“Becoming Carmen” Faculty
Audrey Babcock, Mezzo-Soprano
Audrey Babcock is an award-winning mezzo-soprano who is quickly gaining notoriety for her commanding, powerful performances as Carmen and her dark, hypnotic portrayals of Maddalena in Rigoletto. As Carmen, Ms. Babcock made her French debut with the Festival Lyrique-en-Mer and has performed the role with Florentine Opera, Nashville Opera, Florida Grand Opera, New York City Opera, San Antonio Opera, Knoxville Opera, Opera Delaware, Toledo Opera, Anchorage Opera, Dayton Opera, Fort Worth Opera, Mill City Summer Opera, and Utah Festival Opera where The Salt Lake Tribune wrote “Audrey Babcock's performance as Carmen was a spellbinding tour de force...from the moment she took the stage her self-assured characterization was mesmerizing ...Babcock's caramel-hued mezzo was a pleasure…her supple tones caressed the notes, radiating earthy allure.”
Widely recognized as a choice singer for new works, Ms. Babcock has premiered several new operas including Tobias Picker’s Thérèse Raquin (NY Premiere - Dicapo Opera), With Blood, With Ink (World Premiere - Fort Worth Opera), La Reina (American Lyric Theater, NY and Prototype Festival), The Poe Project (American Lyric Theater), and appeared as Mother in Winter’s Tale with Beth Morrison’s Prototype Festival in NYC in 2015. The 2018-2019 season included the Mother in Hänsel und Gretel and Baba/Flora in The Medium with Victory Hall Opera, Elizabeth Proctor in The Crucible with Opera Santa Barbara, andCarmen with the Bar Harbour Music Festival. In the 2019-2020 season, she returns to Opera Santa Barbara as Suzuki in Madama Butterly, brings her show Beyond Carmen to Opera Delaware, and makes her Seattle Opera debut as Baroness Nica in Yardbird.
"Oh my. Let’s start with Carmen herself, sung with mesmerizing command by mezzo-soprano Audrey Babcock. One has to wonder what on earth Babcock would have done with her life if she hadn’t found opera and if Bizet hadn’t written this role for her. She is so perfectly suited for this demanding part, physically and vocally, that it’s hard to imagine her doing anything else but bringing this mercurial seductress to life on stage. Hard to imagine her singing any other role, for that matter. But this is because her acting is as compelling as her singing.
It is probable that before the singer dons her costume each night before a Carmen performance, she is a perfectly amiable woman who wouldn’t dream of stealing your boyfriend. But once she drapes a gypsy shawl over her shoulders and sticks a rose in her dark lustrous curls, watch out!
— In Review: Babcock and Ollarsaba in Bar Harbor "Carmen", 07/25/2019