Susan Gritton


Susan Gritton is an English operatic soprano. She was the 1994 winner of the Kathleen Ferrier Award and has sung leading roles in a wide ranging repertoire from Handel and Mozart to Britten, Janáček and Strauss.

Life and career

Gritton was born in Reigate, Surrey. She was educated at the University of Oxford and the University of London, where she studied Botany.
On the operatic stage, her roles include Ellen Orford Peter Grimes ; Blanche Dialogues des Carmélites ; Countess Madeleine Capriccio and Tatyana Eugene Onegin ; Micaela Carmen and Liù Turandot ; Donna Anna Don Giovanni ; Elettra Idomeneo and Konstanze Die Entführung aus dem Serail. Title roles include Theodora ; Rodelinda ; The Bartered Bride and The Cunning Little Vixen.
On the concert platform her work spans many periods and styles and includes Ravel's Shéhérazade ; Brahms' Ein Deutsches Requiem ; Berg's Bruchstücke aus Wozzeck and Honegger's Jeanne d'Arc au bûcher. Other highlights include Handel's Messiah ; Elgar's The Kingdom ; Shostakovich's Blok Romances ; Schumann's Das Paradies und die Peri at the Edinburgh Festival and in Vienna and Britten's Les Illuminations – including the world premiere of Britten's three additional Rimbaud settings. A Grammy nominated artist, she has recorded prolifically for Chandos, Hyperion, Deutsche Grammophon, EMI, Decca, Philips and Collins Classics among others.
Gritton is married to the opera director Stephen Medcalf.

Roles