The Irish mezzo-soprano Paula Murrihy appears regularly at leading opera houses in Europe and the USA. She was previously a member of the ensemble of the Frankfurt Opera, where her roles included Dido (Dido and Aeneas), Lazuli in Chabrier’s L’Étoile, Octavian (Der Rosenkavalier), Medoro in Vivaldi’s Orlando furioso and the title role in Barrie Kosky’s production of Carmen.
She studied at the DIT Conservatory of Music and Drama in Dublin and at the New England Conservatory in Boston. She also participated in the Britten Pears Young Artist Programme and the Merola Opera Program of the San Francisco Opera, and was an Apprentice Singer at the Santa Fe Opera.
In the 2022/23 season she returned to the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, as Donna Elvira (Don Giovanni), and made her debut at the Royal Danish Opera in Copenhagen, as Carmen.
Other recent highlights have included the Countess of Essex in a concert performance of Britten’s Gloriana at the English National Opera as part of the celebrations of Her Late Majesty Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee, Octavian for the Irish National Opera, Messaggera (L’Orfeo) at the Santa Fe Opera, and her role debut as Dejanira in Barrie Kosky’s production of Handel’s Hercules under Laurence Cummings at the Frankfurt Opera.
On the concert stage she has sung Judith (Bluebeard’s Castle) with the Vorarlberg Symphony Orchestra in Feldkirch and Bregenz, Cherubino (Le nozze di Figaro) for the Handel and Haydn Society in Boston and Sara in Josef Mysliveček’s Abramo ed Isacco with Collegium 1704 at the Salzburg Festival.
