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The Welsh soprano, Rosemary Joshua, and sang with local youth choirs in Cardiff as a child. She studied at the Royal College of Music.
Rosemary Joshua is established her career in the 1990's. As is increasingly common among British vocal artists, Joshua is known both for period-style performances of Baroque operas (such as those by George Frideric Handel) and for standard performances of Romantic and 20th-century works.
After completing her studies, Rosemary Joshua made her debut at the Aix-en-Provence Festival as Angelica in G.F. Handel's Orlando. This performance, her first Handelian hit, soon led the way to Semele at the Aix-en Provence and Inssbruck Festivals, Flansers, Cologne and English National Opera (ENO) Poppea in Agrippina in Cologne, Brussels and Paris, and Cleopatra in Giulio Cesare in Florida. Other early operatic appearances were Zerlina in W.A. Mozart's Don Giovanni with Scottish Opera, and both Susanna in W.A. Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro and Sophie in Richard Strauss' Der Rosenkavalier for English National Opera. She has gone on to sing major soprano roles in many of the world's leading opera houses and festivals.
Rosemary Joshua made her Royal Opera debut in 1994 as Poussette in Massenet's Manon and has since sung Countess Olga Sukarev in Mascagni's Fedora, Woglinde and Woodbird in Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen, Lisette in Puccini's La Rondine (in concert), Zerlina in W.A. Mozart's Don Giovanni, Angelica in Orlando, Anne Trulove in The Rake's Progress and Despina in W.A. Mozart's Così fan tutte. She sang the role of Galatea in Acis and Galatea at the Proms in London in August 2001 and made her Metropolitan Opera debut as Adèle in Johann Strauss' Die Fledermaus in the autumn of 2002.
Rosemary Joshua is certainly one of Britain's finest Baroque sopranos, and enjoys a growing international reputation and is today considered one of the brightest stars of her generation. She is particularly known for her interpretations of G.F. Handel heroines, her roles including Cleopatra in Giulio Cesare in Egitto (Miami Grand Opera), Ginevra in Ariodante (San Diego Opera ), Nitocris in Belshazzar, Poppea in Agrippina (La Monnaie in Brussels, Champs-Elysées Opera in Paris) and Semele (the Innsbruck Festival, Opera of Flanders, English National Opera, Aix-en-Provence Festival) for companies including ENO, Bavarian State Opera, Berlin State Opera, Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, Théâtre du Capitole de Toulouse and the Aix-en-Provence and Innsbruck festivals, among others.
Other engagements include the title role in Janácek's The Cunning Little Vixen (La Scala, Milan, Opéra national du Rhin, Dutch National Opera in Amsterdam, Ghent and the Opera of Flanders in Antwerp), Tytania in Benjamin Britten's A Midsummer Night’s Dream for La Scala, Anne Trulove in Igor Stravinsky The Rake's Progress (La Monnaie, Brussels, Glyndebourne Festival), Oscar and Helen in the world premiere of Trojahn’s Orest for Dutch National Opera, Countess Almaviva in W.A. Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro with Freiburger Barockorchester (as well as English National Opera, Glyndebourne Festival Opera, Cologne Opera); Susanna in W.A. Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro (ENO, Welsh National Opera, Bavarian State Opera, Glyndebourne, Paris); Juliet in Charles Gounod's Romeo et Juliette (San Diego Opera, where she made her American operatic debut in 1998).
Rosemary Joshua is building a reputation as a concert artist as well, singing with the Europe's eminent conductors and orchestras. She has appeared in concert across Europe and throughout the UK. She has performed in concert with period instrument orchestras and ensembles such as the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, Les Musiciens du Louvre (Director: Marc Minkowski), Les Arts Florissants (Director: William Christie), with which she made her American concert debut at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, Academy of Ancient Music, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Gabrieli Consort (Director: Paul McCreesh) and The English Concert, She has also sung in concert with symphony orchestras worldwide, including the Philharmonia Orchestra of London, and the Royal Scottish National Opera.
Recent concert appearances include the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment with Sir Charles Mackerras, Sir Simon Rattle, Sir Roger Norrington and René Jacobs; Scottish Chamber Orchestra with Charles Mackerras; London Philharmonic Orchestra with Mark Elder; Concentus Musicus Wien with Nikolaus Harnoncourt; Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen with Daniel Harding; Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, both the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra with Emmanuelle Haïm and her debut with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra under Nicholas McGegan.
Rosemary Joshua has recorded for Erato, Teldec, Harmonia Mundi (France) and Chandos. Her discography includes: G.F. Handel's Orlando (Chandos), Purcell's Dido and Aeneas (Chandos) and Venus and Adonis (Chandos); Sophie in R. Strauss' Der Rosenkavalier (Chandos); the Sandman in Engelbert Humperdinck's Hänsel und Gretel (Teldec); the title roles in G.F. Handel's Partenope and Semele with Christian Curnyn (Chandos); G.F. Handel's Esther (Somm); Angelica in Orlando with Les Arts Florissants and William Christie (Erato); Saul, Venus and Adonis and Dido and Aeneas all with René Jacobs (Harmonia Mundi); the solo in Gustav Mahler's Symphony No. 4 with Philippe Herreweghe conducting the Orchestre des Champs-Elysées. In 2012 she recorded "Harmonia Sacra", a collection of fairly unknown spiritual songs composed by Henry Purcell (Aparte APO27/harmonia mundi).
In September 2014 Rosemary Joshua was named as the new artistic leader of the Dutch National Opera Academy (DNOA), which came to an end in April 2015 after it became clear that the views on the future of DNOA of Joshua and the Board of directors of DNOA started to diverge.
She is married to the French baritone Olivier Lallouette and they have two children. She currently lives in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. |
