Aoife Gibney, Irish soprano, is a freelance lyric-coloratura soprano who is hailed for her "pleasantly timbered, [...} weightless and stratospherically triumphant" voice. A former member of the Opera Studio at the Staatsoper Stuttgart, Aoife has since gone on to perform some of the major roles in the bel-canto repertoire.
On completing her undergraduate studies in Dublin, she was awarded a first-class Honours and the Michael McNamara Gold Medal for Outstanding Performance. She furthered her studies in the Masters class of Hedwig Fassbender in Frankfurt HfMDK. As a Britten-Pears Young Artist, Aoife partook in a series of masterclasses with Andreas Scholl, Bernarda Fink, and most recently, Antonio Pappano, Pamela Bullock and Julia Faulkner.
In the 2018/19 season, Aoife performed the role of Musetta in the Staatsoper Stuttgart’s production of La Bohème, and subsequently went on to jump-in in the premiere production at the State Theatre of Braunschweig. She will reprise the role in Stuttgart’s 2019/20 season. In May 2019, she will debut as Norina in Don Pasquale at the Blackwater Valley Opera Festival in Ireland. Aoife will begin the 2019/20 season as the title role of Marie in Donizetti’s La fille du régiment in TOBS Biel, Switzerland.
Other notable appearances at Oper Stuttgart include Frau Silberklang in Mozart’s Der Schauspieldirektor, Sandman/Dew Fairy, Barbarina, Papagena,2.2 Blumenmädchen in Parsifal, Cupido in Orpheus in the Underworld, Strawberry-seller in Britten’s Death in Venice. Recent engagements also include a jump-in as Cupido in a new production at the National Theatre in Mannheim.
In June 2017, in the Pfalztheater Kaiserslautern, Aoife performed the leading role of Xiao-Han in Christian Jost’s 2012 opera, Heart Sutra, in a joint production with the National Theatre in Luxemburg. Aoife was the 2016 winner of the Gervase Elwes Cup in the ESB Feis Ceoil, for overall best vocal performance. She was subsequently the recipient of the RDS Music Bursary; one of the largest of its kind in Europe.