Catriona
Morison

MEZZO-SOPRANO

Calendar

16

Dec
2023
Tokyo, NHK Hall
Gustav Mahler: Symphonie Nr. 8 Es-Dur

17

Dec
2023
Tokyo, NHK Hall
Gustav Mahler: Symphonie Nr. 8 Es-Dur

23

Dec
2023
München, Isarphilharmonie
Johann Sebastian Bach: Oratorium, Weihnachtsoratorium BWV 248

29

Dec
2023
Leipzig, Gewandhaus zu Leipzig
Ludwig van Beethoven: Symphonie Nr. 9 d-moll op. 125

30

Dec
2023
Leipzig, Gewandhaus zu Leipzig
Ludwig van Beethoven: Symphonie Nr. 9 d-moll op. 125
Biography

Catriona Morison, Scottish mezzo-soprano based in Berlin, became known to a wider audience in 2017 when she won the Main Prize as well as the shared Song Prize of the internationally renowned BBC Cardiff Singer of the World competition. At that time, she was an ensemble member of the Wuppertal Opera for two seasons (2016-2018), where she added a variety of interesting roles to her repertoire, including Nicklausse (Les contes d'Hoffmann), Charlotte (Werther), Hänsel (Hänsel und Gretel), Maddalena (Rigoletto), Little Arab (Juliette) Princess Clarice (The Love for Three Oranges) and Cherubino (Le nozze di Figaro). Guest engagements in opera have taken her to the Edinburgh International Festival, Cologne Opera, Bergen National Opera, Hamburg State Opera and Weimar National Theatre, among others. In 2015 she made her debut at the Salzburg Festival under Franz Welser-Möst as a member of the Young Singers Project and in the same year at the Salzburg Whitsun Festival.

In the 2022/23 season, the artist will expand her repertoire with two important roles: in Braunschweig she can be heard as Fricka in Rheingold, and she returns to Opera Wuppertal as Nerone in Monteverdi's L’incoronazione di Poppea.

Concert repertoire holds a special place for Catriona Morison. In summer 2019 she made ...

Media

Richard Strauss, Der Rosenkavalier

Octavian video:
'Wie du warst, wie du bist'
BBC Cardiff Singer of the World Final 2017
Tomáš Hanus Dirigent
BBC National Orchestra of Wales
St David's Hall

Henry Purcell, Dido und Aenaeas

'Thy hand Belinda...When I am laid in earth'
BBC Cardiff Singer of the World Final 2017
Tomáš Hanus, Dirigent
BBC National Orchestra of Wales
St David's Hall

Georges Bizet, Carmen

'En vain pour éviter...'
Neeme Järvi Dirigent
Royal Scottish National Orchestra
November 2019
Glasgow Royal Concert Hall

Jules Massenet, Werther

'Va! Laisse couler mes larmes'
Frédéric Chaslin Dirigent
Bergen Nasjonale Opera
März 2019
Grieghallen

Georges Bizet, Carmen

'Seguidilla'
Neeme Järvi Dirigent
Royal Scottish National Orchestra
November 2019
Glasgow Royal Concert Hall

Gustav Mahler, Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen

Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen, Mahler, Rückert Lieder, Schubertiade Vilabertran August 2022
Discography
Gallery
  • Two singers - Scottish mezzo-soprano Catriona Morison (making her debut with the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra) and German bass-baritone Christian Immler - took the lead of the massive apparatus. Both of them were excellent, precise in rhythm, in duets as one, perfect in their interplay with the orchestra. Morison has a pleasantly refined voice that sounds triumphant in the treble, her heroine-like finesse lifting one out of one's seat…Both were very audible despite the booming orchestra.
    World premiere Detlev Glanert’s Prague Symphony, Czech Philharmonic under Semyon Bychkov: Svatava Barančicová, OperaPlus.cz, 10.12.22
  • Nahezu fugenlose Anschlüsse der Register, eine warm-erdige Klangfärbung im ausgesungenen Brustton, deklamatorische Züge im unteren Bereich und eine exzellente Textverständlichkeit waren die technischen Trümpfe, die Morison auszuspielen wusste. Dabei lotete sie das Wort-Ton-Verhältnis der Kompositionen tiefgründig aus, drang spürbar in Schichten der Interpretation vor, die nur durch eine ernsthafte Erarbeitung von Text und Musik gleichermaßen darstellbar sind.
    Liederabend mit Malcolm Martineau, Oper Frankfurt, Christian Rupp, FAZ, 30.03.22
  • Catriona Morison’s Composer is sensational. Her voice has an effortless richness that conveys youthful impetuosity and artistic hauteur, but always in a gorgeously full mezzo. She’s a real star
    Ariadne auf Naxos, Edinburgh International Festival, Simon Thompson, The Times, 26.08.21
  • Hers is a voice of many colours, wielded with innate musicianship and sensitivity across its considerable range. Sometimes she’s a soaring soprano, pinging the top notes with ease; elsewhere she’s a dusky mezzo, coated in velvet.
    'Catriona Morison - The Dark Night Has Vanished.' Review, Geoff Brown, The Times, 24. Februar 2021
  • Thursday’s Prom by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales (Prom 39), efficiently conducted by Elim Chan, was a showcase for a rising star: the Scottish mezzo Catriona Morison. First she sang the most ardent performance of Elgar’s Sea Pictures I’ve heard since Janet Baker, then she was the soloist in Errollyn Wallen’s This Frame is Part of the Painting, inspired by Howard Hodgkin’s paintings and sharing their explosively colourful multiplicity.
    Richard Morrison, The Times, 19.08.2019
  • [...] die vier anderen Rückert-Lieder gestaltete sie zuvor tief ausgelotet, hochemotional, traumhaft schön. Ihr Auftritt war mit Abstand das Highlight der Matinee.
    Hartmut Sassenhausen, Westdeutsche Zeitung, 07.04.2019
  • Morison’s voice is wonderfully rich, particularly in its lower registers but she can bring in colours that evoke a sense of fervour or desolation to the core warmth that suits the emotional journey of this work well.
    Alexander Campbell, Classical Source, 23.10.2019
  • Bergen National Opera has brought in a star team of foreign soloists, in which especially the women excel…The contrast between Husáhr's bright lightness and Morison's dark mezzanine is a pleasure to listen to. Charlotte's development…Morison plays this out with admirable fine shades and large palette of emotions.
    Maja Skanding, KlassiskMusikk, 18.03.2019
  • The sublime evocation of these songs made for the highlight of the entire concert. The last song Ich bin Der Welt abhanden gekommen (I am lost to the world) became an almost unbearable rendition, fraught with dense and bleak words, fused with agonised harmonies and a serene execution from all the players. Morison is proving her talents with work like this and we are seeing the formation of a wonderful career blossoming before us.
    James Ellis, Art Scene in Wales, 20.01.2019
Repertoire

GEORGE ALEXANDER ALBRECHT
Die Schneekönigin — Kay

GEORGES BIZET
Carmen — Mercédès

BENJAMIN BRITTEN
A Midsummer Night’s Dream — Hermia
The Rape of Lucretia — Bianca

LEONARD EVERS
GOLD! — Jacob 

ENGELBERT HUMPERDINCK
Hänsel und Gretel –– Hänsel

BOHUSLAV MARTINŮ
Julietta — Kleiner Arab/Handleserin/Junger Matrose/Hotelboy (dt)

JULES MASSENET
Werther –– Charlotte 

CLAUDIO MONTEVERDI
L’incoronatione di Poppea — Nerone
Il ritono d’Ulisse in patria –– Giove/Pisandro

WOLFGANG AMADÉ MOZART
Così fan tutte — Dorabella
Le nozze di Figaro –– Cherubino

JACQUES OFFENBACH
Le contes d’Hoffmann –– Nicklausse

HELMUTH OEHRING 
Aschemond –– Mezzo

SEGEI PROKOFIEV
Die Liebe zu den drei Orangen –– Princessin Clarice (dt)

RICHARD STRAUSS
Ariadne auf Naxos – Komponist
Der Rosekavalier — Annina

GIUSEPPE VERDI
Falstaff – Meg Page
Rigoletto –– Maddalena 

RICHARD WAGNER
Götterdämmerung — Wellgunde

 

JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH
h-moll-Messe (Sop II and Alto)
Johannespassion
Kantate 70
Magnificat
Matthäuspassion
Weihnachtsoratorium (1-3, 6)

LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN
9. Sinfonie
Messe in C-Dur
Missa Solemnis

LILI BOULANGER
Psalm 130

MAX BRUCH
Das Lied von der Glocke

ERNEST CHAUSSON
Poeme de l’amour et de la mer

MAURICE DURUFLÉ
Requiem

EDWARD ELGAR
Sea Pictures

GEORG FRIEDRICH HÄNDEL
Alexander’s Feast
Dixit Dominus
Harmoniemesse
Messiah
Nelson Mass

GUSTAV MAHLER
2. Sinfonie
Kindertotenlieder
Des Knaben Wunderhorn (Auswahl)
Rückert Lieder

FELIX MENDELSSOHN BARTHOLDY
Elijah (en)
Lobgesang (Sop II)

WOLFGANG AMADÉ MOZART
Requiem
Vesperae solennes de Confessore

GIOVANNI BATTISTA PERGOLESI
Stabat Mater

MAURICE RAVEL
Shéhérazade 

GIOACHINO ROSSINI
Petite Messe Solennelle

CAMILLE SAINT-SAËNS
Oratorio de Noël

ETHEL SMYTH
Mass in D

ANTONIO VIVALDI 
Gloria

ERROLLYN WALLEN
This Frame is Part of the Painting

JOHANNES BRAHMS
Zwei Gesänge, Op.91

EDWARD ELGAR
Sea Pictures

EDVARD GRIEG
Sechs Lieder, Op.48

ALMA MAHLER
Fünf Lieder

GUSTAV MAHLER
Kindertotenlieder
Des Knaben Wunderhorn (Auswahl)
Rückert Lieder

MAURICE RAVEL
Shéhérazade 

ROBERT SCHUMANN
Frauenliebe und -leben
Gedichte der Königin Maria Stuart, Op.135
Sechs Gedichte von N. Genau und Requiem, Op.90

RICHARD STRAUSS
Fünf Lieder, Op.15