Anne Williams-King, Soprano
& Director
"Usually people boo at the end, not the beginning. But when the Royal Opera's company manager stepped in front of the curtain to announce that Anne Williams-King would be replacing Eva-Maria Westbroek as Katerina at this performance, one man was ungracious enough to hoot his disapproval. I hope he regretted it later, for her performance turned out to be more than worthy of first call billing. Her stamina was unflagging, her generous spinto sound soared over the orchestra without strain and her dramatic portrayal (in a stylized and rigorously choreographed production) grew more and more compelling. Indeed, her petite size gave a wrenching physical vulnerability to the final scene which neither Westbroek, nor previously Katarina Dalayman - though both excellent Katerinas in this production had been able to provide." Critique, Opera (Jan 2007) Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk (Shostakovitch)
Turn of the Screw (Britten)
Ecco l'orrido campo, Un ballo in maschera (Verdi)
Morrò, ma prima in grazia, Un ballo in maschera (Verdi)
Anne Williams-King was born and educated in North Wales prior to studies at the Royal Northern College of Music, Manchester. Even before leaving her home town of Wrexham for her music studies the 17 year old had already leapt to prominence at the Welsh National Eisteddfod as winner of both the Soprano Prize and the David Lloyd Memorial Prize. She was also a prize winner in The Belgian Bel Canto Competition, and was awarded the prestigious Peter Styvesant Scholarship to the London Opera Studio. She studied at the Royal Northern College of Music under Frederick Cox and later Josephine Veasey.
Her professional opera debut was in Paris at the Opera duChatelet, followed shortly by her British debutat, the Welsh National Opera as Amelia in Verdi's Un Ballo in Maschera. Shortly afterwards her third placing in the final of the Cardiff Singer of the World competition launched her on the path to an international career, taking her throughout Europe and further afield to Australia, the USA, Canada, Japan, South Africa and South America. She has sung major soprano roles at all the British and many European opera houses, in particular The Royal Opera Covent Garden, Deutsche Oper am Rhein, Niedersächsische Staatsoper Hannover, Gothenburg Opera, Teatro Comunale Bologna, Teatro Verdi Trieste, Netherlands Nationale Reisopera, Glyndebourne Opera, Welsh National Opera, Scottish Opera and English National Opera
AnneWilliams-King regularly appears with principal British orchestras as well as internationally. Notably in Tokyo for a series of Beethoven's Choral Symphony No. 9,sponsored by Sony. She makes regular appearances both in Television and Radio broadcasts with BBC Radio 2 and 3, BBC Wales and Welsh S4C Television.
Repertoire
Lady Macbeth of Mtsenk (Katerina)
Salome (Title Role)
Fidelio (Leonora)
Suor Angelica (Title Role)
Un ballo in maschera (Amelia)
Il trovatore (Leonora)
The Turn of the Screw (The Governess)
Tosca (Title Role)
Jenufa (Title Role)
Der Flieende Hollander (Senta)
Rake's Progress (Anne Truelove)
La Boheme (Mimi)
Madama Butterflu (Title Role)
Carmen (Michaela)
