KarenCargill

/
  • Mezzo-Soprano

About Karen

Following her critically acclaimed Brangaene Tristan und Isolde at the Glyndebourne Festival, Scottish mezzo-soprano Karen Cargill's 2024/25 season sees her return to the role with Yannick Nézet-Séguin and the Philadelphia Orchestra, and with Sir Simon Rattle and the Bayerischer Rundfunk Orchestra. She will also make her role debut as Brigitte in Die Tote Stadt in concerts with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Andris Nelsons. Karen will return to the Montreal Symphony Orchestra for Schoenberg's Gurrelieder with Rafael Payare; the San Francisco Symphony for Verdi's Requiem with Esa-Pekka Salonen; the Toronto Symphony for Mozart's Requiem with Jukka-Pekka Saraste; and the San Diego Symphony for Mahler Symphony no. 3 with Rafael Payare.

Her 2023/24 season included a revered tour of Die Walküre (Fricka) with the Rotterdam Philharmonic and Yannick Nézet-Séguin; Bartók's Duke Bluebeard's Castle (Judith) with Karina Canellakis and the Boston Symphony; Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde with the Wiener Symphoniker and Robin Ticciati; and Berlioz La mort de Cléopȃtre with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and Maxim Emelyanychev.

She is Patron of the National Girls' Choir of Scotland and in 2018 was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. She sang in the National Service of Thanksgiving and Dedication for King Charles III following his Coronation in 2023.

Karen is based in Glasgow

Download programme biography   

Contact

Nicholas Moloney

Nicholas Moloney

Senior Artist Manager
Megan Steller

Megan Steller

Associate Artist Manager

Representation

Worldwide general management with Askonas Holt

Follow Karen

Season Highlights

Jul 2024 - Aug 2024
Glyndebourne Festival
Wagner Tristan und Isolde (Brangäne) Robin Ticciati (conductor)
Sep 2024
la Maison Symphonique, Montreal
Schoenberg Gurrelieder Rafael Payare (conductor) Montreal Symphony Orchestra
Sep 2024 - Sep 2024
Davies Symphony Hall, San Francisco
Verdi Requiem Esa-Pekka Salonen (conductor) San Francisco Symphony
Jan 2025
Elbphilharmonie Hamburg
Mahler Das Lied von der Erde Kent Nagano (conductor) Hamburg State Philharmonic Orchestra
Jan 2025
Symphony Hall, Boston
Korngold Die Tote Stadt (Brigitte) Andris Nelsons (conductor) Boston Symphony Orchestra
Apr 2025
Grieghallen, Bergen
Verdi Requiem Jader Bignamini (conductor) Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra
Jun 2025 - Jun 2025
Verizon Hall Philadelphia
Tristan und Isolde (Brangaene) Yannick Nézet-Séguin (conductor) Philadelphia Orchestra

Video

Photos

Download high resolution images

News

Press

  • Das Lied von der Erde

    National Symphony Orchestra with Jessica Cottis
    Feb 2025

    • A contrasting tenderness was the overriding characteristic of Karen Cargill’s interpretation of the melancholic second song ‘Der Einsame im Herbst’... Cargill delivered a vocal performance that encapsulated both the haunting bleakness and rapturous joy inherent in one of Mahler’s most personal movements.

  • Die tote Stadt (Brigitta)

    Boston Symphony Orchestra with Andris Nelsons
    Jan 2025

    • Karen Cargill as Brigitte - in utter luxury casting - made the most of every rich note and textual nuance.

    • The character of Brigitta, executed with resolute acumen by Karen Cargill, enters the story as Paul’s housekeeper. Had this been a Greek tragedy, she would double as the coryphaeus who warns the hero of the folly of his hubris.

    • Karen Cargill brought a zesty and vibrant personality to Brigitta, Paul’s upright housekeeper... she looked as if she’d stepped out of an Expressionist painting.

  • Tristan und Isolde (Brangäne)

    Glyndebourne with Robin Ticciati
    Jul 2024

    • Karen Cargill had suffered an injury, but gamely sang Brangäne from the wings... Cargill is one of those singers whose presence on a cast list immediately inspires confidence and her warm, treacle-rich middle register was ideally suited to the role. Empathy, concern, guilt all suffused her performance as the opera unfolded.

    • Her vocal performance was thrilling...

    • Karen Cargill – injured in rehearsal... – sings Brangäne magnificently from the wings...

    • ...Cargill sings magnificently...

    • Karen Cargill may have suffered a nasty fall which impaired her mobility, but her voice remained supremely agile in her role as Isolde’s faithful maid, Brangäne. She sang with remarkable projection.

  • Die Walküre (Fricka)

    Tour with Rotterdam Philharmonic and Yannick Nézet-Séguin
    Apr 2024

    • This Wotan clearly came off second-best in his encounter with an imperious, vengeful and bitter Fricka; Karen Cargill berated her errant husband fearsomely right up to her last emphatic consonant.

    • Theatrically committed and visibly experienced on stage, Karen Cargill is an imperious, vindictive Fricka, whose authoritative, incisive vocals change the course of fate in just ten minutes.

    • Faced with Karen Cargill's prodigious sovereign Fricka (a very good actress with a triumphant mezzo), he can only be defeated.

    • And then, finally, there's Karen Cargill, a sumptuous Fricka, whose meticulously honed argument can be savored like a brilliant theatrical number, slowly but surely pushing Wotan to the point of apoplexy. Certainly the high point of an intense, but uneven evening.

    • Last but not least, Karen Cargill is an absolutely extraordinary Fricka. Incredibly invested dramatically (she's totally liberated from her score), she's undoubtedly the most energetic and theatrical of the cast. As for her voice, it literally dazzles: a marvellous mezzo with dark colors, yet capable of dagger-like high notes. A sign that is not misleading: the famous "household scene" with Wotan, which, interpreted by lesser singers, sometimes becomes a real "tunnel", is literally transfigured here to the point of appearing as the best scene in the opera!

    • Karen Cargill's Fricka is fierce and vengeful. She possesses the greatest dose of energy of the entire solo ensemble and is very outspoken in her demands in Deiner ew'gen Gattin heilige Ehre.

    • Brian Mulligan as Wotan is just as convincing with his extremely high bass as Karen Cargill as Fricka with her multi-faceted mezzo-soprano.

  • Verdi Requiem

    BBC National Orchestra of Wales with Ryan Bancroft (BBC Proms)
    Jul 2024

    • Scottish mezzo-soprano Karen Cargill was equally magnetic, from silken top notes to imperious bottom. A preternaturally communicative singer, she had a personal message, it seemed, for everyone in the hall. Her sympathetic partnership with Moore was one of the evening’s bel canto glories.

    • ...mezzo Karen Cargill, the multifaceted jewel in this Requiem’s crown. Cargill dared so much, drawing you in across the spaces with slivers of sound, winning total intimacy before pulling out all the stops again in chest voice and top-note brilliance

    • Mezzo Karen Cargill was the voice of authority, announcing that all is written in the Book of Judgement (and apparently unfazed by having a camera thrust almost into her face as she did so)... There were many vocal highlights to savour... a meltingly glorious duet between Moore and Cargill for “Juste judex”

    • Mezzo Karen Cargill’s instrument is like butter with attitude (her opening statement of ‘Liber scriptus’ combined opulence and pinpoint accuracy, and the subsequent clipped Ts and rolled Rs added delicious menace), and the most magical moments of the whole evening came from the Recordare duet between Moore and Cargill. Both of them clearly knew the work inside out, and, between them, they created a vocal synergy that is so rare, but so marvellous when it happens.

  • Bluebeard's Castle (Judith)

    Boston Symphony Orchestra with Karina Canellakis
    Feb 2024

    • Cargill was full and rich at the top…she nailed her high C at the opening of the fifth door, and she was touching when Judith tells Bluebeard “Hallgass, hallgass, itt vagyok még” (“Look! Look! I’m still here”) even as he’s assimilating her.

    • Karen Cargill brought similarly admirable dramatic instincts to Judith…she charted Judith’s journey from lovesick young bride to Bluebeard’s latest resigned casualty with intense fervor.

    • Karen Cargill, led the way with some gleaming high notes and a steely lower register…the mezzo brought fire to her character’s demand for the final door to be opened.

    • Scottish mezzo-soprano Karen Cargill made a dramatically savvy and vocally powerful Judith, hues of innocence, curiosity, love, and despair flickering across her face as well as her voice. Her repeated intonations of “Szeretlek” (“I love you”) sounded achingly sincere.

  • Verdi Requiem

    Metropolitan Opera with Yannick Nézet-Séguin
    Sep 2023

    • Leah Hawkins and Karen Cargill were simply superb, and especially effective when singing together. It is amazing that two such dissimilar voices could blend so perfectly...Cargill’s voice is a remarkable column of sound that is even from top to bottom. It has a presence that was as impressive in the bold proclamation of the “Liber scriptus,” as it was soaring so beautifully in the moving “Lux aeterna.”

    • Scottish mezzo-soprano Karen Cargill’s vocal qualities were well-matched with Polenzani’s, the pair sounding natural together even though Cargill is a dramatic mezzo and Polenzani a lyric tenor. The alignment mostly resided in the smooth, brassy sound. Cargill, a Grammy nominee, has performed in multiple Wagner operas, and there’s little wonder why. She has serious power and a broad range that dives deep and soars high with equal firmness, making her voice a velvet hammer.

    • The mezzo-soprano Karen Cargill and the soprano Leah Hawkins, soloists in the Requiem, admirably held together their own exposed singing in the “Agnus Dei,” ...the “Recordare” duet, in which Cargill and Hawkins closely collaborated as musical partners while offering distinct interpretations: Cargill, pitiful, prayerful, humbled; Hawkins, persuasive in recounting the beauty of Jesus’ sacrifice.

  • Dialogues des Carmélites (Mère Marie)

    BBC Proms with Robin Ticciati
    Aug 2023

    • Karen Cargill as Mother Marie sang with magnificent body and force, ringing true and clear.

    • Mother Marie began as simply a rather forbidding figure, but charged by the dying Old Prioress to watch over Blanche, her role increased and she almost dominated the second half. Karen Cargill combined a mesmerising stage presence with a superb feel for the music, this was a highly charged yet intensely controlled performance where physical presence, text and phrasing combined. Cargill brought a richly expressive phrasing to every sculpted utterance, yet she was expressive throughout as she has a very speaking countenance, whatever was going on this Mother Marie was reacting to it. And as the second half developed, you felt the way Cargill showed that Mother Marie's faith really burned. In many ways, Mother Marie is the engine of the whole opera, and Cargill did not disappoint bringing a sense of power and intensity to the role, always there yet never dominating.

    • Karen Cargill played Mother Marie with a pragmatic warmth and generosity...

    • ...Karen Cargill’s strong voice filled the hall to perfection.

    • Matthew’s psychological realism was more than matched by Karen Cargill as Mother Marie of the Incarnation. Cargill had intense dramatic and vocal presence, and the imposing breadth and depth of her mezzo conveyed every atom of fierce maternal love and defiance. Negotiating the high, angular lines with absolute assurance, Cargill made us feel the emotive power of Mother Marie’s expressions of spiritual commitment, the high standards she inspired as she pressed her sisters to take the vow of martyrdom. This only made her own guilt, as a survivor, more poignant.

  • Dialogues des Carmélites (Mère Marie)

    Glyndebourne Festival with Robin Ticciati
    Jun 2023

    • First the music: with a star lineup that included Karen Cargill as a sympathetic Mother Marie, voice resonant with meaning and gradation...the ensemble of nuns was sharply characterised.

    • Karen Cargill was a deeply affecting Mère Marie, her cavernous mezzo-soprano rich and agile at the top. In Cargill’s empathetic Marie we saw a maternal warmth to her sisters and a fearsome defiance to the mob in Act 2. Her survivor’s guilt, aching and sorrowful, was plangently depicted.

    • Karen Cargill made a splendid Mother Marie, who must hold things together after the death of the old Prioress...

    • Karen Cargill’s Mère Marie tussles and prowls like a wounded animal...Karen Cargill had a similarly raw and desperate quality to her voice, and was unafraid of finding guttural – even rough – parts of her volcanic mezzo, especially in the intense final sequences of the opera.

    • ★★★★ Karen Cargill’s Mother Marie is vocally ferocious...

    • Déployant un lyrisme bouleversant, Karen Cargill incarne une Mère Marie de l’Incarnation à l’autorité fulgurante, mais aussi très humaine. Deploying a moving lyricism, Karen Cargill embodies a Mother Mary of the Incarnation with dazzling authority, but also very human.

  • La Damnation de Faust (Marguerite)

    London Philharmonic Orchestra & Edward Gardner
    Feb 2023

    • Karen Cargill sang Marguerite with a moving plangency; her mezzo-soprano has the quality of Baileys: thick and creamy, decidedly warming. With some clean higher notes and clear articulation, she made her sweetly sung “D'amour l'ardente flamme” one of the evening’s highlights.

  • Suor Angelica (La Zia Principessa)

    Scottish Opera & Stuart Stratford
    Mar 2023

    • It turns out to be the Aunt of Suor Angelica, Karen Cargill, implacable in a raspberry suit. It is an outstanding performance, leaving the audience with the lurking thought that she is villainous enough to tell her niece the child has died just to stop the questions, and thoughtless of the consequences.

    • At the centre of the plot is the entry of Karen Cargill’s Princess, who presents a comprehensive portrayal of the evil aunt wishing to take away Angelica’s inheritance while telling of Angelica’s dead son. Rather than a sentimental portrayal this is a terribly realistic dramatisation of humanity’s wickedness.

    • Daily convent life makes for a slow burn in Suor Angelica (Sister Angelica) until Karen Cargill, as the Princess, makes her commanding entrance and delivers bad news to her niece Angelica...

    • There was a lively ensemble of workaday nuns, but the stand-out was Karen Cargill as the aunt, giving an immense performance, a study in raw cruelty.

Discography