Cheryl Barker
Soprano
Cheryl Barker is particularly noted internationally for her performances of Madama Butterfly, singing this role for English National Opera, De Vlaamse Opera, Hamburg State Opera, Deutsche Oper, Berlin, Netherlands Opera and Houston Grand Opera for whom she has also performed Sarah in the world premiere of Jake Heggie’s The End of the Affair. Other international appearances include Jenifer (A Midsummer Marriage) for the Royal Opera, Covent Garden, Tatyana (Eugene Onegin) and Adina (L’elisir d’amore) for Scottish Opera, Oksana (Christmas Eve), Foreign Princess (Rusalka), Governess/Miss Jessel (The Turn of the Screw), Musetta (La bohème), Donna Elvira, Tosca, Salome and Emilia Marty (The Makropoulos Case) for ENO, the title role in Maria Stuarda (ReisOper); Violetta (Hamburg Statsoper and Deutsche Oper/Berlin); Suor Angelica, Giorgetta, Mimi,Desdemona(Otello) and Liù (Turandot)/De Vlaamse Opera and Katya Kabanova (Welsh National Opera and Geneva).
She appears regularly with Opera Australia, where her roles have included Nedda/Pagliacci, Countess/Le nozze di Figaro, Mimì in the award winning Baz Luhrmann production of La bohème, Violetta/La traviata, Donna Elvira/Don Giovanni, Tatyana, Giorgetta, Suor Angelica and Lauretta (Il Trittico) and the title roles in Madama Butterfly, Tosca, Jenufa and Rusalka.
On the concert platform, Cheryl Barker has appeared at many prestigious international venues including London’s Barbican, Royal Albert Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Wigmore Hall, St John’s Smith Square, and the Halle Orchestra. She has sung in the Edinburgh, Spoleto and Melbourne Festivals as well as touring nationally for Musica Viva in 2005 and 2008.
Television, videos and recordings include Puccini Arias and Pure Diva (Melba Recordings), Seduction & Persuasion and Don John of Austria (ABC Classics), La bohème and Madama Butterfly/Opera Australia, Madam Butterfly (Chandos), Madama Butterfly/De Vlaamse Opera (Belgium/Netherlandse Television) and Dyson’s Quo Vadis, Katya Kabanova, Makropolous Case, Rusalka and Great Operatic Arias (Chandos).
Recent and forthcoming engagements include all three soprano roles in Il trittico, Arabella (Green Room and Helpmann Awards), Desdemona, Emilia Marty, Madama Butterfly, Manon Lescaut, Marschallin/Der Rosenkavalier, Countess/Capriccio, Marietta/Die tote Stadt and Salome for Opera Australia, Tosca for Opera Queensland, Madama Butterfly in Paris and Welsh National Opera, Emilia Marty in Amsterdam, Opera du Rhin and Strasbourg and Francesca da Rimini in London. She also performs in concert with the SSO, QSO, WASO and TSO. She holds an honorary Doctor of Music conferred by the Victorian College of the Arts where she studied with Dame Joan Hammond. In London she has studied with David Harper.
Cheryl Barker is supported by Sharon and Anthony Lee