Kate Valentine

Soprano

• Biography
• Reviews
• Repertoire
• Photos
• Web site

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  Kate has enjoyed huge success recently as Karolina in Smetana’s The Two Widows for Scottish Opera at the Edinburgh International Festival, as well as in company debuts with English National Opera singing Kathleen in Riders to the Sea and First Lady in The Magic Flute, and at Opera North singing Konstanze in The Abduction from the Seraglio. 

  Other notable appearances include Donna Anna Don Giovanni for Samling Opera directed by Sir Thomas Allen, Rosalinde Die Fledermaus for Scottish Opera on Tour, Elizabeth Zimmer in Henze’s Elegy for Young Lovers for ENO and Countess Almaviva Le nozze di Figaro with Glyndebourne on Tour.

  Recent and future highlights include Mrs Nordstrom in Sondheim’s A Little Night Music at the Theatre du Chatelet, Paris, Countess Almaviva for Scottish Opera in a new production by Sir Thomas Allen and for ENO in a new production by Fiona Shaw,  Helena in a new production by Christopher Alden of A Midsummer Night’s Dream for ENO, Musetta in La Bohème for Welsh National Opera in a new production by Annabel Arden, and Female Chorus in Britten’s The Rape of Lucretia for Glyndebourne in a new production by Fiona Shaw.

  Kate Valentine is represented worldwide by Ben Rayfield at Rayfield Allied.
  This biography is for information only and should not be reproduced.

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  • Brahms’ Requiem, Royal Scottish National Orchestra/Lawrence Renes
    Usher Hall, Edinburgh (March 2012)

    Nor could we have wished for anything more searingly impressive than the solo pairing of Finley’s and Scots soprano Kate Valentine

    Kenneth Walton, The Scotsman

    Kate Valentine’s sweet soprano

    Sarah Urwin Jones, The Times

    In Kate Valentine’s beautiful rendition of ‘Ihr habt nun Traurigkeit’…there was absolutely no hint of the short notice suggested by the chance to the programmed soloist

    Alan Coady, Bachtrack

    Kate Valentine’s fifth [movement] – ‘You now have sorrow; but I shall see you again and your heart shall rejoice’ was particularly moving…It was the sort of concert I felt it a privilege to have attended.

    Barnaby Miln, Edinburgh Guide

  • Countess Almaviva (The Marriage of Figaro), English National Opera
    (October 2011)

    [Kate Valentine gives a] tender and immensely moving reading...By turns imperious mistress and victim, her "Dove sono"…ran a velvet-gloved finger through an open wound - its masochistic beauty unmatched for thrills during the evening.

    Alexandra Coghlan, New Statesman

    Kate Valentine, who, with animation and a fine vocal display, gave a beautifully crafted performance of The Countess.

    Paul Guest, Huffington Post

    Kate Valentine...a beautifully poised Countess

    Ashutosh Khandekar, Opera Now

  • Tatyana (Eugene Onegin), Blackheath Halls Opera
    (July 2011)

    Valentine identifies the steel in Tchaikovsky’s heroine, with a thrilling, healthful tone and absolute emotional engagement… this is a whole-body, whole-voice match of artist to role. Blackheath can be proud that they heard it first.

    Anna Picard, The Independent

    Kate Valentine was a fierce and vulnerable Tatiana in the Blackheath Eugene Onegin.

    Anna Picard, The Independent

  • Helena in ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’
    English National Opera, London Coliseum, May 2011

    Kate Valentine, Tamara Gura, Allan Clayton and Benedict Nelson are a convincingly youthful quartet of lovers.

    Hugh Canning, The Sunday Times

    …the Lower VI lovers (Allan Clayton, Benedict Nelson, Kate Valentine, Tamara Gura) were topping

    Rupert Christiansen, The Telegraph

    …the four lovers (Tamara Gura, Kate Valentine, Allan Clayton and Benedict Nelson, all excellent).

    Richard Morrison, The Times

    “Kate Valentine and Allan Clayton (as Helena and Lysander respectively) are the pick of the lovers…impressively sung.

    Mike Valencia, Classical Source

  • The Marriage of Figaro
    Scottish Opera, directed by Sir Thomas Allen. October 2010

    …the superb cast is wonderful. There are a million things to catch but, above all, do not miss the heady eroticism that flows between Kate Valentine’s gleaming Countess and the fantastically authoritative Cherubino of Ulrike Meyer: it will stop your heart.

    Michael Tumelty, Herald Scotland

    The Count and Countess are a tour de force – the endearing chauvinism of Roderick Williams’s Almaviva ultimately brought down to earth by the wistful melancholy of Kate Valentine’s portrayal as his wife

    Kenneth Walton, Scotsman

    Genuine comic timing earned genuine laughs on Friday’s opening night, with artful performances from Thomas Oliemans as Figaro, Roderick Williams as the Count and Kate Valentine as a particularly noble Countess

    Kate Molleson, Guardian

    Kate Valentine is a poised and dignified Countess, opening up vocally as the evening progressed

    Rupert Christiansen, Telegraph

    Kate Valentine was a wonderfully forlorn Countess. Her Porgi, amor had an aching sadness…..finely matched by her Dove sono, in which pathos was given even greater emphasis……..It is clear that Miss Valentine has a voice immensely suited for Mozart and her rise over the last few years from less significant parts to centre stage in this production is very much justified.

    Kevin Holdsworth, Opera Britannia

    The shade comes with Act II and Kate Valentine’s exquisitely melancholy opening aria of regret

    Thom Dibdin, The Stage

  • Henze’s ‘Elegy for Young Lovers’
    English National Opera, directed by Fiona Shaw. April 2010

    Kate Valentine’s ripening Soprano sounded glorious as Elisabeth

    Hugh Canning, Opera

    Kate Valentine and Robert Murray as the lovers(…)give performances of ardour and urgency

    Fiona Maddocks, The Observer

    The company did, however, field three very impressive women. Kate Valentine was charming and emotional as Toni’s beloved Elisabeth Zimmer

    Tom Sutcliffe, Opera Now

  • Mozart’s ‘Exsultate Jubilate’
    Leeds Festival Chorus conducted by Simon Wright. December 2009

    In Mozart’s Exsultate Jubilate, soprano Kate Valentine gave a beautifully relaxed performance, her coloratura floating with apparent ease – the art that conceals art

    Yorkshire Post

  • Armgard in Offenbach’s ‘Die Rheinnixen’
    Cadogan Hall. October 2009

    Kate Valentine brought a vibrant soprano crowned with a smooth coloratura technique to Armgard and gave the ‘Vaterlandslied’ due solemnity.

    Margaret Davies, Opera

  • Constanze in ‘The Abduction from the Seraglio’
    Opera North. May/June 2009

    The highly promising Kate Valentine – whose strong feelings as Constanza for Martin Hyder’s civilized Pasha took her into ambiguous emotional territory – rose to the challenge of this hazardous vocal part, blossoming impressively in the role.

    Lynne Walker, Opera Now Sep/Oct 2009

    the cast is altogether excellent, with two particularly impressive singers in the principal roles. Lying cruelly high in the soprano range, Constanze’s arias have defeated some of the greatest prima donnas on record. But they appear to hold no terrors for Kate Valentine, who attacked their runs and leaps with terrific flair and accuracy

    Rupert Christiansen, The Telegraph

    Kate Valentine makes an admirable attempt at Constanze – one of opera’s great impossible roles (…) far from flagging, her voice grows warmer as the evening progresses.

    Richard Morrison, The Times

• Kate Valentine’s Concert Repertoire

  Bach

  • St Matthew Passion

  Brahms

  • Ein Deutsches Requiem

  Dvorak

  • Mass in D

  Handel

  • Dixit Dominus
  • Messiah
  • Solomon (Queen of Sheba, First Woman)

  Haydn

  • Nelson Mass

  Lehar

  • Vilja (from The Merry Widow)

  Mendelssohn

  • Elijah
  • Hear My Prayer

  Mozart

  • Coronation Mass
  • Exsultate Jubilate
  • Mass in C Minor (Second Soprano)
  • Vesperae Solennes de Confessore

  Poulenc

  • Gloria

  Rossini

  • Petite Messe Solennelle

  Rutter

  • Magnificat
  • Requiem

  Strauss, J

  • Mein Herr Marquis (from Die Fledermaus)

  Vaughan Williams

  • Serenade to Music

  Zeller

  • Sei nicht bös’ (from Der Obersteiger)

  Kate Valentine’s Opera Repertoire

  Armstrong, Craig

  • Gesualdo (Maria)

  Henze

  • Elegy for Young Lovers (Elizabeth Zimmer)

  Mozart

  • Don Giovanni (Donna Anna)
  • Le Nozze di Figaro (Countess Almaviva)
  • Die Zauberflöte (First Lady)
  • Konstanze (Die Entführung aus dem Serail)

  Offenbach

  • Die Rheinnixen (Armgard)

  Puccini

  • Gianni Schicchi (Nella) *

  Purcell

  • Dido and Aeneas (Second Woman)

  Smetana

  • The Two Widows (Karolina)

  Vaughan-Williams

  • Riders to the Sea (Cathleen)

  Williams, Gareth

  • The King’s Conjecture (Grizel)

  Strauss, Johann

  • Die Fledermaus (Rosalinde)

  Sondheim

  • A Little Night Music (Mrs Nordstrom)

  Verdi

  • Falstaff (Alice Ford) *

  • * - roles covered

• Photos

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    photographer credit: Sussie Ahlburg

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    photographer credit: Sussie Ahlburg

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    photographer credit: Sussie Ahlburg

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    photographer credit: Sussie Ahlburg

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    photographer credit: Sussie Ahlburg

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