September News
La Bohéme Insight Morning with Renato Balsadonna
Last month, we hosted two wonderful events involving our Young Artists. The first, an Insight Morning with esteemed conductor Renato Balsadonna (Royal Opera House), focused on the opera La boheme. Renato provided our audience with detailed information and insight into this much loved opera, and coached some of our Young Artists on key moments within it. He was joined by sopranos Catherine Hooper and Grace Nyandoro; tenor Brenton Spiteri and baritone Jack Holton, who all sang wonderfully and seemed to thoroughly enjoy working alongside Renato.
Verismo: Extraordinary stories about ordinary people
Our second event was a lecture recital in Henley entitled Verismo: Extraordinary stories about ordinary people, with baritone Dan D’Souza and pianist George Ireland. Dan and George explored the world of Verismo opera - from the sociopolitical situation at the time, to the musical language it was reacting against, and how this created a new musical style for the people. We heard extracts from the operas Cavalleria rusticana, Pagliacci, Andrea Chenier and more. It was a delightful morning, with fascinating insights into a key part of the operatic repertoire.
Beyond our own events, our Young Artists got up to a lot of fabulous work in September. Peter Edge, baritone, made his debut at the Royal Opera House in the Linbury Theatre as one third of the Trio in Leonard Bernstein’s Trouble in Tahiti, pictured below. The production received some glowing reviews, and we’re sure the many Bernstein enthusiasts in London were thrilled to be able to see these chamber operas back-to-back. Congratulations, Peter, for your wonderful work!
Mezzo-soprano Annabel Kennedy competed in the Wigmore Hall/Bollinger Internation Song Competition with pianist Ana Mănăstireanu, advancing to the semi-final. Annabel shared some comments about her experience in the competition: “We were very proud of our performances and it was a joy as always to sing in the glorious Wigmore Hall twice.” We can’t wait to hear some recordings of their performance, which we are sure was glorious!
And at the very end of the month, tenor Harry Grigg began performing with English Touring Opera in their production of Rimsky-Korsakov’s The Snowmaiden. Harry will be singing in the ensemble, and the performance will tour around England until mid-November. Best of luck with all of the performances, Harry!