BIOGRAPHY

Praised for her “warm mezzo” (The Telegraph) and “velvet-voice” (Daily Telegraph), British-Spanish mezzo-soprano Marta Fontanals-Simmons recently made critically acclaimed house and role debuts at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden as Siébel in David McVicar's production of Faust and as Hel in the world premiere of Gavin Higgins’ The Monstrous Child at the Linbury Theatre.

Upcoming highlights in the 2019/20 season include her house and role debut at English National Opera as Eurydice Woman in Daniel Kramer’s new production of Birtwisle’s The Mask of Orpheus, her house debut as Jennie Hildebrand in Street Scene for Opéra de Monte- Carlo, and her return to the Teatro Real, Madrid for Vlasta The Passenger. In concert she will perform Elgar Sea Pictures with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and Stravinsky Pulcinella with the CBSO, appear at the Three Choirs Festival, and return to the BBC Proms.

Recent operatic highlights for Fontanals-Simmons include Amando Le Grand Macabre with the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester and Alan Gilbert, Zweite Dame Die Zauberflöte for Glyndebourne Festival Opera, Jennie Hildebrand Street Scene at the Teatro Real, Cherubino Le nozze di Figaro for Garsington Opera and at the Théâtre Champs Elysées, the title role La Cenerentola for Diva Opera and Kate Pinkerton Madama Butterfly for the Glyndebourne Tour and for Grange Park Opera.

On the concert platform, recent highlights include the European premiere of Alasdair Nicolson Shadows on the Wall – Five Hauntings at the Barbican, Berlioz La Captive with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, Verdi Requiem with the Philharmonia Orchestra at the Royal Festival Hall, Vaughan Williams Serenade to Music with Sakari Oramo at the Last Night of the Proms, Mendelssohn Elijah with CBSO at Birmingham Symphony Hall, L’Enfant et les Sortilèges with Stéphane Denève and the Radio- Sinfonieorchester Stuttgart, Mozart Requiem with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Bach Mass in B Minor with Ryan Wigglesworth at the St Endellion Festival, Handel Messiah with Lawrence Cummings at the London Handel Festival, Stravinsky Les Noces at Queen Elizabeth Hall, and Haydn Harmoniemesse with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. Fontanals-Simmons is a regular on the UK song festival scene and collaborates regularly with pianists including Roger Vignoles, Chris Glynn, Sholto Kynoch, Bengt Forsberg, Lana Bode, Simon Lepper, Libby Burgess and Iain Burnside.

In demand as an exciting new voice in Contemporary Music, Fontanals-Simmons has premiered the role of Ursula in the Royal Opera House / Glyndebourne co-production of Nothing by David Bruce, has collaborated, premiered and recorded a number of new song cycles, including that of Martin Suckling‘s The Tuning which won the Dorico Award at the Scottish Awards for New Music in 2020, and also  Emily Howard, Robert Laidlow, Patricia Alessandrini, Benjamin Ellin & the UK writing duo Murphy&Attridge. With orchestra, Fontanals-Simmons has made premiere recordings of the late Jonathan Harvey‘s Songs of Li Po, Michael Hurd‘s The Phoenix & the Turtle and Michael Stimpson’s The Angry Garden. 

Fontanals-Simmons graduated with distinction from the Guildhall School of Music & Drama, London, where she won the prestigious Gold Medal. She was a Jerwood Artist at Glyndebourne Festival for the 2015/16 season.

© Marta Fontanals-Simmons 2019, all rights reserved