Tuesday 24 February 2026

 

Soprano Danielle de Niese has been named as the recipient of the Outstanding Contribution to Opera Award at the 2026 Olivier Awards. Honoured by a panel of industry leaders worldwide, this award highlights de Niese and her extraordinary career on the world’s most prestigious opera and concert stages, also making her mark as a prolific recording artist, television personality, and philanthropist.

Recent role debuts include her return to Opera Australia in the title role of Bizet’s Carmen, and Jenny in Weill’s The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny with English National Opera:

“De Niese is a Carmen for today. For right now…She has warmth and sensuality to burn, along with an actor’s forensic understanding of text. The orchestration gives De Niese all the space she needs to bring her incandescent Carmen to full, complex existence. A mass of thrilling, contradictory and messy qualities, all of which de Niese articulates with exquisite finesse.” Limelight, July 2025

“de Niese’s vocal security and theatrical confidence is a hallmark of the production.” The Saturday Paper, July 2025

“Jenny Smith…is expressively sung and agilely acted by Australian-American soprano Danielle de Niese. She pulls your focus on the stage by delivering a performance full of movement, brittleness and mockery… De Niese is theatrically talented…” Therecs.co.uk, February 2026

Other notable roles for de Niese include her portrayal of La Voix Humaine with Sir Antonio Pappano and the Royal Opera House Orchestra in a feature film for Sky Arts, Weill’s Seven Deadly Sins with the New World Symphony Orchestra, the London Philharmonic Orchestra and The Danish National Symphony Orchestra, Alice Ford in Verdi’s Falstaff with Hamburg State Opera and Hanna Glawari in Lehár’s The Merry Widow for Glyndebourne Festival Opera and Opera Australia.

The Olivier Awards 2026 will take place on Sunday 12 April at the Royal Albert Hall in London marking the 50th Anniversary of the awards.

Exclusive: Danielle de Niese shares with Intermusica how she became an opera singer.