Currently residing in the UK, leading Australian mezzo soprano Catherine Carby performs with major opera companies including the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, English National Opera, Scottish Opera, Opera Australia, Victoria State Opera, State Opera South Australia and Opera Queensland. As a board member of Swap’ra UK (Supporting Women and Parents in Opera), Catherine is committed to achieving gender and pay equality in the opera industry.
In Australia this year Catherine will be heard in the dual roles of the mother and the witch (Hansel and Gretel) for State Opera South Australia, as Juno in Pinchgut Opera’s production of Semele, as Wellgunde and 2nd Norn in the Sydney Symphony’s Die Götterdämmerung, and as the alto soloist in Sydney Philharmonia Choirs’ Messiah.
A regular guest artist at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, Catherine’s engagements include Gertrude (Hansel and Gretel), Siegrune (Die Walküre), Emilia (Otello), Antonia’s mother (Tales of Hoffmann), Second Maid (Elektra), Minerva/Fortune (The Return of Ulysses), Sister Mathilde (Dialogue des Carmélites), Annina (La Traviata), Voice from Above (Die Frau ohne Schatten) and for the Royal Ballet, Katharina Schratt (Mayerling).
Further roles internationally include her La Scala Milan debut as Waltraute (Die Walküre), Brangäne (Tristan und Isolde) at the Teatro São Carlos, Lisbon and for Longborough Festival Opera; Waltraute (Die Götterdämmerung) and Genevieve (Pelleas et Melisande) for Longborough; Jade Bouchier (Dead Man Walking) for ENO; Marcellina (The Marriage of Figaro) for Opera North; Malcolm (La Donna del Lago) for Buxton International Festival; Gluck’s Iphigenie en Tauride (title role), Aurelio (Donizetti’s L’Assedio di Calais), Cornelia (Giulio Cesare), Idamante, Diana (La Calisto), and Rodrigo (Donizetti’s Pia di Tolomei) for English Touring Opera; Sara (Robert Devereux), Elcia (Mose in Egitto, Rossini) and Romeo (I Capuleti e I Montecchi) for Chelsea Opera Group; Ramiro (La finta giardiniera) and Prue in Malcolm Arnold’s The Dancing Master for Buxton International Festival (the Resonus Classics recording of which won BBC Music Magazine’s Best Opera Award 2021); and the title role in L’Orfeo for Opus 48, Oxford.
On the concert platform she has been heard as Nita (The Mountebanks) with the BBC Concert Orchestra; Beethoven’s Symphony No 9 with the Philharmonia Orchestra, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and the Ulster Orchestra; Haydn’s Paukenmesse with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment; Das Lied von der Erde with the Gardner Chamber Orchestra Boston; Mozart’s Mass in C for the Polski Chór Kameralny Gdańsk; Karl Jenkins’ 75th birthday celebrations; and Haydn’s Arianna auf Naxos with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra.
In Australia Catherine has been a guest artist with all the major companies including a national tour of Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde with the Australian Chamber Orchestra, Idamante (Idomeneo) for Victorian Opera, Sesto (La Clemenza di Tito) for National Opera Company, Canberra, the title role in Médée and Penelope (Il Ritorno d’Ulisse) for Pinchgut Opera. On the concert platform further recent engagements include Wellgunde (Das Rheingold) with the Sydney Symphony and chief conductor Simone Young, Handel’s Messiah (Sir Andrew Davis conducting) and Verdi’s Requiem with Melbourne Symphony Orchestra (Chief Conductor Jaime Martín) and with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, and Mahler’s Des Knaben Wunderhorn at the Lisa Gasteen National Opera Program in Brisbane.
For Opera Australia Catherine has sung Gertrude (Hamlet: Dean), Octavian (Der Rosenkavalier, available on DVD), title role (Carmen), Arsace (Partenope, Green Room Award nomination), Donna Elvira (Don Giovanni), Romeo (I Capuleti e i Montecchi), Hippolyta (A Midsummer Night’s Dream), Orlofsky (Die Fledermaus), Baba the Turk (The Rake’s Progress, Helpmann Award), Mallika (Lakmé), Ruth (The Pirates of Penzance), Maddalena (Rigoletto), Cornelia (Giulio Cesare, Green Room Award), Ruggiero (Alcina), Kristina (The Makropulos Affair), Suzuki (Madama Butterfly), Second Lady (Magic Flute) and Auntie (Peter Grimes).
Her recordings include The Mountebanks (with the BBC Singers for Dutton Epoch), Lampe’s The Dragon of Wantley for Resonus Classics, Satanella for Naxos CD, The Love for Three Oranges for Chandos CD, Les contes d’Hoffmann for Sony CD/Blu Ray, Der Rosenkavalier for Opera Australia CD/DVD/Blu Ray, and The Royal Opera’s Die Walküre (Siegrune) on Opus Arte Blu Ray/DVD which won the 2021 BBC Music Magazine’s DVD of the Year, and Mayerling.
Catherine Carby studied at the Canberra School of Music and the Royal College of Music, London, and was a Young Artist for both Victoria State Opera and Opera Australia. She was a finalist in several major competitions including the Kathleen Ferrier Award, the ABC Young Performers (Vocal finalist) and the Young Concert Artists Trust.