Australian born Cheryl Barker studied in Melbourne with Dame Joan Hammond and in London with David Harper.
Cheryl Barker pursues an active opera and concert career. In Australia, she appears regularly with Opera Australia, where her roles have included Nedda (I pagliacci), the Countess (Le nozze di Figaro), Mimì (La bohème), Violetta (La traviata), Donna Elvira (Don Giovanni), Tatyana (Eugene Onegin), all three sopranos in Il Trittico, Desdemona (Otello) and the title roles in Madama Butterfly, Tosca, Jenufa, Rusalka and Arabella. She has also sung Mimì (La bohème), Antonia (Les Contes d'Hoffmann) and Tatyana (Eugene Onegin) for the Victoria State Opera, Tatyana and Violetta for Opera Queensland, and Madama Butterfly and Violetta for New Zealand Opera.
Internationally, Cheryl Barker is particularly noted for her performances of Madama Butterfly, singing this role for English National Opera, De Vlaamse Opera, Hamburg State Opera, Deutsche Oper, Berlin, The Netherlands Opera, Houston Grand Opera and the Paris Opera. She has sung Jenifer (The Midsummer Marriage) for the Royal Opera, Covent Garden; Tatyana and Adina (L'elisir d'amore) for Scottish Opera; Oksana (Christmas Eve), Foreign Princess (Rusalka), both the Governess and Miss Jessel (The Turn of the Screw), Musetta (La bohème), Donna Elvira (Don Giovanni), Giorgetta and Suor Angelica (Il trittico), Tosca, Salome and Emilia Marty (The Makropoulos Case) for English National Opera; the title role in Maria Stuarda for Nationale ReisOpera; Violetta for Hamburg Opera and the Deutsche Oper, Berlin; the title role in Suor Angelica, Liu (Turandot), Mimi and Desdemona (Otello) for De Vlaamse Opera; the title role in Katya Kabanova in both Geneva and for Welsh National Opera; Sarah in Jake Heggie's The End of the Affair in Houston and Emilia Marty for both the Netherlands Opera and Opera du Rhin.
She appears regularly on the recital and concert platform and her many recordings include Madama Butterfly, Katja Kabanova, Rusalka and The Makropoulos Case for Chandos.
She has recently sung her first Manon Lescaut, Arabella, Marschallin (Der Rosenkavalier), and Countess (Capriccio) for Opera Australia, and Zandonai’s Francesca da Rimini for Opera Holland Park. She will sing Marietta (Die tote Stadt) and Salome for Opera Australia.
Photo Credit: Keith Saunders