Endangered Productions is thrilled to have Cheryl Barker AO as a principal in our Bernstein & Busoni show. In her remarkable career, Cheryl has graced stages across Australia, the UK, and Europe. She and her husband, Peter Coleman-Wright AO, play the central couple in the one-act opera gem by Leonard Bernstein, Trouble in Tahiti.
Cheryl Barker AO has established a distinguished Operatic Career throughout the UK, Europe, USA and Australasia.
She has performed for the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, English National Opera, Welsh National Opera, Paris Opera, Nederlandse Opera, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Hamburg State Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Grand Théâtre de Genève, National Opera du Rhin, De Vlaamse Opera, La Monnaie, Opera Holland Park, Reis Opera, Scottish Opera, Glyndebourne Festival Opera, Minnesota Opera, Vancouver Opera, Taipei Opera, Opera Queensland, Opera Australia, State Opera of South Australia, Opera New Zealand, Victoria State Opera and Western Australian Opera.
Cheryl has played many title roles in her long and illustrious career, including: Jenufa, Tosca, Suor Angelica, Madama Butterfly (Mo Award performer of the year), Manon Lescaut, Rusalka, Arabella and Salome (both for which she won green room and Helpmann awards). Other title roles include Adrianna Lecouvreur, Francesca di Rimmini, Hanna Glawari in Die Lustige Witwe, Katya Kabanova, and Maria Stuarda.
Other roles include Countess (Le Nozze di Figaro), Adina (L’elisir d’amore), Mimi in the award winning Baz Luhrmann production of La boheme, Violetta (La Traviata), Donna Elvira (Don Giovanni), Tatyana (Eugene Onegin), Nedda (I Pagliacci), Antonia (The Tales of Hoffmann), Giorgetta (Il Tabarro), Lauretta (Gianni Schicchi), Marschellin (Der Rosenkavalier), Madeleine (Capriccio), Chrysothemis (Elektra), The Governess and Miss Jessel (The Turn of the Screw), Desdemona (Otello), Musetta (La Boheme), Marie (Die Tote Stadt), Salud (La Vida Breve), Jenifer (A Midsummer Marriage), Micaela (Carmen), Emilia Marty (Vec Makropoulos), Marzelline (Fidelio), Oksana (Christmas Eve), and Kate (Kiss Me Kate).
She created the role of Sarah in Jake Heggie's Opera The End of the Affair for Houston Grand Opera. Gertrude in Brett Dean's Hamlet. She has appeared in concert at London's Wigmore Hall, The Barbican Royal Festival Hall, Royal Albert Hall, Konzerthaus Wien, Koningin Elisabethzaal Belgium, at the Brisbane, Melbourne, Spoletto Festivals, The Australian Festival of Chamber Music and with the SSO, QSO, MSO, and WASO.
Cheryl's recordings include Puccini Passion, Pure Diva (Melba Recordings), Seduction & Persuasion, Don John of Austria, Beethoven 9 (ABC Classics), La Boheme, Madama Butterfly, Marschallin in Der Rosenkavalier OA (CD & DVD) Madama Butterfly, CD of Great Operatic Arias with the LPO, Katya Kabanova, Quo Vadis, Rusalka, Makropoulos Case (Chandos), Madama Butterfly (Belgium and Netherlands Television) and Madama Butterfly Opus Arte.
Cheryl was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia in the 2015 Queen’s Birthday Honours and also holds an Honorary Doctorate of Music conferred by the Melbourne University. She is currently Head Voice Teacher at the Australian National University School of Music, Canberra and Co-Artistic Director of Pacific Opera Studio.
