and Octavian for Dutch National Opera, Nicklausse and Muse in Offenbach’s Les Contes d’Hoffmann at the Palau de les Arts, Valencia and both Octavian and title role Carmen for Irish National Opera.

Murrihy tours extensively on the concert platform. She works regularly with Harry Bicket and The English Concert, last season performing Goffredo in Handel’s Rinaldo in London and on tour to China and South Korea, and the previous season, singing Sesto in Handel's Giulio Cesare on tour to the US and at London’s Barbican. Other recent concert highlights include the title role in Handel’s Serse with the Academy of Ancient Music and Laurence Cummings at London’ Barbican and arias from Messiah and Bach’s St Matthew Passion with the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal conducted by Kent Nagano.

Additional concert highlights include Mysliveček’s oratorio Abramo ed Isacco with Collegium 1704 on tour to Prague, Dresden and Amsterdam and at the Salzburg Festival, Mozart’s Requiem with the Camerata Salzburg and in Chicago with Music of the Baroque, both conducted by Jane Glover. She has performed Didon on a European tour of Berlioz’s Les Troyens with the Monteverdi Choir and Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique, conducted by Dinis Sousa, closing with a performance at the BBC Proms. She has toured Bach’s St John Passion with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and has collaborated with MusicAeterna and Teodor Currentzis, with performances including Così fan tutte, Le nozze di Figaro, Purcell’s Indian Queen, Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater, Mahler’s Kindertotenlieder and Das Knaben Wunderhorn and Hindemith’s Die Junge Magd.

Further concert appearances include Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde at the Tiroler Festspiele Erl, Stravinsky’s Pulcinella with the RTÉ Symphony Orchestra, Handel’s Messiah with the Orchestre de Chambre de Paris, Haydn’s Paukenmesse at the BBC Proms, Berlioz Les Nuits d'Été with the Irish Chamber Orchestra, Mendelssohn’s Elijah with the Spanish National Orchestra and Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, Berlioz’s L’enfance du Christ and Bach’s Christmas Oratorio with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Handel’s Solomon, Alexander’s Feast and Honneger’s Judith for the Nederlandse Programma Stichting and Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis with the London Philharmonic Orchestra. In the United States she has worked with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, where she premiered John Harbison’s Symphony No. 6, Boston Baroque and the Philadelphia Orchestra for Messiah, the North Carolina Symphony Orchestra for Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, the Handel and Haydn Society in Boston as Cherubino in Le nozze di Figaro and Juno/Ino in Semele and the St Paul Chamber Orchestra performing Bach’s St Matthew Passion.

An accomplished recitalist, Murrihy has given performances at London’s Wigmore Hall with both Malcolm Martineau and Sholto Kynoch, at Boston’s Jordan Hall, the Aldeburgh Festival, the Oxford Lieder Festival, Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, Oper Frankfurt and the Diaghilev Festival in Perm. In 2020 she released her debut solo album, I will walk with my love, with American pianist Tanya Blaich for Orchid Classics. The recording explores folk inspired songs and myths and features works by Brahms, Mahler, Debussy and Grieg, as well as traditional Irish folksong.

2026/27 season / 866 words. Not to be altered without permission.