“Her lush soprano replete with changing colours and textures, she seems to have achieved a visceral embodiment of the acute anguish at the work’s core.” – Opera Magazine’s review of Paula’s newly released CD of Poulenc’s La Voix Humaine and Fiançaille pour rire.

Upcoming performances include Hanna Glawari in The Merry Widow with Scottish Opera, in a joint production with Opera Holland Park, and Beethoven’s 9th symphony at the Royal Festival Hall with the Philharmonia Orchestra. Paula recently sangCunegonde in Bernstein’s Candide for Scottish Opera to great critical acclaim: “Paula Sides’ slinky Cunegonde, whose set piece Glitter and Be Gay is a tour do force” (Guardian) “An upper register like sequins” (Spectator).

She was awarded the Tagor Gold Medal from the Royal College of the Music and the winner of the Karavoitis Prize in the Les Assurial International Competition.  Roles include Tsaritsa of Shemakha Golden Cockerel, Elettra in Mozart’s Idomeneo, Lucrezia Lucrezia Borgia & Mimi La Bohème with English Touring Opera. Donna Anna with Longborough Festival Opera, Giulietta in Verdi’s Un Giorno di Regno and the title role in Massenet’s Thais with Chelsea Opera Group. Other roles include Tosca Tosca, Mimi La Boheme, Lauretta Gianni Schicchi, Eleonora L’Assedio di Calai, Gilda Rigoletto, Poppea Aggripina, Calisto La Calisto & Eurydice Orphée et Eurydice.​

Concert highlights include in Vaughan Williams Symphony No. 7 Antarctica with the Stavanger Symfonikor in Finland & Opera North Orchestra in the UK with Richard Farnes, Mahler 8 with David Hill with Opera North Symphony Orchestra, Mahler 2, Strauss Four Last Songs, Rossini’s Stabat Mater, Mozart’s Requiem, Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis and Mass in C, Dvořák Te Deum, and Britten’s War Requiem with the Southampton Philharmonic and London Mozart Players. She recently sang Beethoven’s 9th Symphony at the Southbank Royal Festival Hall with the Philharmonia Orchestra and will be returning to sing the Symphony again at the Royal Festival Hall on November the 14th 2024.

Photographs by Sussie Ahlburg