Emma Selway

Emma studied at the Royal Academy of Music and the National Opera Studio. She won a number of prizes at the RAM including the Opera Prize, the Isabella Lucas Prize and the Tom Hammond Prize. Amici di Verdi supported her study at the NOS. She was a finalist in the 1991 Kathleen Ferrier Memorial Competition. Emma made her operatic debut at English National Opera as Kate Pinkerton Madama Butterfly. Roles have included Charlotte in the UK premiere of Zimmermann’s Die Soldaten, Octavian Der Rosenkavalier, Fox The Cunning Little Vixen and Waltraute The Valkyrie (ENO), Pauline The Queen of Spades (Welsh National Opera), Dorabella (Opera North and Glyndebourne Touring Opera), Sesto La Clemenza di Tito (Glyndebourne Touring Opera), The Musician Manon Lescaut and Cephisa Ermione (Glyndebourne Festival Opera), Idamante (Canadian Opera Company and Opera Northern Ireland), Angelina La Cenerentola (WNO/BP Opera Circuit), Carmen (English Touring Opera), Anna Seven Deadly Sins (Batignano), Madame Popova The Bear (The Opera Group) and the title role in The Rape of Lucretia (Cambridge University Opera Society). In 2001 she sang the role of Judit Duke Bluebeard’s Castle in Cambridge for The Opera Group, and subsequently covered the role for the Royal Opera, Opéra de Nancy and Scottish Opera. Most recent performances include the role of Penelope Il Ritorno di Ulisse in Patria with the Birmingham Opera Company, Mercédès Carmen with the CBSO/Oramo which was also broadcast on BBC Radio 3, the creation of the role of Wife in Jonathan Dove’s An Old Way to Pay New Debts and the role of Prince in Massenet’s Cendrillon for Chelsea Opera at the Queen Elizabeth Hall. Emma made her Royal Opera debut as Hippolyta in A Midsummer Night’s Dream in 2008.
Performances of contemporary opera include the creation of the role of Madame in The Maids with music by John Lunn at the Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith, performances of Alexander Goehr’s Kantan and Damask Drum with Almeida Opera at the Aldeburgh Festival, then in London and Paris, and the creation of the role of Firk Thwaite by Jürgen Simpson for Almeida Opera with performances in London, Dublin and Aldeburgh. She covered the title role in Sophie’s Choice for the ROH.
She has an extensive oratorio repertoire including Messiah, Bach’s Mass in B minor, Christmas Oratorio, Magnificat and St Matthew Passion, Mozart’s Requiem, Schubert’s Mass in A flat, Mendelssohn’s Elijah, Rossini’s Petite Messe Solennelle and Stabat Mater, Verdi’s Requiem, and Elgar’s The Music Makers and The Dream of Gerontius. Concert performances include Le Martyre de St Sébastiane with the Hallé Orchestra/Nagano, Seven Sacraments, a dramatic oratorio by Neil Bartlett, Nicolas Bloomfield and Leah Hausman, at the Brighton Festival, Mahler’s Symphony No 2 with the Jersey Symphony Orchestra, Mozart’s Mass in C minor with the London Mozart Players, Mahler’s Symphony No 8 with the St Bartholomew’s Hospital Choral Society and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra at the Royal Albert Hall, Verdi’s Requiem and The Dream of Gerontius with The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra also at the Albert Hall, the British premiere of Bacalov’s Misa Tango with the Crouch End Festival Chorus at the Barbican Concert Hall, Berlioz’s Les Nuits d’Eté for the Wagner Society, Beethoven’s Symphony No 9 for Raymond Gubbay at the Barbican and In the Beginning by Copland with St John’s Cambridge.

Future performances include Mozart’s Requiem for St Barts chamber choir, Sea Pictures for Jersey Symphony Orchestra, recitals for Sydenham Festival and Elijah for Cranleigh Chorus.