Louise Alder

In the 2024/25 season, Alder will make several anticipated role debuts: her debut as Donna Anna in Mozart’s Don Giovanni at the Wiener Staatsoper; Micaëla Carmen at San Francisco Opera and her first Contessa in a new production of Le nozze di Figaro at Glyndebourne; as well as returning to the role of Susanna in the same opera, in the production she premiered at the Bayerische Staatsoper last season. On the concert platform her appearances include Strauss’ Vier Lieder Op. 27 with the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra; a concert of Mozart Arias at the Royal Danish Theater; and Haydn’s The Creation with the Gulbenkian Orchestra. Handel also features heavily this season with engagements such as Messiah with the Academy of the Ancient Music, Alexander’s Feast at the Mozartwoche in Salzburg; L’Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato with Arcangelo; and a tour of Giulio Cesare together with The English Concert at the Barbican and in North America, culminating with Carnegie Hall. In recital, Alder joins forces with tenor Mauro Peter and pianist Joseph Middleton for Wolf’s Italienisches Liederbuch which they will present at the Leeds Lieder, Wigmore Hall, Musikverein in Vienna and Oper Frankfurt.

Her engagements last season included Fiordiligi Così fan tutte and Susanna in a new production of Le nozze di Figaro at the Bayerische Staatsoper; and Cleopatra Giulio Cesare for Glyndebourne Festival Opera. On the concert platform she sang Mozart concert arias with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment; arias by Mozart and Rossini with the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra; the title role in Schumann’s Das Paradies und die Peri with the Royal Northern Sinfonia;  Canteloube’s Chants d’Auvergne with the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks;  Mahler’s Symphony no. 4 with the Bayerisches Staatsorchester and Vladimir Jurowski; Haydn’s Creation with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and Edward Gardner; and Brahms’ Ein Deutsches Requiem with the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia and Philippe Jordan. She also gave recitals in Schwarzenberg, Vienna, Helsinki, Stockholm and curated a season-long residency at London’s Wigmore Hall.

Recent opera successes include Susanna for the Wiener Staatsoper, the Bayerische Staatsoper, and the Opernhaus Zürich; Zerlina Don Giovanni for the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden and the Teatro Real in Madrid; Gretel Hänsel und Gretel and Marzelline Fidelio for the Bayerische Staatsoper; Sophie Der Rosenkavalier for the Wiener Staatsoper and the Glyndebourne Festival; Anne Truelove The Rake’s Progress for the Glyndebourne Festival and Cleopatra Giulio Cesare for the Theater an der Wien and Oper Frankfurt.

In concert, highlights include Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 with the London Symphony Orchestra and Sir Simon Rattle and his Symphony No. 4 with the Bayerisches Staatsorchester and Vladimir Jurowski; Janáček’s The Cunning Little Vixen with Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia and Jakub Hrůša; Mozart’s Exsultate, jubilate with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra and Kirill Petrenko;  Strauss’s Four Last Songs with the Ulster Orchestra and Daniele Rustioni at the BBC Proms;  the title role in Theodora at the BBC Proms and at the Konzerthaus in Vienna with Arcangelo and Jonathan Cohen;  the title role in Semele on tour with the Monteverdi Choir and Sir John Eliot Gardiner; Schumann’s Szenen aus Goethes Faust with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra;  Messiah with the New York Philharmonic and Harry Bicket;  Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with the Tokyo Philharmonic; and Mozart Arias at the Salzburg Mozartwoche with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra and Daniel Harding.

A hugely acclaimed recitalist her appearances include the BBC Proms, the Musikverein in Graz, Madrid’s Fundación Juan March and the Fundación Privada Victoria de los Ángeles in Barcelona, Snape Maltings, and the Oxford International Song Festival.

Her extensive discography includes Chère Nuit: French Songs, featuring songs from Ravel to Yvain (Chandos); The Russian Connection, programming songs by Rachmaninov, Sibelius, Tchaikovsky, Grieg, Medtner and Britten (Chandos); a disc of Strauss Lieder, Through Life and Love (Orchid Classics) with pianist Joseph Middleton; Title role Theodora (Arcangelo/Alpha Classics); Lucia The Rape of Lucretia (Opus Arte/Glyndebourne); and the Title Role in Handel’s Semele (Monteverdi Choir/SDG).

A former member of the ensemble of Oper Frankfurt, Alder studied at the Royal College of Music’s International Opera School where she was the inaugural Kiri Te Kanawa Scholar. She is the winner of the Young Singer Award at the 2017 International Opera Awards; the Dame Joan Sutherland Audience Prize at the 2017 Cardiff Singer of the World Competition; the 2015 inaugural Young British Soloists’ Competition; and is the recipient of Glyndebourne’s 2014 John Christie Award.