
Allison Cook
Shirley Thomson
Clare Erskine
“A tour de force, brilliantly sung and stunning in its psychological breadth.”
(Opera Magazine)
Allison Cook’s reputation as one of today’s foremost exponents of contemporary and 20th century repertoire has been firmly established through the recent creation of a range of formidable characters. Allison’s interpretation of the Duchess in Thomas Adès’ Powder Her Face has found a special place in her repertoire after tour-de-force performances in New York, Québec, Warsaw and Brussels. Other roles of note include Marie in Wozzeck, Judith in Bluebeard’s Castle, Schoenberg’s Erwartung, and Kaija Saariaho’s Émilie.
This past season included Allison’s return to The Royal Opera House, Covent Garden under Thomas Adès in the first ever staging of Gerald Barry’s Alice’s Adventures Underground as well as Judith in Bluebeard’s Castle at the Enescu Festival under Cristian Mandeal, Saariaho’s Émilie Suite with Gävle Symphony Orchestra and her return to Teatro alla Scala as the Marquise de Merteuil in Luca Francesconi’s Quartett. This role in particular has earned Cook unanimous acclaim, from her world premiere performances at La Scala to subsequent productions at Gran Teatre del Liceu, Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie, Teatr Wielki, Teatro Colón, Buenos Aires, as well as at Wiener Festwochen, La Cité de la Musique, and both the Holland and Strasbourg Festivals.

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An artist of phenomenal versatility and vocal range, other recent highlights include Allison’s role debut as Salome in Adina Jacobs’ new production for English National Opera, garnering Allison praise for her committed performance and “gleaming tone” (Opera Magazine), the world-premiere of Casablancas’ Enigma De Lea for Gran Teatre del Liceu, Miss Jessel in Kasper Holten’s The Turn of the Screw for Teatro alla Scala conducted by Christoph Eschenbach, Judith in Mariusz Treliński’s pivotal production of Bluebeard’s Castle for Teatr Wielki, and Allison’s debut with the Berliner Philharmoniker in The Diary of One Who Disappeared. At the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, Cook has appeared in Wozzeck, Turnage’s Anna Nicole and in Krzysztof Warlikowski’s new production of Janáček’s From the House of the Dead.
In the current season, Allison joins Opéra National de Lyon as Judith in Bluebeard’s Castle and Opéra national de Lorraine as Mrs Grose in The Turn of the Screw. In the UK she joins the Dunedin Consort at the Barbican and Edinburgh and Buxton International Festival’s for the world premiere performances of Errollyn Wallen’s Dido’s Ghost. Further ahead Allison sings Brunelda in Haubenstock-Ramati’s Amerika, in a production by Sebastian Baumgarten and conducted by Gabriel Feltz at Opernhaus Zurich, marking her house debut.
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“The interpreters of the original production return and are masterful in their roles, mezzo Allison Cook as the Marquise de Merteuil and baritone Robin Adams as the Vicomte de Valmont. Both were amazing, their voices using all possible registers and techniques, from the passionate to the declamatory up to the coloratura…”
“Casablancas’s opera found an excellent interpreter in Allison Cook as Lea, untroubled by the sometimes high tessitura”
“[…] here rendered with intensity by the outstanding mezzo soprano Allison Cook, the very high spiraling vocal writing projected thrillingly, her expertise in contemporary opera evident through her balance of complex vocal lines with effective, alluring stage action.”
“Allison Cook knew how to understand Casablancas’ music and produced a pure, translucent tone. He composed a character who experiences pain to ecstasy, through struggle and love to the other, expressed in a line of sensual singing on an axis that goes from modal to diatonism. The result was delicious and captivating.”
“Mezzo soprano Allison Cook excelled in the demanding role of Lea both in the dramatic aspect as well as in her ease of projection and employing a timbre endowed with an ethereal quality.”
“her lower range had real strength, and her gleaming tone served her music well [as Salome]”
“He’s finely matched by Allison Cook – the ENO’s most recent Salome – as his wife/mother who also doubles as Eddy’s sister and one half of the sphynx. A fine soprano with excellent diction, she manages to make you care in the extended ‘love’ duets, which is no mean feat. She’s also a lot of fun in any number of comic cameos.”
“Allison Cook gives a totally committed performance in the title-role, keeping her nerve with steely assurance to sing with great skill and security.”
“Where she stood out was with the colour and drama of the voice; imperious and enticing in her dealings with Narraboth, desperate and fiery with Jochanaan, cold and forceful with Herod. Her final scene was compellingly delivered, sung with dramatic intelligence and entranced passion”
“Allison Cook looks ideally the modern, young Salome this production requires and gives everything she has. A mezzo in what is nominally a soprano role, she sings with unusually dark colours, and a clean, rapier-like top.”
“She’s a fine vocal actor, immersing herself in the role with admirable commitment and abandon.”
“Cook is a mesmerising singer-actor who never lacks intensity or intelligence.”
“Cook’s light and girlish soprano contrasts nicely with Soar’s sonorous bass, and her alternating lust and disgust is radiantly amplified instrumentally by the orchestra under Martyn Brabbins’s direction.”
“Allison Cook, looking impressively cool and gym-toned in figure-hugging, occasionally discarded, costumes, brilliantly emanates Salome’s frigid and repellent sexuality and is heroically athletic.”
“Allison Cook as Eddy’s wife (and mother) especially touching in her lament for her dead husband, sung stepping over and around his corpse.”
“Susan Bullock and Allison Cook gave virtuoso performances in the chameleon-like soprano roles – both singers blurring the lines between humanity and caricature”
“But then there was Allison Cook as Eddy’s wife and (it transpires) mother, singing with a smoky, curdled sensuality that could veer into either brutality or passion.”
“Allison Cook as Eddy’s real mum and lover whose aria lamenting the death of her abusive husband was matchless”
“The two soloists fully assume the requirement of writing…it is first of all the astonishing performance of Allison Cook as the Marquise that will be remembered, passing from one hallucination to another at will, with pyrotechnics as much musical as they were psychic.”
“The Marquise de Merteuil was performed by the mezzo soprano Allison Cook; unmatchable on stage and delivering a vocal performance which proved most convincing.”
“Allison Cook [was] spellbinding as Miss Jessel.”
“Allison Cook also gives a tour de force performance. It’s not so much that she portrays the Duchess, rather she reincarnates her. First as a playful sex-goddess, then as a fallen angel. With a final number as gripping as the best bel canto aria.”
“Allison Cook’s portrayal of the Duchess – a triumph in one of the New York City Opera’s last productions – remains a tour de force, brilliantly sung and stunning in its psychological breadth.”
“Baritone Robin Adams and mezzo Allison Cook are formidable singers and actors. Cook is also the sexiest woman ever seen on an opera stage in a while, to the point that the question of how the performance of this opera could go on without her is inevitable.”