Wild Arts presents the latest of their trademark Opera Evening shows.
Performed by four world-class singers and a string quintet, follow our characters as they travel through 75 minutes of music, from arias by Handel, Mozart, or Rossini, to the songs of Gershwin, Rodgers, and Tom Lehrer.
Story and staging by James Hurley
The players at Bury St Edmunds (all photos by Lucy J Toms)
A little fizz for the interval (all photos by Karolina Krasuska)
After a period as a member of the soloists’ ensemble at the Perm State Opera Theatre, Galina Averina studied at the Royal College of Music International Opera School. She won the Bampton Classical Opera Young Singers Competition and the Francisco Viñas Competition in Barcelona. Most recently, she has sung Adina in Wild Arts' acclaimed production of The Elixir of Love, and debuted with Opera North as Magda in La Rondine (★★★★★ “terrific … with sparkling vivacity,” The Guardian). Other highlights have included Mimi (La Bohème) for Mid Wales Opera, Marzelline (Fidelio) for Garsington, and Magda (La Rondine) and Contessa Almaviva (Le Nozze di Figaro) for West Green House Opera.
Natasha Page is a graduate of the Royal College of Music International Opera Studio, where she studied with Rosa Mannion. She was awarded First Place at the Maureen Lehane Vocal Awards 2023. As well as concert performances at Chichester Cathedral, Cadogan Hall, and St John's Smith Square, her operatic roles include the title role in Rita and Bianca/Gabriella La Rondine (IfOpera), Fiordiligi Cosi fan Tutte (Celebrate Voice Festival), covering Ismene Mitridate, Despina Cosi fan Tutte and Adele Le Comte Ory (Garsington Opera), covering Semele Semele (Opera de Lille), Belinda Dido and Aeneas (Hurn Court Opera), Cleopatra Julius Caesar (Kings Opera) and covering Soprano Medusa (Royal Ballet/Royal Opera House).
Elinor Rolfe Johnson was a Royal Conservatoire of Scotland scholar and a Britten-Pears Young Artist. She has been a finalist in various competitions, including the Sing Finzi, London Welsh Singer of the Year, and International Handel Competitions. Performance highlights range from Contessa (Le Nozze di Figaro), Donna Elvira (Don Giovanni), and Rosalinde (Die Fledermaus), to Desdemona (Otello), and she has worked with companies including Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, Nevill Holt Opera, and Regents Opera. Venue highlights include Carnegie Hall, Berlin Philharmonic, Royal Opera House, Het Concertgebouw, Royal Festival Hall, Royal Albert Hall, the Barbican, and La Scala, as well as several broadcasts on Radio 3.
Catherine Backhouse studied at the University of Durham, Guildhall School of Music and Drama and was a Scottish Opera Emerging Artist. Highlights include Preziosilla (La Forza del Destino) for Regent’s Opera, Concepción (L’heure Espagnole) for Grange Park Opera (film) and Mid-Wales Opera, Isabella (L’Italiana in Algeri) with Diva Opera, Suzuki (Madama Butterfly) with West Green House Opera, Kate Julian (Owen Wingrave) at the Aldeburgh and Edinburgh International Festivals. On the concert platform The Angel in Elgar’s Dream of Gerontius, Verdi’s Requiem, Irene in Handel’s Theodora. Next year she will play Waltraute in Wagner’s Die Walküre and Götterdämmerung with Regent’s Opera.
Martha Jones studied at the Royal College of Music International Opera School, where she was awarded the Susan Chilcott Scholarship by the Royal Philharmonic Society. Having participated in Young Artist programmes for the Ravinia Festival, Carnegie Hall, Britten Pears, and Samling, she sang Dorabella for Wild Arts’ Così Fan Tutte in 2022, and has performed the same role for English Touring Opera and Classical Opera/The Mozartists. She works regularly with English National Opera, Grange Festival, Scottish Opera, Opera de Limoges, Opera Vlaanderen, Glyndebourne, and the London Philharmonic Orchestra. Her recordings include The Call with Malcolm Martineau.
Michael Bell studied at the Royal College of Music and St. John’s College, Cambridge. Roles include Madwoman in the Moscow premiere of Curlew River, the Acrobat in Conor Mitchell’s Les Selenites, Tamino (Die Zauberflöte), Nemorino (L'elisir d’amore), Die Knusperhexe (Hänsel und Gretel), Spoletta (Tosca), Pastore (Orfeo), Vašek (The Bartered Bride) and Damon (Acis and Galatea) with companies including Wexford and Garsington Festivals, Irish National Opera and Waterperry Opera. In 2024, he has made his debut with English National Opera as 1st Armed Man (The Magic Flute), and premiered Conor Mitchell's The Sun Still Shines with the Ulster Orchestra. He is currently singing Almaviva (Il barbiere di Siviglia) for Diva Opera.
A Wild Arts Young Artist 2024, Lachlan Craig studied at the University of Auckland, before joining the Voices New Zealand Chamber Choir. Recent engagements include St Matthew’s Passion with Tudor Consort, Schumann Requiem with Bach Musica New Zealand, Israel in Egypt with Opus Orchestra, and Messiah with New Zealand Barok and Scholars Baroque Aotearoa.
As well as recording for New Zealand radio and serving as Musical Director and Conductor of the Auckland Youth Choir, he has been a Freemasons Artist and Assistant Conductor with New Zealand Opera, with productions including Cosi Fan Tutte, Macbeth, Il Trovatore, Le Nozze di Figaro, Semele, Candide, Katya Kabanova, Aida, Otello and The Bone Feeder.
Xavier Hetherington studied at St John’s Cambridge, the Royal College of Music, Florence’s Mascarade Opera Studio, and Valencia’s Centre de Perfeccionament. Roles include Prologue/Peter Quint The Turn of the Screw (Deborah Warner Season, Ustinov Studio), Brighella Ariadne auf Naxos (Reisopera), Don José Carmen (Waterperry), Dick Dauntless Ruddigore, Shepherd and cover Orpheus (Opera North), Ahasuerus Esther (Wigmore Hall, Halle Händel-Festspiele and Musikfestspiele Saar with Solomon’s Knot), and Lieutenant Kotler in the World Premiere of A Child in Striped Pyjamas (Echo Ensemble). Concert highlights include Messiah, and Mozart's and Verdi's Requiems (Reisopera, Wurzburg Mozart Festival, and Royal Albert Hall).
Jean-Kristof Bouton studied in Montreal and Bucharest before spending many years as soloist with National Opera Iasi, where his roles included Silvio (I Pagliacci), Alfio (Cavalleria Rusticana), Marcello (La bohème), Belcore (L’Elisir d’Amore), Don Giovanni, and Rossini’s Figaro. He has sung Escamillo (Carmen) in Nice, Paris, and Seville, and Moussol (Si j’etais roi), Monterone (Rigoletto) and Mercutio (Roméo et Juliette) for Opéra de Toulon. UK highlights include Alvaro (Il viaggio a Reims) for ETO, Scarpia (Tosca) and Belcore (L’elsir d’amore) for Diva Opera, and a critically-acclaimed Macbeth for Mid Wales Opera. Future plans include Raimbaud (Le Comte Ory) in Quebec and a return to Opéra de Toulon as Agamemnon (La belle Hélène).
Timothy Nelson studied at the Royal College of Music International Opera School. Alongside solo performances at venues including the Royal Albert Hall, Royal Festival Hall, and Cadogan Hall, he has sung with Opera North (as Marcello in La Boheme), the Royal Opera House, English Touring Opera, Diva Opera, Opera Holland Park, and the Grange Festival. He was a Jerwood Young Artist at the Glyndebourne Festival; a winner of the Bruce Millar Gulliver Prize, the Royal College of Music Joan Chissell Schumann Competition, and the Gerald Moore Award Singers Prize; and a recipient of the Independent Opera at Sadler’s Wells Postgraduate Voice Fellowship.
The Wild Arts Ensemble is led by Sijie Chen, and Sijie and cellist (and Wild Arts founder/Musical Director) Orlando Jopling aim to play at all performances.
All other players to be confirmed.
Wild Arts, charity no. 1158366
South Green Farmhouse, Fingringhoe, Colchester, CO5 7DP, United Kingdom
Copyright © 2022 Wild Arts - All Rights Reserved.
Powered by GoDaddy