Rita Cullis was born in Ellesmere Port, Cheshire, and studied at the Royal Manchester College of Music. She made her début with Welsh National Opera, with whom she sang an extensive range of roles, including The Countess/’Le Nozze di Figaro’, Tatyana/’Eugene Onegin’ and The Marschallin/’Der Rosenkavalier’. She subsequently sang The Composer/’Ariadne auf Naxos’, Fiordiligi/’Cosi fan Tutte’ and Donna Anna/’Don Giovanni’ for English National Opera, The Fox/’Cunning Little Vixen’ at the Royal Opera, the title role in ‘Ariadne’ for Netherlands Opera, Donna Anna and Female Chorus/’Rape of Lucretia’ at San Diego Opera. She has sung Ellen Orford/’Peter Grimes’ at the Royal Opera, Scottish Opera and the Teatro Massimo in Palermo; Freia and Helmwige/’The Ring’ at the Royal Opera and Leonora/’Oberto’ in a new Opera North production.

Rita Cullis has also sung Julie in Dvorak’s ‘Les Jacobins’ for Scottish Opera and Leonora for Opéra de Nice, as well as Elettra/’Idomeneo’ at Garsington. She was Alice Ford/’Falstaff’ and Elisabeth/’Tannhäuser’ for Opera North, Senta/’Der Fliegende Holländer’ and Alice Ford for ENO and the title role of Daphne for De Vlaamse Oper. She also sang Senta at the Opéra de Lille, Ellen Orfod at the Savonlinna Festival (with the Royal Opera) and Sieglinde/’Die Walküre’ at the Royal Opera House, conducted by Bernard Haitink, and in Birmingham and the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam. She sang Ellen Orford at the Hamburg Staatsoper with Richard Hickox and Madame Lidoine/’Dialogue des Carmelites’ at ENO.

On the concert platform, Ms Cullis’ recent appearances include Epic of Gilgamesh with the CBSO and Sir Simon Rattle; Les Illuminations with the Ulster Orchestra; Vier Letzte Lieder with the Flanders Philharmonic in Antwerp; Mahler’s 8^th Symphony at the Royal Albert Hall; Verdi’s Requiem with the Ulster Orchestra; Dvorak’s Stabat Mater with the Gulbenkian Orchestra in Lisbon and Porto.

Rita Cullis’ recent opera engagements include Hecuba/’King Priam’ at ENO and the Nationale Reisopera in the Netherlands; The Countess for Hamburg Staatsoper; Regan/Reimann’s ‘King Lear’ at De Nederlandse Opera directed by Willy Decker; Senta in San Diego and Lady Billows/’Albert Herring’ at Glyndebourne Festival. She also sang Regan at the Staatsoper Dresdner and Ellen Orford at the Nationale Reisopera.

Concert highlights in the last seasons include the First Act of ‘Die Walküre’ conducted by Lawrence Rennes; Beethoven’s 9^th Symphony with Joseph Swensen; Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis and Mahler’s 8^th Symphony with Hartmut Haenchen and the Slovenian Philharmonic. Maestro Haenchen also invited her to sing Soprano 1 in Mahler’s 8^th Symphony with the Netherlands Philharmonic in Amsterdam and Dresden.

January 2008