ABOUT
VANESSA
Dominick Gravel Photography
Soprano Vanessa Croome, winner of the 2018 Opéra de Montréal Prix Étoiles Stringray, is a current artist in residence with Opéra de Montréal. In October 2020, Vanessa debuted the role of Léa in the virtual world premiere of L'hiver attend beaucoup de moi with Opéra de Montréal. Other 2020-2021 season highlights include a virtual concert of Mahler's Des Knaben Wunderhorn with Orchestra de L'Agora and a virtual recital (Songs from my Bedroom) with Holly Kroeker at Montreal's Café d'Art Vocal in Spring 2021. Vanessa will make her mainstage debut with Opéra de Montréal singing Barbarina in Le Nozze di Figaro in May 2021. A recent graduate of the McGill University Schulich School of Music, Vanessa earned her Masters of Music in Voice and Opera under the tutelage of Dominique Labelle, Michael McMahon, Stephen Hargreaves, Patrick Hansen, and Olivier Godin.
Recent performance highlights include Pamina in Die Zauberflöte, Miss Wordsworth in Albert Herring, and Cunegonde in Candide (Opera McGilll), Miles in Turn of the Screw with Opéra de Montréal and the Orchestre Symphonique de l'Agora, Arthur Honegger’s Le Roi David under the baton of Jean-Sébastien Vallée, and young artist cover for the role of Josephine Young in the celebrated world premiere of Huang Ruo’s opera An American Soldier at Opera Theatre of Saint Louis. In 2018, Vanessa was a finalist for the Canadian Opera Company Centre Stage Competition, the Opéra de Montréal Atelier Lyrique, and the Elizabeth Wirth Vocal Prize at the Schulich School of Music.
Vanessa is an alumnus of the Opera Theatre of Saint Louis Gerdine Young Artist Program, Oberlin Conservatory of Music, McGill University Schulich School of Music, and the Interlochen Arts Academy. She has had the honour of working with such esteemed artists as Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Erie Mills, Marilyn Horne, Stephen Lord, Daune Mahy, Gianna Rolandi, Frank Lopardo, Nicolas Ellis, Liz Upchurch, Jennifer Szeto, Marie-Ève Scarfone, Daniel Michalak, Boris Brott, and Bretton Brown among others.
Hailing from Nanaimo, British Columbia, Vanessa received early training with the Chemainus Theatre Festival and the Nanaimo Conservatory of Music. She was a recipient of the British Columbia Arts Council Scholarship Award which generously helped fund her studies both in Canada and the United States.
In her spare time Vanessa enjoys writing, running, and cooking breakfast-foods-not-for-breakfast.
ROLES
Bernstein: Cunegonde / Candide
Britten: Miss Wordsworth / Albert Herring
Donizetti: Corilla / Viva la Mamma
Adina* / L'elisir d'amore
Handel: Morgana / Alcina
Jobidon: Léa/ L'hiver attend beaucoup de moi +
Mozart: Despina / Così fan tutte
Pamina/ Die Zauberflöte
Offenbach: Eurydice / Orpheus and the Underworld
Ruo, Huang: Josephine Young* / An American Soldier +
Schönberg: Cosette / Les Misérables
(*) Cover (+) World Premiere
CONCERT & CHAMBER
Barber: Knoxville, Summer of 1915
Chausson: Chanson Perpétuelle, Op. 37
Fauré: Requiem in D minor, Op. 48
Honegger: Le Roi David (Soprano soloist)
Mendelssohn: Elijah, Op. 70 (#7, 28, 35 soloist)
SONG
Copland: Four Early Songs
Debussy: Quatre chansons de jeunesse
Larsen: Songs from Letters
Poulenc: Fiançailles pour rire
Deux poèmes de Louis Aragon
Métamorphoses