British mezzo-soprano Anna Elizabeth Cooper recently made her Glyndebourne Festival debut as Hippolyta in Britten’s Midsummer Night’s Dream. She also performed the role of Soeur Alice in Barrie Kosky’s 5* production of Poulenc’s Dialogues des Carmélites at Glyndebourne and the BBC Proms. Previous to this Anna performed the role of Olga (Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin) as an Opera Holland Park Young Artist. She also premiered the leading role Susanna (Joseph Howard’s Behind God’s Back) in a new commission at the Tête à Tête festival.  

Anna is currently premiering a contemporary opera by Edward Lambert based on the Oscar Wilde play ‘The Duchess of Padua’ at The Space, London and across the UK. Anna will be covering the role of Zweite Dame in Glyndebourne’s production of Die Zauberflöte this summer. She will then be premiering the lead role in a contemporary opera for Cumbria Opera.

Anna graduated from the Royal College of Music Opera Studio supported by the Stephen Catto Memorial fund, Help Musicians UK Sybil Tutton Award, Mario Lanza Foundation, il Circolo trust, and Rosehill Theatre. Prior to this she studied at RCM and RNCM. At the RCM Opera Studio, Anna performed Concepcion (Ravel’s L’heure Espagnole), Lisetta (Haydn’s il mondo della luna), Dinah (Bernstein’s Trouble in Tahiti) and Cherubino (Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro) which was directed by Sir Thomas Allen.

Other operatic appearances include Ernestina (Rossini’s L’occasione fa il ladro) for BYO at Opera Holland Park, Tisbe for British Youth Opera’s production of La Cenerentola, the title role in the premiere of Joe Kiely’s opera Amira as part of The Modern Prometheus project in collaboration with the Tête à Tête and directed by Bill Bankes-Jones, Orlofsky in Die Fledermaus (Berlin Opera Academy) and Kate in Pirates of Penzance, Melissa in Princess Ida (National Gilbert and Sullivan Opera Company). 

Anna won the Maureen Lehane 28th Vocal Awards 2021 and was also a prize winner for the Patricia Rutledge English Song Competition and Brooks -Van der Pump English Song Competition. Anna is also an Opera Prelude Young Artist 2021/2022.  

On the concert platform Anna has performed as a soloist with the London Symphony Orchestra and chorus, the RCM Symphony Orchestra and the Royal Philharmonic orchestra at Cadogan Hall in their Myths and Fairytales series. Aside from singing, Anna performed the solo dancer role of Anna II in Kurt Weill’s The Seven Deadly Sins. This was performed with the Hallé Orchestra, led by Sir Mark Elder at the Bridgewater Hall.

During her time at both conservatoires, Anna performed in masterclasses for Alice Coote, Sarah Connolly, Louise Winters, Sally Burgess and Sir John Tomlinson. In addition, she had the opportunity to be mentored by accompanists, Roger Vignoles, Anthony Spiri and Simon Leppar. She has also worked with internationally renowned conductors including Lionel Friend, Sir Mark Elder, Peter Welwyn, Michael Lloyd and Alexander Crowe.

TEACHING AND COMMUNITY OUTREACH EXPERIENCE

Anna was the Project Manager for the RNCM Community Outreach department between 2013-2016 and organised many family days, workshops and care home projects. She worked heavily with their RNCM Youth Perform which performed a musical each year.

Anna was also awarded the Leverhulme Music Mentoring Trust Fund Award for her work with young adults having choreographed, directed, and coached music and dance projects around Manchester.

Anna has taught singing and led workshops for over 10 years and has curated flash mobs, musical theatre taster sessions, care home recitals and even her own dance and music project that explored the interdisciplinary nature of the arts.

Anna now regularly performs with Opera Prelude for their outreach concert series.