Susan Chilcott’s international successes both on the opera stage and concert platform established her as one of England’s most sought-after sopranos. She made her operatic début with Scottish Opera, and appeared with all the UK’s major opera houses including the Royal Opera, Covent Garden, where she made a highly acclaimed debut with Placido Domingo and Valery Gergiev in Tchaikovsky’s Queen of Spades.

Abroad she sang with several of Europe’s leading houses and had a particular association with Belgian National Opera where she made her debut as Britten’s Ellen Orford in Peter Grimes 1994 to great acclaim. In May 2000 she made a sensational debut with Netherlands Opera in the title role of Janácek’s Katya Kabanova for which she received the Performance of the Year Award from The Friends of the Netherlands Opera. She returned to Netherlands Opera in 2002 to play Blanche in Dialogues of the Carmelites. Since her student days Susan Chilcott appeared in recital with pianist Iain Burnside.

In 2002 she also made her debut at the Metropolitan Opera, New York in Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Her last full operatic role was as Janácek’s Jenufa for Welsh National Opera in 2003. This ‘searing vocal and dramatic performance’ was seen by many to be a definitive interpretation and won her the Royal Philharmonic Society Award.

Watch a short excerpt of Susan Chilcott singing Desdemona in Verdi’s Othello.