Anita Watson

Born in Sydney and now a dual British citizen, soprano Anita Watson is a graduate from the Sydney Conservatorium of Music and the Australian Opera Studio. She was a member of the Cologne Opera Studio and the Jette Parker Young Artist Programme at The Royal Opera House, Covent Garden.  She has won prizes in many prestigious competitions including the Australian Singing Competition, the Queen Sonja International Music Competition in Oslo, Neue Stimmen in Germany and the Plácido Domingo Operalia competition. In particular, she was awarded the first prize and the
audience award at the international ARD Music Competition in Munich and the SWR Emmerich-Smola Prize.

As a Jette Parker Young Artist at The Royal Opera House, Covent Garden her roles included the title role in Donizetti’s Rita, Gretel and Dewfairy Hänsel und Gretel, First Lady Die Zauberflöte, Flowermaiden Parsifal, Second Woman Dido and Aeneas and Naiad Ariadne auf Naxos.  Her wider engagements have included The Governess in The Turn of the Screw at the Teatro La Fenice, Venice, for the Théâtre du Capitole, Toulouse and for English National Opera at Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre; Donna Anna Don Giovanni for Opera Australia, Scottish Opera, the Nederlandse Reisopera, Landestheater Salzburg and the West Australian Opera; Anne Trulove The Rake’s Progress at the Teatro Municipal de Santiago; Pamina The Magic Flute for Welsh National Opera.  Further roles have included Fifth Maid Elektra at the Salzburg Festival, Fiordiligi Così fan tutte for Diva Opera, a return to the Royal Opera, London, as First Lady Die Zauberflöte, Mimì La Bohème for Opera North and the Nederlandse Reisopera, Micaëla Carmen for Welsh National Opera, Flowermaiden Parsifal at the BBC Proms, and Countess Almaviva Le Nozze di Figaro for Welsh National Opera.

Anita Watson has appeared worldwide in concerts, recitals and television and radio broadcasts.  Particular highlights including Beethoven Symphony No. 9 for the Accademia di Santa Cecilia and the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and Richard Strauss Four Last Songs with the Rheinische Philharmonie, Koblenz, and the Mariinksy Orchestra, St Petersburg. Other concert repertoire includes the Brahms, Mozart, Fauré, Dvôrák and Verdi Requiems, Carmina Burana, Rossini Stabat Mater and Petite Messe Solenelle, Poulenc Gloria, Elijah, Haydn’s Nelson Mass and Harmony Mass, Vivaldi Gloria and Magnificat, Mozart Mass in C, Mass in C minor and Vesperae Solennes de Confessore, Szymanowski Stabat Mater, A Child of Our Time, and Vaughan Williams’ Dona Nobis Pacem and A Sea Symphony.

Her recordings include Hänsel und Gretel (Opus Arte DVD / Blu Ray), Dido and Aeneas (Opus Arte DVD / Blu Ray), Ariadne auf Naxos for Chandos CD, Parsifal for Hallé CD and Fata Morgana – Songs by Pavel Haas for Resonus Classics (BBC Music Magazine Choral & Song Choice for May 2017).

Conductors with whom she has worked include Julia Jones, Sir Antonio Pappano, Speranza Scappucci, Arie van Beek, Thomas Blunt, Brad Cohen, Sir Colin Davis, Patrick Davin, Andreas Delfs, Sir Mark Elder, Daniele Gatti, Bernard Haitink, Tomáš Hanus, Leo Hussain, Damian Iorio, Lothar Koenigs, Antonello Manacorda, Toby Purser, David Syrus, Sir Jeffrey Tate, Lars Vogt, Mark Wigglesworth, Hilary Davan Wetton and Carlo Rizzi.

Recent engagements include Wayne McGregor’s Morgen for The Royal Ballet’s Summer 2021 season, First Lady Die Zauberflöte for The Royal Opera, London, Dvôrák Requiem at the Three Choirs Festival and Freia Das Rheingold for Orchestra of the Music Makers, Singapore.

www.anitawatson.net

For alternative recording material of Anita please follow the link below:

Fata Morgana: Song by Pavel Haas Artists: Lada Valesova (piano) , Anita Watson (soprano) , Anna Starushkevych (mezzo), Nicky Spence (tenor), James Platt (bass), Navarra Quartet

Tracks 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7 – Sedam pisni v lidovi tonu Op 18.

https://www.resonusclassics.com/fata-morgana-song-by-pavel-haas-lada-valesova-navarra-quartet

For Oratorio and Concert repertoire please scroll down: