Meeta Raval - soprano — Svanholm Artists Management

Biography

Current & recent appearances include Bianca La Rondine for Zurich Opera, Mother Hänsel und Gretel for Opera Holland Park, Cio Cio San Madama Butterfly, Donna Elvira Don Giovanni, and Kadra in Will Todd’s Migrations - all for Welsh National Opera.

Meeta’s recent roles include Eshal in Mohammed Fairouz’s Al Wasl, at Dubai Opera in a collaboration with Welsh National Opera, Gerhilde and cover Sieglinde in Die Walküre at Longborough Festival Opera, the title role in Gustav Holst’s Savitri for the Leeds Opera Festival, Serena Porgy and Bess at Kazan Opera Theater, Nedda I Pagliacci for Welsh National Opera, Cio Cio San in Annilese Miskimmon’s production of Madama Butterfly for Glyndebourne Opera Festival, Cio Cio San in Anthony Minghella’s production of Madama Butterfly at both English National Opera and Welsh National Opera, Leonora Il trovatore for Zomeropera Alden Biesen and Ópera de Oviedo, Girl in Kurt Weill's Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny, cover of Elisabetta Don Carlos, and cover of Manon Manon Lescaut for the Royal Opera House, Serena Porgy and Bess at Shalyapin Festival in Kazan, and Donna Anna Don Giovanni for Opera North and Welsh National Opera.

Meeta’s other operatic roles include Liu Turandot for Dalhalla Festival Opera, Ortlinde in a concert performance of Act III of Die Walküre for Welsh National Opera, Cio Cio San Madama Butterfly on tour with Opera 2001 in Spain and France, Ortlinde Die Walküre for Opera North, First Flower Maiden Parsifal for English National Opera, Micaela Carmen in Banff, Canada, Teresa Benvenuto Cellini in Montepulciano, Italy, and Die Knusperhexe Hänsel und Gretel and Amaranta La fedelta premiata for Royal Academy Opera. With British Youth Opera she sang Magda in Puccini’s La Rondine. For this performance, she was awarded the inaugural Basil Turner Prize by Dame Felicity Lott, and was praised as being “outstanding both vocally and professionally”.

On the concert stage, Meeta’s repertoire includes Bach Mass in B Minor and Johannes Passion, Brahms Ein Deutsches Requiem, Bruckner Te Deum, Dvořák Stabat Mater, Strauss Vier Letze Lieder, Wagner Wesendonck Lieder and Verdi Requiem (Sage Gateshead, Newcastle). She made her concert debut at London’s Barbican Hall with a Puccini Gala, and sang at the Royal Festival Hall, Birmingham Symphony Hall and Manchester Bridgewater Hall in a series of ‘Simply Gershwin’ concerts with the London and Manchester Concert Orchestras. In addition, Jonathan Harvey’s Song Offerings (conducted by Dominic Wheeler in a recital in association with the South Bank Centre to mark Messiaen’s Centenary), Schoenberg’s Gurrelieder at the Glive Concert Hall and Toni Castell’s From Light to Life in August 2014, a recital at the Watts Gallery, an Opera Gala marking the debut of New Georgian Opera, a UK concert tour of Simply Gershwin with the final concert held at the Royal Festival Hall, and Beethoven’s 9th Symphony with Fondazione Orchestra Sinfonica e Coro Sinfonico di Milano Giuseppe Verdi in Milan.

She has also appeared in numerous television and radio broadcasts. Her most recent television appearance was her performance of Mozart’s ‘Dové Sono’ (Le Nozze di Figaro) on BBC 2 in Howard Goodall’s History of Music. For BBC Radio 3 she sang La Contessa in Discovering Figaro and for RAI she sang Teresa in Henze Das Wundertheater. Meeta has partaken in masterclasses with Mirella Freni at the Solti Accademia di Bel Canto, Italy. She has also been coached by Dame Anne Evans, Rosalind Plowright, John Copley, José Cura, Graham Johnson and Dame Ann Murray. On the stage, she has performed alongside opera heavyweights such as Sir Thomas Allen and Sir John Tomlinson.

Meeta was a finalist in the 2011 BBC Cardiff Singer of the World competition, and winner of the Dame Eva Turner Prize for a “soprano with dramatic potential”, as well as being the inaugural prize-winner of the Royal Academy of Music Pavarotti Prize. She was also the recipient of the Independent Opera Award and was awarded The Sybill Tutton Opera Award and Maidment Scholarship by the Musician’s Benevolent Fund. Most recently in 2012, Meeta was honoured to be named Patron of the Wells Cathedral Chorister Trust.

After graduating with honours from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and the Royal Academy of Music, Meeta completed her training with a year at the National Opera Studio in London in 2009-10.

Reviews

“…mightily impressive security…”

…Meeta Raval — a recent Cardiff Singer of the World finalist — is fearless as Cio-Cio San, sailing through the demands of the role with mightily impressive security…

— Hugo Shirley / The Daily Telegraph