Olivia Doutney is a Swiss-British soprano with a particular interest in Romantic and verismo repertoire. In the 2023 season, she has stepped further into the dramatic repertoire, making her debut in the title role of Puccini's Turandot at the Summum in Grenoble, with the Fabrique Opéra de Grenoble in France to critical and public acclaim. She has a Masters in Music Performance from the Haute Ecole de Musique de Genève and a Specialized Soloist Diploma from the Hochschule der Künste Bern, where she studied with the eminent soprano Malin Hartelius.

 

In 2017, she debuted at the Grand Théâtre de Genève in the role of Ursuline in Saint-Saëns’ Ascanio, and in the 2019-20 season, she debuted at Luzerner Theater as Amore in Monteverdi's Il Ballo Delle Ingrate. In 2018, Olivia made her debut as Mimì in La Bohème in Umag and Groznjan, Croatia, as an artist of the Jeunesses Musicales Opera Studio, mentored by Berislav Jerkovic, and subsequently at the National Theatre Zrenjanin, Serbia, in December at the invitation of Maestro Jerkovic. In 2021, along with the reopening of theatres in Switzerland, Olivia debuted the role of Mrs P in Michael Nyman's The Man who mistook his Wife for a Hat at the Théâtre de l'Oriental in Vevey, in the Swiss première of the work. Along with Susanna MacRae, Olivia is the co-founder of Liberata Collective CIC, an opera production Community Interest Company. 

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In 2020, Olivia performed Samuel Barber's American masterpiece Knoxville: Summer of 1915 with the Sinfonie Orchester Biel-Solothurn at the Kongresshaus in Biel. In September 2017, she made her debut as a soloist with the Geneva Chamber Orchestra, performing Anton Webern’s Sechs Lieder nach Gedichte von Georg Trakl under the baton of Arie Van Beek, in a concert streamed by Espace 2, and again in June 2018, this time the role of the Virgin Mary in Berlioz’s epic opus, L’Enfance du Christ. She has also recently sung as a soloist with the Musique des Lumières Orchestra. In 2019, Olivia was a featured soloist on the international concert tour of the Neues Zurcher Orchester, performing Haydn's concert work Scena di Berenice at, for example, the Berlin and Cologne Philharmonics and St. John's Smith Square London, as well as several Swiss venues. She has since performed Mozart's Requiem and Saint-Saëns Oratorio de Noël with the NZO.

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Other recent operatic roles include Sidonie in Lully’s Armide for London Grimeborn Festival, and during her studies at the HEM, la Contessa Almaviva (Le Nozze di Figaro), the title role in Donizetti’s Rita, and Isabelle in Campra’s Fêtes Vénitiennes. She has also sung Drusilla/Fortuna (L’Incoronazione di Poppea) for Woodhouse Opera Festival, as well as the roles of Giulietta (I Capuleti e i Montecchi), Fünfte Magd (Elektra), Alison (The Wandering Scholar), and others. 
Also dedicated to lieder and song, Olivia gives many recitals in Switzerland, the UK and Europe. In duo with Arthur Simoes at the piano, she has performed notably for the Schubertiade sur la Colline festival in Neuchâtel, in masterclasses with Helmut Deutsch and has also recorded Samuel Barber’s cycle Four Songs Op. 13 for Espace 2.

Olivia is honoured to be a recipient of scholarship prizes from the Fondation Colette Mosetti and the Friedl Wald Stiftung, and she would like to thank these foundations for their support and generosity. You may also recognise Olivia from the Blob Opera game with Google Arts & Culture, created in 2020. When playing this game, you will hear a machine's recreation of an operatic voice, based on sixteen hours of material recorded by Olivia, along with mezzo-soprano Joanna Gamble, tenor Christian Joel and bass Frederick Tong.