Bianca Andrew
Mezzo-soprano
© Barbara Aumüller
New Zealand born mezzo-soprano Bianca Andrew left Oper Frankfurt's Opera Studio to join the ensemble in 2019/20. During the 2022/23 season she enjoyed great success singing the title roles in La Cenerentola and Xerxes, Hänsel in Hänsel und Gretel, Aurelia in the world premiere of Vito Žuraj's Bluhen / Blossoming, 5th Maid in a new Elektra and Suzuki in last season's new Madama Butterfly. Roles in 2021/22 included Laura in Tchaikovsky's Iolanta, her first Preziosillas in La forza del destino and AdalgIsa, the Tsarina & Dimitri in Loy productions of Norma, The Night before Christmas (»Performance of the Year« (Opernwelt magazine 2021/22 - available on DVD) and Fedora, the last two of which she sings again during the 2023/24 season, when you can also hear her as Sesto (role debut) in a new production of Giulio Cesare in Egitto, Tebaldo in Don Carlos and a Page in Salome. When the theatre started opening again after corona shutdown she sang in Pergolesi's Stabat Mater and Cherubino in Le nozze di Figaro. Other roles for the company have included a Musician and Alkandre in new productions of Manon Lescaut and Fauré's Pénélope and Mercédès in Carmen . She also enjoyed great success as Anna, Enrichetta di Francia and a Waitress in recent new productions of Meyerbeer's L'Africaine, Bellini's I puritani and Schreker's Der ferne Klang / The Distant Sound, (available on CD - OehmsClassics) in Daphne, Rigoletto and in recital in the Holzfoyer. She won the 2016 Song Prize at the Kathleen Ferrier Awards and the 2021 Anny Schlemm Prize. She sang Flamel (role debut) in Fantasio when she appeared at Garsington Opera for the first time in 2019 and Beatrice in Beatrice Cenci when making her debut at the Bregenz Festival in 2018. After studying in New Zealand Bianca Andrew joined the Guildhall School of Music & Drama in London, where roles included Handel's Radamisto, Laura (Iolanta) and Philomène (Martinů's Alexandre Bis). She returned to New Zealand Opera, where she began her career as an Emerging Artist, in 2017 for concert performances of Manon Lescaut.