Kate Royal

Kate Royal (born 1979) is an English lyric soprano.

Royal was born in London and attended Talbot Heath School in Bournemouth, Dorset. She later studied at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and then the National Opera Studio, graduating in the summer of 2004. In that same year, she won the Kathleen Ferrier Award.[1]

Royal began to attract wider notice as an understudy for the role of Pamina in Mozart's Die Zauberflöte at Glyndebourne Festival Opera in 2004, when she replaced the lead soprano at one performance.[2] With Glyndebourne on Tour, she has sung the Countess in Le nozze di Figaro.[3] She has performed in recital with the pianists Graham Johnson and Roger Vignoles.[4] In 2006 with Glyndebourne on Tour, she sang The Governess in Benjamin Britten's The Turn of the Screw.[5] Later the same year, she signed a recording contract with EMI Classics, and her first disc of songs and arias was released in September 2007.[6] She dedicates five months per year to song recitals.[7]

Royal and her husband, actor and singer Julian Ovenden, have a son and a daughter. The couple married in December 2010, officiated by Ovenden's father, Canon John Ovenden.[8][9]

  1. ^ Rupert Christiansen (17 September 2005). "Loneliness of the long-distance singer". The Daily Telegraph. London. Archived from the original on 11 April 2008. Retrieved 28 October 2007.
  2. ^ Neil Fisher (2 January 2006). "Kate Royal". The Times. London. Archived from the original on 17 May 2011. Retrieved 28 October 2007.
  3. ^ Laura Barnett (2 October 2007). "Portrait of the artist: Kate Royal, soprano". The Guardian. Retrieved 28 October 2007.
  4. ^ Hilary Finch (15 January 2007). "Royal/Vignoles". The Times. London. Archived from the original on 17 May 2011. Retrieved 28 October 2007.
  5. ^ Tim Ashley (23 October 2006). "The Turn of the Screw". The Guardian. Retrieved 28 October 2007.
  6. ^ Geoff Brown (8 September 2007). "Kate Royal". The Times. London. Archived from the original on 17 May 2011. Retrieved 28 October 2007.
  7. ^ Carolyn Bartholomew (9 April 2008). "Self-confident Royal". The Spectator. Archived from the original on 21 October 2008. Retrieved 3 January 2009.
  8. ^ Pomfret, Emma. "Kate Royal: the diva in waiting". The Times. ISSN 0140-0460. Retrieved 29 April 2022.
  9. ^ Chrissy Iley (15 April 2012). "Julian Ovenden: the sweet-singing son of a Queen's chaplain". The Daily Telegraph. London.