Rising opera star Sarah Brady spoke to David Hennessy to look ahead to playing Cleopatra in Giulio Cesare at The Grange Festival this summer.
Soprano Sarah Brady, a rising Irish opera star who is building an international reputation, comes to the UK in June when she plays Cleopatra in Giulio Cesare at The Grange Festival.
This will be a fresh version of the celebrated opera of power, seduction, and betrayal set under the Egyptian sun from acclaimed director David Alden with baroque specialist Christian Curnyn conducting the Early Opera Company.
Sarah joins a cast that includes countertenor Tim Mead in the title role, Hugh Cutting (Tolomeo) and Jess Dandy (Cornelia).
The Grange Festival is one of the fastest-growing arts organisations in the UK.
Since its foundation in 2017, the Festival has developed a strong reputation.
This Giulio Cesare makes up part of its anticipated 2026 programme after a hugely successful 2025.
Mullingar soprano Sarah Brady has long been considered a rising star in classical music.
She has graced revered stages like the Royal Opera House, National Concert Hall in Dublin as well as famous festivals like Salzburg and Glyndebourne.
A former member of the prestigious young artist programme OperAvenir at Theater Basel, Sarah subsequently joined the ensemble, and was nominated as Upcoming Artist of the Year by Opernwelt for her achievements during this year.
From 2020-2023, Sarah was a member of the ensemble of Staatsoper Hannover. In 2022 Sarah’s debut album Matters of the Heart was released on Prospero Classical.
To sing Cleopatra has long been a dream for Sarah.
Sarah took time to talk to the Irish World about this dream becoming reality.
You must be looking forward to coming to the UK for the Grange festival…
“I’m so excited.
“I didn’t expect this role to come along.
“It was a huge surprise for me.
“I’ve actually worked with Christian Curnyn, the conductor, before so I’m very excited to be working with him again.
“It’s an absolute dream role of mine.
“I’ve been singing the arias since college and just to get to do it now and to get to do it in a new production where I can create the character while also being respectful to the story and to what the director wants, is a huge, huge privilege.”
Cleopatra is just one of the iconic roles, isn’t it?
“When you say the name Cleopatra, everybody knows who it is.
“Everybody knows that it’s iconic and I think it’s one of Handel’s best operas.
“It’s also such a challenge to sing but so rewarding.
“I just can’t wait.
“I’m also scared but in a good way.”
Of course Handel has a connection to Ireland..
“Absolutely, the Messiah I guess you’re talking about.
“I used to sing Messiah a lot in Ireland when I was still living there.
“I remember my teacher Mary Brennan, God rest her soul, was known for giving this red, hardback score of The Messiah to all her students when they turned 31 and I remember the day she gave that to me, I felt so honoured because it’s her legacy but also because of Handel and that connection of Handel’s Messiah to Dublin, it’s so special.
“It’s in English.
“We understand exactly what we’re singing.
“The audience can understand straight away what they’re hearing and there’s that funny connection and I guess that also carries through then when I sing other Handel pieces even if they’re in Italian how Giulio Cesare will be.
“It’s still the same style.”
So how did a girl from Mullingar become a soprano? Did you grow up in a musical family or how did it come about?
“That’s a very good question.
“Yeah, music was in my family but not in a classical way.
“I used to grow up listening to all types of music from my parents so music from the 60s, 70s, 80s.
“I just remember hearing all this music from the age of two, three onwards and my parents gifted me this tiny little keyboard.
“I used to make up songs and I’d be singing and they just encouraged that the whole time.
“Then when I was in primary school, we had school plays at Christmas time and one year I got the solo for singing Away in a Manger.
“I had no idea that that was something I wanted to do, sing onstage.
“My parents weren’t stage parents, my mammy wasn’t a stage mammy but then the big kind of breakthrough, I would say, was when I was in St Finian’s in Mullingar.
“I started there as a normal student at the age of 13 but I always knew about this music scholarship they had on the side.
“I was in the choir there and they gave me a solo and I was so nervous.
“I remember my mammy bringing me to the concert and I was like, ‘I can’t do this. I can’t do this. I’m not good enough’: The imposter syndrome we all get.
“And then after that, they offered me a scholarship which was amazing.
“The scholarship allowed me to get free singing lessons during school and free piano lessons also.
“This was great because honestly, we couldn’t afford extra music lessons and it wasn’t something I was necessarily sure I wanted to do.
“I wanted to be a vet.
“I was like, ‘I’m definitely going to be a vet. I’m going to be a vet. I love animals’.
“That was my dream.
“Through the singing lessons and the experiences I got in St Finian’s I kind of said, ‘Should I try this singing thing?’
“I started to love classical music too.
“I don’t know where it came from.
“I think I just loved the feeling of the power it takes to produce that kind of sound from your voice.
“Then when I did my application for what I wanted to do for college I said, ‘No, I’m going to go to the Royal Irish Academy of Music’.
“And from then on, it was like a snowball effect.
“I was very lucky.
“It kept happening for me so I would say I’m very lucky but obviously a lot of hard work was put in too.”
I was reading about how you got invited to go to Switzerland. There was some chance in how you got seen and invited there, wasn’t there?
“Yeah, you hit the nail on the head.
“The funny thing is my teacher then in the Royal Irish Academy of Music, Mary Brennan, used to always say to me that she believed that everyone’s path was carved out for them already.
“I was like, ‘Huh, what do you mean?’
“I didn’t really understand and sometimes I still question it but I do believe that to a certain extent too.
“Of course there’s the hard work.
“There’s the time, blood and sweat that you put into it but I think she said that to me because I was always getting these chances which was great.
“But yes, I was singing in a masterclass for Richard Bonynge.
“I think I was 20 or 21 so I was coming up towards my final year in college.
“The funny thing is I was going to pull out of that masterclass because I was so sick.
“I had this laryngitis and I was like, ‘I can’t sing’, but I sang it anyway and there was a casting director sitting in the audience watching and he got in touch with my repetitor, Dearbhla Collins.
“So Dearbhla texted me and she was like, ‘Oh, this guy from Basel wants to hear you’.
“I thought it was a singing lesson so I was like, ‘Oh, no problem’.
“I walked into the room.
“I had my four arias ready.
“They said, ‘Hello’.
“He whips out a camcorder and I was like, ‘Uh oh, this is an audition, this is not a singing lesson’.
“I’d never done anything like that.
“I left the room and I was like, ‘Oh, I don’t know what that was but sure, look, we’ll see’.
“And then he got in touch with me directly a couple of weeks later probably and he asked me would I be interested in coming to Basel to audition for a place in the opera studio?
“And I was like, ‘Where’s Basel? What’s that place? I never heard of Basel’.
“All I knew of Switzerland is Zurich, the cheese and the chocolate at the time.
“Of course now I live here about seven years so I know much more about it.
“That was November 2016 I went for my audition and the same evening then he wrote to me and said, ‘We’d like to offer you the place’.
“It just happened like that.
“I’ve had a stint in Hanover but this has been my base and I just love it here.
“I don’t really sing as much in Basel anymore but that’s kind of how my international career began.”
Must have been wild finding yourself packing your bags for Basel..
“Not that I take it for granted but it just seems so normal to me but, of course, it is a big thing to, at the age of 22, move abroad.
“But it was a huge chance.
“I’m really grateful to this day and it brought on a lot of other opportunities.
“It’s not just Basel, Hanover, I’m also singing a lot in the UK which is great.
“I had my Royal Opera House debut last year.
“It’s a really amazing thing and it’s also brought me to Berlin, to Munich, the Netherlands a lot.
“It’s a crazy job, the amount of travel and being away from your loved ones.
“It’s great.
“It’s difficult but I love it.
“You have to be crazy to do it a little bit.”
How do you feel about being called a ‘rising star’ of Irish opera or do you not take notice?
“That’s a good question.
“It’s not me saying I’m the rising star of Ireland, I’m a little bit too modest for that but of course, I take note of it.
“I think the more I do, the more pressure I feel.
“When people ask me how I feel reading reviews and stuff like that, I kind of read them but then sometimes I don’t.
“It really depends on where my headspace is, especially during a run of shows so I think the more I do, the less I try to read especially if the show is ongoing because I think once the show is out there, you just want to focus on that and you’re doing what you’ve rehearsed for four to six weeks.
“You want to bring what you and your team have worked together on.
“The reviews are helpful but I don’t think they really matter to me personally so much.
“But it is a huge thing and I hopefully I will rise to be a full star someday,” Sarah laughs.
You have named grand stages you have graced, what has been a highlight of your journey so far?
“I’d say the most recent highlight is definitely Glyndebourne.
“I sang there last summer and it was another dream production.
“I think Glyndebourne was my dream festival to perform at.
“I’d seen DVDs when I was studying in St Finian’s and I remember saying, ‘I want to sing there. I’m going to sing there’.
“And then when I got there I was like, ‘I did the thing I wanted to do’.
“And the same at Royal Opera House.
“I sang a pretty small role.
“I sang The Sandman in Hansel and Gretel last Christmas but it’s going onto that stage.
“I really enjoy singing there and it was just a dream come true.
“I’m very lucky.
“I’m very happy and I’m grateful.”
UK is close to home obviously but is it even more special when you get to home home as in Dublin’s National Concert Hall?
“I sang Micaëla in Carmen in October.
“That was amazing.
“I really loved that.
“I found that more difficult almost than singing in Glyndebourne or at the Royal Opera House because you’re going home and I always find going home, more people know you obviously and there’s that added pressure.
“That’s kind of what I was saying.
“The more you do, the more pressure there is but also the reward is greater.
“That was beautiful because I got to see so many old colleagues from college as well actually who were playing in the orchestra.
“It was lovely to catch up with a couple of them and also to meet some new singing colleagues.
“I loved that.
“I really love the atmosphere of being in Dublin.
“I do sometimes miss living in Dublin because it reminds me of where I started off and it’s a huge honour.
“Even though I think it’s changed a lot, I think it still has that college feeling when I go there and I really enjoyed it.
“It was fab.
“And it was a couple of years ago now but I sang with Irish National Opera and that was fab too.
“That was really, really amazing.”
Let’s talk about your album. How did you enjoy doing that and will we see another one?
“Matters of the Heart I recorded with a very good friend of mine, Stephen Delaney and this actually was a project that sort of came out of the lockdown.
“I was locked away in my own apartment here in Basel and I think he was in Munich at the time.
“We weren’t in the same city but we were texting a lot and he was like, ‘Sarah, what are we going to do? Let’s come up with a programme that when this lockdown is over, we can perform it’.
“And that was the original idea. It was going to be just a concert series but then the ideas kept rolling and we ended up saying, ‘Hey, why don’t we just record an album?’
“That’s how it came about.
“For me I feel like I sound like a little baby on it which is so funny because I think we recorded in April 2021.
“It was the year after the big lockdown and that’s a long time for a singer.
“It’s almost five years ago now that we recorded that.
“The voice changes a lot so I think but what I think is it’s beautiful to have that snippet of my voice and my artistry from that time.
“I think that’s always lovely to have that to look back on and to listen back on and to share.
“It was very well received.
“I really enjoyed making it.
“Will there be another album?
“There’s no plan of it yet because it takes a lot of time and when your schedule is full, it’s very hard to find that time but it’s definitely something I would like to do again.
“I’m focused on the now and actually what is coming up in the next two or three months which is Giulio Cesare which I don’t think I can still yet describe how excited I am to do a dream role.
“Really it’s been a dream role for 15 years now so I think it probably is one of my longest dream roles.
“Firstly the number one dream role but also for how long it’s been a dream and how long I’ve kind of sung it on and off which is very funny to see how it’ll finally be when we put it together.”
Such a great time for you at the moment..
“It always comes back to being grateful for everything because you can’t ever really take anything for granted especially the opportunities that come your way.
“In this business you can’t always sing everywhere you want to sing so I’m very, very grateful and lucky and privileged to be singing my dream role in a couple of months.”
The Grange Festival 2026 runs 2 June – 12 July. For more information and to book, click here.
