ELIZABETH LLEWELLYN MBE

Known for her vivid portrayals of Puccini and Verdi heroines and for her full, distinctive voice, Elizabeth has risen through the ranks since making her debut as Mimi La bohème at English National Opera, and has established herself internationally as an artist of distinction. Elizabeth was awarded an MBE in The Queen’s Birthday Honours 2022, marking her extraordinary contributions and services to music across the UK.

​

Elizabeth's recent notable highlights include her Metropolitan Opera debut as Bess Porgy and Bess, role and company debuts as Jenůfa at Welsh National Opera, Desdemona Otello for Grange Park Opera directed by David Alden, Alice Ford in a new co-production of Falstaff by Sir David McVicar for Scottish Opera and the Edinburgh International Festival and recitals at Wigmore Hall and across the UK. In May 2021 she released her debut solo album Heart & Hereafter alongside pianist Simon Lepper - a collection of twenty-five songs celebrating the significant song-output of British composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor.

​

View and download full biography

Gershwin PORGY & BESS / NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra 
 

"There were other stars in the cast as well, especially Elizabeth Llewellyn’s warmly sung Bess; capturing this troubled character’s pride through acting of intense stillness, the soprano displayed a strikingly rich lower register."
John Allison, The Telegraph (August 2022)

​

"The soloists thrilled the audience with crackling intensity of the realization of their roles. First and foremost are Morris Robinson as Porgy and Elizabeth Llewellyn as Bess[...] Llewellyn lent her perfectly focused, intense soprano to her Bess."
Jan Krobot, Online Merker (August 2022)

​

 "Elizabeth Llewellyn is British, born to Jamaican parents; she has sung the role of Bess at the Met. Her thrilling top notes pierced the air like cut glass; her acting most touching."
John Rhodes, Seen & Heard International (August 2022)

​

"The love duet between Porgy and Bess ("Bess, you is my woman now") is perhaps the densest, most beautiful moment of the evening and, in its tragedy and depth, is even reminiscent of Tristan and Isolde, that other impossible couple in opera history. What the musicians make of this opera is world class." 
NDR Kultur (August 2022)
 
"Soprano Elizabeth Llewellyn as Bess, rich also in the lower registers and with brilliant power in the upper register, tells of love, survival and inner turmoil."
Roman Kuehne, Luzerner Zeitung (August 2022)

Vaughan Williams SEA SYMPHONY / BBC PROMS 
 

"The soloists too rose to the occasion, soprano Elizabeth Llewellyn’s spinto power soaring above even these forces."
Roy Westbrook, Backtrack (July 2022)

Rolf Martinsson ICH DENKE DEIN/ Three Choirs Festival

​

“On this occasion, the soloist was Elizabeth Llewellyn whose radiant soprano both soared effortlessly and floated with sublime gentleness, luxuriantly bathed in a kaleidoscope of instrumental textures and colours.”
Clare Seymour, Opera Today (July 2022)
 

“Elizabeth Llewellyn was superb throughout – especially in that telling first movement – holding her own against an orchestra continually threatening to overwhelm, her rich voice the perfect mouthpiece for such intoxicated love music.”
Simon Cummings, Bachtrack (July 2022)

​

“The undoubted star of the evening was soprano Elizabeth Llewellyn. My word, what a ravishing, rich and full-bodied voice with a soaring top. The song cycle was a wonderful vehicle for this singer to really shine and show the extraordinary abilities of her voice.”
David Gray & Paul Gray, ReviewsGate (July 2022)

Verdi OTELLO / Grange Park Opera

"her heartbreaking Willow Song and prayer in Act IV: magnificent music magnificently sung"
Marc Brenner, The Times (June 2022)

"Elizabeth Llewellyn’s rich, radiant Desdemona [...] In the second half, Llewellyn glowed and even burned. With a soul-searing Willow Song and Ave Maria, she managed to thin out that usually luscious, smoky and velvet-plush sound into a clear, pure beam of innocent sorrow. The spectrum of feeling and intonation in her “Salces” delivered a dramatic-soprano masterclass in itself. As Otello arrived to complete his mad design, her angelic top notes floated heartbreakingly into an abyss of pain. "
Boyd Tonkin. The Arts Desk (June 2022)

​

"As his naïve bride Desdemona, Llewellyn is at her vocal and dramatic best in the tender Willow Song scene just before her death."
Inge Kjemtrup, The Stage (June 2022)

"Elizabeth Llewellyn’s Desdemona has superb top notes of unearthly directness and purity, [...] she is at her most concentrated in her Willow Song and final evocation of the Ave Maria."
Nicholas Kenyon, The Telegraph (June 2022)

Janáček JENŮFA / Welsh National Opera
 

"With Elizabeth Llewellyn in the title role, it is Jenůfa’s intrinsic goodness that emerges so convincingly: her singing had great poise and lyrical line, she coloured the tenderness and compassion of her character, her agony at Stevushka’s loss simply heart-rending."
Rian Evans, The Guardian (March 2022)

"Making her role debut, Elizabeth Llewellyn brings to the eponymous heroine a vocal depth and dignity that shines through her transformation from spirited lover to battered, bereaved survivor, empowered by her capacity to forgive."
Steph Power, The Stage (March 2022)

“Elizabeth Llewellyn in the title role courses through the action in a state of heightened distress and strikes the right balance in oscillating between her love for her cousin Števa and for Laca, Števa’s half-brother and, like her, not blood-related.”
Nigel Jarrett, Wales Art Review (March 2022)

​

"once she got going she was superb, especially in the horrifying scene that culminates in the Kostelnička’s abduction and murder of Jenůfa’s week-old baby, and in that overwhelming final duet with Laca."
Stephen Walsh, The Arts Desk (March 2022)

​

"Jenůfa herself, of course, portrayed with profound sensitivity and a limpid, heartfelt vocal delivery by Elizabeth Llewellyn, admirably confronting the far-from simple task of serving as the backbone of the whole narration"
Chiara Strazzulla, Arts Scene in Wales (March 2022)

Verdi FALSTAFF / Scottish Opera
 

“Chief among the ladies is Elizabeth Llewellyn, whose rich, opulent voice brings aristocratic warmth to Alice.”
The Times (July 2021)

​

“Soprano Elizabeth Llewellyn, whose Mimi illuminated Haine’s La boheme, brings a similarly beautiful depth of expression and emotional intelligence to the role of the Windsor wife Alice Ford.”
The Telegraph (July 2021)

​

“Elizabeth Llewellyn is a magnetic presence as Alice Ford, vocally voluptuous and gently magisterial in character…”
The Scotsman (July 2021)
 

“Roland Wood in the title role is a solid presence in the face of the prattling wives, husbands and lovers of Windsor. Elizabeth Llewellyn’s Alice is the natural commander of the situation, an easy equal to his advances. Both provide strong vocal performances – robust but nuanced.”
The Stage (July 2021)
 

“Comedy is balanced on a sword-edge of tragedy for the women of Falstaff, and Elizabeth Llewellyn’s Alice plays things straight, velvety tone tempering the role’s piquant humour with plenty of breadth.”
The Spectator (July 2021)
 

“The wonderful soprano Elizabeth Llewellyn sings the wronged, but revenged, Alice Ford with great emotional depth and supple versatility.”
The National (July 2021)

First Night of the Proms / BBC Proms 2021

"but it was when Elizabeth Llewellyn’s soprano soared above the full orchestra that the piece really glowed"
Erica Jeal, The Guardian (July 2021)

​

Mozart REQUIEM / English National Opera

“...the superbly focused singing of the four soloists: Gerald Finley, Ed Lyon, Sarah Connolly and particularly Elizabeth Llewellyn, whose timbre throughout was aptly angelic."

Richard Morrison, The Times (November 2020)

​

"Elizabeth Llewellyn's lustrous soprano shone brightly and warmly in her every contribution"

Martin Kettle, The Guardian (November 2020)