Born in South Wales, Hilary Summers is one of the world’s few genuine contraltos and has made over forty CDs spanning works from the early baroque period to the present day. A specialist in contemporary repertoire, Hilary’s three-octave range has excited the attention of many composers. Operatic world premieres include the role of Stella in Carter’s What Next? for Berlin State Opera, Madame Irma in Peter Eötvös’s Le balcon at Aix-en-Provence Festival, Miss Prism in Gerald Barry’s The Importance of Being Earnest with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and White Queen, Dormouse and Cook in Gerald Barry’s Alice’s Adventures Underground.
In 2018 she created the role of Nell in Gyorgy Kurtag’s Fin de Partie at La Scala, Milan to great critical acclaim. Hilary has gone on to reprise the role for premieres at the Dutch National Opera, Opera National de Paris, Palau de les Arts Valencia, De Vlaamse Opera and the UK premiere at the 2023 BBC Proms with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra under Ryan Wigglesworth.
A greatly respected interpreter of Baroque repertoire, Hilary has long been in demand for Handelian roles. With William Christie she performed and recorded the role of Medoro in Orlando; with il Complesso Barocco the role of Idelberto in Lotario, and with Christian Curnyn and the Early Opera Company Hilary has recorded Juno in Semele, Disinganno in Il Trionfo del tempo; Rosmira in Partenope, Teodata in Flavio, Amastre in Serse and most recently Amadigi/Dardano. On the concert platform she has given over one hundred performances of Handel’s Messiah.
She recently returned to Opera de Paris to perform the role of Leonora Palma in a new Calixto Bieito production of Thomas Adès’s The Exterminating Angel and future productions include those at Wiener Staatsoper and Den Norske Opera.
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Kurtág's Fin de partie, Nell
Wiener Staatsoper, October 2024
The four protagonists, Hamm (Philippe Sly), Clov (Georg Nigl), Nagg (Charles Workman), and Nell (Hilary Summers) do an astonishingly good job of declaiming the monologues - there is hardly any dialogue - with drastic pantomime and vocal brilliance.
Johannes Marksteiner, Online Merker
Hilary Summers, the only one in the cast who was there at the premiere, amuses as Nell with her almost tenor-like voice and impresses with her thread-thin cantilenas.
Walter Weidringer, BR Klassik
Handel's Il trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno, Disinganno
Buxton International Festival, Early Opera Company, July 2024
There are nevertheless a surprising number of laughs along the way, many of them courtesy of contralto Hilary Summers’ sardonic, Hyacinth Bucket-tinged Disillusionment, whose narcotic-induced dance break (yes, really) is almost as astonishing as her powerhouse of a voice.
Sarah Noble, The Guardian****
…most touching of all, Disillusion in the form of Hilary Summers’s achingly agonised mother, trapped in the ritual setting of setting the table and downing a G&T.
Nicholas Kenyon, The Telegraph*****
It was totally engaging with minutely crafted and well-sung performances from . . . [a.o.] Hilary Summers magnificently game as the mother.
Michael White, Opera Now
Two arias delivered by Summers rank as great singing
George Hall, The Stage
…the rich and darker tones of Hilary Summers’ Disinganno… the contrast between Colorado’s higher tenor and Summers’ lower contralto adding to the poignancy [in Act 2].
Catriona Graham, The Opera Critic
Adès' The Exterminating Angel, Leonora Palma
Opéra National de Paris, February 2024
Among the singers, all excellent and brilliantly meeting the demands of writing that favors ensembles... the very embodied mezzo of Hilary Summers/Leonora Palma
Michèle Tosi, ResMusica
Hilary Summers embodies this troubled character by covering the entire expressive spectrum of her sometimes deliberately buffoonish contralto voice, particularly when she falls prey to a delirium of persecution.
Julian Lembke, Forum Opera
Hilary Summers (Leonora) … also made an exceptional impression.
Nicolas Blanmot, Opera Magazine
Hilary Summers (Leonora Palma) explores the lower range of her range, with a dark and soft timbre that draws one of the most fascinating characters in opera.
CJM, Olyrix
...the female roles dominate: sumptuous voice, through the density of the bass and the mobility of the line, the contralto Hilary Summers embodies a Leonora subject to sudden attacks of paranoia as to dark meditations haunted by Wagnerian memories.
Jérémie Bigorie, ConcertoNet
Special mentions finally to Hilary Summers, accomplice of Pierre Boulez, who treats us to his contralto in a haggard interlude (Act III, scene 3)
Pierre Brévignon, Première Loge
The twenty soloists, among whom the distinguished Hilary Summers stands out...
Gilles Charlassier, La Terrasse
CD: ’Circus Dinogad’ with the Dudok Quartet
Zefir ZEF9701, November 2023
Summers runs the gamut of her unconventional but highly expressive three-octave range. In her haunting unaccopanied opening ballad, ’I will give my love an apple’, she is a countertenor, sexless and aethereal; later, she blooms into a gorgeously sensuous high mezzo in Purcell’s ’Sweeter Than Roses’. She relishes words, caressing and projecting every syllable, and brings theatrical panache to the ’Seven Deadly Sins’, 40-second vignettes threaded through this musical medley, bitingly arch and hilarious.
Ashutosh Khandekar, BBC Music Magazine (Performance*****, Recording*****)
CD: Handel's Amadigi
Early Opera Company, Chandos Records, October 2022
Hilary Summers brings her richly rounded contralto to bear effectively on Dardano
Brian Robbins, Opera Magazine
the distinctive steel-cored contralto of Hilary Summers as his false friend Dardano
Erica Jeal, The Guardian
With her strong, no-nonsense contralto, Hilary Summers makes a compelling Dardano, who, typically of Handel, does not entirely forfeit the audience’s sympathy.
Richard Wigmore, Gramophone Magazine
Kurtag's Fin de Partie, Nell
Opera de Paris, May 2022
Nell, played by Hilary Summers peeks her head out of her dustbin to the sound of a snake charmer's music [...] The contralto deploys her deep, sweet, legato voice, very tenderly intoned and articulated.
'Nell incarnée par Hilary Summers sort la tête de sa poubelle au son d'une musique de charmeur de serpents. [..] La contralto déploie sa voix grave, douce et longue, très tendre, vibrée et articulée.'
Charles Arden, Olyrix
Kurtag's Fin de partie, Nell
Palau de Musica Paseo de la Alameda, November 2020
The performance of […] Summers […] is simply outstanding.
Ramon del Buey Canas, Bachtrack*****
Barry's Alice’s Adventures Underground, White Queen
Royal Opera House, February 2020
It’s almost invidious to pick out other names from either cast in what is such a brilliantly executed piece, but Hilary Summers is a formidable White Queen.
Andrew Clements, The Guardian
Handel's Jephtha
Scottish Chamber Orchestra BBC Proms, August 2019
Her portrait of maternal despair was vivid.
The Times
Hilary Summers, as the hero’s mother Storge, brought velvet smoothness to her forebodings.
The Scotsman
Hilary Summers Repertoire
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