Artist Profile:
Claudia Boyle

Claudia has won both the First Prize and the Critics Award at The Maria Calla Competition in Verona where the Callas Estate presented her with the miraculous medal once owned and worn by the legendary singer. This precious gift, which Maria Callas brought to all of her performances has encouraged and inspired Claudia greatly in her career.

Claudia was chosen by esteemed film director Mike Leigh to star in his first ever venture for the operatic stage as the leading heroine Mabel in Gilbert & Sullivan’s (The Pirates of Penzance) in London’s West End. Claudia received particular critical praise for her performances as Mabel with the opera being broadcast live in cinemas across Europe.“The real discovery here is Claudia Boyle, who brings tremendous presence to the part of Mabel, and dispatches the dizzy bel canto parodies in her arias with impressive assurance.”

In recent seasons, important role and house debuts have included Konstanze (Die Entführung aus dem Serail) for Komische Oper Berlin, Adina (L’elisir d’amore) at Semperoper Dresden under Matteo Beltrami, Leila (The Pearl Fishers) conducted by Roland Böer for English National Opera, Tytania (A Midsummer Night’s Dream) conducted by James Conlon at Teatro dell’Opera di Roma, and Lucia (Lucia di Lammermoor) with Danish National Opera under Martin André. As a testament to her linguistic strengths, Boyle made her debut as Verdi’s Gilda (Rigoletto) at Teatro dell’Opera di Roma under Renato Palumbo to overwhelming audience and critical acclaim. She created the role of May-Shan in Christian Jost’s opera Rote Laterne under Alain Altinoglu for Opernhaus Zürich and performed the role of Alice in Barry’s Alice’s Adventures Under Ground with the RTÉ Concert Orchestra conducted by Thomas Adès. Claudia recently performed with the New York Philharmonic at the Metropolitan Opera’s Lincoln Centre, singing the role of Cecily Cardew in Barry’s The importance of Being Earnest. 

Her blossoming concert career has taken her further afield to Tokyo, Sao Paolo and Ankara among others places, culminating in her performance at the G20 summit last year. She has appeared at the Salzburger Festspiele in Cherubini’s Chant sur la mort de Joseph Haydn under Riccardo Muti, with NHK Symphony Orchestra in Mahler’s Symphony No.8 under Paavo Järvi, and in Henze’s Nachtstücke und Arien with NDR Radiophilharmonie Hannover under Eivind Gullberg Jensen. Claudia joined Kent Nagano and Ensemble Modern as Dede for the premiere performances of a new chamber version of Bernstein’s A Quiet Place at Konzerthaus Berlin, subsequently joining Nagano and l’Orchestre symphonique de Montréal for further performances and a CD recording for DECCA.

Immensely proud of her heritage, Claudia also loves to perform regularly at home in Ireland where she has performed with many of the Irish Opera companies including Wexford Festival Opera and the newly formed Irish National Opera. She recently collaborated with playwright Enda Wash on The Last Hotel which received critical acclaim at The Dublin Theatre Festival, The Edinburgh Festival and The Prototype Festival in New York. This was subsequently filmed by Sky Arts and recorded by Cantaloupe Music record label. 

“Claudia Boyle is visually and sonically striking” – Londonist