Sarah Connolly was made a DBE in the 2017 Birthday Honours, having previously been awarded a CBE in the 2010 New Year Honours. In 2020 she was made an Honorary Member of the Royal Philharmonic Society in recognition of her outstanding services to music.
In 2023 she was awarded The King’s Medal for Music, an award given annually to an outstanding individual or group of musicians who have had a major influence on the musical life of the nation.
She has sung at the Aldeburgh, Edinburgh, Lucerne, Salzburg and Tanglewood Festivals and the BBC Proms where, in 2009, she was a memorable soloist at the Last Night. Opera engagements have taken her around the world from the Metropolitan Opera to the Royal Opera House, the Paris Opera, La Scala Milan, the Vienna and Munich State Operas and the Bayreuth, Glyndebourne and Aix-en-Provence Festivals.
Highlights in her 2026/27 season include Geneviève (Pelléas et Mélisande) at the Staatstheater Wiesbaden's Internationale Maifestspiele, Erenice in Handel's Sosarme at the Händel Festspiele Halle with the Orquestra Barroca Casa da Música under Mahan Esfahani, Elgar's The Dream of Gerontius with the Royal Northern Sinfonia/Dinis Sousa, Mahler's Rückert–Lieder with the Philharmonie Zuidnetherlands and Duncan Ward and his Symphony no. 2 with the National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland and Pacific Symphony Orchestra under Alexander Shelley and on tour in Europe with the Boston Youth Orchestra and Benjamin Zander. She gives recitals at Wigmore Hall, Snape Maltings Concert Hall and for the Oxford International Song Festival.
Dame Sarah is a Vocal Professor and Fellow at her alma mater the Royal College of Music, a Trustee of the Countess of Munster Musical Trust, and Ambassador for the Monteverdi Choir and Orchestras' Apprentices Programme.
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DEBUSSY Pelléas et Mélisande (Geneviève)
Aldeburgh Festival, June 2026
"Sarah Connolly’s Geneviève, Golaud’s mother, steered through her vocally tricky letter scene with nerveless expressive skill"
The Arts Desk
"Dame Sarah Connolly’s poise as Geneviève was always going to be more than the stuff of legend."
Bachtrack
"As Geneviève, Sarah Connolly gave a fine performance."
Opera Now
"Dame Sarah Connolly was excellent in her brief mezzo role as Geneviève [...]"
Planet Hugill
MENDELSSOHN Elijah
Barbican Centre, Jan 2024
"When was Elijah last so strongly cast? Dame Sarah Connolly is still the first name on the team-sheet for such works, her mezzo-soprano well able to encompass the designated alto roles with her usual care for the music’s meaning."
Bachtrack
"Mezzo-soprano Sarah Connolly brought warm tone, lovely flexibility and a sense of investment in the words"
Planet Hugill
"Sarah Connolly made every word tell in all her notes."
The Arts Desk
MAHLER Rückert-Lieder, Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen, Kindertotenlieder
Signum Classics CD, Jul 2023
"Whatever she sings, you get singing straight from the heart."
The Times
"I am in awe of Connolly’s subtle variety of mood and feel across these songs."
The Arts Desk
"Sarah Connolly is perfectly attuned to Mahler’s music and consistently identifies with the words in an ideal fashion."
Music Web International
Elgar - Live at the Cutty Sark
Platoon EP, Apr 2020
"But the highlight of the programme - and the series - comes just before that, when Sarah Connolly sings Elgar's Sea Pictures. Connolly easily assumes the mantle of Janet Baker before her, finding meaning and colour in each word (every syllable is perfectly clear, even without subtitles)...Connolly soars nobly above - that shaded, effortlessly expressive mezzo sounding more heartfelt and eloquent than ever. The ending of 'Sabbath Morning at Sea' is positively exalted."
Richard Bratby, Gramophone
DVOŘÁK Rusalka (Ježibaba)
Royal Opera House, Feb 2023
"Connolly owned the role of her mystical, powerful character. Ježibaba requires a wide vocal range, too, and Connolly was magnificent throughout."
Colin Clarke, The Classical Explorer
"Ježibaba the witch becomes a “wise, eternal spirit” in Sarah Connolly’s splendidly vamp-like incarnation."
Nicholas Kenyon, The Telegraph
"Jezibaba, formerly known as a witch, becomes a “wise, eternal spirit”; her dignity suggested in Sarah Connolly’s restrained interpretation."
Barry Millington, Evening Standard
Dame Sarah Connolly's Opera repertoire
| Bellini | Romeo, I Capuleti e i Montecchi |
|---|---|
| Berg | Geschwitz, Lulu |
| Berlioz | Didon, Les Troyens |
| Brett Dean | Gertrude, Hamlet |
| Charpentier | Title role, Medée |
| Donizetti | Title role, Maria Stuarda |
| Gluck | Title role, Orfeo |
| Handel | Title role, Agrippina Ruggiero, Alcina Cyrus, Belshazzar Title role, Giulio Cesare Sorge, Jephtha Israelitish Man, Judas Maccabeus Messiah Irene, Theodora Title role, Serse David, Saul Title role, Solomon |
| Holst | Savitri |
| Honnegger | Jeanne d’Arc au Bucher |
| J.S. Bach | Cantatas Christmas Oratorio St. John Passion St Matthew Passion |
| Janáček | The Diary of one who Disappeared |
| Massenet | Charlotte, Werther |
| Monteverdi | Nerone, L’incoronzazione di Poppea |
| Mozart | Sesto, La clemenza di Tito |
| Offenbach | Title role, Fantasio |
| Poulenc | Mère Marie - Dialogues des Carmélites |
| Puccini | Zia Principessa, Suor Angelica |
| Purcell | Dido, Dido & Aeneas |
| Rameau | Phèdre, Hippolyte et Aricie |
| Schoenberg | Waldtaube, Gurrelieder |
| Turnage | Susie, The Silver Tassie |
| Wagner | Waltraute, Götterdämmerung Fricka, Das Rheingold Fricka, Die Walküre |
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