Martene Grimson

Soprano

• Biography
• Reviews
• Repertoire
• Photos
• Web site

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  Martene Grimson came to prominence after being awarded second place in the 2006 Kathleen Ferrier Awards.  Since then notable appearances include Hyacinthus Apollo and Hyacinthus, Aminta Il Re Pastore and Cinna Lucio Silla with the Classical Opera Company, her debut for the Nationale Reisopera as Glauce Medea, Ilia Idomeneo for Pinchgut Opera in Sydney, Susanna Le Nozze di Figaro Longborough Festival Opera, Gretel Hansel and Gretel with the BBC Concert Orchestra and Charles Hazelwood, and First Witch Dido and Aeneas with Opera North.

  Recent and future highlights include Israel in Egypt with Arsys Bourgogne, Zerlina Don Giovanni with Longborough Festival Opera and Nannetta Falstaff with Mid Wales Opera conducted by Nicholas Cleobury.

  Martene Grimson is represented by Rayfield Allied worldwide.
  This biography is for information only and should not be reproduced.

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  • Il re pastore, Classical Opera Company, Kings Place, London
    (November 2011)

    what Martene Grimson did with the part of Aminta – despite being a last-minute stand-in – blew me away. The lustrous beauty of her sound was only part of it: she has a lightness and flexibility of manner which allows her to move from comedy to tragedy and back, in a quintessentially Mozartian manner. Covent Garden should sign her to sing the Countess in Figaro at the earliest opportunity.”

    Michael Church, The Independent

    [Martene Grimson’s] experience, confidence and interpretational subtlety helped this delightful score to take flight. Grimson gave a supreme account of ‘Aer tranquillo’...while in the celebrated ‘L’amerò, sarò cosante’...she made light of the music’s challenges

    Mark Valencia, The Classical Source

    ...it was hard to imagine a better-sung Aminta... Martene Grimson’s voice had a sheen and she was able to express the inner emotions eloquently, especially in the moving aria ‘L’amero, saro costante’...

    Nahoko Gotoh, Bachtrack

    [Martene Grimson] gave a lovely account of the hit number, ‘L’amerò’, with schooled, pure, even tone flowing through the phrases: a rare pleasure.

    Andrew Porter, Opera

  • The Infernal Comedy, US and South America tour with John Malkovitch and MusikKonzept
    (October 2011)

    “...sopranos Louise Frido and Martene Grimson sang music by Vivaldi, Mozart, Haydn and others superbly

    Joshua Kosman, San Francisco Chronicle

  • Così fan tutte, Longborough Festival
    June 2011

    ...the women are outstanding: the rebelliousness and mischief of Martene Grimson’s Despina is deliciously infectious

    Michael Church, The Independent

    Martene Grimson supplies a very watchable and well-sung Despina

    Stephen Walsh, The Arts Desk

    Martene Grimson is a sassy, bare-midriffed Despina

    Giles Woodforde, The Oxford Times

    Martene Grimson not only looks the part...her sense of timing has the audience in stitches

    Roger Jones, Seen and Heard International

    There were moments of genuinely welcome comedy, too, not least when Martene Grimson’s witty Despina cast herself as a drunkenly spivvish Mesmerist, with all her assistants getting vibratory shakes.

    Christopher Morley, Opera Magazine

  • Nanetta in Falstaff, Mid Wales Opera
    August 2010

    With a cast working as a focused team, the delivery of the text is crystal-clear and the ensembles crackle... On a purely vocal level, I must single out Martene Grimson’s exquisitely pure singing of Nannetta’s music.

    Rupert Christianson, The Daily Telegraph

    as her daughter Nannetta Martene Grimson commands the high registers enchantingly

    Christopher Morley, The Birmingham Post

  • Zerlina in Don Giovanni, Longborough Festival Opera
    June 2010

    Martene Grimson’s Zerlina marked her as a potentially exciting prospect with a lovely bloom to the voice and a nicely understated theatricality.

    Rian Evans, Opera magazine

    Martene Grimson is a juicy Zerlina,(...)

    Neil Fisher, The Times

  • Bampton Gluck Double Bill , Wigmore Hall
    (July 09)

    Grimson confidently tackled a virtuosic part; at the top of her range her voice has an impressive accuracy, clarity and attack, which she employed to convey the nymph’s insistent assertions of her honesty and dependability, and she nimbly despatched the rapid passage work.

    Claire Seymour, Opera Today

  • Susanna in the Marriage of Figaro, Longborough Festival Opera,
    (June 09)

    ...she can still curl us round her little finger, especially with her sensuous phrasing in her aria Deh vieni non tardar.

    Geoff Brown, The Times

• Martene Grimson’s Opera Repertoire

  Adam

  • Si j’etais roi (Nemea)

  Bernstein

  • Trouble in Tahiti (Soprano- The trio)

  Bizet

  • Le Docteur Miracle (Laurette)

  Britten

  • Midsummer Night’s Dream (Helena)

  Cherubini

  • Medea (Glauce)

  Debussy

  • Pelleas et Melisande (Melisande)

  Floyd

  • Susannah (Mrs Gleaton)

  Glück

  • Le Cinesi (Sivene)
  • La Clemenza di Tito (Sesto)
  • La Danza (Nice)

  Handel

  • Orlando (Dorinda)

  Humperdinck

  • Hänsel und Gretel (Gretel)

  Massenet

  • Werther (Sophie)

  Mozart

  • Le Nozze di Figaro (Susanna)
  • Idomeneo (Ilia)
  • Don Giovanni (Zerlina)
  • Il re pastore (Aminta)
  • Apollo et Hyacinthus (Hyacinthus)(Melia)
  • Lucio Silla (Cinna)
  • Die Zauberflöte (Papagena)
  • Mitridate, il re di Ponto (Arbate)
  • Cosi fan tutte (Despina)

  Poulenc

  • Dialogue des Carmélites (Blanche)

  Purcell

  • Dido and Aeneas (Belinda) (1st witch)

  Verdi

  • Falstaff (Nannetta)

  Martene Grimson’s Concert Repertoire

  Bach

  • St. Matthew Passion
  • Mass in B minor
  • Magnificat in D (soprano 1)
  • Easter Oratorio
  • Ascention Oratorio

  Berlioz

  • Messe Solenelle

  Brahms

  • Ein Deutsches Requiem

  Faure

  • Requiem

  Goodall

  • Eternal Light Requiem

  Gounod

  • Messe de St. Cecile

  Handel

  • Messiah
  • Dixit Dominus (soprano 1)
  • Ode on St Cecilia’s Day
  • Israel in Eygpt
  • Judas Maccabeaus
  • Alpestre Monte HWV81

  Haydn

  • Nelson Mass
  • Marie Terese Mass
  • The Creation
  • Paukenmesse
  • Salve Regina

  Haydn, Michael

  • Missa in Honorem
  • Sanctae Ursulae

  Ledger

  • Requiem

  Mozart

  • Requiem
  • Dominican Vespers
  • Mass in C minor
  • Coronation Mass
  • Exulatae Jubilate K165

  Poulenc

  • Gloria

  Rutter

  • Requiem

  Saint-Saëns

  • Weinachtsoratorium

  Schubert

  • Mass in Eb Major

  Stravinsky

  • Pulcinella

  Vaughan Williams

  • Benedicte
  • Serenade to Music

  Vivaldi

  • Gloria

• 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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