October News
Last month, we were joined by some fabulous artists for a couple of lovely events. The first, a salon recital in Fawley entitled Love and Loss: A Journey from Schumann to Shostakovich, was delivered by baritone Hugo Herman-Wilson and pianist Lucy Colquhoun. This was a wonderfully intimate event which centred themes of wistfulness and sentimentality. How lovely that we could listen to this wonderful music in such a close setting – thank you to Fiona and Andrew for hosting! – and to share a glass of prosecco together at the same time! Hugo and Lucy were a wonderful team, and it was a joy to see them work together which such synchronicity.
Masterclass with Catherine
Wyn-Rogers, mezzo soprano
This was followed towards the end of the month by a masterclass with the renowned mezzo-soprano Catherine Wyn-Rogers. Catherine was joined by Opera Prelude Young Artists Joanna Harries, Brenton Spiteri and Peter Edgy, with Lucy Colquhoun joining once again on the piano. Catherine is an absolute delight, and our Young Artists hugely appreciated the way she shared insight into the technical and interpretative side of a performance. She also shared great bits of expert advice on language and interpretation, and the singers felt very grounded after a morning spent with her! We are so grateful to Catherine for being there, and to our Young Artists for joining so enthusiastically.
Our final recital of the month was entitled Voices of Angels: The Evolution of Soprano Roles in Opera, delivered by the simply fab soprano, Grace Nyandoro and pianist Guy Murgatroyd. This was a really joyous morning enjoyed by all – Grace’s presentation was so clear and enthusiastic, and the music-making was of the highest possible quality. We had so much wonderful feedback from audience members and we can’t wait to see Grace and Guy again in the future. Thank you so much to both of them for their excellent contributions.
To top it all off – we had our Young Artist Programme 2025 auditions at the end of October!
We were delighted to be joined by supporters in the audience, and were truly blown away by the calibre of singing displayed by all who auditioned. It is always a challenge to make decisions after an audition, and their excellent singing made it even trickier. We are so excited to announce our next cohort of Young Artists soon!
Our Young Artists were making huge strides elsewhere last month. Eliran Kadussi, countertenor, and Brenton Spiteri, tenor, appeared in Horse Person Opera as part of the Tête à Tête Opera Festival 2024 at the Cockpit Theatre in September, and their performances were streamed online at the beginning of October. Eliran appeared in another opera at Tête à Tête entitled The Game – a dark, absurdist comedy about the human relationship with technology and digital culture. It’s great to see our young artists keeping contemporary opera alive!
2021 Young Artist Patrick Alexander Keefe has achieved some incredible feats this year, and last month he could be found at ENO singing the role of Schaunard in La boheme! He received some excellent reviews, described as “constantly dashing” by Opera Magazine and as having “oodles of charm” by the British Theatre Guide. Congratulations Patrick!
