“Star of the evening of the premiere was Emma Pearson as Zerbinetta. The stage belongs to her.
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“Pearson’s performance as Lucia is superlative. It is hard to think of anyone on New Zealand’s opera stages who so compellingly blends the vocal and the physical, or whose acting gives a greater range of nuance and shading. Pearson is mesmeric as a woman whose mental walls slowly give way under the pressure that male power places upon her…The response of the audience ...was some of the warmest witnessed within living memory.
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“Emma Pearson’s hairpin-bend shifts of colour and character hit the high point of the evening, and after a 45 minute marathon of volatile emotion, wide-ranging techniques and even dancing, her energy and excitement appeared untarnished.”
Emma Pearson studied voice at the University of Western Australia and the Australian Opera Studio. At the conclusion of her studies she was invited to perform for NBR New Zealand Opera, singing Fiordiligi Così fan tutte in their touring company and Frasquita Carmen, conducted by Emmanuel Plasson. During this time she won the Marianne Mathy Scholarship (Australian Singing Competition) and More Than Opera German-Australian Opera Grant, the latter permitting a 12 month contract to Hessisches Staatstheater, Wiesbaden. Her contract was extended and lasted for nine years. On departing she was awarded the honorary title of “Kammersängerin” (Ks) by the State of Hessen .
Emma’s vast repertoire accumulated by this engagement at Hessisches Staastheater, Wiesbaden, encompasses opera from the seventeenth to the twenty-first century, including Alban Berg’s Lulu, Rodion Shchedrin’s Lolita, Cavalli’s La Calisto, Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor; the role of Hilda Mack in Hans Werner Henze’s Elegie fuer Junge Liebende, Norina (Don Pasquale), Jenny (Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny), Woglinde/Waldvogel/Gerhilde (Der Ring des Nibelungen), Koenigin der Nacht (Die Zauberfloete), Zerbinetta (Ariadne auf Naxos), Sophie (Der Rosenkavalier), Adele in Johann Strauss’ Die Fledermaus, to name just a few. Under General Music Director, Marc Piollet, in Wiesbaden’s International Maifestspiele she performed with artists such as Matti Salminen, Jonas Kaufmann, Erwin Schrott, Anja Harteros, Annette Dasch and for honorary guests such as Maya Plisetskaya and composer Rodion Shchedrin, the Chancellor of Germany Angela Merkel, Vladimir Putin and Boris Gorbachev.
At 28 years old, Emma was nominated “Singer of the Year” in Opernwelt Magazine for her performances of Berg’s Lulu (three act version).
While engaged in Wiesbaden, she was also invited to perform Queen of the Night on two occasions for Opera Australia, Susanna for New Zealand Opera’s Le nozze di Figaro, and was invited to perform Sophie Der Rosenkavalier for many companies including Opera Australia, Staatstheater Wiesbaden, Minnesota Orchestra and Orquestra de Valencia. She performed Gilda Rigoletto for NZ Opera u. Wyn Davies, Theater St Gallen Switzerland opposite Paulo Gavanelli u. Stephane Fromageot and in Staatstheater Saarbrücken. Emma was a featured guest artist at Ludwigsburger Schloßfestpiele ´Schloß in Flammen´ u. Marc Piollet, Nanetta Falstaff in Nationaltheater Mannheim u. Dan Ettinger and Clorinda La Cenerentola for Semperoper, Dresden u. Giacomo Sagripanti.
Emma returned to Australia in 2o15 to start a family, and has been very busy in this hemisphere too. Her recent engagements in Austalia and New Zealand include the title role in La traviata for Queensland Opera and Wellington Opera, Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni, Jenny in Iain Grandage´s The Riders and the title role of Lucia di Lammermoor for West Australian Opera and Wellington Opera, Micaela Carmen, Contessa Almaviva, Fiordiligi and Semele for New Zealand Opera, the title role of Athalia and Armida (Rinaldo) for Pinchgut Opera, Contessa di Folleville (Il viaggio à Reims) for Opera Australia and the role of Laura in the revival of Richard Meale’s Voss.
Concert engagements have seen her perform for the Slovakian Filharmonija in Bratislava u. Bertrand de Billy, Minnesota Sommerfest under Andrew Litton and Orquesta di Valencia u. Lawrence Foster, Ukaria 24 with classical accordionist James Crabb and West Australian Opera’s 50th Birthday Gala Concert u. Brad Cohen.
As an Australian soprano, Emma´s work overseas was made possible by the support and generosity of international and Australian singing awards including Haruhisa Handa´s Australian Singing Competition‘s Marianne Mathy Scholarship, Australian Singing Competition’s Opera Awards, the Henkell Family Fund´s M.T.O. German-Australian Opera Grant and Goethe-Institut Berlin, Royal Overseas League Music Bursary, Youth Music Foundation Australia, Symphony Australia Young Artist Prize, the 20th Anniversary Prize from Liz Mohn at the Neue Stimmen International Singing Competition, the Concurso Internacional de Canto judged personally by Montserrat Caballé and the incredible support of Intendant Manfred Beilharz and the directors at Hessisches Staatstheater, Wiesbaden and her Australian manager, Graham Pushee.
Emma’s performances of Sophie in Der Rosenkavalier and Semele can be found on Blu-Ray and DVD, through the Royal Opera House Covent Garden Online Shop and Opera Australia online shop & Amazon.
Photograph by Kurt Sneddon .