Biography
Scottish mezzo-soprano Allison Cook sings Margret (Wozzeck) for The Royal Opera in the 2013/14 Season. Cook made her Royal Opera debut as Babette (Babette’s Feast) and returned to sing Kate Julien (Owen Wingrave), each for The Royal Opera in the Linbury Studio Theatre, and created the role of Blossom (Anna Nicole) on the main stage.
Cook trained at the former Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama and at opera studios in Paris and Strasbourg. She sings a wide range of repertory, from baroque works to contemporary opera. Her early roles included Composer (Ariadne auf Naxos) for Opéra national du Rhin, Carmen and Prince Orlofsky (Die Fledermaus) for Glyndebourne on Tour and Valletto and La Fortuna (L’incoronazione di Poppea) with Les Musiciens du Louvre Grenoble at the Wiener Festwochen and the Aix-en-Provence Festival.
Contemporary opera has played a major role in Cook’s repertory. She has sung the Marquise de Merteuil (Francesconi’s Quartett) for La Scala, Milan, Strasbourg Festival, Casa de Música, Porto, Wiener Festwochen, in Paris and at Holland Festival, the Duchess (Powder Her Face) for New York City Opera and Madame de Warens in the world premiere of Fénélon’s JJR (Citoyen de Genève) for Geneva Opera. She created the role of Maria in Michael Berkeley’s For You for Music Theatre Wales. She also performs widely in concert, her appearances including Vaughan Williams’s Serenade to Music (BBC Proms) and Schoenberg’s Das Buch der hängenden Gärten (Louvre).