SimoneMcIntosh

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  • Mezzo-Soprano

About Simone

Swiss-Canadian mezzo-soprano, Simone McIntosh is a graduate of the Adler Fellowship Program with San Francisco Opera (SFO), Opernhaus Zürich, and the Canadian Opera Company’s Ensemble Studio. McIntosh was the First Prize Laureate for the Concours Musical International de Montréal - Aria Division, Second Prize winner and Best Mezzo-soprano of Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg and the 2022 recipient for the Igor Gorin Memorial Award. She was also a finalist (Song Prize) at the 2023 Cardiff Singer of the World Competition.

Simone is based in Paris

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Contact

Alice Stacpoole

Alice Stacpoole

Assistant Artist Manager

Representation

Worldwide general management with Askonas Holt

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Season Highlights

Sep 2024 - Oct 2024
San Francisco Opera
Ruders The Handmaid's Tale (Offred Double) Karen Kamensek (conductor)
Jan 2025 - Jan 2025
Deutsche Oper am Rhein - Düsseldorf
Hansel und Gretel (Hansel)
Jan 2025 - Mar 2025
Hannover
Bellini I Capuleti ed I Montecchi (Romeo) Masaru Kumakura (conductor)
May 2025 - May 2025
Cleveland Orchestra
Jenfufa (Karolka) Franz Welser-Möst (conductor)
Jun 2025 - Jun 2025
Opernhaus Zurich
Monteverdi L'Orfeo (Speranza/Prosperina) Ottavio Dantone (conductor)

Video

Photos

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Selected Repertoire

Adamo

Little Women (Meg)

Bellini

I Capuleti e i Montecchi (Romeo)

Berlioz

Béatrice et Bénédict (Béatrice)

Bernstein

Candide (Paquette)

Bizet

Carmen (Mercédès)

Donizetti

L’elisir d’amore (Giannetta)   •   Roberto Devereux (Sara)

Dvořák

Rusalka (2nd Wood Sprite/Kitchen Boy)

Gounod

Roméo et Juliette (Stéphano)

Handel

Alcina (Ruggiero)   •   Serse (Arsamene)   •   Giulio Cesare (Sesto)

Handel

Giulio Cesare (Sesto)

Humperdinck

Hansel and Gretel (Hansel)

Janáček

The Cunning Little Vixen (The Fox)

Monteverdi

L'Orfeo (La Speranza/Proserpina)

Mozart

Così fan tutte (Dorabella)   •   Don Giovanni (Zerlina)   •   Il rè pastore (Tamiri)   •   Le nozze di Figaro (Cherubino/Barbarina)

Offenbach

Les contes d’Hoffmann (Giulietta)

Puccini

Gianni Schicchi (La Ciesca)

Purcell

Dido and Aeneas (2nd Witch/2nd Lady)

Rossini

La Cenerentola (Angelina/ Tisbe)   •   Il barbiere di Siviglia (Rosina)   •   Maometto II (Anna)

Ruders

The Handmaid’s Tale (Ofred/ Ofred Double)

Strauss

Die Fledermaus (Prince Orlofsky)

Verdi

La traviata (Flora)

Wagner

Die Walküre (Siegrune)

News

Press

  • The Handmaid's Tale (Offred Double)

    San Francisco Opera
    Sep 2024 - Oct 2024

    • Pre-Gilead Offred is played with a compelling naïveté by Simone McIntosh.

    • Roberts’s counterpart is the wonderful mezzo-soprano Simone McIntosh, who as the younger Offred moves with the freedom of a 21st-century American woman. The two singers look and sound enough alike to be wholly convincing as the same person. Deep in the second act, they sing a duet of guilt, anger, reminiscence, and longing, wondering where their daughter is, whether she’s alive, what could have been different.

    • As her younger self in flashbacks, mezzo-soprano Simone McIntosh looked and sounded enough like Roberts to be believable, although more animated than the worn-down Offred. Their voices paired nicely in a touching duet late in the second act when Offred finally realizes she must confront who she was before Gilead.

    • Roberts’ counterpart is the wonderful mezzo-soprano Simone McIntosh, who as the younger Offred moves with the freedom of a 21st century American woman. The two singers look and sound enough alike to be wholly convincing as the same person. Deep in the second act, they sing a duet of guilt, anger, reminiscence and longing, wondering where their daughter is, whether she’s alive, what could have been different.

    • The younger Offred, mezzo-soprano Simone McIntosh, was a good match for her both physically and in voice.

    • Adler Fellows (2019-21) Simone McIntosh and Christopher Oglesby made a handsome couple in “the time before” as Offred Double and her husband, Luke. McIntosh was particularly heart-wrenching in the duet, as mentioned earlier, with Offred in Act II.

    • Auch Simone McIntosh als Offreds Double aus der Vor-Diktatur-Zeit stand Frau Roberts um nichts nach, das Duett zwischen der alten und jungen Protagonistin wirkte wie eine gesangliches Olympiafinale auf Augenhöhe!

    • An especially beautiful duet between Offred (Roberts and mezzo Simone McIntosh, the pre-revolution Offred) plaintively wonders about Offred’s pre-revolution daughter.

    • In several scenes Roberts is matched beautifully by mezzo-soprano and former Adler Fellow Simone McIntosh, who performs Offred’s pre-revolution self. In one of the work’s most successful unfoldings of vocal magic, the two women—the before and after Offreds—share a powerful duet, exchanging past and future dreams.

    • Por su parte, el personaje de la joven y libre Offred fue interpretado por la mezzosoprano Simone McIntosh, de características vocales y apariencia similares a las de Roberts, pero con un canto más dulce, apacible y melodioso; sin dejar de destacar el encuentro entre ambas Offred en el segundo acto, donde cantan un conmovedor dueto en el que expresan sentimientos de rabia, evocación y añoranza, preguntándose dónde se encontrará su hija.

  • L'Orfeo

    Opernhaus Zurich
    May 2024 - Jun 2024

    • ls Höllenpaar Proserpina und Plutone machen Simone MacIntosh und Mirco Palazzi großen Eindruck. Simone MacIntosh singt auch La Speranza, die Orfeo in gequälter, von Schmerz verzerrter Körperhaltung zur Pforte der Hölle geleitet.

    • Die Damen José Maria Lo Monaco als La Musica/Messagera/Eco, Miriam Kutrowatz als Euridice, Simone McIntosh als La Speranza/Proserpina, Isabel Pfefferkorn als Ninfa, alle mit Haus-und/oder Rollendebuts, gestalteten die jeweiligen Partien mit eindrücklicher stimmlicher und darstellerischer Präsenz.

    • Dass es auch anders geht, zeigt Simone McIntosh. Die schweizerisch-kanadische Mezzosopranistin verkorpert die Jupiter-Tochter Prosperina derart fein, umschmeischelt ihren finsteren Gatten Pluto ebenso schlicht wie bezaubernd, sass dieser ihr keinen Wunsch abschlagen kann.

    • Palazzi had the opportunity to fully showcase his vocal prowess as Plutone, the king of the underworld. His bass was smooth and elegant, and his dialogue with his wife Proserpina, portrayed by Simone McIntosh, was tender and sensual, with both singers conveying the love of this regal couple even in the depths of hell.

    • En Proserpine, Simone MacIntosh fait forte impression avec sa voix grave,

    • Plus marquante, La Musica / Messaggiera, de Josè Maria Lo Monaco séduit par la richesse du timbre et une incarnation puissante du recitar cantando. On remarque des qualités similaires chez Mirco Palazzi en Caronte et Plutone ou chez Simone McIntosh en Speranza et Prosperina.

  • Don Giovanni (Zerlina)

    Canadian Opera Company
    Feb 2024

    • Simone McIntosh and Joel Allison made a charming pair as Zerlina and Masetto, McIntosh especially fizzing with energy from her first notes and bringing a nice warmth of tone to both arias, while David Leigh captured well the quiet, stony fury of the Commendatore.

    • Canadian mezzo Simone McIntosh, another Ensemble Studio graduate, was a gleaming-toned, spunky Zerlina, turning essentially a terza donna into a starring role.

    • Simone McIntosh is a feisty Zerlina. [...] acting quite forcefully, she looked and sounded tougher than many a Zerlina.

  • Barber of Seville (Rosina)

    Scottish Opera
    Oct 2023 - Nov 2023

    • Rosina [...] was sung (optimally to my taste) in the mezzo-soprano register by Swiss-Canadian Simone McIntosh, with exquisite coloratura and flawless messa di voce. Her Act I Scene 2 cavatina (‘Una voce poco fa’) and her Act II bogus singing lesson were absolute perfection.

    • Swiss-Canadian mezzo-soprano Simone McIntosh’s Rosina is sung with glorious defiance and passion, not least in her tremendous aria of newfound love.

    • Stealing the show, was Swiss Canadian mezzo Simone McIntosh as Rosina, her bright coloratura perfectly matching the role with plenty of volume in reserve for outmanoeuvring the lecherous Bartolo. Making her Scottish Opera debut, she is a singer to watch.

    • The casting is inspired, at the centre of which is a truly mesmerising Simone McIntosh as Rosina. She commands every scene she inhabits, a woman with enough guile to outsmart her ineptly predatory guardian Bartolo, but not without the gentlest of charm, and topped by a vocal performance capable of assimilating virtuosic agility with lyrical enchantment.

    • Then there’s Rosina, a magnetically radiant, heartwarming coloratura performance by Simone McIntosh that ultimately steals the show.

  • Maometto II (Anna)

    Teatro Nuovo
    Nov 2022

    • No one lapsed into veristic phrasing or made bids for applause with interpolated long-held cadential tonic notes. Canadian high mezzo Simone McIntosh made a fine impression in her New York debut as Anna. Her limpid voice and phrasing underlined the relation of Rossini’s music to the legacy of Handel and Mozart; she traced a fine characterization and won an ovation for the stop-time “Giusto ciel.”

      • David Shengold, Opera News

    • But the vocal star of the show, for me, was Vancouver native Simone McIntosh, lithe and lovely, whose crystalline high mezzo fully commanded Anna’s wide range and whose unforced expressivity shaped every phrase with eloquence; her final aria was exquisitely nuanced without seeming the least bit precious.

    • For me, at least, any shortcomings could be forgiven for the appearance of the wildly wonderful mezzo Simone McIntosh. She was spectacular from start to finish in a role that fit her voice to a tee--and that's saying quite a bit when we're talking about the writing of Rossini at its most devilishly difficult. She even made the libretto by Cesare della Valle seem feasible (or, at least, bearable), dealing with mistaken identities and taking her own life at the end rather than end up with the Sultan. (And she didn't get up to sing one more time while she was dying, because she'd already done a whopper of an aria!)

  • Montreal International Musical Competition

    Montreal
    Jun 2022

    • En ce qui concerne la soirée de jeudi, la mezzo canadienne Simone McIntosh a écrasé la concurrence lors de la finale du volet « Aria » , une finale qu’elle a abordé en crescendo, révélant un potentiel ébauché dans « Dieu ! Que viens-je d’entendre ? » de Béatrice et Bénédict de Berlioz, son dernier air de demi-finale. Elle a embrasé la salle en chantant d’entrée l’air « Sein wir wieder gut » d’Ariane à Naxos de Richard Strauss.