Irish Mezzo-Soprano Paula Murrihy enjoys a busy career working at the highest level in both Europe and the US. Previously a member of Oper Frankfurt’s acclaimed ensemble, her many roles in Frankfurt include Dido in Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas, Lazuli in Chabrier’s L’étoile, Octavian in Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier, Medoro in Vivaldi’s Orlando Furioso, creating the role of Carmen in Barrie Kosky’s iconic production of Bizet’s opera, and most recently, Dejanira in Handel’s Hercules.
Murrihy opens her 2025/26 season at the Gran Teatre del Liceu, Barcelona as Fox in Barrie Kosky’s production of Janáček's The Cunning Little Vixen conducted by Josep Pons. Other opera highlights of the season include Ariane in Dukas’s Ariane et Barbe-Bleu at the Teatro Real, Madrid and the role of Euryale in the world premiere of a newly commissioned opera Medusa at the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie, Brussels, composed by Iain Bell and directed by the opera’s librettist Lydia Steier. Future plans include returns to Oper Frankfurt, La Monnaie and the Royal Opera & Ballet, Covent Garden.
On the concert platform this season, Murrihy sings Goffredo in Handel’s Rinaldo with The English Concert and Harry Bicket at London’s St Martin-in-the Fields and on tour to China and South Korea. She performs La vierge Marie in Berlioz’s L’Enfance du Christ in Glasgow and Edinburgh with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra conducted by Maxim Emelyanychev. She also performs Handel’s Messiah with the Boston Baroque and Filippo Ciabatti, arias from Messiah and Bach’s St Matthew Passion with the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal conducted by Kent Nagano and she sings the title role in Handel’s Serse with the Academy of Ancient Music and Laurence Cummings.
An accomplished recitalist, Murrihy has given performances at London’s Wigmore Hall, the Aldeburgh Festival, the Oxford Lieder Festival, Boston’s Jordan Hall, the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, at Oper Frankfurt and at the Diaghilev Festival in Perm. In 2020 she released her debut solo album I will walk with my love with American pianist Tanya Blaich for Orchid Classics.
Murrihy received her Bachelor of Music from DIT Conservatory of Music and Drama in Dublin before continuing her studies in North America at the New England Conservatory. She also participated in the Britten-Pears Young Artist Programme, San Francisco Opera’s Merola Program and as an apprentice at Santa Fe Opera.