About Me

...if you're interested, here's the abridged version...!

Formerly known as Deborah Stuart-Roberts, I was born in Aberystwyth, Wales and began my classical singing studies with Colin Jones in Wrexham and Caroline Crawshaw at the Royal Northern College of Music. While still at college, I won the Miriam Licette Scholarship for French Song and this enabled me to study in Paris for 6 months with French soprano, Christiane Eda-Pierre. I won a Peter Stuyvesant Award to study at the National Opera Studio in London and made my début with Scottish Opera on tour in two small Rossini operas. I became principal mezzo-soprano with Welsh National Opera for 3 years and during that time performed the title role in Bizet's Carmen (amongst many others) and understudied (and performed) the role of Dido in Les Troyens by Berlioz. I also sang the role of Mercedes in Carmen for a stadium performance of the opera in the Bercy stadium in Paris, with Teresa Berganza in the title role.

I have appeared with Glyndebourne Festival Opera, City of Birmingham Touring Opera, Buxton Opera, De Nederlandse Opera and taken part in concert performances all over the UK, France and Italy. I also sang alongside Dame Joan Sutherland on a WNO/Decca recording of Adriana Lecouvreur.

One of my more unusual experiences as a classical singer was performing an aria from the back of a vintage Bentley in a sports stadium in China, to an audience of 30,000 people..!

I come from a musical family - my great uncle was Darrell Fancourt, principal bass with the D'Oyly Carte company in the 1930s and my great aunt was Laura Evans-Williams, a notable Welsh soprano who was one of the first to work in the USA.

As well as still occasionally performing on stage (last time was March 2020, as the Witch/Mother in Hansel & Gretel, just before lockdown!), I now enjoy using my performance and stagecraft experience as a freelance coach, specialising in French coaching and encouraging young classical singers at the start of their careers. I am a French and performance tutor at Trinity Laban conservatoire in London and I have a Masters degree in French Translation.

My first love in terms of language study has always been French and my aim is to make this repertoire as enjoyable for you as it is for me!