During her studies at Trinity Laban‚ Daisy was awarded the Eva Malpass Scholarship and the City Livery Club Music Section prize. She was a Finalist in the Thelma King awards‚ a Semi-Finalist in the Handel Festival Singing Competition and was Highly Commended by the Boise Foundation Award. Daisy studied acting at the Central School of Speech and Drama in London.
Daisy’s most recent and future engagements include Amor Orfeo ed Euridice (Opera North and Buxton Festival), Blonde Die Entführung aus dem Serail (The Grange Festival)‚ Tytania A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Nevill Holt), Naiad (and cover Zerbinetta) Ariadne auf Naxos, title role The Snow Maiden and Karolka Jenufa (Opera North), Masha The Queen of Spades‚ Tweedle Dee Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Mabel The Pirates of Penzance (Opera Holland Park)‚ Single Mums do Opera with Bryony Kimmings (Hoxton Hall), Miss Jessel The Turn of the Screw (Bury Court Opera), Frasquita Carmen (Mid Wales Opera and Nevill Holt Opera), Daniel Susanna (Iford Arts)‚ Susanna Le Nozze di Figaro (Opera Vera), Emmie Albert Herring (Mid Wales Opera), Cis Albert Herring for the Britten Pears Young Artist Programme, Pamina The Magic Flute and Kiss me‚ Figaro! (Merry Opera Company) for which she was nominated for the ‘Off West End Award’ for Best Female Lead.
Daisy Brown is also making an impact as a stage director and was delighted to have been invited to direct Wolf-Ferrari's Il Segreto di Susanna in the inaugural If Opera Festival, and to be Assisting on the Jette Parker Young Artist Programme's end of year show at the Royal Opera.
Soprano Daisy Brown’s gorgeously sung Tytania is gloriously dignified throughout, all the better to expose the cruelty of the metaphysical conspiracy between Oberon.. and Puck to have her fall in love with a beast of burden.
Daisy Brown’s Tytania partners him perfectly, her shimmering soprano making light of the challenges of the role
But rescue comes – as it has before – in the form of Amore, sung by a bright-voiced Daisy Brown in a puce jacket, the only splash of colour on the stage. Having let Orfeo attempt to rescue Euridice from Elysium, she decides he has suffered enough, and can be re-united with his wife after all. The lightness of her voice is a good contrast with the richness of Leech’s mezzo-soprano, and conveys an edge of capriciousness.
Daisy Brown charms as Amore
As Mabel, Daisy Brown was fearless in all her coloratura and the pastiches of Handel, Donizetti and Verdi. With a marvellous puncturing of feminine mistique, her attempt to entrance Frederic was a blissful send-up of Kundry's similar mission to Parsifal. Mabel's 'Poor, wand'ring one' was a sparkler.
The present piece is a Psappha commission, the directive being a Viennese theme of the composer’s choice in the spirit of genius loci. Firsova sets three poems by Hugo von Hofmannsthal who is, of course, better known for his libretti. Daisy Brown was the astonishing soprano in these lovely settings, imbued with the spirit also of Richard Strauss’s music. The large ensemble included celeste (played by the pianist). The fairy tale scoring of ‘Weltgeheimnis’ (‘The Secret of the World’) speaks of what we cannot grasp about our planet, but also questions whether everything one experiences is just a dream, anyway. The music requires a clear enunciation of the text, and Brown’s diction was exemplary, her sensitivity to the text, and Firsova’s setting beyond question. For ‘Lied der Welt’ (‘Song of the World’), Firsova evokes the sense of a (Richard) Strauss Waltz. The poem was written late in Hofmannsthal’s life, after the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Finally, ‘Was ist die Welt?’ (‘What is the World?’), reflective, contemplative and with a tinge of sadness. The wind writing, plus the celesta halos, take us to the world of Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier, particularly that opera’s closing section. The level of musical tribute is high, but surprisingly Firsova’s piece does not feel derivative. Rather it is fascinating, brilliantly refreshing – great that it preceded the interval therefore – and thought-provoking. There is more depth here than one can grasp on one pass, I would suggest.
There were only two pieces in the second part of the concert. The first, Elisabeth Lutyens’s The Valley of Hatsu-Se...Disjunct but comprehensible thanks to finely judged repetition, the demands on the players are many. Both soprano Daisy Brown and pianist Ben Powell excelled, as did cellist Jennifer Langridge in her cadenza. What was so impressive was the purity of the intervals from all, but especially in the vocal line – there appeared to be no break in Brown’s traversal of huge intervallic spaces.
As his peevish wife Titania, Daisy Brown skittered with sparkling grace through the glittering coloratura – and somehow, yes, you could still hear her words even when she sailed into the topmost register.
The cast is generally good, led by Daisy Brown’s impressive Tytania, with just a hint of diamond hardness at the vertiginous top of her range.
...Daisy Brown’s soprano glistens and sparkles in Tytania’s star-scattered music.
While every one of the singers deserved a place at the top table alongside Anderson, Peter Kirk (Lysander) and Daisy Brown (Tytania) stood out as technically exceptional and physically commanding. The voice of each was so pure it seemed to cleanse the air it travelled through.
I’ve rarely heard a better matched pair of ghosts than Daisy Brown (Miss Jessel) and Andrew Dickinson (Quint). Brown, becoiffed like Helena Bonham Carter in one of her gothic roles, sang her underwritten role with shuddering conviction, her account abetted by subtle allusions to the character's death by drowning.
Andrew Dickinson as Quint and Daisy Brown as Jessel are spell-binding ghosts – they sound both real and other-worldly by turns and the way they appear and vanish is genuinely unsettling...there is a sensuality to Brown’s portrayal of Miss Jessel that is brave and very disturbing.
Daisy Brown’s lyrically voiced, disheveled Miss Jessel was no zombie, but a sensual young woman who, as Flora made clear as she played with her dolls, happened to meet a watery grave.
As her servant Blonde‚ inventively avoiding Osmin’s boo-hiss lechery‚ Daisy Brown managed both to send up and to support her mistress. Her light‚ lyrical singing simmered with Susanna – like mischief.
Daisy Brown was a pretty-voiced Blonde‚ with crystal clear top notes.
...Daisy Brown an absolute delight as her servant Blonde.
As Blonde‚ Daisy Brown made a wonderful contrast with Kiandra Howarth’s Konstanze. Pert‚ lively and characterful‚ Brown sang with pin-sharp accuracy and really charmed‚ as well as giving as good as she got in her scene with Jonathan Lemalu’s Osmin.
There was perhaps more light and shade in Daisy Brown’s singing as Blonde‚ and the Blonde-Pedrillo relationship was more convincingly romantic than Konstanze-Belmonte….. The four lovers achieved energetic counterpoint in their quarrel and a lovely vocal blend in their reconciliation.
Daisy Brown had an ideal voice for the opening acts of the opera‚ a slimline lyric coloratura‚ and a stage presence which emphasised the character’s naivety and innocence‚ her lack of understanding of the emotions of the real world. She made an appealing Snow Maiden‚ and sang the role with careful beauty‚ great charm and a sense of poignant naivety‚ In the final act‚ where in her desperation to learn to love the Snow Maiden calls on her mother and‚ on learning to love‚ dies‚ Daisy Brown gave the role her all but wisely without straining her voice. She concentrated on ease and fluency‚ but ideally the role needed a little more. That will come‚ as Brown’s voice developed and what she lacked in amplitude she gave in commitment. I don’t usually report on a cover performance in such detail‚ but felt that Brown’s considerable achievement needed coverage.
Daisy Brown stepped gallantly into the title role at short notice and won many admirers‚ besides Mizgir. Her light soprano suits the early coloratura‚ and her dying aria is poignant‚ overcoming the wearing of a yellow tabard more apt for coffee-grinding.
The identically dressed Daisy Brown and Nia Coleman are in perfect harmony throughout – and not just when they’re singing (beautifully)‚ but also in their movements and even the way they speak.
Daisy Brown and Nia Coleman alternate between the different sisters highlighted in this piece. They easily draw in the audience with warm smiles and a teensy bit of bashfulness that speaks to how the play’s subjects must have felt when originally being interviewed for these stories. The anguish‚ worry‚ and anger the two bring to the table later during the show is just as believable and relatable as well‚ and it’s quite easy to feel connected to these two and believe the words they’re speaking are their own...The composer‚ Alex Groves‚ must be commended for the surreal and otherworldly songs he had Brown and Coleman sing and create on stage as they recorded and replayed their stunning voices in front of us.
Brown‚ Coleman and Groves perform a tour de force of a performance‚ apparently effortlessly synching sound‚ loops‚ samples and live vocals‚ their proficiency speaking of many weeks of rehearsal and development.
...taking the form of an hour long sound collage led by two fantastic performers‚ Daisy Brown and Nia Coleman...Brown and Coleman sing and act in perfect synchronisation‚ every micro-expression and verbal tic replicated exactly. It’s like watching a high-wire act - the slightest wobble and the whole thing falls apart. But the duo never put a foot wrong‚ displaying a faintly unnerving confidence in each other’s abilities and their own I shudder to think how long it must have taken to rehearse a thing like this‚ not to mention the sheer commitment and concentration required to sustain perfection for an hour...This is an experience like little else I’ve seen in theatres of late. It’s sonically‚ visually and textually beautiful; able to make you laugh and feel in equal measure; and Daisy Brown and Nia Coleman’s performance skills are through the goddamn roof.
She also had plenty of fun in the tastefully staged Pastorale along with Daisy Brown’s prettily sung Prilepa. Brown also doubled up as Liza’s maid Masha and led the spirited folk dance.
Brown and Banfield sing and act to a very high standard—we believe in their destiny to be a couple (and a good-looking couple at that‚ which cannot go amiss among adolescent audiences).
All three show an easy and adept engagement with an audience at such close quarters.
Daisy Brown made a breezy Karolka
There is not a weak link in the cast‚ in terms either of singing or acting. Director Martin Duncan has clearly worked hard with them to project an ideal balance of immediacy and picture-book fantasy. Even the smaller roles‚ such as Samantha Price’s and Daisy Brown’s Tweedledee and Tweedledum‚ show an impressive skill in physical comedy
The small roles were all well done...Daisy Brown (Frasquita)
The small orchestra sound fine under Chalmers’s tidy baton and the supporting cast is decent‚ with Daisy Brown’s Frasquita making the strongest impression from the ensemble
Daisy Brown was a brilliant Susanna‚ a bag of sly wit and intelligence
...soprano Daisy Brown sweeps onto stage as the maid Susanna and proceeds to thread a piece of cotton straight through the eye of a needle – no mean feat for the steadiest of hands‚ let alone someone embarking on the lead role of a challenging‚ three-hour opera. Her composure sets the tone for this supremely accomplished performance...Daisy Brown is a no-nonsense Susanna‚ confident and coquettish with a warm twinkle in her eye and vocally au fait with Mozart’s pacy Italianate melodies. The chemistry between her and the equally-talented Peter Brooke’s Figaro is endearing
Daisy Brown was a fabulous Amore – a sassy‚ sexy Cupid who emerges from the chorus as one of Orfeo’s groupies...Brown constantly impressed and she sang “Gli sguardi trattieni” with light‚ bright tone‚ whilst merrily scattering Eurydice’s ashes from the urn
Daisy Brown justifies the enlarged role given here to Amore
Amore is entrancingly sung by soprano Daisy Brown
Amore...was sung with striking beauty and lovely purity of tone by Daisy Brown
Rising star Daisy Brown is impressive as Amore
Amore is sung with real charm and ping by Daisy Brown
Daisy Brown...proved such a delight as Amore
...well supported by Daisy Brown’s vibrant Frasquita‚ acting with her eyes as well as her voice
Daisy Brown and Marta Fontanals-Simmons presented the roles of Frasquita and Mercedes in this interpretation perfectly
The best things in it are intelligent touches in the directing of individual numbers: the card-reading trio (with Daisy Brown and Marta Fontanals-Simmons)
...there is much to praise in this Carmen...Vocally Marta Fontanals-Simmons (Mercedes) and Daisy Brown (Frasquita) blend beautifully with Helen Sherman (Carmen)
The credit here goes to Brown who not only has the emotionally hard hitting vocal range but a true naturalism that is so hard to find in the world of opera‚ not only commanding the stage with her presence but driving you to both tears of joy and sorrow
Brown is a revelation. Her Lascia Ch’io Pianga from Handel’s Rinaldo was delivered in her onstage dressing room with the utmost sincerity and exquisite precision
...this is a highlight of my Britten centenary trawl to date‚ warmly recommended if it’s coming your way
It’s worth holding out for Daisy Brown’s Pamina who has the kind of winsome innocence (coupled with the best vocals of the evening) every fairytale princess should have. Her “Ach‚ ich fühl’s” in particular is beautifully controlled and judged
We are granted legitimate access to the story during Daisy Brown’s breath-taking performance as both Mozart’s wife and Pamina. Alarmingly talented‚ Brown sings and acts with all the passion and conviction of a wide-eyed ingénue
Daisy Brown’s Pamina is even better — enchantingly wide-eyed and game in the skits but with gravity and vocal chops to melt your heart come the second act
Pamina/Constanze is outstandingly sung and acted by Daisy Brown — whom I long to hear again
Daisy Brown’s ravishingly sung Pamina stood out
Brown’s intensity and depth‚ paired with the more delicate timbre of Wayne-Wright’s countertenor register painted a comprehensive account of devotional sincerity...Emphatic vocal delivery and facial expressions possessed superb and moving credibility
Daniel’s last minute paean to chastity was sung with great poise by Daisy Brown
The lovely bloom of Daisy Brown’s soprano rang out‚ adding a bright aura to Daniel’s appearances in what was inevitably a slightly sombre evening
Daisy Brown brings presence and spark to Daniel’s appearances‚ leading the drama to a conclusion whose inevitable element of moral unease Furtado handles with sensitivity and intelligence
Daisy Brown’s Daniel was a neat bit of casting‚ the voice pure and youthfully bright‚ her stage presence quietly charismatic
Soprano Daisy Brown as “the go-between” Iris was utterly charming in “She resides in Sweet Retreat”