alexandra hughes,
mezzo-soprano

American mezzo-soprano Alexandra Hughes has performed with many of North America’s most distinguished opera companies including the San Francisco Opera, Seattle Opera, Santa Fe Opera, New York City Opera, Dallas Opera, Canadian Opera Company, L’Opéra de Montreal, Michigan Opera Theater as well as the companies of New Orleans, Tulsa, Fort Worth and Omaha. In Europe, Ms. Hughes has sung leading roles with the Grand Théatre de Genève, Lausanne, Basel, Berne, Bonn, Freiburg, Marseilles and the Finnish National Opera, among others.

Ms. Hughes made her debut with the San Francisco Opera as Flosshilde in Nikolaus Lehnhoff’s Ring Cycle prior to beginning a long relationship with Seattle Opera where she appeared for five seasons in their Ring Cycles, appearing as Flosshilde, Grimgerde and Waltraute. Prior to her most recent Seattle roles as Fricka in Das Rheingold and Waltraute in Die Walküre she also appeared as Olga in Eugene Onegin, the title role of Carmen and most recently Hänsel in Hänsel und Gretel. Other North American highlights have included Der Rosenkavalier as Octavian with L’Opéra de Montreal, Carmen with New Orleans, Adriane auf Naxos as Dryade with the Santa Fe Opera, Hänsel with the Tulsa Opera, The Turn of the Screw as Mrs. Grose, with the New York City Opera and Hänsel und Gretel as Gertrude with the Canadian Opera Company.

Ms. Hughes made her European debut with the Grand Théatre de Genève as Varvara in Kát’a Kabanová. She subsequently appeared at the Stadttheater Freiburg under the baton of Donald Runnicles where she sang Carmen, Hänsel, Octavian, Charlotte in Werther, the Composer in Ariadne auf Naxos, Dorabella in Così fan tutte, and the Muse/Nicklausse in Les Contes d’Hoffman, a role she also portrayed with the Bonn Opera. Additional roles included the leading role of Marie in the world premiere of Jost Meier’s The Dreyfus Affair in Basel, as well as the European premiere of Phillip Glass/Robert Moran’s The Juniper Tree in the title role of the Stepmother. With L’Opéra de Lausanne, Théatre Carouge in Geneva and the Stadttheater Berne she portrayed Nancy in Britten’s Albert Herring.

Ms. Hughes’ extensive concert appearances include her recent bow with the Aspen Music Festival under the baton of James Conlon as Wellgunde and Gutrune in Die Götterdämmerung and as Margret in Wozzeck. Her growing repertoire in the direction of Wagner/Verdi has led her most recently to the Dallas Opera as Flosshilde in Das Rheingold, to San Francisco’s Ring Cycle as Waltraute in Die Walküre as well as her first Brangaene in Tristan und Isolde with the Hawaii Opera Theater. With the Finnish National Opera she made her debut as Fricka in Die Walküre in Goetz Friedrich’s Ring Cycle.