Australian mezzo soprano Caitlin Hulcup has an international career and enjoys performing with leading conductors and orchestras on some of the world’s most renown opera and concert stages. She made her european debut at the Wiener Staatsoper in the role of Enriquetta; I Puritani while at the Vienna State Opera as winner of an Opera Foundation Australia Award and went on garner critical acclaim for her performances ever since.
Her repertoire is broad and founded in major roles by Handel, Rossini, Mozart and Strauss such as Ariodante, Agrippina (title roles), Rosina: Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Calbo: Maometto II and Dorabella: Cosi van Tutte, Sesto : La Clemenza di Tito, Idamante: Idomeneo and Donna Elvira: Don Giovanni. She made her debut as Octavian: Der Rosenkavalier, in Florence at Maggio Musicale under Zubin Mehta and has since reprised the role venues including the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow and the NCPA in Beijing.
Having a background as a violinist and chamber musician, Caitlin especially enjoys projects involving collaborative and creative work of all kinds. She thrived on her involvement in many acclaimed new opera productions, including Keith Warner’s Orfeo (Aristeus) for ROH at the Roundhouse in London, Polly Graham’s award winning Le vin Herbé (Iseult) for Welsh National Opera, The Rape of Lucretia (title role) for Isabelle Ostermann Kammerakademie Potsdam, Seán Curran’s Radamisto at Kennedy Center, and Il Trionfo del tempo e del disinganno (Il Piacere) with director Ted Huffman at Det Kongelige Teater with Concerto Copenhagen. In Australia she enjoys a particularly long association with exceptional director Lindy Hume having sung as Irene: Theodora, the title role in Iphigenie en Tauride and as Idamante: Idomeneo in her Opera Australia production at the Sydney Opera House under Johannes Fritsch.
Other opera highlights include singing Penelope: The return of Ulysses in John Fulljames production for Royal Opera House in London, the role of Romeo: I Capuletti e i Montecchi which she sang in Melbourne opposite the Giulietta of celebrated of bel canto star Jessica Pratt. Recently her repertoire has begun to include Wagnerian roles and she debuted as Fricka: Die Walküre in Singapore, followed on by Fricka: Das Rheingold conducted by Joshua Kangmin Tan and opposite Greer Grimsley as Wotan.
On the concert platform, Caitlin has particular affinity with Mahler's works, having performed Das Knaben Wunderhorn at the Sydney Opera House with Mark Wigglesworth and Das Lied von der Erde for Noord Nederlands Orkest with Martin Sieghart and Mahler's Kindertotenlieder under Hartmut Haenchen. She has also appeared as the Alt soloist in Mahler's 2nd Symphony in Sydney with Sydney Symphony under David Robertson, at the Musikverein with Junge Philharmonie Wien, as well as singing Mahler's 8th Symphony in Scotland with the RSNO under Peter Ounjian. She has sung the Angel in Elgar's The Dream of Gerontius at the Newbury Festival and in Beethoven's 9th Symphony at the BBC Proms, in Venezuela under Gustavo Dudamel, with Hong Kong Philharmonic under Jaap van Zweden and with the Sydney Symphony under Edo de Wart. Caitlin has also sung Mozart's 'Great' Cmin Mass with Jeremie Rhorer in Hamburg and Beethoven's Missa Solemnis with Martin Haselböck and the Wiener Akademie.
Over the course of her career she performed with leading early music conductors including René Jacobs (La Calisto) at La Monnaie, William Christie (Belshazzar) at Salle Playel and Barbican London, Christian Curnyn (Aristeus: Orfeo for ROH) and with Alan Curtis (Ariodante, Alceste: Admeto and Cesare: Catone in Utica) in Paris and Vienna. She performed as Orfeo: Orfeo ed Euridice in Finland with Fabio Biondo, as Ariodante with Christoph Rousset in Paris and Madrid and Dido: Dido and Aeneas with Richard Egarr and the Academy of Ancient Music at the Barbican, London. Commercial CD releases include Arbaces: Artaxerses for Linn Records with Ian Page, Vivaldi's Griselda and Rossini's Maometto II as Calbo with David Parry.
Caitlin Hulcup is a professor of voice at the Universität der Künste Berlin and formerly taught at the Royal Academy of Music in London. She gives
masterclasses and workshops internationally.
