Amanda Forbes

AMANDA FORBES, SOPRANO

Amanda Forbes studied opera at London’s Royal Academy of Music and National Opera Studio.

In 2014 she created the roles of Leni and Fräulein Bürstner in the World Premiere of Philip Glass’s opera The Trial based on Franz Kafka’s novel– her performance receiving unanimous critical acclaim in London and across the UK. This Music Theatre Wales production was premiered at the Linbury Studio, Royal Opera House and was broadcast on BBC Radio 3.

Her passion for new and intricate contemporary works was realised when performing the lead female role of the Duchess in the UK premier of Salvatore Sciarrino’s opera The Killing Flower, also to widespread critical acclaim. This Music Theatre Wales production premiered at the Buxton festival in 2013, and was then re-staged in the round for the Linbury studio, Royal Opera House before touring the UK. The premiere, also broadcast on BBC Radio 3, was ranked by The Telegraph as 3rd best opera to be staged in the UK during 2013.

In addition to compiling her debut album, White as Lilies, which has focused her love of Renaissance and Baroque music, 2015 has also seen Amanda collaborating with the ROH2 development & research department performing in workshops of new opera for the Linbury Studio.

Amanda toured Italy performing the role of Johanna in the countries premiere of Sondheim’s acclaimed Sweeney Todd – a production of the Teatro Comunale di Bologna that premiered at the major opera houses across Italy including: Piacenza, Bologna and Modena.

She made her television debut, singing on BBC’s hit comedy Episodes co-starring alongside Matt LeBlanc and Tamsin Greig, which has been re-aired in the UK in 2015. Performances on the concert platform have seen Amanda perform for numerous choral societies and orchestras across the UK, highlights include guest soloist with the LGMC at the Royal Festival Hall and Southwark Cathedral, regular soloist with the Ten Tors Orchestra in Plymouth and featured artist at the Festival de Música de Sant Pere de Rodes.

Prior to this, Amanda has been principal artist with the major opera houses and touring companies across the UK – namely English National Opera, Music Theatre Wales, Opera North and Scottish Opera.

Her major awards include winner of the Joan Sutherland Society of Sydney competition, the Australian National Aria and winner of the Richard Lewis competition at the Royal Academy of Music. 

…”the outstanding Forbes. Of all the singers it is she who finds the through-line in Sciarrino’s glittering fragments, stringing them together into something beautiful” –

The Arts Desk.com 

“Amanda Forbes conjured the tormented dignity of an Ophelia or Desdemona as the Duchess, consummately ‘caught between two dreams’ of her husband and lover, both of whom she wants” –

Wales Arts Review – Steph Power, The Killing Flower

“Miss Forbes is a beautiful and sensuous princess in a medieval robe, who appears to have stepped right out of an Umbrian fresco”  – 

Opera Brittania

“Soprano Amanda Forbes is bewitching and plaintive as the too-loving Duchess” –

Manchester Theatre Awards 

“Amanda Forbes is mesmerising as the coquettish Leni and Fräulein Bürstner” –

The Financial Times – By Hannah Nepil

“Anyone hearing the mellifluous soprano of Amanda Forbes might easily find themselves seduced” –

British Theatre Guide

“Forbes’s sensual timbre makes one hear the woman behind the compulsive wanton” – 

Classical Iconoclast

“I chose these arias and songs of the Baroque and Renaissance periods first and foremost because I love them. The exposed honesty, the purity – both musically and emotionally – perfectly reflect what I want to convey. The dramatic and open nature of this music is something I connect with. In the album, we use a delicate mixture of harp, cello and violin to accompany the voice, with a desire to depict the vulnerability of the characters in these pieces and the underlying tension and desperation that many of the songs portray.

The search to find love and acceptance from others can leave us feeling separated and abandoned from ourselves. But there is always truth, hope and beauty in the world, particularly in art and music, to help us along the way. In the end, I believe this music reflects that with truth, understanding and compassion.”