KITTY WHATELY

MEZZO SOPRANO • WORLD MANAGEMENT

ABOUT

"Whately is a captivating live performer... In an age of glossily interchangeable international artists, this one isn't afraid to tell us her story. I, for one, want to hear more...” GRAMOPHONE MAGAZINE

Kitty Whately is one of the UK’s most characterful mezzo sopranos of the operatic stage and concert platform, and a highly acclaimed interpreter particularly of contemporary opera and art song.

Following the recent success of her Royal Opera House debut as Michelle in the world premiere of Mark Anthony Turnage’s new opera Festen, Kitty’s future roles include Suzuki Madama Butterfly (Grange Park Opera), Annie in Omar Shahryar’s new opera Displaced (Tête à Tête), Irene Tamerlano (London Handel Festival) and Margret Wozzeck in a semi-staged performance with the London Philharmonic Orchestra.

She has performed leading roles in world and UK premieres of opera by Mark Anthony Turnage, Missy Mazzoli, Mark Adamo and Vasco Mandonça, alongside song cycles written especially for her by Jonathan Dove, Sally Beamish, Steven Hough, Juliana Hall and Tarik O’Regan. She has received critical acclaim for performances of opera by Benjamin Britten and Bernard Hermann, as well as a huge variety of roles from the core canon of classical opera.
Operatic highlights include creating the role of Mother/Other Mother in the world premiere of Mark-Anthony Turnage’s Coraline, a Royal Opera House production staged at the Barbican, and performing Isabelle in Missy Mazzoli’s one-woman opera Song from the Uproar with the BBC Symphony Orchestra and BBC Singers. At the Verbier Festival, she appeared as Marcellina in Le nozze di Figaro. For the Aix-en-Provence Festival, she performed Ippolita / Pallade in Cavalli’s Elena (also in Montpellier and Versailles), Hermia in A Midsummer Night’s Dream (including a tour to Beijing), and gave the world premiere of Vasco Mendonça’s The House Taken Over, directed by Katie Mitchell, in Aix-en-Provence, Antwerp, Strasbourg, Luxembourg, Bruges, and Lisbon.
At The Grange Festival she sang the title role in L’Incoronazione di Poppea, Dorabella in Così fan tutte, Nancy in Albert Herring, and Paquette in Candide (also for Bergen National Opera). For Scottish Opera, her roles include Jocasta in Oedipus Rex at the Edinburgh International Festival, Hansel in Hansel and Gretel, and Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni. Other engagements include Lyel in The Snow Maiden and Sesto in Giulio Cesare for English Touring Opera; Rosina in Il barbiere di Siviglia, Stewardess in Flight, and Meg in the UK premiere of Mark Adamo’s Little Women at Opera Holland Park; and Hermia in A Midsummer Night’s Dream with Opéra de Rouen in Robert Carsen’s production and with Bergen National Opera.
She has also sung Isabella in Bernard Herrmann’s Wuthering Heights and Kate in Owen Wingrave for Opera National de Lorraine (the latter also for Grange Park Opera), as well as Annina in Der Rosenkavalier for Garsington Opera. Additional appearances include Pallas in The Judgement of Paris (Cambridge Baroque Opera), and multiple roles—Dog, Forester’s Wife, Woodpecker, and Owl—in The Cunning Little Vixen with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra in Birmingham, Paris, Hamburg, and Dortmund.
A former BBC New Generation Artist and winner of the prestigious Kathleen Ferrier Award, Kitty Whately is in high demand as a recitalist and concert soloist. She has performed with leading orchestras including the Berlin Philharmonic, and is a frequent guest with the BBC orchestras. Highlights include her BBC Proms debut in Sir Peter Maxwell Davies’ Suite from Act II of Caroline Mathilde, De Falla’s The Three Cornered Hat with BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Ravel’s Shéhérazade with the BBC Philharmonic, and Canteloube’s Songs of the Auvergne with John Wilson and the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra. She has also recorded programmes of Rodgers & Hammerstein, Jerome Kern and Cole Porter with the BBC Concert Orchestra.
Recent concert engagements include Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde at the Mizmorim Festival in Basel, The Dream of Gerontius with the Crouch End Festival Chorus at Queen Elizabeth Hall, Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with the BBC Philharmonic, Mahler’s Second Symphony with the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, and Mahler’s Eighth Symphony with the Symphony Orchestra of Chetham’s School of Music.
Kitty is a regular presence on the UK’s chamber music scene, performing in major recital venues with pianists including Simon Lepper, Joseph Middleton and Anna Tilbrook. A frequent guest on BBC Radio 3—both in concert and in recordings for Composer of the Week—she has released several acclaimed song discs, including three solo albums, and collaborations with artists such as Roderick Williams, Mary Bevan and Gareth Brynmor John. A passionate advocate for women composers, her latest release, Befreit: A Soul Surrendered with Joseph Middleton, features world premiere recordings of songs by Johanna Müller-Hermann and Margarete Schweikert. She is currently recording the complete vocal works of Rebecca Clarke with Anna Tilbrook and Nicholas Phan for Signum Records, and will later this year record a new album of French song for Chandos, including premiere recordings of works by Hedwige Chrétien and Marguerite Canal.
Kitty is the co-founder of the charity SWAP’ra (Supporting Women And Parents in Opera).

SCHEDULE 2024-25 SEASON

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Jun 7, 2025 – Jul 5, 2025

Grange Park Opera

Grange Park Opera / Suzuki | Madama Butterfly

Jun 7, 2025 – Jul 5, 2025

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Jun 7, 2025 – Jul 5, 2025

Grange Park Opera

RECORDINGS - OPERA

RECORDINGS - SONG

RECORDINGS - CREATIVE PROJECTS

REPERTOIRE

Mark Adamo
Meg, Little Women
Leonard Bernstein
Paquette, Candide
Alban Berg
Margret, Wozzeck
Benjamin Britten
Nancy, Albert Herring
Hermia, A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Kate, Owen Wingrave
Francesco Cavalli
Ippolita / Pallade, Elena
John Eccles (attrib.)
Pallas, The Judgement of Paris
Jonathan Dove
Stewardess, Flight
George Frideric Handel
Irene, Tamerlano
Sesto, Giulio Cesare
Bernard Herrmann
Isabella, Wuthering Heights
Engelbert Humperdinck
Hansel, Hansel and Gretel
Leoš Janáček
Dog, Forester’s Wife, Woodpecker, Owl — The Cunning Little Vixen
Missy Mazzoli
Isabelle, Song from the Uproar
Claudio Monteverdi
Poppea / Ottavia / Fortuna, L’incoronazione di Poppea
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Marcellina / Cherubino, Le nozze di Figaro
Dorabella, Così fan tutte
Donna Elvira, Don Giovanni
Giacomo Puccini
Suzuki, Madama Butterfly
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov
Lyel, The Snow Maiden
Gioachino Rossini
Rosina, Il barbiere di Siviglia
Igor Stravinsky
Jocasta, Oedipus Rex
Richard Strauss
Annina, Der Rosenkavalier
Mark-Anthony Turnage
Michelle, Festen
Mother/Other Mother, Coraline
Rita Ueda Mendonça
Rosa, The House Taken Over
Omar Shahryar
Annie, Displaced
Ralph Vaughan Williams
Shining One / Cup Bearer / Pickthank / Woodcutter’s Boy, The Pilgrim’s Progress
Thomas Weldon
Pallas, The Judgement of Paris
Arthur Sullivan
Peep-Bo, The Mikado
Bach, Johann Sebastian
- B Minor Mass
- Magnificat
Beethoven, Ludwig van
- Mass in C Major
- Symphony No. 9
Canteloube
- Songs of the Auvergne
Davies, Peter Maxwell
- Suite from Act II of Caroline Mathilde
Duruflé, Maurice
- Requiem
Elgar, Edward
- The Dream of Gerontius
- The Kingdom
- The Apostles
Falla, Manuel de
- The Three-Cornered Hat
Fauré, Gabriel
- La Bonne Chanson
Handel, George Frideric
- Messiah
Haydn, Joseph
- Nelson Mass
Mahler, Gustav
- Das Lied von der Erde
- Symphony No. 2
- Symphony No. 8
- Kindertotenlieder
Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus
- Requiem
- Mass in C Minor
Ravel, Maurice
- Shéhérazade
Rodgers & Hammerstein, Jerome Kern, Cole Porter
- Song Selections
Sullivan, Arthur
- The Light of the World
Vaughan Williams, Ralph
- Serenade to Music
- Four Last Songs
- House of Life

DISCOGRAPHY

PRESS

“Kitty Whately also shines as Suzuki, Butterfly’s maid.” The Guildford Dragon (June 2025)
“Butterfly’s maid Suzuki, finely portrayed with awkward, strenuous devotion by Kitty Whately.” The Telegraph (June 2025)
“Kitty Whately is a constantly worried Suzuki, often in the background. Whately brings this apprehension and concern into her vocals with skill and precision.” BroadwayWorld.com (June 2025)
"Kitty Whately’s faithful maid Suzuki packs a world of emotion into her watchful presence" The iPaper (June 2025)

tion
“It helps enormously that the cast for this ensemble piece is so uniformly superb, projecting the words with such clarity and vehemence that surtitles are all but redundant.” 5***** The Guardian (February 2025)
"With her accomplished mezzo-soprano, Kitty Whately is a class act as Lel as she suggests a man who not only possesses great charm, but who relishes the fact as he delivers his songs." Music OMH (October 2024)
"Standouts include... Whately’s vividly sung live wire, Lel." The Stage (October 2024)
"However, it was Whately’s Lel who captured musical hearts, just as she/he cheekily seduces the village girls with songs. Charm, confidence and purity of tone made this a performance to light up the darkest autumn evening." The Arts Desk (October 2024)
"The drama comes to life when Lel, the lad whom the snowmaiden has her eye on, instead chooses the peasant girl Kupava as his bride — and those roles are sung with personality and vigour by Kitty Whately and Katherine McIndoe." Times (October 2024)
"Kitty Whately in the trouser role of Lel was suitably gamine. She has three important songs during the course of the opera: these account for her instant appeal to Snegurotchka and the other village girls, delivered here with much lyrical intensity." Opera Today (October 2024)
"Kitty Whately gave a haunting performance as Jocasta, her richly hued mezzo giving gravitas to the queen’s realisation of the tragedy unfolding before her." The Arts Desk (August 2024)
"Kitty Whately was a formidable Jocasta, really owning the role, cheered loudly from her plinth as she joined the drama, a huge high point so impressive they did it twice." Bach Track (August 2024)
"Successfully hoicking her plush alto into soprano territory, Kitty Whately sings a radiant Poppea – more easygoing and less purely manipulative than some." The Guardian (June 2024)
"...an exquisite vein of singing, matched by the consistently good Kitty Whately." The Times (June 2024)
"As Poppea herself, Kitty Whately was a beautifully strong presence." The Article (June 2024)
"As a mezzo-soprano, Kitty Whately also brought a refocusing to Poppea. The role lay easily in her vocal compass but the voice's centre of gravity and Whately's demeanour gave Poppea a greater sense of balance and experience. She was still very sexy, but less the perky soubrette, creating something more languorous. This Poppea felt less like a gold digger and the creamy luxury of Whately's voice made Poppea sound well upholstered. The duets with Sam Furness' Nerone really did tingle, and that they stripped down and got into bed during the final duet felt inevitable." Planet Hugill (June 2024)
"Kitty Whately made a memorable protagonist, her spotless mezzo-soprano and crisp diction bringing clarity to an elusive staging." The Guardian (February 2024)
"Whately’s yielding to Lester’s Guglielmo has a self-assured frankness that echoes Mozart’s genuine eroticism at this point... Musically, much of it is superb. Clarke, with her silvery tone, is ravishing in her arias and her voice blends wonderfully well with Whately’s in their duets. The latter brings real emotional fire to È Amore un Ladroncello and that duet with Lester." The Guardian (June 2023)
"Kitty Whately, also Holland Park’s Dorabella, proved every inch – note? – her equal, yet properly different in character. Their collaborative chemistry was notable..." Opera Today (June 2023)
"Though Ferrando and Guglielmo (Nicholas Lester) are blessed with the perfect appearance for a comedy duo, the girls are funnier: one of the great pleasures of the evening is enjoying the interaction between Fiordiligi and Dorabella (Kitty Whately)." Seen and Heard (June 2023)
"Samantha Clarke and Kitty Whately made a delightful and highly believable pair of sisters. Much of the joy of this performance came from Clarke and Whately's interactions, the way they told the story via little looks and telling intimate detail.
Kitty Whately is an experienced Dorabella (we caught her in the role at Opera Holland Park in 2018, with Nicholas Lester as Guglielmo, see my review) but there was nothing routine about her performance. There was a wonderful freshness about how Whately drew Dorabella's volatility, which came over in her two arias. Yet, there was no easy depiction of Dorabella as the lively one and Fiordiligi as the serious one, here the two sisters played off each other delightfully. And you sensed that this Dorabella really fell for the disguised Guglielmo, their duet in the second scene of Act Two was touching and at the end Whately's Dorabella was bewildered and angry." Planet Hugill (June 2023)