Allison Oakes
Soprano
In the past seasons Allison Oakes established a reputation as one of the new leading dramatic sopranos with successes including Chrysothemis (Elektra) at the Metropolitan Opera New York as well as at Semperoper Dresden and Deutsche Oper Berlin, Carlotta (Die Gezeichneten) at the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Salome and Marietta (Die tote Stadt) at Staatsoper Hamburg, Salome and Elisabeth/Venus (Tannhäuser) at the Deutsche Oper Berlin and Isolde (Tristan und Isolde) and Brünnhilde (Siegfried) at the Wagner Festival in Budapest.
In the 2022/23 season, the British soprano will make her role debut as Sieglinde in Die Walküre under the baton of Christian Thielemann at the Sächsische Staatsoper Dresden. English National Opera London has engaged the artist as Marie/Marietta for a new production of The Dead City (Die Tote Stadt). Under the baton of Stefan Blunier, she will be heard in Porto as Chrysothemis in a concert performance of Elektra. With the Duisburg Philharmonic, she will perform Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with Eun Sun Kim conducting.
Career Highlights
Important highlights of her career include her role debuts as Brünnhilde in concert performances of Die Walküre and Siegfried at the Berliner Philharmonie and a Wagner-Concert at the Ravello Festival conducted by Donald Runnicles, Senta (Der fliegende Holländer) at Staatsoper Hamburg, Brünnhilde (Die Walküre) at Oper Leipzig, her debut in the UK with Strauss’ Four Last Songs with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra and Isolde in a new production of Tristan und Isolde at the Teatro Giuseppe Verdi in Trieste. At Nationaltheater Mannheim she impressed audiences as Salome and Isolde. She sang Freia (Das Rheingold), Gerhilde (Die Walküre) and Gutrune (Götterdämmerung) in Der Ring des Nibelungen at the Bayreuth Festival conducted by Kirill Petrenko and directed by Frank Castorf from 2013 to 2015.
Her repertoire furthermore includes Miss Jessel (The Turn of the Screw), Rosalinde (Die Fledermaus), Elsa (Lohengrin), Tosca, Marschallin (Der Rosenkavalier) and Marie (Wozzeck).
Ms. Oakes has participated in international vocal competitions where she has won numerous awards including the first prize, the audience prize and the orchestral prize at the International Lauritz-Melchior Wagner Competition 2010 in Denmark, and the first prize and audience prize at the International Robert-Stolz Singing Competition 2005 in Hamburg.
Born in the UK, Allison Oakes first qualified as a Diagnostic Radiographer before studying music in Germany. Her vocal studies were with Professor Gudrun Fischer and she completed her studies with a first class degree and post-graduate certificate with distinction.
Last updated: 21st March 2023