- Dialogues des Carmélites – Mother Jeanne
Mezzo-soprano Catherine Backhouse grew up in Edinburgh and began singing as a chorister in St Mary’s Episcopal Cathedral. She graduated with an honours degree in music from The University of Durham and was a founder member of the a cappella group Voces8 with whom she sang for three years before training on the prestigious Opera Studies and Artist Diploma programmes at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama.
She was a Scottish Opera Emerging Artist and won the Sunday Herald Culture Award for Best Musical Artist for her performances. Recent projects include playing Waltraute in Wagner’s Die Walküre and Götterdämmerung with Regent’s Opera in London and Judith in Bluebeard’s Castle in the Edinburgh Fringe. Career highlights include Concepción (L’heure Espagnole) for Grange Park Opera (film) and Mid-Wales Opera, Isabella (L’Italiana in Algeri) for Diva Opera, Suzuki (Madama Butterfly) and Dryad (Ariadne auf Naxos) for West Green House Opera and Kate Julian (Owen Wingrave) for Aldeburgh and Edinburgh International Festivals.
On the concert platform she has appeared as a soloist in Verdi’s Requiem, Handel’s Messiah, as The Angel in Elgar’s Dream of Gerontius and Irene in Handel’s Theodora. An enthusiast of new music, Catherine has performed Kurtág Messages of the Late R.V. Troussova and Stumped by Lewis Coenen-Rowe at the Scottish Storytelling Centre. Her recital work has featured Elgar’s Sea Pictures, Wagner’s Wesendonck Lieder and ‘Emotionally Volatile’ a programme of songs composed by women. Future projects include the role of Kundry in Wagner’s Parsifal with Regent’s Opera and touring Wild Arts staged Messiah.