Patricia Bardon Mezzo-soprano

Dublin-born Patricia Bardon studied with Dr Veronica Dunne at the city’s College of Music and came to early prominence as the youngest ever prize-winner in the Cardiff Singer of the World Competition. Patricia Bardon’s unique vocal range and versatility have allowed her to explore a diverse operatic repertoire spanning Monteverdi, Handel and Gluck through Rossini, Bizet and Verdi and she has become established internationally as an operatic and concert force, having worked with many of today’s pre-eminent conductors including Mehta, Haitink, Abbado, Rizzi, Pappano, Jacobs, Eschenbach and Christie.

Patricia’s operatic highlights include Tancredi and Arsace/Semiramide at La Fenice in Venice; La Cenerentola in Brussels and Lausanne; Carmen at Hamburg’s Staatsoper, WNO and Scottish Opera; Bizet’s Djamileh with Opera North; Anna/Les Troyens as part of Florence’s Maggio Musicale, Penelope in Monteverdi’s Ulisse in Athens, Amsterdam and Berlin’s Staatsoper, Smeaton/Anna Bolena at San Francisco Opera, Azucena/Il Trovatore at WNO, Erda in Das Rheingold and Siegfried in ENO’s Ring Cycle, Maria/Mose in Egitto, Edwige/William Tell and Maddelena/Rigoletto at the ROH Covent Garden.

The 2005-2006 season saw Patricia’s house debut at the Opera National de Paris in the title role of Kaija Saariaho’s Adriana Mater in a new production by Peter Sellars conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen, the 2006/2007 season her debut at New York’s Metropolitan Opera as Cornelia, the 2007/2008 season her debut at Washington’s National Opera as Andronico in Handel’s Tamerlano, sharing the stage with Placido Domingo and in 2008/2009 her Vienna debut at the city’s historic Theater an der Wien in Handel’s Partenope, conducted by Christoph Rousset.

Noted as one of Europe’s finest Handelians, Patricia Bardon’s most frequently requested roles include Orlando, Giulio Cesare, Ruggiero, Andronico, Cornelia, Xerxes, Juno and Rosmira which have taken her to stages in New York, Paris, Lyon, Antwerp, Munich, Chicago, Glyndebourne Festival, Barcelona, Amsterdam, London, Madrid and Moscow. Patricia Bardon’s interpretation of Cornelia in David McVicar’s Giulio Cesare at the Glyndebourne Festival as well Amastre in Xerxes from the Bayerische Staatsoper Munich are both available on DVD.

Equally successful as a concert singer Patricia has a diverse repertoire including works by Mahler, Rossini, Verdi and Szymanowski as well as Bach, Vivaldi and Handel and she has performed with such esteemed orchestras as the New York Philharmonic, Concertgebouw Orkest, Orchestre de Paris, London’s Philharmonia, Les Arts Florissants and the Orchestra of La Scala Milan. Patricia appeared at the 2007 First Night of the Proms, broadcast live on TV and Radio, with the BBC SO and Jiri Behlolavek.

Patricia Bardon’s discography to date includes Orlando (Erato), Elijah (Decca), Eugene Onegin (EMI), Rigoletto (Teldec), Carmen and Flying Dutchman (Chandos), Messiah (Harmonia Mundi), Arianna et Barbe Bleue (Telarc), Malcolm in Rossini’s Donna del Lago recorded live from Edinburgh’s International Festival (Opera Rara), and most recently Rossini’s Ermione (Opera Rara)

Recent London performances - in new productions of Partenope and Vaughan-Williams’ Riders to the Sea at ENO and a highly-acclaimed portrayal of Stravinsky’s Baba the Turk in Robert Lepage’s Rake’s Progress at Covent Garden – led to Patricia Bardon’s nomination for the 2009 Laurence Olivier ‘Outstanding Achievement in Opera’ Award.

After a debut last season for the Los Angeles Opera, repeating her success in Handel’s Tamerlano alongside Placido Domingo, and her first portrayal as Ottavia in Monteverdi’s Poppea (at the Oslo Opera and recorded for television), Patricia Bardon’s operatically diverse current season includes Erda in the new Das Rheingold at the Metropolitcan Opera, conducted by James Levine; a return as Azucena in Welsh National Opera’s Il Trovatore, Handel’s Rinaldo at the Cologne Opera and La Nourrice in Paul Dukas’ Ariane et Barbe-Bleue at Barcelona’s Gran Teatro del Liceu, conducted by Stephane Deneve.

2010/2011 Season

Date Last Edited: 18th August 2010