Born in Cheshire, the soprano Linda Richardson trained at the Royal Northern College of Music, where she was a Peter Moores Foundation Scholar and winner of the Frederic Cox Award. She completed her studies at the National Opera Studio, and has since performed with orchestras across the UK and the European continent under conductors such as Bernard Haitink, Edo de Waart, Sir Mark Elder, Daniele Rustioni, Libor Pešek, Carol Rizzi, Martin André, Paul Daniel, David Parry and Mark Shanahan. Among recent highlights on the operatic stage are performances as Violetta (La traviata), Cio-Cio San (Madama Butterfly), the title role in Anna Bolena, Amaltea (Mosè in Egitto), and Elvira (I puritani) at Welsh National Opera and Anna Bolena at Longborough Festival Opera. An English National Opera Company Principal between 1997 and 2005, she sang roles such as Virtue (The Coronation of Poppea), Fiordiligi (Così fan tutte), Lauretta (Gianni Schicchi), Micaëla (Carmen), Gretel (Hansel and Gretel), Gilda (Rigoletto), Zerlina and Donna Anna (Don Giovanni), Sophie (Der Rosenkavalier), Mimì (La bohème), the title roles in The Fairy Queen and Alcina, Violetta (La traviata), Woglinde (The Rhinegold), and Helena (A Midsummer Night’s Dream).
She has sung Karolka (Jenůfa), Mimì, Nannetta (Falstaff), Pamina (Die Zauberflöte), Violetta, and Gilda at Opera North, Lisetta (Haydn’s La vera costanza) at Garsington Opera, Norina (Don Pasquale) at Clonter Opera Theatre, the Fairy Queen in Barcelona, First Niece (Peter Grimes) at De Nationale Opera, Amina (La sonnambula) and Alice (Falstaff) at Opera Holland Park, the Countess (Le nozze di Figaro) throughout the UK and in France, Katya Kabanova with English Touring Opera, Alice and Cio-Cio San at Longborough Festival Opera, and Mrs Coyle (Owen Wingrave) at the Nuremberg International Chamber Music Festival. Performing extensively on the oratorio and concert platform and as a recitalist, she has sung at the Newbury, Three Choirs, and Arundel festivals, was a regular soloist with the English Haydn Festival, and has appeared as soloist in Brahms’s Ein deutsches Requiem with the Royal Northern Sinfonia, Handel’s Messiah with the English Chamber Orchestra, Britten’s Les Illuminations with the Radio Kamer Orkest in The Netherlands, and Orff’s Carmina Burana at the Royal Festival Hall. Linda Richardson has appeared on both radio and television, gives master-classes, serves as adjudicator on various audition and performance panels, and has recently released a solo CD with John Wilson, Italian Arias on Chandos.
Future work includes Violetta for Salisbury festival, a performance of Elijah in the Royal Festival Hall and Donna Anna for WNO.