Caitlin Hulcup has appeared at leading opera houses internationally, including the Wiener Staatsoper, Deutsche Staatsoper Berlin, Royal Opera House London, Bayerische Staatsoper, Teatro Real Madrid, Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, Scottish Opera, La Monnaie Brussels, Theater an der Wien, Bolshoi Theatre Moscow and Palau de les Arts Valencia.
Recent and upcoming highlights include Idamante Idomeneo for Opera Australia, Fricka Das Rheingold in Singapore, Verdi's Requiem at the Adelaide Festival, Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 with the Hong Kong Philharmonic and Jaap van Zweden, Kindertotenlieder with Hartmut Haenchen and the Nord Nederlands Orkest, Mahler's Symphony No. 2 at Vienna's Musikverein, St Matthew Passion with the Orchestre symphonique Montreal and Paul McCreesh, and Messiah with Richard Egarr and the Orquesta Sinfónica de Castilla y León.
Past highlights have included Octavian Der Rosenkavalier for Maggio Musicale Fiorentino with Zubin Mehta, the title role in Handel’s Ariodante at houses including Teatro Real Madrid and Bayerische Staatsoper Munich, Penelope The Return of Ulysses for The Royal Opera, Piacere Il Trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno at the Royal Danish Opera, Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 and Ravel’s Mallarme songs with the Sydney Symphony.
Caitlin is Professor of Singing at the Universität der Künste Berlin and a visiting academic to the University of Melbourne.
This biography is for information only and should not be reproduced.
Mozart Idomeneo (Idamante), Opera Australia
(February 2024)
The young lovers Idamante and Ilia are also beautifully rendered by mezzo-soprano Caitlin Hulcup and soprano Celeste Lazarenko respectively… Hulcup’s voice is rich yet flexible, ensuring a lightness of touch throughout.
Jansson J. Antmann, Limelight
Caitlin Hulcup, who creates a highly plausible young hero unembarrassed by his tender side. Hulcup delivers one of the night's strongest performances with a bright voice of coloured radiance and elegant smoothness
Sydney Morning Herald
In the pants role, as Idomeneo’s son Idamante, Caitlin Hulcup is not only vocally and visually striking, but also successful in investing her characterisation with a touching depth, particularly when Idamante expresses his anguish at his father’s reflection in the aria Il padre adorato (My beloved father).
Bill Stephens, Australian Arts Review
Australian mezzosoprano Caitlin Hulcup, who has built an impressive reputation overseas as well as appearing with Sydney’s Pinchgut Opera and Victorian Opera, is convincing in the “breeches” role of the prince with her clear and smooth tessitura and engaging acting skills. She also has good chemistry with soprano Celeste Lazerenko
Steve Moffatt, The Daily Telegraph Australia
Caitlin Hulcup’s Idamante was a noble young man of impeccable character.
Deborah Jones, Opera Magazine
Australian mezzo-soprano Caitlin Hulcup was completely convincing in the ‘trouser role’ of Idamante
Gordon Williams, OperaWire
Hulcup musically offered a wonderful rendition and was rewarded with great cheers at the curtain call. The audience loved her.
Annabelle Drumm, Sydney Arts Guide
Caitlin Hulcup, in the role of Idamante, matches Schade's intensity, bringing a raw and compelling depth to the character that resonates long after the curtain falls.
Geeta Pillai, BNN Breaking
But it is the riveting singing of Caitlin Hulcup in the pants role of Idamante that comes close to stealing the show. Clad in contemporary boyish garb (costumes by Anna Cordingley) and very natural in her acting, Hulcup’s penetrating voice took one’s breath away
Helen Musa, City News Australia
I have to say that Caitlin did the role brilliantly.
Beatriz Copello, El Español
A highlight is the sublime love duet ‘Sio non moro a questi accenti’, where both women Idamante (Caitlin Hulcup) and Ilia (Celeste Lazarenko) sing like matching butterflies in the same voice-range.
David Spicer, Stage Whispers
The young lovers Idamente and Ilia were also beautifully sung by mezzo-soprano Caitlin Hulcup and soprano Celeste Lazarenko, respectively. Both brought a lightness in moments of adoration and depth to their character’s raw emotions.
Antoinette Milienos, The Plus Ones
Hulcup’s voice was clear and effective, and her projection was delightfully natural; there was none of the screeching that tends to follow from sopranos’ desire to wow when ascending into the upper register.
Aryan Mohseni, State of the Art
Wagner Das Rheingold (Fricka), Orchestra of the Music Makers
The Esplanade Singapore (July 2023)
Caitlin Hulcup’s Fricka was also memorable for her plush voice and ability to convey emotion while barely moving.
Robert Markow, Opera Magazine
Caitlin Hulcup and Friends, Melbourne Recital Centre
(October 2023)
This was but one reason to delight in a performance that also showcased her rich tone, graceful, agile vocal lines and melting expressiveness… The connection between all three performers was palpable throughout the recital. What a privilege it was to see and hear them in such close quarters.
Patricia Maunder, Limelight Magazine****1/2
Verdi Requiem, Adelaide Festival
(March 2023)
The singers…were very good, in particular Hulcup whose dramatic mezzosoprano is deployed wonderfully.
The Australian
The soloists were also brilliant… mezzo Caitlin Hulcup gave a clear, rich, resounding performance
Brian Angus, Bachtrack*****
There are also top-class Australian opera soloists… mezzo soprano Caitlin Hulcup
Liz Hobday, Perth Now
Mezzo soprano Caitlin Hulcup was wonderfully strong.
Graham Strahle, In Review
Gluck Orfeo ed Euridice (Orfeo), Chelsea Opera Group
(October 2022)
Caitlin Hulcup […] displayed impressive stamina in the title role, skilfully using her smooth, rounded coppery voice to express Orfeo’s changing psychological states. […] The strophes of ‘Chiamo il mio ben cosi’ were varied in colour, creating interest, and Hulcup judged the weight of ‘Che faro senza Euridice?’ just right, balancing dignity and agony. Her textual delivery was superb throughout, and this imbued Orfeo’s anguish and pleading with sincerity. This was a performance of gravity and directness.
Claire Seymour, Opera Magazine
Britten The Rape of Lucretia (title role), Potsdamer Winteroper
Potsdamer Schlosstheater (November 2021)
Caitlin Hulcup as Lucretia shows in an impressive way how a once self-confident woman almost implodes psychologically after being raped. Her voice then sounds paler, more broken.
Harald Asel, Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg
Caitlin Hulcup performs the role with a gentle, dignified alto and with growing exaltation.
Andreas Berger, Braunschweiger Zeitung
Arne Artaxerxes, The Mozartists, Signum SIGCD672
(May 2021)
…and the cast list is no less starry, from… Hulcup’s Arbaces makes short work of the showpiece ‘Amid a thousand racking woes’, giving us the best of both worlds: a countertenor’s lightness and a mezzo’s broader colours.
Alexandra Coghlan, Gramophone
Wagner Die Walküre (Fricka)
Esplanade Concert Hall, Singapore (January 2020)
It was [Warwick Fyfe’s] stage-wife, Caitlin Hulcup, who stole the preceding scene as the imperious, shrewish Fricka. … Another wonderful actor, she acted as much with her rich, secure, velvety mezzo as with her facial expressions, exiting triumphantly after brow-beating Wotan into submission – with a devastating arch of her left brow – leaving him to lick his wounds.
Derek Lim, the flying inkpot
Gluck Orfeo ed Euridice (Orfeo)
Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra (October 2019)
Orfeo was sung by Australian mezzo-soprano Caitlin Hulcup, a better singer of which cannot be found. She has a noble, solid, long-lasting, full-bodied voice. Hulcup's Orfeo retained her melancholic dignity when confronted with the Manala guards, who were furious in the opera’s dramatic and gloomy scene.
Hannu-Ilari Lampila, Helsingin Sanomat
Humperdink Hansel and Gretel (Hansel)
Grange Park Opera (June 2019)
Caitlin Hulcup and Soraya Mafi were quite simply the most visually plausible Hansel and Gretel I have ever seen, boisterous anarchic children of the sort that always land in trouble and wangle their way out of it. Their singing was perfection – Hulcup all boyish bravado, Mafi mercurial and sparkling.
Rupert Christiansen, The Telegraph*****
Caitlin Hulcup’s Hansel and Soraya Mafi’s Gretel are of truly international class.
David Mellor, Daily Mail****
Caitlin Hulcup is outstanding as Hansel, both in her phrasing and in her convincingly boyish persona
Barry Millington, Evening Standard*****
Caitlin Hulcup and Soraya Mafi were entirely credible as the children, brimming with high spirits and optimism... Hulcup’s lovely, artless mezzo was the right fit for Hänsel's mix of diffidence, courage and affection. Hulcup is a head taller than Mafi, which capped the pair's plausibility, Mafi's Gretel touchingly filling the gaps left by Hänsel's occasionally faultering bravado.
Peter Reed, Opera Magazine
As the children, Caitlin Hulcup and Soraya Mafi are outstanding, brimming with high spirits and optimism. … Hulcup’s lovely mezzo expresses any amount of adolescent diffidence, courage and affection. Hulcup is a head taller than Mafi, which puts the finishing touch to their credibility as brother and sister, and throughout they are immensely affecting and strongly directed.
Peter Reed, Classical Source*****
Soraya Mafi and Caitlin Hulcup made a delightful pairing as Gretel and Hansel, for all the picturesque charm of the characters' depiction there was a fundamental seriousness to their performance which emphasised the music's quality. … [Mafi] was matched by Hulcup's wonderfully boyish Hansel (one of the best 'boys' I have seen in this opera for a long time), with the two voices blending and contrasting. They kept the action moving so that the scenes between them in the first two acts, which can sometimes drag somewhat, flew by.
Robert Hugill, OperaToday
[Mafi’s] lightness contrasted with Hulcup’s more rugged, rambunctious Hänsel, whose darker and rounder sound spoke of that character’s earthiness – very much his father’s son.
Benjamin Poore, Bachtrack
Caitlin Hulcup’s Operatic Repertoire
| ARNE | Artaxerxes (Arbaces) |
|---|---|
| BELLINI | I Capuletti e I Monetcchi (Romeo) |
| BERLIOZ | La Damnation de Faust (Marguerite) |
| BIZET | Carmen (title role) |
| BRITTEN | Owen Wingrave (Kate) |
| CAVALLI | La Calisto (Diana; Il Destino) |
| CHARPENTIER | Médée (title role) |
| DEBUSSY | Pelléas et Mélisande (Mélisande) |
| GLUCK | Orfeo (title role) |
| HANDEL | Alcina (Ruggiero) |
| HUMPERDINCK | Hänsel und Gretel (Hänsel) |
| JANÁČEK | Katya Kabanova (Varvara) |
| MASSENET | Cendrillion (title role; Le Prince Charmant) |
| MOZART | La clemenza di Tito (Sesto; Annio) |
| OFFENBACH | Les contes d'Hoffmann (Niklausse; La Muse) |
| RAVEL | L'heure Espagnole (Concepción) |
| ROSSINI | Il barbiere di Siviglia (Rosina) |
| STRAUSS | Ariadne auf Naxos (Komponist) |
| VERDI | Falstaff (Meg Page) |
| VIVALDI | Griselda (title role) |
| WAGNER | Das Rheingold (Wellgunde; Fricka*) |
| * In preparation |
Caitlin Hulcup’s Concert Repertoire
| BACH | Mass in B minor |
|---|---|
| BEETHOVEN | Mass in C |
| BERLIOZ | La Damnation de Faust (Marguerite) |
| BOCCHERINI | Stabat mater |
| CHAUSSON | Poeme de l'amour et de la mer |
| ELGAR | Sea Pictures |
| HANDEL | Armida Abbandonata |
| HAYDN | Nelson Mass |
| MAHLER | Des Knaben Wunderhorn (various) |
| MOZART | Mass in C minor |
| SCHUMANN | Requiem op. 148 |
| STRAUSS | Orchesterlieder |
| RAVEL | Shéhérazade |
| RESPIGHI | Il Tramonto |
| VIVALDI | Gloria |
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