Biography

Mezzo-soprano Alice Coote is known equally as an operatic performer and an art song interpreter. In 2022, Coote was accompanied by pianist Julius Drake for the album Schubert: 21 Songs. Coote was born on May 10, 1968, in Frodsham, Cheshire, and grew up with two visual artists for parents. She attended London's Guildhall School of Music and Drama, Manchester's Royal Northern College of Music, and the National Opera Studio. From 2001 to 2003, she was a BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artist. She has performed at the English National Opera, the Royal Opera House, and the Metropolitan Opera. Coote has become a specialist in the music of Handel and has frequently sung "breeches" roles, such as Ruggiero in Handel's Alcina, Idamante in Mozart's Idomeneo, and Orsini in Donizetti's Lucrezia Borgia. In addition to Baroque, Classical, and Romantic-era works, she has also sung contemporary pieces by Dominick Argento and Judith Weir. In recitals, Coote is regularly accompanied by pianist Julius Drake. In 2012, they performed Schubert's Die Winterreise in recital at Wigmore Hall, and the recording was released on the Wigmore Hall Live label. Coote made headlines in 2014 with an open letter attacking British critics who had made insulting comments about the body of a young singer appearing in a production of Der Rosenkavalier. "Singers and teachers know that being underweight is far more damaging to a singer's well-being and performance than being overweight. Similarly I can tell you that if our stomachs are toned anywhere near a six-pack our sound will suffer," she wrote, asserting that opera "is not about lights, it is not about costumes, it's not about sets, it's not even about sex or stature... It is ALL about the human voice." Meanwhile, Coote's career on stages and recordings continued to develop. She has recorded mostly for Hyperion and Pentatone, participating in a pair of acclaimed Mahler recordings on the latter label. In 2017, she released a set of Mahler's three mature song cycles, delivering compelling, highly emotional, and text-centered readings. Coote performed in Der Rosenkavalier in 2016 with the Lyric Opera of Chicago. Increasingly associated with the Metropolitan Opera since her debut there as Cherubino in Le nozze di Figaro in 2006, she was featured in two productions simulcast live in 2017 and 2018: Thomas Adès' The Exterminating Angel and Massenet's Cendrillon. Coote was named to the Order of the British Empire in 2018 for services to music. She served as associate artist with the Hallé Orchestra for the 2019-2020 season and was featured in a performance of Mahler's Symphony No. 8 ("Symphony of a Thousand") with Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla leading the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. In 2021, Coote teamed with pianist Christian Blackshaw and actor Ralph Fiennes to present the recital "Tchaikovsky and His Poets," featuring Tchaikovsky's songs with Fiennes reading poetry and the composer's letters. The following year, Coote was joined by Drake for an album of songs by Schubert. ~ TiVo Staff, Rovi