pagliacci synopsis

DAFYDD ALLEN

Dafydd Allen is a postgraduate student at the Royal College of Music studying with Brindley Sherratt and Caroline Dowdle. He is a Cuthbert Smith Scholar and is supported by the Josephine Baker Trust. He recently played the role of Masetto Don Giovanni for Opra Cymru, directed by Patrick Young. (2019). Opera Scenes at the RCM include Demetrius A Midsummer Night's Dream Britten and Dancaire Carmen Bizet. Dafydd was one of the Apostles in Elgar’s Apostles at the Royal Festival Hall with the London Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Martyn Brabbins. He has worked on Mahler songs with acclaimed musician Roger Vignoles culminating in a performance in RCM’s Britten Theatre. Dafydd was a finalist in the Kathleen Ferrier Bursary for young singers, and is a frequent prize winner in the Urdd and Welsh National Eisteddfod.

JOSHUA BAXTER

Tenor Joshua Baxter, studied at the Royal Academy of Music and has gone on to work with Glyndebourne Festival Opera, The Grange Festival and Festival d’Aixen-Provence. He was also part of the Serena Fenwick Programme with British Youth Opera. Away from opera, he has been a soloist on the concert stage, performing such works as Rossini’s Petite Messe Sollenelle & Mozart’s Requiem. Recent engagements: Chorus Manon Lescaut & My Fair Lady (The Grange Festival), Chorus I Pagliacci (Opera Ensemble), Hervey Anna Bolena (Caledonian Opera), Chorus Saul (Teatre du Chatelet), Private and other roles (cover) Scoring a Century (British Youth Opera). TAMSIN BIRCH

Tamsin Birch is a soprano scholar on the Opera Course at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland under the tutelage of Wilma MacDougall and Duncan Williams. She is a member of the Live Music Now Scotland scheme. Tamsin completed both her BMus and MA degrees at the Royal Academy of Music as a Scholar studying with Nuccia Focile and Iain Ledingham. Full operatic roles include: Cleopatra Giulio Cesare RCS, Poppea L’Incoronazione di Poppea RCS, Contessa Le nozze di Figaro St Paul’s Opera and Poppea Agrippina Dartington. Tamsin will be performing Tina Flight at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in 2022.

LAUREN MCQUISTIN

Scottish soprano Lauren McQuistin studied at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland before moving to America to study with Carol Vaness at Indiana University, and then completed her studies at Yale University. McQuistin made her Scottish Opera/McOpera Collective debut as Marfa in Shostakovich’s Rothschild's Violin, and her IU principal debut in 2016 as the title role in Florencia en el Amazonas. Within this time she also performed Adriana Lecouvreur, Countess Almaviva Le nozze di Figaro, Donna Elvira Don Giovanni and Antonia Les Contes des Hoffmann. At Yale she performed Strauss’ Vier Letzte Lieder, Mahler 4, and scenes from Lucrezia Borgia and Ariadne auf Naxos. She performed Erste Dame Die Zauberflöte at the Schubert Theatre as well as Central City Opera, where she was a studio artist. Her most recent performance was as Tatyana in Eugene Onegin, for which she was the winner of the Phyllis Curtain Career Entry Prize. GEMMA MORSLEY

Gemma Morsley’s operatic roles include Carmen (Opera South East), Grimgerde Die Walküre (Grange Park Opera), Flora La traviata (King’s Head), Maddalena Rigoletto (France and UK tour), Larina Eugene Onegin (OperaUpClose), Marcellina Le nozze di Figaro (Dartington International Festival), Dorabella Così fan tutte (Opera Chez Cartier & Jacksons Lane Theatre) La Ciesca and Zita Gianni Schicchi (Fulham Opera and Lunchbreak Opera respectively), Gertrude Romeo et Juliette (Arcadian Opera), Flowermaiden Parsifal (Elemental Opera), 2nd and 3rd Ladies Die Zauberflöte (Zeist Opera Festival, Netherlands, St John’s Smith Square & Riverside Studios) and ensemble in six tours of John Ramster’s staged Messiah. Music theatre roles include Mrs Sowerberry & Mrs Bedwin Oliver! and Fruma-Sarah Fiddler on the Roof (Grange Park Opera and BBC Proms), the White Witch The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (Creation Theatre, Oxford) and numerous performances from the G&S canon.

ANNIE REILLY

Annie Reilly is an American mezzosoprano based in London where she was awarded a UK Exceptional Talent Visa and is an Alvarez Young Artist with Garsington Opera. She is a recent graduate of the Royal Academy Opera where her roles included Dorabella Così fan tutte, Zweite Dame Die Zauberflöte, & Hermia A Midsummer Night’s Dream. She has sung as a soloist with the LA Philharmonic, the BBC (in collaboration with Barbican Hall & BBC Radio 3), and as a Young Artist with Nevill Holt Opera. Annie is a graduate of the Royal Academy of Music (AdvDip, BMus) and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama (MPerf). MICHAEL RONAN

Michael Ronan is a postgraduate bassbaritone at the Royal Academy of Music where he currently studies with Mark Wildman and Iain Leadingham. He is generously supported in his studies by the ABRSM Scholarship, the George Drexler Foundation, and the Josephine Baker Trust. Michael has been awarded the Joan Chissell Schumann Lieder Prize, the Blyth-Buesst Opera Prize, and Second Prize in the Richard Lewis/Jean Shanks Award. Some recent performances include the role of John Proctor The Crucible Robert Ward at OPERNFEST, Berlin, Maesetto Don Giovanni with the Covent Garden Chamber Orchestra, and a recital of Clara Schumann lieder at the Wigmore Hall with the Academy Song Circle. Michael’s upcoming projects include the role of Quince Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream with Royal Academy Opera, a cover of the same role with the Grange Festival, Hampshire, and a recital at the Rhonefestival für Liedkunst in Naters, Switzerland alongside pianist Benjamin Mead.

LAURIE SLAVIN

Laurie Slavin, Scottish tenor studied Modern History & International Relations at the University of St Andrews before studying voice at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama with Adrian Thompson and John Evans. His operatic credits include Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin, Lensky; Handel’s Acis and Galatea, Acis; Britten’s Albert Herring, Albert; Gilbert & Sullivan’s Princess Ida, Hilarion; and Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande, Pelléas. Laurie has performed with The National Gilbert and Sullivan Opera Company; Longborough Festival Opera and Byre Opera. He was an Alvarez Young Artist with Garsington Opera and an inaugural member of British Youth Opera’s Serena Fenwick Programme.