‘Lowe gives a sensational, career-making performance here, pushing herself to
her vocal limits in order to realise the expressive extremes of Schoenberg’s
Sprechstimme’ – The Guardian
Spanish-born British soprano Alexandra Lowe has consistently impressed with her
stunningly assured technique and nuanced performances, demonstrating a natural
affinity for principal roles by Handel, Mozart, and Britten. This season’s operatic
highlights include returns to Glyndebourne as Helena in A Midsummer Night’s
Dream, and to Scottish Opera as the Countess in Le nozze di Figaro; she will also
make her much-anticipated debut at the Bayerische Staatsoper as the First Lady in
Die Zauberflöte. Elsewhere, she debuts with the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra
and revisits Schoenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire for the Linbury Theatre at the Royal
Ballet & Opera.
Recent highlights include a series of distinguished debuts: Donna Elvira (Don
Giovanni) for both Glyndebourne Festival Opera and Kilden Opera; Fiordiligi
(Così fan tutte) for Opera North; Winifred/Isolde Wagner (Wahnfried) for
Longborough Festival Opera; and performances of Mozart’s Requiem and
Bologne’s L’amante anonyme, once more for Glyndebourne. Her debut as the
Countess (Le nozze di Figaro) with The Mozartists under Ian Page at Cadogan
Hall received great critical acclaim – ‘Lowe… gave the role poignancy, but also
gravitas and dignity, and her rendering of “Dove sono i bei momenti” reminded
us, quite simply, that this is probably the most beautiful music ever written’ – The
Arts Desk. She also recently returned to the Royal Ballet & Opera to cover the
challenging role of Tatyana (Eugene Onegin) to great success.
A graduate of the esteemed Jette Parker Artists Programme at Royal Ballet &
Opera, Alexandra’s performances there ranged from Handel’s Dafne (Apollo e
Dafne) under Christian Curnyn; the Second Niece in Deborah Warner’s new
production of Peter Grimes under Sir
Mark Elder; Barbarina in Le nozze di Figaro under Sir Antonio Pappano; and the
First Lady in David McVicar’s celebrated production of Die Zauberflöte,
culminating in her tour-de-force performance in Pierrot Lunaire.
On the concert platform, highlights have included the Fifth Maid in Elektra with
the Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia under Sir Antonio
Pappano; Wellgunde in Götterdämmerung with the London Philharmonic
Orchestra under Vladimir Jurowski; Handel’s Messiah with the Hallé Orchestra
under Sofi Jeannin. Further collaborations include performances with the Academy
of Ancient Music/Laurence Cummings, Scottish Opera/Stuart Stratford, Oxford
Philharmonic Orchestra/Marios Papadopoulos, and Opera North
Orchestra/Jonathan Bloxham. She recently made her debut with both the Barcelona
Symphony Orchestra in Manuel de Falla’s Siete canciones populares españolas
under Stephanie Childress, and the Kraków Philharmonic in Handel’s Israel in
Ägypten under Łukasz Borowicz.
A keen recitalist, Alexandra’s debut solo album – Le Voyage – centred around
French Romantic song repertoire, was released last season on the Champs Hill
label and nominated in the BBC Music Magazine Awards 2024. Lowe began her
studies at the Royal Northern College of Music before joining the Opera Course at
the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, and subsequently London’s National
Opera Studio. She has since enjoyed notable competition success, including second
prize at the 2020 Glyndebourne Opera Cup and third prize at the 2020 Concorso
Lirico Internazionale di Portofino.