The 2024/2025 season sees soprano Claire Lees return to Opera North for Pamina in The Magic Flute. She recently made her role debut as Susanna in John Cox’s production of Le Nozze di Figaro at Garsington Opera to great critical acclaim, described in Opera Today as ‘exuding no-nonsense charm… a Susanna who naturally inspires confidence and…sings with brightness, punch and insight.’
Other roles for Garsington Opera include La Musica Orfeo and Naiad Ariadne auf Naxos and cover Governess Turn of the Screw. Elsewhere highlights include Lisette La rondine (Opera North), Barbarina Le Nozze di Figaro and Oscar Un ballo in maschera (Opera Holland Park), Adina L’elisir d’amore (Iford Opera) Venus Venus and Adonis (Blackheath Opera). In 2023 she returned to Glyndebourne Festival Opera to cover the title role in Semele.
Claire is a graduate of both the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Whilst on the Guildhall Opera course her roles included Soeur Constance Dialoges des Carmélites and Foreign Woman The Consul. She is a Samling Artist, winner of the 2019 Wil Keune Mozart Prize at the Veronica Dunne International Singing Competition and a recipient of an Opera Awards Foundation bursary. In 2023 she won the Leonard Ingram award at Garsington Opera for her role as Naiad in Ariadne auf Naxos.
September 2024
