July News
This summer has been an exciting one for many of our Young Artists. Whilst we have taken a break for the summer from Opera Prelude events, our Young Artists have been busy cracking on with summer contracts, tours and musical premieres!
Joanna Harries, mezzo-soprano, and Jolyon Loy, baritone, took their production of Handel’s Orlando with Liberata Collective to Buxton International Festival. Performed in the art of Baroque Gesture and with period instruments, Liberata Collective aimed to produce the opera as Handel’s own audiences may have witnessed it. They received some fabulous reviews, with Joanna described as an “elegant” Medoro and Jolyon as a “vocally and physical” imposing Zoroastro by Bachtrack. A hearty congratulations to them both!
Anna Cooper, mezzo-soprano, and Charles Styles, tenor, both appeared at Glyndebourne as members of the chorus. In particular, this year’s production of Poulenc’s Dialogues des Carmèlites was roundly well received, with The Guardian noting that the power of the opera’s scenes were “testament to the remarkable performances of the cast and ever-excellent Glyndebourne Chorus” – we are sure that Anna and James’s contributions were invaluable in creating this effect!
Elsewhere, Toki Hamano, baritone, and Catherine Hooper, soprano, were involved in OperaUpClose’s tour of The Flying Dutchman. Both covering main roles, the production was also excellently reviewed, described as a “memorable and thought-provoking evening” by one reviewer. Toki was also featured in the chorus at Opera Holland Park this summer, while Catherine delivered a number of recitals with OperaUpClose entitled We Two Were Lovers, The Sea and I.
On the new music front, soprano Mimi Doulton gave a performance at Spitalfields Music entitled TELL, for which she premiered two new pieces of music by Michael Finnissy and Rasmus Zwicki exploring the legacy of story-telling. Mimi was quoted by Spitalfields as saying: “all music tells a story, whether it has words or not”, but these new pieces centralised fables and legends as a method of exploring a culture of story-telling which has been passed down from generation to generation. It sounded like a fascinating performance and we were so glad to see Mimi thriving in the new music sphere!
Towards the end of the month, Peter Edge, tenor “shone” at Longborough Festival Opera as Lysander in The Fairy Queen, while James Geidt, baritone, appeared as a “stalwart” Peter in the Three Choirs Festival’s performance of Elgar’s The Apostles.
What a great month!
Our Autumn programme is now available to book.
We look forward to welcoming.