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.
Among her recent highlights are Clori in Handel’s Clori, Tirsi e Filno (Bampton Classical Opera); and Elvida in the world premiere of Handel’s Fernando, re di Castiglia (London Handel Festival, Händel-Festspiele, Halle).
Her operatic roles include Agathe Wolfsschlucht (Deutsche Oper Berlin Tischlerei); Bess Foster Georgiana (Buxton International Opera Festival); Dido Dido & Aeneas (Nordland Music Festival, Norway); Galatea Acis & Galatea (Opera Theatre Company, Ireland); Countess Le nozze di Figaro (Longborough Festival Opera); Donna Elvira Don Giovanni (Diva Opera UK/France/Jersey Tour); Donna Anna Don Giovanni, Belinda Dido & Aeneas, Eleonora Il furioso all’isola di San Domingo, and Juno La Calisto (English Touring Opera); and Crobyle Thaïs (Chelsea Opera Group). She has also covered Donna Anna (Opera North).
In concert Susanna has performed Verdi Requiem (Coventry Cathedral); the UK premiere of Mendelssohn’s arrangement of Handel’s Israel in Ägypten (Three Choirs Festival); Schumann with the Gewandhaus Orchestra under John Eliot Gardiner); Tavener’s epic Veil of the Temple (Canterbury Cathedral); and a live-streamed semi-staged performance of Korngold’s Die tote Stadt (Irish National Symphony Orchestra). Susanna has also 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.
Clori / Clori, Tirsi e Fileno / Bampton Classical Opera / 2022
“Susanna Fairbairn’s Clori was an absolute minx, her capriciousness conveyed by her nimble soprano, luxuriant tone and sparkling florid passagework.”
(Opera Today)
Elvida / Fernando, re di Castiglia / Opera Settecento / 2022
“Susanna Fairbairn’s sumptuous Princess Elvida, all dramatic ice and vocal fire, turning an ingenue into a queen…”
(iNews UK)
“Fairbairn conveyed Elvida’s tenderness and innocence from the first, urging her mother to wipe away her tears in a serene ‘Rendi ’I sereno al ciglio’. The passagework in ‘Vola l’augello’ was clean and accurate, and her tone throughout was velvety and rich.”
(Opera Today)
Bess Foster / Georgiana / Buxton International Festival / 2019
“Susanna Fairbairn was plaintive and sensuous as Bess, the shared lover of Duke and Duchess alike.”
(The Arts Desk)
“Susanna Fairbairn exudes warmth and compassion as her beloved companion, Bess.”
(The Stage)
“Samantha Clarke and Susanna Fairbairn sparkle in their roles, balanced by Benjamin Hulett’s well-judged Duke.”
(The Times)
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