Praised by Opera News for her “unusually rich and resonant” voice, contralto Sara Couden is a premiere interpreter of operatic, orchestral, chamber, and song repertoire. The 2026-2027 seasons sees role debuts as Goffredo(RINALDO) with West Edge Opera and Bradamante ALCINA) with Festival Opera and a return to Livermore Valley Opera as La Zia Principessa (SUOR ANGELICA) and Ars Minerva as Perseus (ANDROMEDA). In the new year she returns to the roles of Mother and Chinese cup(L'ENFANT ET LES SORTILÈGES)with the St. Louis Symphony
Her 2025-2026 season includes a debut with Detroit Opera as Rita in Poul Ruders’ THE HANDMAID’S TALE, a debut with the Houston Symphony in selections from LA VIDA BREVE, a role and house debut as Ježibaba (RUSALKA) with Pacific Northwest Opera, Die Hexe/Die Mutter (HÄNSEL UND GRETEL) with Lakes Area Music Festival and appearances with the St. Louis Symphony, Kansas City Symphony, and Tucson Symphony as the Alto Soloist in Händel’s MESSIAH. Her latest triumphs include her San Francisco Opera debut as Rita (THE HANDMAID’S TALE), a return to the Metropolitan Opera to cover Mrs. Sedley (PETER GRIMES), her debut appearance in recital at the Manchester Music Festival and a role debut as Baba the Turk (THE RAKE’S PROGRESS) with Lakes Area Music Festival, as well as company debuts with the Philadelphia Orchestra as Mother/Chinese Cup/Dragon Fly (L’ENFANT ET LES SORTILÈGES), the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra as the Alto Soloist in Julia Perry’s STABAT MATER, the Seattle Symphony in Händel’s MESSIAH, the California Symphony in songs by Mahler, and the Eureka Symphony in Mozart’s REQUIEM. Ms. Couden also recently released her debut solo album, the Complete Vocal Works of Artur Schnabel, on the Steinway & Sons label. Highlights from previous seasons include Ms. Couden’s debut with the Metropolitan Opera as Tetka (JENUFA) and Albine (THAÏS), as well as a return to Carnegie Hall as the Alto Soloist in Karl Jenkins’ STABAT MATER and a return to the Met to cover Erste Magd (ELEKTRA) and Marta and Pantalis (MEFISTOFELE). She also made role debuts as Dryade (ARIADNE AUF NAXOS), Ottavia (L’INCORONAZIONE DI POPPEA) and Nurse in Dukas’ ARIANE ET BARBE-BLEUE with West Edge Opera, Juno (SEMELE) and Marquise de Berkenfeld (LA FILLE DU RÉGIMENT) with St. Petersburg Opera, Ruth (PIRATES OF PENZANCE) with Winter Opera St. Louis, Israelitish Man (JUDAS MACCABAEUS) with Philharmonia Baroque, Ormindo (ERMELINDA) with Ars Minerva, Dejanira (HERCULES) at the Staunton Music Festival, and Testo in Stradella’s LA SUSANNA with Heartbeat Opera and Opera Lafayette. Meanwhile, she toured Japan with Maestro Masaaki Suzuki in Bach’s B MINOR MASS, sang Third Lady (DIE ZAUBERFLÖTE) with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and appeared as the Alto Soloist in Mahler’s SECOND SYMPHONY with the Santa Cruz Symphony, Händel’s MESSIAH with the Grand Rapids Symphony and Tucson Symphony Orchestra, and Beethoven’s NINTH SYMPHONY with the San Francisco Symphony, Tucson Symphony, Charleston Symphony and Charlotte Symphony. Ms. Couden is an alumna of the Lindemann Young Artist Program at the Metropolitan Opera, the Marlboro Music Festival, Music@Menlo, Music Academy of the West, and the Institute for Young Dramatic Voices. She holds a M.M with Honors in Opera from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and an A.D. in Early Music, Chamber Music, and Oratorio from the Yale School of Music and Institute of Sacred Music. Artist personal website here Reviews:
Ormondo/Clorindo, Ermelinda, Ars Nova Couden, a contralto with a strikingly wide range, gave the single strongest performance as Ormondo/Clorindo. Whether conveying faux madness or ardor, Couden employed her fascinating instrument expertly. Solid at the bottom and full of mobile colors higher up — now quavering, now rawly exposed, now humbly hushed — her voice animated the character’s rapid-fire oscillations. ERminlinda – San Francisco Classical Voice Contralto Sara Couden, who sang Ormondo and Clorindo, was the unexpected vocal standout of this cast. ... New to the company, Couden proved to be a versatile, adept musician with a flair for comedy. Her upper and mid ranges were pure velvet while her lowest tones were strong, well shaped, and astoundingly beautiful. – Erminlinda – Broadway World But equally remarkable (and more of a surprise) is the performance by Sara Couden as Ruth, the pirate's "maid-of-all-work" and Frederic's childhood nurse. Miss Coudon wields a lovely, strong contralto, her diction is crystalline, and what a comic sense! She's almost a head taller than most of the pirates, and rather powerfully built. All this lets her pretty much capture any scene she's in . – Ruth Winter Opera St Louis – Broadway World Israelitish Man, Judas Maccabaeus Couden was an expressively varied Israelitish Man, featuring some impressively rock-solid low notes (and an unforced upper register as well). Animated in her interpretation, she engaged the audience with a warm personality. – Philharmonia Baroque – San Francisco Classical Voice As the Israelitish Man, Sara Couden deployed her huge and fluid mezzo-soprano to glorious effect in a range of vocal showcases — now tender and probing, now extravagantly athletic. One aria, “So rapid thy course is,” drove the audience into such convulsions of delight that applause burst out before the aria was even over. – philharmonia baroque Datebook SFChronicle Gamut Bach Ensemble - Sara Couldon projected an aura of calm in the aria “In Jesu Demut kann ich Trost” (In Jesus’s humility, I can find comfort), her columnar contralto forceful without being overpowering. – Gamut Bach Ensemble – Broadstreetreview.com Dejanira, Hercules, Staunton Music Festival “Sara Couden...was phenomenal in this role. ...Her connection with the audience...was superb; she made us laugh uproariously at the bits of comedy that director Ethan Heard worked into the show (e.g. Dejanira emasculating Hercules by seizing his beer and remote control for herself while singing “Resign thy club”) but also held us all utterly rapt—and sympathetically a little terrified—with “Where shall I fly.” (She got a tremendous ovation for the latter.) ...[H]aving seen her...as Dejanira—a role that traverses emotions from anxiety to mourning, envy and anger to guilt—I would say there is now no limit to her expressive range. Her time in the Met’s Lindemann Young Artist Program seems to have been well spent. And her voice is rich and powerful with delicious contralto low ornaments.” (Verdi Prati, verdiprati.tumblr.com) Telemann’s “Canary Cantata,” Music@Menlo “For charm and a sense of goofiness welcome in Menlo’s solemn precincts, nothing could outdo contralto Sara Couden’s performance... Telemann pours all the pathos of early Italian tragic opera into his music; this is transmuted into bathos by the libretto’s intense devotion to the tiny subject of the mourning. Couden milked this contrast with avidity, pouring audible sobs and wails into her deep, thick-toned voice, backing it up with grieving facial expressions and gestures of futility, even grasping at her clothes.” (David Bratman, San Francisco Classical Voice, sfcv.org) Shostakovich’s From Jewish Folk Poetry, Music@Menlo “I was particularly struck by Gilbert Kalish’s understated but intense piano playing and Sara Couden’s wonderful contralto voice, but the whole thing was terrific and hair-raising in a way that only the best Shostakovich can be.” (Wendy Lesser, The Lesser Blog, threepennyreview.com) Mahler’s Resurrection Symphony, Santa Cruz Symphony “Urlicht...was beautifully expressed by Metropolitan Opera soloist Sara Couden...” (Fleur Williams, Local Santa Cruz) “Contralto Sara Couden, in lustrous voice, was fantastic in the setting of Urlicht” (Joe Sekon, Peninsula Review) Albine, Thaïs, Metropolitan Opera “...made everyone in the theater sit up and take notice to hear her magnificent contralto pour out the devout phrases of Abbess Albine. She took ordinary Massenet and made it extraordinary with her opulent delivery. This is a voice I’m eager to hear in Bach or Wagner!” (John Yohalem, Music America) |
Feb
2026-2027 Engagements Mother/Chinese cup/L’enfant et les sortilèges St. Louis Symphony 2/2027 Mother/Chinese cup/L’enfant et les sortilèges TBA 1/2027 Perseus/Andromeda (ZIani) Ars Minerva November 2026 La Zia Principessa/Suor Angelica Livermore Valley Opera October 2026 Goffredo/Rinaldo West Edge Opera July 2026 Bradamante/Alcina Festival Opera June 2026 Alto Soloist/Les Noces Cincinnatti May Festival May 2026 Alto Soloist/St. Matthew Passion San Jose Symphonic Choir March 2026 Queen Christina Concert Portland Baroque Orchestra March 2026 Rita/Handmaid's Tale Detroit Opera March 2026 |
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