© Frances Marshall
ELIZABETH LLEWELLYN
SOPRANO
Specialising in the Italian repertoire, Elizabeth’s roles have centred around the operas of Puccini and Verdi. Known for her vivid portrayals of Puccini heroines and for her full, distinctive voice, Elizabeth has risen through the ranks since making her debut as Mimi La bohème, for which The Telegraph named her “Best newcomer in opera in 2010”. Elizabeth's recent notable highlights include role debuts as Aida for Theater Bielefeld and as the title role Luisa Miller for English National Opera, a return to the role of Mimì La Bohème for her company debut at Scottish Opera, as well as making her Metropolitan Opera debut as Bess Porgy and Bess, and her solo recital debut at the Wigmore Hall, London.
News
Elizabeth Llewellyn returns to the Metropolitan Opera
Following her performance as Bess at the Metropolitan Opera's 19-20 season, Elizabeth Llewellyn returns to New York to reprise the role in James Robinson's landmark production of Porgy & Bess. Once again under the baton of David Robertson, Elizabeth sings alongside Eric Owens as Porgy, Jacqueline Echols as Clara and Latonia Moore and Serena. The performance will be broadcast live on the Met Opera Radio on SiriusXM Channel 355.
Elizabeth first came to the role in 2018, making her debut with Seattle Opera in a production by Francesca Zambello, and will join the NDR Elphilharmonie Orchester later this season to sing the role at both the Lucerne Festival and the Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival, Germany.
Following her performance at the Metropolitan Opera, Elizabeth will make her role and company debut with Welsh National Opera as Jenůfa.
For more information on Porgy & Bess at the Metropolitan Opera, visit the website here.
© Philip Newton
Posted 09/11/2021.
Media
Repertoire Includes
OPERA
BIZET
Carmen (Mïcaela)
BOITO
Mefistofele (Margherita/Elena)
BRITTEN
Turn of the Screw (Governess)
The Rape of Lucretia (Female Chorus)
Peter Grimes (Ellen Orford)*
DVOŘÁK
Rusalka (Rusalka)*
GERSHWIN
Porgy & Bess (Bess)
HANDEL
Rodelinda (Rodelinda)*
Alcina (Alcina)*
LEHAR
The Merry Widow (Hanna Glawari)
MOZART
La Clemenza di Tito (Vitellia)*
Idomeneo (Elettra)
Così fan Tutte (Fiordiligi)
Le Nozze di Figaro (Contessa)
Don Giovanni (Donna Elvira/Donna Anna)*
Die Zauberflöte (First Lady)
PUCCINI
La Bohème (Mimì)
Tosca (Tosca)
Suor Angelica (Suor Angelica)
Il Tabarro (Giorgetta)
La Rondine (Magda de Civry)
Madama Butterfly (Madama Butterfly)
Manon Lescaut (Manon Lescaut)
PREVIN
A Streetcar Named Desire (Blanche DuBois)*
STRAUSS
Der Rosenkavalier (Marschallin)*
Elektra (Chrysothemis)
Capriccio (Countess Madeleine)
Arabella (Arabella)*
TCHAIKOVSKY
Eugene Onegin (Tatiana)
VERDI
Simon Boccanegra (Amelia)
Aida (Aida)
Don Carlo (Elisabetta)*
Luisa Miller (Luisa Miller)
Il Trovatore (Leonora)*
Un Ballo in Maschera (Amelia)
Otello (Desdemona)*
Falstaff (Alice Ford)
WAGNER
Lohengrin (Elsa)
Die Meistersinger (Eva)*
Tannhaüser (Elisabeth)
WEBER
Der Freischütz (Agathe)*
* in preparation
Concert
BEETHOVEN
Mass in C
Missa Solemnis
Symphony No. 9
BERNSTEIN
Mass
BRITTEN
War Requiem
Our Hunting Fathers
ELGAR
The Spirit of England
Caractacus
HANDEL
Messiah
MAHLER
Symphony No. 8 (2nd Soprano)
Das Klagende Lied
Rückert Lieder
MENDELSSOHN
Elijah
MOZART
Requiem
POULENC
Gloria
R. STRAUSS
Vier Letzte Lieder
SZYMANOWSKI
Stabat Mater
TIPPETT
A Child of Our Time
VAUGHAN WILLIAMS
Serenade to Music
A Sea Symphony
VERDI
Requiem
WALTON
A Song for The Lord Mayor’s Table
Press
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)
"...the four soloists, singing without the scores customary in oratorio, could hardly be bettered: Elizabeth Llewellyn the shining soprano..."
Rupert Christiansen, The Telegraph (November 2020)
"Elizabeth Llewellyn made another wonderful impression with her variety of vocal colours, expressivity, and the immense depth and richness of her tone. She brought radiance to ‘Lux aeterna luceat eis, Domine’ before the resounding chorus brought the Requiem to a rousing conclusion."
Jim Pritchard, Seen and Heard International (November 2020)
"In February, Llewellyn was tremendously impressive in ENO's wonderfully sung Luisa Miller. Returning to that same stage after such a catastrophic year for live music-making was, she explained to Culture Whisper, a powerful moment. Her warm, luminous tone and Finley's seemingly effortless ability to make light work of the deepest, richest notes are to be marvelled at in their solo passages."
Claudia Pritchard, Culture Whisper (November 2020)
"Elizabeth Llewellyn undoubtedly shone in the performance with a gentle, delicate sound that felt solid. It consoled, too."
Jon Jacob, Thoroughly Good blog (November 2020)
Verdi LUISA MILLER / English National Opera
“Llewellyn has been absent from the Coliseum for too long, but she returned in triumph, singing throughout with a full-throated ease that amply filled the auditorium and portraying the character with a vivid naïvety that even the production’s vacuity couldn’t blur.”
Rupert Christiansen, The Telegraph (February 2020)
“…in Elizabeth Llewellyn we get a gorgeously-sung Luisa.”
Michael Church, The Independent (February 2020)
“With her compellingly focused voice, Elizabeth Llewellyn is superb in the title role.”
Hugh Canning, The Times (February 2020)
“Elizabeth Llewellyn’s Luisa, richly and subtly voiced, still manages to exude passion and sincerity.”
Yehuda Shapiro, The Stage (February 2020)
“If Elizabeth Llewellyn has done anything better than this Luisa, then I regret not being there. Llewellyn’s singing had secure coloratura, fearless top notes, as well as much vocal elan and her acting had both energy and passion. However well she started, she finished even more strongly with a heart-wrenching Act III ‘La tomba e un letto’ and the poignancy of her closing duets with Miller and Rodolfo.”
Jim Pritchard, Seen & Heard International (February 2020)
“Above all this, Elizabeth Llewellyn’s silvery, supple soprano brings out all Luisa’s goodness and pain, …it soars where it counts.”
Erica Jeal, The Guardian (February 2020)
Verdi AIDA / Theater Bielefeld
“Elizabeth Llewellyn, daughter of Jamaican parents, gave an Aida of enormous dramatic urgency….The highly dramatic British soprano effortlessly outshines the concentrated sound of the choir and orchestra, and has a poignant vocabulary of lamentation – an ideal piece of casting for this Bielefeld staging.”
Johannes Vetter, Neue Westfalische (December 2019)
“…the great Elizabeth Llewellyn, who has just hurried from her New York debut at the Met to Germany succeeds as an Aida bringing her innermost feelings out. Her soprano has tremendous power and size, but she also masters the delicate, heart-breaking singing.”
Uta Jostwerner, Westfallen Blatt (December 2019)
“Elizabeth Llewellyn chose Theater Bielefeld for her role debut as Aida… and she has given a gift to the theatre! For her interpretation of this role was highly expressive, touching, and vocally of the very highest quality. She was at the centre of this production at all times, even when she had nothing to sing. Her gestures, her body language, were always like a mirror of her interpretation of Aida. Her solo scenes were sung in a grand and penetrating manner, outstanding in the ensembles. The way she used vocal means to express the feelings of the Aida was an experience. A really great debut as Aida, for which she was celebrated by the opening night audience with ovations. BRAVO!”
Detlef Obens, Das Opernmagazin (December 2019)
Puccini MANON LESCAUT / Opera Holland Park
“she relaxed and released a wonderfully expressive and dramatic flood of glorious colour, the wait was proven more than worthwhile. In fact, the slight frailty at the start was not inapt, capturing as it did some of the innocence of the young Manon […] and the blossoming of Llewellyn’s soprano in the final two Acts communicated the maturity and growth borne of Manon’s experiences. Llewellyn exploited the full range of her soprano, including a rich chest voice, encompassing a vast emotional spectrum and sensitively capturing Manon’s femininity. As Manon finds herself at the limits of her resilience, so Llewellyn pushed her soprano to its limits, though never sacrificing her creamily smooth legato, with compelling power and effect. As her voice recovers fully, Llewellyn’s performance will be a persuasive reason to see this production.”
Claire Seymour, Opera Today (June 2019)
“Elizabeth Llewellyn has an exciting voice for Puccini, silvery and vital. […] The final act brought more power, and a tantalising glimpse of what this fine singer might offer later in the run.”
Erica Jeal, The Guardian (June 2019)
“Llewellyn […] gives full rein to her powerful soprano that never loses the crucial fragility it requires to illustrate Manon’s disastrous decision making.”
Gary Naylor, Broadway World, (June 2019)
“Star quality comes at last with the elegant and slightly sphinx-like presence of Llewellyn’s Manon”
David Nice, The Arts Desk (June 2019)
