Celebrating Women's History: Ruby Philogene (Opera '93)

“…the glorious sound of mezzo soprano Ruby Philogene”
—The Irish Times

Internationally acclaimed mezzo-soprano Ruby Philogene MBE (Opera ’93), first prize winner of England’s prestigious Kathleen Ferrier Competition and revered voice teacher, has received numerous accolades over the past two decades in the world of international opera and song. In 2003, Ms. Philogene was made a Member of the British Empire (MBE) on the Queen’s Birthday Honors list for her services to music.

The London-born artist studied at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama and was presented with the Sir Keith Showering Memorial Award by the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures, and Commerce (RSA) in 1990 to undertake advanced studies overseas. While in Philadelphia, she received her master of music degree in opera performance at Curtis and graduated in the spring of 1993.

While at the Curtis Institute of Music, she performed in Curtis Opera Theatre’s productions of Aaron Copland’s The Tender Land, George Frideric Handel’s Alcina and Xerses, W.A. Mozart’s Don Giovanni, and scenes from Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin. Mr. Philogene also performed in La tragédie de Carmen—Maurius Constant’s adaptation of Georges Bizet’s Carmen—Dominick Argento’s Postcard from Morocco, and Franz Joseph Haydn’s Arianna a Naxos—a cantata for mezzo-soprano—with the Curtis Symphony Orchestra.

Throughout her illustrious performance career, Ms. Philogene has sung in opera, oratorio, and recitals throughout Europe and the United States, including the Royal Opera House, Deutsche Oper Berlin, La Monnaie Royal Opera Brussels, English National Opera, and the San Francisco Symphony. Over the past two decades, she has also worked with many of the world’s leading conductors, including Antonio Pappano, Riccardo Muti, Michael Tilson Thomas, Franz Welser-Most, Kent Nagano, Christoph Von Dohnanyi, and the late Sir Colin Davies. She has also sung alongside Bryn Terfel, Ian Bostridge, and José Van Dam.

Beloved for her exquisitely rendered portrayals of some of opera’s greatest mezzo heroines, Ms. Philogene has carved out an equally formidable reputation off the stage as a transformational voice teacher for all ages and learning levels. She is currently a professor of voice at her alma mater, the Guildhall School of Music & Drama.

Some of her best-known operatic roles are La Duchessa in Giuseppe Verdi’s Louisa Miller and the Page in Strauss’s Salome, both at the Royal Opera House in London, Maddalena in Verdi’s Rigoletto at Opera Philadelphia, Rosina in Gioachino Rossini’s The Barber of Seville at Garsington Opera in the UK. She’s also performed as Eurydice in Monteverdi’s Orfeo with English National Opera, Smeraldina in Sergei Prokofiev’s The Love Of Three Oranges with both San Francisco Opera and the Opera de Lyon, and Hippolyta in Benjamin Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream directed by David McVicar at La Monnaie Brussels (also as Hermia in a recording with Sir Colin Davis for Philips).

Ms. Philogene’s contemporary opera repertoire includes the role of Omar in John Adam’s The Death of Klinghoffer in Rotterdam, The Spanish Lady in Leonard Bernstein’s (Conducting ’41) Candide with the Rotterdam Philharmonic, Calliope in Pierre Bartholomé’s Oedipe Sur La Route with José van Dam (Theatre de la Monnaie), and Deborah Warner’s production of Leoš Janáček’s The Diary of One Who Disappeared with Ian Bostridge and Julius Drake in a translation commissioned from Nobel Prize-winning Irish poet, Seamus Heaney.

Recent work by Ms. Philogene has included Benjamin Britten’s one-woman cantata Phaedra in a site-specific, immersive production directed by Sophie Hunter for the 4th Happy Days Enniskillen International Beckett Festival in Ireland, and Gustav Mahler’s Kindertotenlieder, staged by director Netia Jones.

Ms. Philogene’s recordings include her solo disc Steal Away (EMI), Paulus by Felix Mendelsohn with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, the title role of Arianna by Alexander Goehr, and the complete folk songs of Beethoven (EMI) singing alongside Dame Felicity Lott and Sir Thomas Allen, with accompaniment by revered Scottish pianist, Malcolm Martineau, OBE.

Photo Credits: 1.) Ruby Philogene; courtesy of Scottish Ensemble. 2.) Courtesy of the Curtis Institute of Music Library and Archives. 3.) Sir Richard Attenborough with Ruby Philogene after she received the Anna Instone Memorial Award outside the Duke of York’s Theatre in London; The Daily Telegraph, 5.28.91, Stephen Lock. 4.) Ruby Philogene, Colleen Gaetano, and Michael Dean in The Tender Land, 1991; courtesy of the Curtis Institute of Music Library and Archives. 5.) Ruby Philogene; Achim Liebold for West Cork Chamber Music Festival. 6.)Ruby Philogene as Eurydice in ENO’s 2006 production of Monterverdi’s Orfeo. Photograph: Tristram Kenton/The Guardian. 7.) Courtesy of Ruby’s Find Your Voice Song School. 8.) Mezzo-soprano Ruby Philogene in Phaedra; John McVitty