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Lauren Fagan
Shirley Thomson
Zoe Band
“The voice of Lauren Fagan was thrilling, displaying remarkable control, enthralling the full-house audience.”
Bachtrack, August 2022
Australian soprano Lauren Fagan has grown into one of today’s most accomplished sopranos, admired by international critics for her “glossy, commanding sound” and “magnificent dramatic power”. Fagan’s recent portrayals of Countess Almaviva (Le nozze di Figaro), Helena (A Midsummer Night’s Dream), Avis (The Wreckers) and Margarita Xirgu (Ainadamar) have solidified her position as one of the most impressive and versatile singing actresses on today’s operatic landscape.
A former member of the prestigious Jette Parker Young Artist Programme at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, Fagan returns in the 2023/24 season as Gretel in Antony McDonald’s mischievous production of Hansel and Gretel under Mark Wigglesworth and as Musetta in Richard Jones’ La bohème, under Keri-Lynn Wilson. Elsewhere in the season, she debuts as Gutrune in Andreas Homoki’s new staging of Götterdämmerung at Opernhaus Zürich under Music Director Gianandrea Noseda, returns to Agnès in concert performances of George Benjamin’s Written on Skin with Orchestre National de Lille under Alexandre Bloch, appears at Festspielhaus Baden-Baden and Berliner Philharmonie as 5. Magd in Elektra with Kirill Petrenko conducting the Berliner Philharmoniker and makes her Opera Australia debut as Angelica in Puccini’s Suor Angelica.
In the 2024/25 season, Fagan returns to Opernhaus Zürich for her debut as Komponist in Andreas Homoki’s new production of Ariadne auf Naxos under Markus Poschner and later in the season to reprise Giulietta in Les contes d’Hoffmann, led by Antonio Fogliani. Elsewhere she returns to the Canadian Opera Company for her much anticipated role debut as Tatyana in Robert Carsen’s production of Eugene Onegin, conducted by Speranza Scappucci. On the concert stage, she debuts with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and Music Director Jaime Martin in Beethoven Symphony no 9.
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Recent seasons have seen an impressive array of appearances including her first Contessa Almaviva at Canadian Opera Company under Harry Bicket, Margarita Xirgu in Osvaldo Golijov’s Ainadamar for Scottish Opera, Helena in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, conducted by Dalia Stasevska at Glyndebourne Festival Opera and Giulietta in Andreas Homoki’s new production of Les contes d’Hoffmann under Antonino Fogliani at Opernhaus Zürich. As Norma in Marina Abramovic’s 7 Deaths of Maria Callas, conducted by Yoel Gamzou, Lauren Fagan made debuts at both Opéra de Paris and Bayerische Staatsoper and she sang Woglinde in Keith Warner’s Ring Cycle at Royal Opera House, Covent Garden under Sir Antonio Pappano.
In her earlier seasons, Lauren Fagan found success in a wide range of operatic roles including as Donna Elvira with NHK Symphony Orchestra under Paavo Järvi, Handel’s Alcina at the International Händel-Festpiele Karlsruhe, Mimì in Phyllida Lloyd’s classic staging of La bohème at Opera North, Musetta with Welsh National Opera and a Violetta who “mines unsuspected depths of emotion while singing the music with pearly ease.” (The Times, 2021) in Rodula Gaitanou’s production of La Traviata at Opera Holland Park.
Representing her country in the 2019 BBC Cardiff Singer of the World Competition, Fagan recently made her long-awaited Australian operatic debut as Violetta in La traviata at State Opera South Australia having previously performed Beethoven’s Ah! Perfido with Sydney Symphony Orchestra under Simone Young, and Barber’s Knoxville: Summer of 1915 with Adelaide Symphony Orchestra under Dane Lam.
Elsewhere on the concert platform, Fagan appeared as Avis in Ethel Smyth’s The Wreckers with Deutsches Symphonie Orchester Berlin under Robin Ticciati and Roxana in Szymanowski’s Krol Roger with Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia under Sir Antonio Pappano. She sang her first Handel Messiah with Toronto Symphony Orchestra under Music Director Gustavo Gimeno, joined the line-up for Beethoven’s Symphony No.9 with Oslo Philharmonic under Klaus Mäkelä, graced the Last Night of the BBC Proms under Sakari Oramo in Vaughan Williams’ Serenade to Music and performed Strauss’ Vier letzte Lieder with Malmö Opera under Karen Kamensek.
Gallery
![Hanna Hipp and Lauren Fagan as Hansel and Gretel © Tristram Kenton](/https/www.harrisonparrott.com/sites/default/files/styles/square_small/public/images/galleries/2024-01/Hanna%20Hipp%20%28Hansel%29%20Lauren%20Fagan%20%28Gretel%29%20Hansel%20and%20Gretel%20%28c%29%202023%20ROH%20ph.%20Tristram%20Kenton.jpg?h=e9868518&itok=MC-JHMvB)
![Trittico photo © Wendell Teodoro](/https/www.harrisonparrott.com/sites/default/files/styles/square_small/public/images/galleries/2024-07/2024%20Il%20Trittico%20photo%20by%20Wendell%20Teodoro%20DSC_6881.jpeg?h=a4e5dfd0&itok=oftKwAvv)
![Lauren Fagan (Musetta) La boheme © Camilla Greenwell](/https/www.harrisonparrott.com/sites/default/files/styles/square_small/public/images/galleries/2024-07/Lauren%20Fagan%20%28Musetta%29%20La%20boheme%20%28c%29%202024%20ROH%20ph.%20Camilla%20Greenwell0640..jpeg?h=27021e71&itok=jzx0Ju2N)
![La Traviata © Ali Wright](/https/www.harrisonparrott.com/sites/default/files/styles/square_small/public/images/galleries/2021-06/La%20Traviata%202021%20-%20Ali%20Wright-79.jpg?h=2992ba0a&itok=s5Y1K7-j)
![Goetterdaemmerung © Monika Rittershaus.](/https/www.harrisonparrott.com/sites/default/files/styles/square_small/public/images/galleries/2023-11/goetterdaemmerung_ah_161.jpg?h=5371c695&itok=Js6mhSaG)
“Australian soprano Lauren Fagan, making a most belated Opera Australia debut, brought the house down with her lustrous, deeply felt Suor Angelica.”
“Another Opera Australia debutante was Lauren Fagan as Angelica: her beautifully shaped lines made this an absolutely heartrending performance, the undoubted emotional highpoint of the afternoon.”
“However, it is Fagan who gives the performance of the evening. Her vocal performance is exceptional – her Senza Mamma is one of the finest operatic performances one can remember on the stage of the Joan Sutherland Theatre – and her final top notes are heart-rending. Fagan delivers them with her back to the audience, arms outstretched to the heavens, emphasizing just how hopelessly alone she is – even cut off from the sympathetic audience. When Fagan falls to her knees to scatter her son’s ashes in the earth, her anguish is truly palpable.”
“Gutrune was excellently played by the magnificent Lauren Fagan.”
“Cause of all this mayhem is Marcello’s ex-girlfriend, the outrageous Musetta, played and sung with coquettish abandon by Australian soprano Lauren Fagan – until she comes up against sober reality in Mimì’s final moments.”
“In a hairpin turn from having just sung Gretel in Hansel and Gretel at this address, Lauren Fagan’s take-no-prisoners Musetta is irresistible, having great fun with the physical comedy (watch out for the flying knickers) but also giving this good-time girl a stature she often lacks.”
“Lauren Fagan sings and performs a heartfelt Gutrune.”
“Gutrune is sung by Lauren Fagan, who has a wonderfully well-rounded voice that can also blossom, passionate and jubilant.”
“Fagan’s Helena especially noteworthy for her beauty of tone.”
“But the standout among the astonishingly talented group of performers is Fagan, who so wholly captures the essence of the Countess, drawn between the pain of betrayal and her own desires. When Fagan sings, it’s as if time stops. Her rendition of Dove sono, delivered while lying on the steps of the estate’s main hall, is achingly beautiful, imbued with pain and anger.”
“The vulnerable, though not entirely innocent, Countess Almaviva of Australian soprano Lauren Fagan in a role debut… her voice is simply gorgeous, etching the lovely long lines of her two great arias exquisitely and with great feeling.”
“Fagan’s crystalline Countess.”
“Dove sono i bei momenti, in which the Countess ponders where “the lovely moments” of her marriage went, is delivered by Fagan with touching conviction and a sonorous, bell-like tone.”
“The ladies were perhaps even better. Lauren Fagan’s Countess trod a careful line between dignified and playful and there was true pathos in her handling of the final scene. She also sang both “Porgi amor” and “Dove sono” absolutely gorgeously.”
“Margarita (Fagan) effectively carries the show, and Fagan – fresh from playing the village tart in The Wreckers at Glyndebourne – breathes tearful fervour into every gesture and phrase, scraping a dark, bitter residue of pain from her low notes. She’s tremendous, her vocal performance clearly informed.”
“Heading a trio of strong principals, Lauren Fagan was a wonderfully spirited Margarita Xirgu, her powerful soprano cutting through the music and dance, brave and determined to ensure Lorca’s legacy.”
“As Margarita (a part conceived for Dawn Upshaw), Lauren Fagan is superbly forceful in a part that reaches high both in range and in passion.”
“Soprano Lauren Fagan is the actress Margarita, singing the opening scenes with a deep chest voice but scaling gleaming heights for Margarita’s final apotheosis.”
“Fagan sang convincingly and compellingly – so believable were her singing and acting.”
“The voice of Lauren Fagan was thrilling, displaying remarkable control, enthralling the full-house audience.”
“Lauren Fagan – making her Australian mainstage operatic debut – was utterly compelling in the role. Her rich vocal tone and impressive range of colours and nuances really drew the listener into Violetta’s emotional states.”
“Lauren Fagan, excellent as always, is the impulsive, unstable Avis”
“Lauren Fagan’s bright, incisive soprano dominates her scenes”
“A large cast of whom the standouts are Karis Tucker as the rebellious wife and Lauren Fagan as her jealous nemesis”
“Lauren Fagan, returning to the cast alongside the other two 2018 principals, plays the death scene with her own dramatic freedom rather than borrowed histrionics. At home in both Violetta’s modes — as strong in the coloratura as the introverted musings — she sings luminously.”
“In Act I Lauren Fagan as Violetta is lyrical, unflamboyant yet technically accomplished, but in Acts II and III mines unsuspected depths of emotion while singing the music with pearly ease.”
“Lauren Fagan’s Violetta saw her in absolutely commanding – and extremely moving – form.”
“Fagan has truthful artistry, and strength across her generous soprano span.”
“Lauren Fagan sang Giulietta capriciously, also boldly, challengingly, as befits the figure.”
“There were some lovely veiled moments in her upper register early in the aria before she allowed her voice to unfurl in the dramatic climax, easily filling the space with her glossy, commanding sound.”
“As Simone Young told the audience the Australian singer, making her SSO debut, would have no problem projecting – and she didn’t, her rich and powerful timbre cutting through in Beethoven’s Ah! Perfido, a work which runs the range of emotions and showed why Fagan was selected for Covent Garden’s prestigious Jette Parker Young Artists Program.”
“The soloist was Sydney-born, London-based soprano Lauren Fagan, in her first professional appearance in Australia, and her warm, rich tone, combined with effortless control, brought out the delightfully wistful character of Agee’s prose in Samuel Barber’s Knoxville: Summer of 1915.”
“The quality of the vocal performances is superb. Lauren Fagan, as the doomed Mimi, gives a gorgeous rendition of ‘Si, Mi Chiamano Mimi’, shortly before duetting with Eleazar Rodriguez on a moonlit ‘O Soave Fanciulla’ that proves to be one of the highlights of the evening.”
“Lauren Fagan’s Mimì was beautifully sweet, delicate and restrained, but unleashed torrents of powerful emotion, a fact evident from the moment she joined her new lover Rodolfo for ‘O soave fanciulla.’ She was thrilling.”
“Rising young star Lauren Fagan dazzles as Alcina. Her laments, and in particular the “Mi restano le lagrime”, are literally gilded in gold, her voice can display pain incarnate, while also asserting powerful nobility and a superb helplessness.”
“Fagan was a convincing sorceress from the very start, with a strong rich soprano, inducing sympathy in “Ombre pallide” as her shades desert her, spitting venom in the trio “Non è amor” and finally collapsing as all conspire to defeat her.”
“As Alcina the gorgeous soprano Lauren Fagan convinces again, completing her six (!) bravura arias between despair and rage, rapture and revenge, with breathtaking, truly magical virtuosity; and in her art of frenzied coloratura, crazy flights of fancy, elegant arcs and daring leaps, demonstrates boundless skill.”
“The three Norns were led by the authoritative Lise Davidsen, the three Rhinemaidens by the shining Lauren Fagan.”
“Fagan, one of today’s finest young sopranos, is exceptional throughout and a superb actor. Her tone blazes with existential defiance and desperation, and she possesses both the agility for act one – Sempre Libera is capped by a dazzling top E flat – and the dramatic weight for the closing scenes.”
“Luckily, these opening moments also reveal that in Lauren Fagan this new production has a Violetta of considerable force, plangent tones and solid dramatic instincts.”
“the easy grace of Fagan’s coloratura, the warmth and richness of her sound, and her delicately floated high notes, all make this Violetta a delight.”
“More than just technical precision though, Fagan’s performance embodied Violetta’s tragedy and nobility, phrases soaked with emotion which matched the quality of her acting. Fagan alone makes this production worth seeing.”
“Lauren Fagan was on commanding form as both actor and singer, and she looked sensational and vulnerable in her fin-de-siècle gowns. Her coloratura in ‘Sempre libera’ was light and secure, her Act 2 scene with Germont père, showing off a fine control of tone and hushed dynamics, was done with considerable restraint, and her death scene faltered and faded very movingly.”
“the Australian soprano Lauren Fagan made a vivid, sensitive Roxana.”
“Lauren Fagan encompassed repressed stillness and seething passion as Agnès, retaining her precision of attack and creamy tone at even the most exposed high climax”
“As for Lauren Fagan, playing the humiliated wife for whom a taste of real love catalyses her one act of defiance, she achieves a small miracle: dispelling memories of how Barbara Hannigan sang and acted in the premiere. Fagan delivers a fiercer, less enigmatic characterization.”
“Most thrilling of all, Lauren Fagan’s gleaming, intense performance showed what a extraordinary dramatic creation the character of Agnès is, one of the great operatic heroines of the past 100 years.”
“Do not miss the excellent performance offered by all artists – with particular acclaim for the great vocal charm of soprano Lauran Fagan (Roxana)”
“Australian soprano Lauren Fagan sang a commanding Donna Anna with dramatic recitatives, laser-like projection and clean fioritura. “Non mi dir” was the highlight of the evening”.
“Of the other ‘bohemians’, Lauren Fagan’s Musetta had an engaging brassiness of voice and manner in the Café Momus scene (which was well realized theatrically) and a very different, but equally engaging, capacity for deeper emotional involvement in Acts III and (especially) IV. More than some more famous singers in this role, she made one believe in the character’s generosity of spirit in the last Act.”
“Lauren Fagan was a brilliantly wild and flighty Musetta, until the final scene where the Carmen-like mask dropped and the softness of the woman beneath was movingly revealed. Her powerful voice, with remarkable control, even at the peak of her range, mellowed beautifully by the end.”
“In the second half Vaughan Williams’s Serenade to Music provided the unique sound of 16 solo singers – as distinct from a 16-part choir – of whom Lauren Faganstood out in a high quality crowd.”
“Lauren Fagan shone as Gounod’s Mireille… Her stunningly rich tone and vibrant timbre rose above the incongruous design and later, as Mimì, she showed that she has range of colour too.”
“Lauren Fagan excelled as Gounod’s Mireille, her creamy tone, fast vibrato and clear top perfectly suited to French repertoire”
“contrasted with the bright ring of Lauren Fagan’s Sister Genovieffa, surely an Angelica in waiting”
“His daughter Lila, our heroine, gets a spirited and joyful incarnation from Lauren Fagan… her soprano warm and crystal clear.”
“…Lauren Fagan as his love-interest, Leila, [was] simply superb. She slinked around with perfumed exoticism as the beautiful young princess and he could barely contain his passion for her… These two fine singers proved they were worthy of headlining any Pearl Fishers cast and deserved the prolonged ovation they received.”
“The positively angelic Léila of Lauren Fagan”
“Fagan had a lovely silvery sheen to her soprano as Léïla pleaded for Nadir’s life, fuelling the flames of Zurga’s jealousy. Sparks flew!”