British born and of Mauritian and Lithuanian heritage, Kezia studied musical theatre at the Brit School, then went on to study at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and completed her studies at the Benjamin Britten International Opera School of the Royal College of Music (RCM) in 2015. Kezia is a Solti Te Kanawa Academia di Bel Canto alumna.
Current and most recent engagements include Mercedes and cover Carmen (Glyndebourne Festival), the title role in Carmen and Beppe L’amico Fritz (Opera Holland Park), Suzuki Madam Butterfly and 2nd Lady The Magic Flute for Welsh National Opera, Kaled Le Roi de Lahore (Dorset Opera Festival), Silvia (The Messenger) Orfeo (Opera North), Sesto La Clemenza di Tito (Chelsea Opera Group) and Ottavia L'incoronazione di Poppea (ETO), as well as recording Leontina L’esule di Roma for Opera Rara.
She was a member of the Glyndebourne Chorus from 2015-17, and went on to make her Glyndebourne Festival début as Cornelia in David McVicar’s iconic Giulio Cesare, conducted by William Christie, and later that year as Dorothée Cendrillon (directed by Fiona Shaw) in her début for Glyndebourne on Tour. In 2019 she appeared as Second Lady The Magic Flute for her Welsh National Opera début , where she soon returned to sing Forester’s Wife (and cover Fox) Cunning Little Vixen.
Other opera engagements have included La frugola Il Tabarro and Gianetta Don Bucefalo (Wexford Festival Opera), Miss Jessel Turn of the Screw (Barnes Festival), Iside Giove in Argo and Tauride Arianna in Creta (London Handel Festival), Concepcion L’heure Espagnole and Doralice La gazzetta (RCM) Marcellina Le nozze di Figaro (British Youth Opera) and Dido Dido and Aeneas (Glyndebourne Youth Opera).
After the Toreador Song, Act 2 just kept getting better. The smugglers’ plotting was turned into a delicious comic relief interlude with an almost music-hall flair, all of Kezia Bienek, Elisabeth Boudreault, Loïc Félix and François Piolino playing their parts to perfection. It set things up perfectly for the crisis moment when it becomes clear to Carmen that Don José is not the man she thought he was
It was a young, impressive, exceptionally good cast
The ensuing Quintet in which Carmen’s fellow-smugglers – of people, it turns out in Act Three, not merchandise – try to persuade her to join the next mission has ideal crispness and dynamic variety: Elisabeth Boudreault, Kezia Bienek (a fine Carmen herself), Loïc Félix and François Piolino lend the vital three-quarters French authenticity
As Carmen’s girlfriends Frasquita and Mercédès, Canadian soprano Elisabeth Boudreault and Brit School alumnus mezzo Kezia Bienek bring energy and charm to the trio “Les tringles des sistres tintaient”.
Kezia Bienek’s Ottavia, less sympathetic than some, gradually loses both control and dignity. ...Bienek, fierce in rage and scorn, does superb things with Ottavia’s agonised farewell to Rome.
the sheer beauty of Kezia Bienek’s mezzo is shown to advantage in her scene with Sitâ.
Kezia Bienek was Kaled, the King’s servant. A small role, Kaled disappears after Act Two, but Bienek and Nasibli had a lovely duet in Act Two with the two voices undulating together delectably, then Bienek had a solo that was stylishly engagingly sung and made you regret the role was not larger.
Kezia Bienek made a terrific foil as a poised Sesto. Shaping the music with light, easy tone, she was responsive and intense. "Parto, parto" made a superb start to things, Bienek moving stylishly through the music complemented by Alan Maries' fine basset clarinet solo (and Maries was equally impressive in the basset horn solo in Vitellia's "Non più di fiori"). Things were just as impressive in Sesto's big Act Two aria, "Deh, per questo istante solo", with Bienek stylish and intense, yet never trying to push the music into something more late romantic. This was an impressive account of the role and one that I would be very keen to experience on stage.
The three ladies were a feisty trio
Nazan Fikret, Kezia Bienek and Claire Barnett-Jones are a fine, mercifully orthodox, trio of actual Ladies
Kezia Bienek’s dramatic intrusion as the Messenger, bringing news of Eurydice’s death from a snake bite.
The singing is superb, whether it is ....., or the blunt interruption of Kezia Bienek’s Sylvia, bringing the news of Eurydice’s death.
Kezia Bienek makes an electrifying entrance as Silvia the messenger of doom
Keiza Bienek was a lithe and attractive Carmen, with a lovely strong, focused middle and lower register. Her famous solos were all finely and seductively sung, yet there was a sense of performance, of her putting on a show and hiding her real self. She was clearly an independent woman, with plenty of humour in her attitude to men, sexuality was part of her armoury rather than her defining characteristic. The Act Three card trio was finely delivered from the fore-stage, Bienek's strong, serious tone contrasting with the light charm of Agarwal and Edmonds, yet this was just a strand to Carmen's personality, she lived in the moment. In Act Four, Bienek's Carmen revelled in the attention and the end was certainly not fatalistic, this Carmen struggled.
Carmen, Seville’s great seductress, is sensuously sung by mezzo-soprano Kezia Bienek
Where Stinton’s rethink leaves its strongest impressions is not only in Bienek’s finely tuned, thoughtfully sung account of the iconic role – delivered without vocal roughness or dramatic cliché ...
Kezia Bienek is a charismatic Carmen at the mercy of Don José’s obsessive control in Cecilia Stinton’s cogent and pacey new production.
Bienek’s charismatic, incisive-sounding Carmen shines
Striding about the stage, Kezia Bienek is all about power, rather than sex. Her Habanera is less a come-on than a lead-on, a musical game at the expense of the men who surround her. Bienek’s Carmen commands the stage. Wary and cool in her movements, her even-toned mezzo does the seducing, showing some heat in the Seguidilla, but at its best in the sterner lines of the “card aria”, En vain pour éviter.
Kezia Bienek’s portrayal is excellent as, with her engaging mezzo-soprano that is as alluring as it is secure, she laces the central image of an icy cold seductress, who knows she does not actually have to try in order to ensnare men, with so many other emotions.
Kezia Bienek fully inhabited the title role, insofar as the production permitted. Hers was a Carmen, quite rightly, not inclined to take any prisoners, yet far from one-dimensional. Vocal delivery was well centred on the text as a whole (that is, words and music) and stage presence fitted the bill splendidly throughout.
Yet the strongest female presence on stage is perhaps that of Kezia Bienek’s Suzuki, emotional and empathetic, imposing and kind at the same time, a truly stand-out performance.