Christine Rice MBE was born and educated in Manchester and read physics at Balliol College, Oxford before entering the Royal Northern College of Music to study with Robert Alderson.
At the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden her many roles have included the title role in Carmen, Giulietta Les Contes d’Hoffman, Concepcion L’Heure Espagnol, Emilia Otello, the title role in The Rape of Lucretia, Sonyetka Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, Judith Duke Bluebeard’s Castle, Hansel and Maddalena Rigoletto; andtwo world premieres: Ariadne in Birtwistle’s The Minotaur and Miranda in Ades’ The Tempest. For English National Opera she has sung Nero Agrippina, Olga Eugene Onegin, Arsace Partenope, Rosina Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Zenobia Radamisto, Marguerite The Damnation of Faust, Nicklausse The Tales of Hoffmann and Dorabella Cosi fan tutte and for De Vlaamse Opera the title roles in Ariodante and Rinaldo. She has appeared at the Bayerische Staatsoper, Munich as Ariodante, Rinaldo and Dorabella; at the Teatro Real Madrid as Hermia; at Seattle Opera as Dorabella; at Frankfurt Opera and Teatro Real Madrid as Penelope Il Ritorno d’Ulisse in Patria; in Paris at the Opéra Comique; in Luxembourg as Béatrice; as Diana in La Calisto in Geneva; as Rosina for Welsh National Opera and as Carmen for the Deutsche Oper Berlin.
Christine’s concert appearances include Elgar’s Sea Pictures and Debussy’s La Damouiselle Elue with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra; Wagner’s Das Rheingold with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment under Sir Simon Rattle; The Dream of Gerontius with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and the Philharmonia Orchestra under Edward Gardner and the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra; La Mort de Cleopatre with the RAI Orchestra in Turin; Des Knaben Wunderhorn at the Teatro Massimo in Palermo; the St Matthew Passion at the St Denis Festival with John Nelson, Britten’s Spring Symphony and Handel’s Judas Maccabeus at the BBC Proms; the world premiere of Harbison’s Closer to my own Life with the New York Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and Verdi’s Requiem with the Philadelphia Orchestra under Yannick Nézet-Séguin, both at New York’s Carnegie Hall. She sang Annio in La Clemenza di Tito at the Edinburgh Festival under Sir Charles Mackerras, which was recorded for Deutsche Grammophon.
For the BBC she has recorded De Falla’s El Amor Brujo, Elgar’s Sea Pictures, Berlioz’s Les Nuits d’été and an English song recital and Wolf’s Spanisches Liederbuch with Iain Burnside. Christine has also recorded an EMI: a debut recital disc with Roger Vignoles and and Respighi’s Il Tramonto with Antonio Pappano.
Engagements in the 2014/15 season include Almaltea in Rossini’s Mose in Egitto for Welsh National Opera; Bradamante Alcina with the English Concert; Jenny Smith in Weill’s The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny at Covent Garden; a return to Glyndebourne Festival Opera and her debut at The Metropolitan Opera, New York as Hansel and Giulietta Les contes d’Hoffmann.