Anna Dowsley

Anna Dowsley has established herself as one of the most exciting mezzo-soprano’s to emerge from Australia in recent years.  She often performs leading roles with Opera Australia while appearing on the concert stage with major Australian orchestras.

During her vocal studies at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, Anna was the recipient of a number of Australian vocal prizes and scholarships, including the 2012 Lady Fairfax New York Scholarship (Opera Foundation Australia) and the 2012 Marianne Mathy Scholarship (Australian Singing Competition). Abetted by these scholarships, Anna embarked upon an extensive period of international study and artistic development in 2013. Highlights included participating in the International Vocal Arts Institute opera program in Virginia, the Siena Music Festival in Tuscany and a personal invitation from distinguished soprano Renata Scotto to participate in her Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia Opera Studio in Rome.

Within Opera Australia’s Young Artist Program in the 14/15 season, Anna debuted the roles of Cherubino (Le Nozze di Figaro), Siebel (Faust), Papagena (Die Zauberflöte), Tebaldo (Don Carlos) and Zaida (Il Turco in Italia); the latter two roles awarding Anna prestigious Green Room Award nominations. She was also a featured artist in the popular 2015 and 2016 Great Opera Hits Sydney Opera House concert series, Sydney Festival’s Opera in the Domain and Melbourne’s Opera in the Bowl.

2016 has been a milestone year for Anna, performing two major roles at the Sydney Opera House. Most recently she created the role of Dorabella in Sir David McVicar’s new production of Così fan tutte (conductor Jonathan Darlington) while earlier in the year she debuted the role of Rosina in Il Barbiere di Siviglia (conductor Andrea Molino).

Anna made her international professional debut in Japan, performing the role of Dorabella (Così fan tutte) for Tokyo Arts Foundation.

Frequently in demand as a guest soloist with Australian choirs and orchestras, Anna has extensive performance experience of the oratorio and concert repertoire. She has often performed with Sydney Chamber Opera, including her striking performance in their boldly staged-version of JS Bach’s solo cantata Ich habe genug, Verdi’s Requiem, Handel’s Messiah, Rossini’s Petite Messe Solennelle, and most recently performing Beethoven’s 9^th Symphony with the Canberra Symphony Orchestra. Anna was invited to be a featured artist in the 2015 Brisbane Baroque Festival's « Heavenly Handel » concert, singing a selection of Handel arias with Queensland Symphony Orchestra, and was invited to return to Brisbane last December to co-host and perform with West End star Michael Cormick in QPAC’s annual Spirit of Christmas concerts.

Recently, Anna performed again with Sydney Chamber Opera, debuting the title role of Britten’s The Rape of Lucretia. She also performed one of the Flower Maidens in Wagner’s Parsifal for Opera Australia (conductor Pinchas Steinberg), Smeton in Anna Bolena and Madelon in Andrea Chénier at the Sydney Opera House, Dorabella in Così fan tutte and Andrea Chénier at the Melbourne Opera House, Geneviève in Pelléas and Mélisande with Sydney Symphony Orchestra (conductor Charles Dutoit), Pitti-Sing in Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Mikado at the New Zealand Opera. She also sang Zerlina in Don Giovanni in Bari, Carmen in Nuremberg, in L’Orontea by Cesti in Sydney, Adalgisa in Norma at the Teatro Carlo Felice di Genova, Olga in Eugene Onégin and Cherubino in Le Nozze di Figaro at the Oper Frankfurt, Sister Helen (Dead Man Walking) at the Landestheater Detmold, Dido (Dido and AEneas) with Opera Queensland, Dorabella (Così fan tutte) at the State Opera South Australia.

In concert, she sang Meg in Falstaff with the Liverpool Philharmonic conducted by Vasily Petrenko, Beethoven 9^th Symphony with the Adelaïde Symphony Orchestra, A Midsummer Night's Dream by Mendelssohn with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra conducted by Simone Young, Déjanire by Saint-Saëns with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo.

In 2024/2025, she has joined the Ensemble of the Oldenburgisches Staatstheater.

Among her projects this season: Das Feuerwerk (Die Mutter), Xerxe (Arsamene), Les Contes d’Hoffmann (Nicklausse / La Muse), Th Cunning little Vixen (The Fox) in Oldenburg, Psyché by Ambroise Thomas with the Palazzetto Bru-Zane at the Müpa in Budapest, Dido and AEneas (Dido) with Opera Australia, Belshazzar (Cyrus) with Orfeo Orchestra on tour in Hungary.

January 2025

^{This biography should not be edited without permission from Intermezzo.}