Biography
Geraldine McGreevy studied at the Royal Academy of Music and the National Opera Studio, and now studies with Richard Smart. She has spent time studying in France, Italy and Germany and sings in these languages with exceptional semantic insight and lack of accent.
Geraldine brings to her operatic roles a commanding stage presence and thrilling vocal power and flexibility. Her performance of Alcina at the Komische Oper Berlin in 2004 inspired the critic Rolf Königsdorf to name her Berlin's Best Singer of 2004. Other roles she has sung include Marie Wozzeck and Donna Clara Der Zwerg (Komische Oper, Berlin); Contessa Almaviva, Donna Anna, Vitellia, Rosalinde Fledermaus, Micaela, First Lady and Miss Jessel ( Welsh National Opera); Ellen Orford ( Oper Frankfurt); Alice Ford (Aix-en-Provence); Ghita Der Zwerg (La Monnaie); Fiordiligi (Opera Zuid); Female Chorus Rape of Lucretia (Edinburgh Festival); Alcina, Cleopatra, Angelica Orlando and Poppea Agrippina (Early Opera Company); and for British Youth Opera , Donna Anna, First Lady, Mistress Page Sir John in Love and Casilda Gondoliers. In concert she has sung Freia Das Rheingold for the BBC Proms and on German National TV. She has sung Blumenmädchen Parsifal for The Royal Opera and Welsh National Opera, and will be singing Gerhilde Die Walküre at the Royal Opera in 2005. Also in 2005 she will appear in concert, conducted by Edo de Waart, as Alice Ford with the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra and as Chrysothemis Elektra with the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra.
A popular and experienced recitalist, known for her warmth and musical intelligence, Geraldine has recorded Wolf, Fauré, Schumann, Schubert and many English Songs for Hyperion, and has regularly broadcast recitals for the BBC as well as other European broadcasting institutions. She has returned to the Wigmore Hall frequently since her 1997 debut as 1996 Kathleen Ferrier Award winner, and will be making her De Singel recital debut in 2006 with Graham Johnson, with whom she has appeared in recitals in venues across Europe and North America. She mas much experience in working with vocal duet and quartet repertoire and instrumental chamber groups, especially early music groups. She has a special collaboration with the exciting viol quartet Phantasm, with whom she has made recital tours and recorded Byrd consort songs.
Her concert repertoire reflects her vocal and musical versatility; she sings period-instrument performances of Baroque music with fine style and larger works such as Beethoven's Missa Solemnis and Ninth Symphony with an easy vocal brilliance. Other concert repertoire includes Schoenberg's Pierrot Lunaire; Villa-Lobos' Bachianas Brasileiras No. 5, Britten's Les Illuminations; Strauss' Vier Lezte Lieder. Ensemble and conductors with whom she has worked include Sir Simon Rattle, The English Concert with Trevor Pinnock, The Kings Consort with Robert King, The Academy of St Martin in the Fields with Sir Neville Marriner, the Moscow Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra in Zurich with Jane Glover, the London Philharmonic Orchestra with Kurt Masur, the Sharoun Ensemble and Anne Manson in the Cologne Philharmonic and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchetra with Petr Altrichter and Libor Pesek.