Susanna Fairbairn
Artist Reviews
'The overture and opening scenes fizzed with urgency, Sky Ingram's Dido a fragile bundle of anxieties who was only held together by the brisk no-nonsense attitude of Susanna Fairbairn's vivacious Belinda.'
'Susanna Fairbairn's terrifically vivid Belinda was a good counterfoil for Sky Ingram's depressive Queen.'
'The brightly seductive Crobyle of Susanna Fairbairn...'
'Susanna was a dauntless, feisty Pallas.'
'Susanna Fairbairn as a strong Pallas.'
‘Susanna Fairbairn’s Clori was an absolute minx, her capriciousness conveyed by her nimble soprano, luxuriant tone and sparkling florid passagework. She fairly revelled in the glow of her suitors’ creative wooing, and even ventured from the stage to tease the audience, stealing a cheeky kiss from a stagehand, too! ........ This Clori accompanied her vocal fireworks by ripping her lover’s musical offerings to shreds with a vehemence bordering on violence, a stylishly played violin obbligato adding some elegance to her hyperbolic, almost hysterical, theatricality. One would expect no less from a diva!’
‘The two duets for Fernando and Elvida were highlights. ‘Per le porte del tormento’ lilted beguilingly. It’s a long sing but both Li and soprano Susanna Fairbairn had the stamina to sustain a firm line, and their voices intertwined meltingly in the winding phrases of the close. Fairbairn conveyed Elvida’s tenderness and innocence from the first, urging her mother to wipe away her tears in a serene ‘Rendi ’l sereno al ciglio’. The passagework in ‘Vola l’augello’ was clean and accurate, and her tone throughout was velvety and rich.’
‘And what a cast. Name a young British singer headed for big things, and you’ll find them here. There is Susanna Fairbairn’s sumptuous Princess Elvida, all dramatic ice and vocal fire, turning an ingénue into a queen’
Biography
English soprano Susanna Fairbairn is a former Opera Awards Foundation bursary recipient and Park Lane Group Young Artist, and prize-winner of the Handel Singing Competition and Emmy Destinn Young Singers Awards. At Trinity College of Music in London she won the English Song Competition, Wilfred Greenhouse Allt Prize and Paul Simm Opera Prize. She also studied voice at the Wales International Academy of Voice in Cardiff, and flute at Magdalen College, Oxford – as the first female Instrumental Scholar in the college’s c.550-year history. She is grateful to have studied with Alison Wells, Dennis O’Neill, Nuccia Focile, Raymond Connell, Jenny Dakin and Arwel Treharne Morgan, and benefitted from masterclasses with Kiri Te Kanawa, Sarah Walker, Malcolm Martineau and Roger Vignoles.
Significant appearances on the concert platform have included the UK première of Mendelssohn’s arrangement of Handel Israel in Ägypten with Philharmonia Orchestra at the Three Choirs Festival, Verdi Requiem in Coventry Cathedral, Schumann with The Gewandhaus Orchestra in Leipzig conducted by John Eliot Gardiner, a performance of Tavener’s epic Veil of the Temple in Canterbury Cathedral in the composer’s presence, and a live-streamed semi-staged performance of Korngold’s Die tote Stadt with the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra from the National Concert Hall in Dublin, Ireland. Susanna has performed recitals at major venues including Wigmore Hall and Purcell Room, and her début solo CD, ‘Songs of Geoffrey Bush and Joseph Horovitz’, is available on Naxos.
Operatic roles include Agathe Wolfsschlucht (Deutsche Oper Berlin Tischlerei); Countess Le nozze di Figaro (Longborough Festival Opera); Bess Foster Georgiana (Buxton International Opera Festival); Dido Dido & Aeneas (Nordland Music Festival, Norway); Galatea Acis & Galatea (Opera Theatre Company, Ireland); cover Donna Anna Don Giovanni (Opera North); Donna Anna Don Giovanni, Belinda Dido & Aeneas, Eleonora Il furioso all’isola di San Domingo, and Juno La Calisto (English Touring Opera); Donna Elvira Don Giovanni (Diva Opera); Clori Clori, Tirsi e Fileno (Bampton Classical Opera); and Crobyle Thaïs (Chelsea Opera Group).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6IiWzzyZr8&feature=youtu.be
For Oratorio and Concert repertoire please scroll down:
| Oratorio and Concert rep | |
| Composer | Work |
| Allain | Pain |
| Bach JS | B Minor Mass |
| Cantata 19 (Es erhub sich ein Streit) | |
| Cantata 21 (Ich hatte viel Bekümmernis) | |
| Cantata 51 (Jauchzet Gott in allen Landen) | |
| Cantata 80 (Ein feste Burg) | |
| Cantata 82 (Ich habe Genug) | |
| Christmas Oratorio | |
| Magnificat | |
| St John Passion | |
| St Matthew Passion | |
| Beethoven | Missa Solemnis |
| Symphony No 9 | |
| Bernstein | Chichester Psalms |
| Blake | From the Mattress Grave |
| Brahms | Requiem |
| Dvořák | Mass in D |
| Requiem | |
| Faure | Stabat Mater |
| Finzi | Dies Natalis |
| Handel | Chandos Anthems |
| Dixit Dominus | |
| Gloria | |
| Israel in Egypt | |
| Messiah | |
| Ode for the birthday of Queen Anne (including Eternal Source of Light) | |
| Haydn | Creation |
| Kleine Orgelmesse | |
| Nelson Mass | |
| Schöpfung Messe | |
| Hepplewhite | Two or Three Angels (commission) |
| Mendelssohn | Elijah |
| Hear my Prayer | |
| Hymn of Praise | |
| McDowell | The Lord is Good (Commission) |
| Standing As I do before God (Commission) | |
| Monteverdi | Beatus Vir |
| Vespers | |
| Mozart | Alleluia (Exultate Jubilate) |
| C Minor Mass | |
| Mass in C | |
| Laudate Dominum | |
| Requiem | |
| Pärt | Passio (Evangeliest) |
| Orff | Carmina Burana |
| Poulenc | Gloria |
| Purcell | Ode for the birthday of Queen Mary II |
| Rossini | Petite Messe Solenelle |
| Scarlatti A | Dixit Dominus |
| Tavener | The Veil of the Temple (Concert Version) |
| Todd | Mass in Blue |
| Vaughan Williams | Donna Nobis Pacem |
| Hodie | |
| Sea Symphony | |
| Vivaldi | Dixit Dominus |
| Gloria | |