Kristin Darragh
Mezzo soprano
Kristen Darragh was awarded a Foundation grant in 2008 to attend the Solti Te Kanawa Accademia di Bel Canto summer school in Tuscany. She subsequently graduated in 2009 from the Opera Course at the Royal Academy of Music in London, where she was awarded a Karaviotis Scholarship and received the Kobler Award.
At the age of 23, Kirstin made her debut with The New Zealand Opera as Fydor in Mussorsky’s Boris Godunov. Now based in Europe Kirstin returns regularly to her national opera stage. Both an Emerging Artist and a Young Artist with the company, Kirstin has performed the roles of Olga (Eugene Onegin), Amaste (Xerses) and Maddalena (Rigoletto) for the NBR New Zealand Opera. Other operatic experience includes Erda (Das Rheingold) and La Zia Principessa(Suor Angelica) for LidalNorthOpera,Oslo. UK experience include Zita (Gianni Schicchi) and the title role in Britten’s Rape of Lucretia for the Royal Academia of Music, Florence Pike (Albert Herring) and Stewardess (Flight) for British Youth Opera. The Musico (Manon Lescaut) for Opera Holland Park and Baba the Turk (The Rake’s Progress) for Dartington Opera.
Kristen has been principal artist at the Theater Luneburg, Germany since 2012. In her first two seasons Kristin performed the roles of Olga (Eugene Onegin), Orlofsky (Die Fledermaus), Suzuki (Madama Butterfly), Alice (Lucia di Lammermoor), Charlotte (Werther), Dritte Dame (Die Zauberflote) and Carmen in a Music Theater piece written for an actress and a singer titled ‘Wir Carmen’. In the 2014/15 season in Luneburg she will perform the roles of Maddalena (Rigoletto), Frau M (Neues vom Tage), der Kater (der Gesteifelter Kater) and as her musical genre debut, Sally Bowells in Cabaret. Kristin will also return to New Zealand Opera to sing Suzuki in Madame Butterfly in July/August 2015.