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EMILY PULLEY
MEZZO-SOPRANO
BIOGRAPHY
Acclaimed mezzo-soprano Emily Pulley’s radiant voice and electrifying acting have won her both national and international acclaim on the operatic stage. At home in both traditional and contemporary repertoire, last season Ms. Pulley joined The Metropolitan Opera for a workshop of The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay and she sang Kate Heller in the world premiere of Carla Lucero and Marianna Mott Newirth’s Touch, about the life of Helen Keller, with Opera Birmingham. She sang Ježibaba in Rusalka with Opera Orlando, returned to Eugene Opera to sing the Witch in Hansel and Gretel, and she also joined Wichita Grand Opera to co-direct and sing the Old Lady in Candide. This season she takes her hilarious, self-directed Julia Child in Lee Hoiby’s one-woman Bon Appétit to Fort Worth Opera, followed by Nashville Opera, where it will appear on a double bill with the world premiere of Shawn E. Okpebholo and Mark Campbell’s The Cook-Off, in which she will sing the role of Beryl Bennett. She will then return to Nashville Opera later in the season to direct H.M.S. Pinafore and portray the role of Little Buttercup.
Previously, Pulley held tenure at Lyric Opera of Chicago, was seen as Ruth in The Pirates of Penzance with Nashville Opera, and performed as Mrs. Lovett in Sweeney Todd with Opera Omaha, Zita in Gianni Schicchi with Tulsa Opera, Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings in the world premiere of The Secret River with Opera Orlando, and Sister 1 in the world premiere of Why I Live at the P.O. with Urban Arias.
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CRITICAL ACCLAIM
"Her voice is rich and her comedic timing is admirable." – BroadwayWorld
Sweeney Todd – "Emily Pulley garners many laughs as the amicable Mrs Lovett. Her voice is rich and her comedic timing is admirable."
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"...vocally lustrous and dramatically nuanced..." – Boston Globe
Turn of the Screw – “As the governess sent to a remote home to look after two orphaned children, Emily Pulley gave a superb performance, vocally lustrous and dramatically nuanced, conveying a fierce determination to protect her charges but also a touching vulnerability as she slowly became unglued by the presence of evil spirits in her midst.”
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"Her rich timbre offers a high register that rings through the house like steel..." – South Florida Classical Review
Three Decembers – “The role of Madeline is a musico-theatrical tour de force... Emily Pulley... who played Beatrice in some of the opera’s previous stagings, seizes the opportunity to the fullest, delivering a vocally sumptuous performance. Pulley manages to humanize Madeline, underplaying the heroine’s unsympathetic side. Her rich timbre offers a high register that rings through the house like steel while encompassing the role’s varied vocal demands. In the score’s more Broadway-centric moments, Pulley radiates the ease of a natural chanteuse. Her stage presence is nothing short of charismatic. Even when she is silently reacting to her children’s anger, one’s attention is firmly focused on this gifted singing actress.”
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"...she captured the psychological complexity and heartbroken innocence..." – Opera News
Turn of the Screw – “Emily Pulley was outstanding as the embattled Governess. The role fits Pulley’s voice like a glove, and she captured the psychological complexity and heartbroken innocence of one of Britten’s great tragic characters.”
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“‘...Heiss’ (‘hot’) was the right word for Pulley’s ‘Meine Lippen sie küssen so heiss’ (‘My lips they kiss so hot’)..." – Music in Cincinnati
"Concert in Cincinnati" – “‘Heiss’ (‘hot’) was the right word for Pulley’s ‘Meine Lippen sie küssen so heiss’ (‘My lips they kiss so hot’) from Viennese Franz Lehar’s ‘Giuditta.’ She enlivened it even further kicking off her shoes and sprinting through the hall before singing her final vamp-like verse. Pulley’s ‘Song to the Moon’ from Dvořák’s ‘Rusalka’ was beautifully, diametrically opposed, with its heart-wrenching, earnest longing.”
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"...Ms. Pulley made it her own with equal measures of wit and raw talent...” – Broadway World
A White House Cantata – “Emily Pulley shone as all of the First Ladies, and earned an extended ovation after the famous ‘Duet for One,’ in which she played both Julia Grant and Lucy Hayes watching the inauguration of Rutherford Hayes. The song is a trial for any singer, and Ms. Pulley made it her own with equal measures of wit and raw talent.”