“Catherine Backhouse sings Orestes’ song with such charm that I wished Offenbach had given her more to do.”
“Young Scottish Mezzo Catherine Backhouse stands out as a noble, rich-voiced Annina”
“the whole thing revolved around Catherine Backhouse’s spirited Concepcion. Darting about the stage, eyes flashing, she shaped Ravel’s artfully artless lines with an easy grace and her voice – silvery and translucent at the top – had a core of satisfyingly sultry darkness.”
Biography
Future projects include playing Waltraute in Wagner’s Die Walküre and Götterdämmerung with Regent’s Opera in London. Career highlights include Concepción L’heure Espagnole for Grange Park Opera (film) and Mid-Wales Opera, Isabella L’Italiana in Algeri (Diva Opera), Suzuki Madama Butterfly and Dryad Ariadne auf Naxos (West Green House Opera), Kate Julian Owen Wingrave (Aldeburgh and Edinburgh International Festivals) and the title role in Donizetti’s La Favorite (UCL Opera). On the concert platform she has appeared as a soloist in Verdi’s Requiem, Handel’s Messiah, as The Angel in Elgar’s Dream of Gerontius, Irene in Handel’s Theodora and Judith in Bluebeard’s Castle. An enthusiast of new music, Catherine has performed Kurtág Messages of the Late R.V. Troussova and Last Lines a concert of newly commissioned songs with the Hebrides Ensemble. Her recital work has featured Elgar Sea Pictures, Wagner Wesendonk Lieder and ‘Emotionally Volatile’ a programme of songs composed by women. She also performs programmes for voice, viola and piano with her group The Amalie Trio.
