Tiffany Speight I Soprano

Tiffany Speight is one of Australia’s most exciting young sopranos. A graduate of Victorian College of the Arts, she was awarded the Dame Mabel Kent Scholarship for singing, and since then has been awarded several scholarships including a Queen’s Trust Award and the Kitty Fisher Gift, awarded at the Mathy Singing Competition. Tiffany was a Vocal Finalist for the ABC Young Performers Award and also the recipient of the 2002 Vienna State Opera Award. This allowed her to spend the first part of 2003 in Vienna where she made her European debut at the Vienna Staatsoper, in the role of Countess Ceprano in Rigoletto. She currently studies with Nance Grant.

Tiffany made her opera debut as Cupid in Semele with the Victorian State Opera and was a Young Artist with the VSO, where she sang Despina in Così fan tutte and Dienerin in Die Frau ohne Schatten at the Melbourne Festival. She also took part in Opera Australia's Young Artist Program, performing Juliet in the MODD (Music Opera Dance Drama) production of Roméo and Juliet. As well as giving numerous recitals in Sydney and Melbourne; other roles during this time included Zerlina in Don Giovanni for the VSO Education Program, Frasquita in Carmen, the Maid in My Fair Lady and Lillian in Kurt Weill's Happy End. She also performed the title roles in Patience, Gigi and The Merry Widow.

Subsequently she has given performances at Opera Under the Stars in Broome, the Castlemaine State Festival and Opera By George, as well as at the Prime Minister's Olympic Dinner and a gala farewell with the Seoul Symphony Orchestra. Tiffany has also toured throughout Victoria for an Opera Australia production of Sid the Serpent, appeared with the Australian Pops Orchestra in Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide and performed in concerts such as The Best of British, and The Gilbert and Sullivan Show (The Production Company) in Melbourne.

Tiffany’s many roles for Opera Australia include Phyllis in Iolanthe, Barbarina, Cherubino and Susanna (also for Opera Queensland) in Le Nozze di Figaro, Johanna in Sweeney Todd, (also for Opera Queensland), Giannetta in The Gondoliers, Tebaldo in Don Carlo, Ellen in Lakme, and the Fiftieth Anniversary Gala, Papagena and Pamina in The Magic Flute, Micaëla and Frasquita in Carmen, Valencienne in The Merry Widow (for which she received a Green Room award), Yum Yum in The Mikado, Josephine in HMS Pinafore (now available on DVD and recently on ABC television) and Gretel in Hansel and Gretel. She sang the role of Alice in Boojum! for Opera Australia’s Centenary of Federation Concert and her roles for OzOpera include Mimi in La bohème, and Angelica in Orlando Tiffany’s engagements for other companies include a Sidney Myer Music Bowl Concert and Gershwin Concerts with Melbourne Symphony, Opera at Brookfield with Brisbane Festival, Despina in Cosi fan tutte and the title role in L'incoronazione di Poppea for Victorian Opera and Pamina in The Magic Flute and Musetta in La bohéme for NBR New Zealand Opera.

Most recently she has appeared as Zerlina in Don Giovanni, and Micäela in Carmen for Opera Australia, Sister Rose in Dead Man Walking at the State Theatre and concerts with Orchestra Victoria, The Australian Pops Orchestra, Sydney Philharmonia and Victorian Opera.

This year Tiffany will sing Messiah with the Australian Symphony Orchestra, Easter Oratorio (Spicer) with Sydney Philharmonia, Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni and Romilda in Xerxes both with Victorian Opera and Despina in Cosi fan tutte for Opera Australia.

Arts Management, May 2009