Contralto Alissa Anderson performs the role of Old Lady in Leonard Bernstein’s Candide January 14, 16 and 19, 2025. 

Contralto Alissa Anderson wields her comic prowess, striking features, and powerful vocalism to great acclaim on opera and concert stages worldwide. Ms. Anderson achieved a considerable success and was celebrated for being “impeccably prepared” and “splendid in every way” when she stepped in as Florence Pike in Santa Fe Opera’s Albert Herring under the baton of Sir Andrew Davis. In 2020, Ms. Anderson made a lauded début as Mrs. Lovett at Royal Danish Opera. Opera News raved, “…it was left to an American Mrs. Lovett, Alissa Anderson, to show the natives how it should be done… Anderson was the best of all of them. She has a true contralto voice… her comic timing was exemplary.”

Ms. Anderson began last season making her début at Hawaii Opera Theatre as Mrs. Medlock in The Secret Garden and made her role and company début at Nashville Opera as Baba in The Medium. She also débuted at Chicago Opera Theatre as the Deaconess in Krol Roger and as Florence Pike in Albert Herring and with Pacific Symphony as Maddalena in Rigoletto. She embarks upon this season with her Virginia Opera début as Erda in Siegfried then joins the Dallas Symphony and Highland Park Presbyterian for Dvorak’s Stabat Mater.

Anderson joined The Metropolitan Opera roster in 2021 as Nurse (cover) in Boris Gudunov. Other recent engagements include her début with Angers-Nantes Opera as Mother Goose in The Rake’s Progress, a reprise of her Marcellina at Austin Opera, Dame Quickly in Falstaff with Berkshire Opera Festival, Mama in Why I Live at the Post Office with UrbanArias, Erda in Das Rheingold with Opera Santa Barbara, and alto soloist with Heartbeat Opera’s popular “Messy Messiah” concert.

Other notable engagements for Ms. Anderson include Maddalena in Rigoletto (San Diego Opera, Opera in the Heights), Marthe in Faust (Opera San Antonio), Marcellina in Le nozze di Figaro (Utah Festival Opera, North Carolina Opera, Opera Santa Barbara), Mrs. Andrews/The Bird Woman in Mary Poppins (Utah Festival Opera), the Witch in Into the Woods (Utah Festival Opera), La tragédie de Carmen (Opera Birmingham, Opera Louisiana), Frugola/La Zia Principessa in Il trittico (Opera Delaware), Tisbe in La Cenerentola (San Diego Opera), La Zia Principessa/Ciesca in Il trittico (Opera Company of Middlebury), La Zia Principessa/Zita in Suor Angelica/Gianni Schicchi (Opera Santa Barbara), Cleo in The Most Happy Fella (Tulsa Opera), Mother Goose in The Rake’s Progress (Utah Opera), Lampito in Lysistrata (Fort Worth Opera), Emilia in Otello (Opera Southwest), Zulma in L’italiana in Algeri (Opera Southwest), Madame de la Haltiere in Cendrillion (Santa Fe Concert Association), Mother in Hansel and Gretel (Santa Fe Concert Association), and her return to Santa Fe Opera where she sang the Society Woman in The Last Savage. In addition, she made her “comically perfect” début as Mistress Quickly in Falstaff with Opera in the Heights and her Houston Grand Opera début in their East + West series production, River of Light, by Jack Perla and Chitra Divakaruni.

Recent concert engagements have included John Adams’ Grand Pianola Music with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, Haydn’s Lord Nelson Mass with Concordia University Symphony Orchestra, her European début as mezzo soloist in the Verdi Requiem with performances throughout Germany and France and her Lincoln Center début as the mezzo soloist in Mahler’s 2nd Symphony.

At Sarasota Opera, Ms. Anderson performed the roles of Dritte Dame in Die Zauberflöte, Sandman in Hansel and Gretel, and Flora in La Traviata. As a resident and principal artist with Fort Worth Opera she performed the roles of Tisbe in La Cenerentola, Mother in Amahl and the Night Visitors, Alisa in Lucia di Lammermoor, and the Angel Trio in Angels in America. Scott Cantrell of the Dallas Morning News praised her 2010 performance of the Verdi Requiem with the University of North Texas Symphony Orchestra stating, “Mezzo Alissa Anderson supplied aptly rich tones and an awesome chest voice.”

As a young artist, Ms. Anderson performed with the Santa Fe Opera, Des Moines Metro Opera, and Ashlawn-Highland Opera, and Seagle Music Colony. She received the Kathryn Tyrell Award in the Shreveport Opera Competition, the Agnes M. Canning Award from Santa Fe Opera, and the Stuart R. Silver Award from Sarasota Opera. She holds her Master of Music from The University of Maryland and her Bachelor of Music in Vocal Performance from the University of North Texas.