Summer at The Grange. We warmly welcome you to our arcadian feast of creativity.
Now all of seven years old, no longer the infant, more the shining morning face, we negotiate the challenges of the age, with your enjoyment and your memorable Festival experience guiding our every endeavour.
Our three operas celebrate two great cities, Rome both ancient and more modern, and our own London, seductive and corrupting in Hogarth’s morality tale, with a span of over 300 hundred years of music setting the stories from the early days of Venetian opera with Claudio Monteverdi to two of 20th century’s acknowledged masters of their crafts, Auden and Stravinsky. And we mark the centenary of Giacomo Puccini’s death with his gripping verismo masterpiece, showing us a further dark side of the eternal city.
The Grange Festival is unlike other summer opera festivals because we are a broader church than our colleagues. Ballet and jazz feature prominently this year. Also celebrating its centenary, the esteemed Brno National Ballet visits the UK for the first time. We are privileged that they open our festival this year, an important moment in our short history.
I have a sense that our theatre will suddenly seem even more intimate and the musical experience even more visceral when Cécile McLorin Salvant, Dan Tepfer and Thomas Enhco take to our stage and draw us in to their intense musical imaginations through French songs and music already known to many of us but repainted on their personal canvasses. Jazz is finding its feet at The Grange in wonderful ways.
Amidst the plethora of talent which the Festival is showcasing this year, I would like to pay particular tribute to our joyful ongoing collaboration with Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, and welcome newer kids on the block, La Nuova Musica with their Founding Director David Bates. Partnerships are the backbone of artistic endeavour: working and progressing together our DNA. We are particularly proud of our chorus and welcome our new chorus master William Vann. And welcome back the Tosca triumvirate of Director Christopher Luscombe, Designer Simon Higlett, and Conductor Francesco Cilluffo. It gives great pleasure to have nudged onto the Conductor’s podium for The Rake’s Progress Tom Primrose, previously our chorus master and long a crucial member of our music staff. One of our early successes was Handel’s Agrippina – Director Walter Sutcliffe, now running a German opera house and Designer Jon Bausor, in demand for some of the highest profile shows on both sides of the Atlantic, return for what promises to be a cutting-edge Poppea
This year I hand over to our newly appointed Chief Executive, Tyler Stoops, the administrative part of my Grange Festival portfolio. I am grateful that he has agreed to take us on, and doubly so mindful of the wealth of relevant international experience he brings to guide our small team. We will undoubtedly change and improve, but with the residual determination to bring the best possible performers and creative artists to our theatre so that you will have the time of your lives and want to return again and again.
I was delighted to become Chair during the 2023 Season and I want to express my gratitude to my fellow Trustees many of whom are also relatively new to the Board, for their infectious enthusiasm and tireless efforts.
I am also delighted to welcome Sir Charles Haddon-Cave as our new President. Charles has been an instrumental figure in the creation of The Grange Festival, and we hugely value his continuing association with us.
There continue to be challenges for all arts organisations during these times, and The Grange Festival is no exception. Acknowledging both financial constraints and the pressing need for environmental responsibility, we are committed to collaborating with our peers, nationally and internationally, to share productions, and it is good to see two of our forthcoming productions in the 2024 Festival will transfer to other opera houses in Europe. We look forward with excitement to the arrival of our new CEO, Tyler Stoops, this will be the moment to focus on the scope and output of future festivals underscoring our dedication to innovation, excellence and relevance to our times.
We are committed to being an arts organisation of today – welcoming, exciting, inclusive and accessible – and growing our national and international profile. We will also continue to build on our fundraising efforts to ensure that we – still a relatively young organisation – can safeguard our sustainability.
Our learning and engagement programmes continue to nurture creativity and life skills in our younger participants. I’m particularly proud of our Gosport Educational Cultural Project – a beacon of celebration of the heritage and culture of children in Gosport, transforming what Arts Council England identifies as a ‘cultural cold spot’ over three impactful years.
I thank the hundreds of talented people from different walks of life – staff, freelancers, artists, creatives – who play a critical role in delivering each performance at The Grange. They collectively make us see, feel and hear the world differently.
Their efforts are only possible thanks to you, our supporters and audiences: you are our life blood and very much part of the organisation we have become.
Clearly, audiences are crucial and, in the months and years ahead we will develop fresh strategies to encourage more and more people to discover the joy and inspiration of the full breadth of our programme, enhanced by the magical setting of The Grange, and we are much encouraged by the growth in our High Flyers group of younger supporters.
During moments of global turbulence, opera shows us what it means to be human and transforms lives. Thank you for playing your part in The Grange Festival.
Summer performances at The Grange Festival are a highlight of Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra’s calendar, and we’re thrilled to return to Alresford again this year for what promises to be another memorable season. The partnership between the Festival and Orchestra is one based on shared artistic ambition and friendship, and, as ever, there is much to look forward to.
We are excited to unite with Conductor Tom Primrose and a terrific cast in a new production of Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress; and to marking Puccini’s anniversary when we perform Tosca with Francesco Cilluffo. Another special event marks a collaboration with renowned US jazz musicians, singer Cécile McLorin Salvant and pianist Dan Tepfer, for two very special evenings inspired by the French Salon, which also features guest pianist Thomas Enhco.
We’re thrilled to have recently announced our new artistic team, and hope you’ll agree that with Mark Wigglesworth and Chloé van Soeterstède as our incoming Chief Conductor and Principal Guest Conductor respectively the future of the BSO is in safe hands! One of the world’s leading Conductors, Mark is recognised for his outstanding musicianship, extraordinary interpretations, and breadth of repertoire, his appointment heralds a period of the highest quality music-making. Chloé has built global recognition for her commanding and intuitive approach. A former Fellow of the Taki Alsop programme, she builds on recent guest appearances, having won praise from the BSO’s musicians and audiences alike.
Kirill Karabits becomes our Conductor Laureate & Artistic Director, Voices from the East, on concluding his remarkable 15-year tenure. We’ve shared an extraordinary final season together, featuring collaborations with the Ukrainian folk singer Ruslana Lotsman in Poole, Weymouth, Taunton, and Southampton, and with Seeta Patel Dance for The Rite of Spring in Basingstoke and Poole. It was a huge honour to return to the newly refurbished Bristol Beacon in December, to open its inaugural orchestral season with a world premiere by Mark-Anthony Turnage – and over the course of the year, we’ve been privileged to share the breadth of our orchestral work from Schools’ Concerts and BSO Pops performances. Another world premiere, of Jonathan Dove’s Odyssey – a work that charts one refugee’s perilous journey to safety – marked an unforgettable moment in January. Its performance under the baton of David Ogden was described by Bachtrack as “nothing short of a triumph.”
The BSO exists to bring music into people’s lives, and we’ve shared hundreds of events this year, from workshops with Sheku Kanneh-Mason in North Devon and programmes to support mental wellbeing in Somerset, to our ongoing dementia-friendly events. In March, we united with local partners for a Cornwall Residency, which reached 1,800 people through 28 events, including the powerful and interactive new chamber opera, Fault Lines, across Cornwall’s Mining and Heritage sites, produced in association with Tête à Tête, Carn to Cove, and Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance.
As we conclude a season that has celebrated musicmaking in all its myriad forms, we look forward to enjoying a series of wonderful performances together with you this summer.
La Nuova Musica, founded in 2007, has rapidly established itself as one of the most distinctive voices in the early music field.
Under the direction of founder and Artistic Director, David Bates, LNM strives to reveal new aspects of familiar repertoire, focussing on works for voice and instrumentalists, through dynamic performances of both masterpieces and lesser-known works from across the Baroque and Classical periods, alongside new commissions.
Equally at home performing Monteverdi through to Mozart and beyond, LNM has appeared in prestigious festivals and concert halls across Europe, including La Seine Musicale Paris, the Göttingen International Handel Festival, the Salzburg Festival, the Innsbruck Festival of Early Music, the Steffani Festival in Hannover and festivals across England including the BBC Proms.
LNM is heard performing in major London venues, with a regular series of concerts at the Wigmore Hall and other larger scale events at St Martin in the Fields. As a regular participant in the London Handel Festival they have performed eight of his operas, and in 2024 will give his Arianna in Creta in the church where he was a parishioner. Concerts in the Wigmore Hall in 2024 include John Blow’s Venus and Adonis in June and Aci, Galatea e Polifemo by Handel in October.
“This is a stunning collection of Handel opera numbers. For originality, risk-taking and erudition, it towers above its predecessors… The project is a heroic achievement for all involved”
BBC Music Magazine Recording of the Month
Alongside regular performances of works by betterknown composers LNM seeks to shed light on repertoire that has been languishing in libraries for the past 300 years, breathing life into many forgotten compositions, such as Conti’s final opera Issipile
While its core repertoire lies between 1600–1800, LNM has also commissioned living composers to write new works to sit alongside their specialist repertoire working closely with Nico Muhly, Luke Styles, Anna Thorvaldsdottir, Edmund Finnis and Cassandra Miller. Further commissions are planned with Luke Styles (again) and Tom Coult.
LNM has recorded extensively for Harmonia Mundi, and Pentatone. LNM’s latest disc, Dido and Aeneas by Henry Purcell, released in Autumn 2023 has gathered outstanding reviews and awards across Europe. BBC R3’s CD Review in making it their Recording of the week said “the way it zings off the page bristling with dramatic life and energy from the first bars, and with a range of voices and imaginative instrumental accompaniment, fills it with incident and colour” Gramophone in listing it a one of its recording of the year commented “this theatrical, big bones performance… shows Bates and his ensemble at their best”
Earlier releases on the Pentatone label have included Handel’s Unsung Heroes, where the spotlight is shone on the obbligato instrumentalists who duet virtuosically alongside their singing counterparts in masterpieces from Rinaldo, Giulio Cesare, Agrippina and Ariodante
“La Nuova Musica… as lively a collection of instrumentalists and singers as the world offers” The Times
EQUITABLE ARTS EDUCATION: n urT urinG Bri Tain’s c reaT ive Fu T ure
The creative industries in Britain are thriving. According to government statistics, the sector is growing at more than twice the rate of the wider economy, contributing £125 billion in 2022, and employing 2.4 million people across the country.
However, this success story will falter if arts education remains inequitable. While privately educated children benefit from a rich cultural curriculum, many state schools lack adequate funding to provide the same opportunities.
Although we can’t solve the national issue, each year, our broad, non-selective learning programme gives increasing numbers of locally-based school children the opportunity to take part in impactful and, in some cases, life-changing creative learning projects.
At The Grange Festival, we believe in the power of the arts to enhance wellbeing, challenge the mind and nourish the soul. By providing equitable access to our education projects, we are expanding cultural horizons, nurturing potential and helping to sustain Britain’s vibrant creative industries.
The Grange Festival Learning is generously supported by:
TeachinG For creaT ivi T y
In collaboration with University of Winchester, our Wild Hampshire project showcased Professor Paul Sowden’s investigation into nurturing creativity across primary education. Part of the University’s three-year ‘creativity collaborative’ research funded by Arts Council England, the aim is to empower children, fostering confidence, curiosity, and develop imaginative problem-solving.
Led by our outstanding creative team, 350 children from eleven primary school groups explored their local Hampshire sustainability challenges. From the loss of local woodlands and fields to the Solent coastline and our unique chalk streams, they discussed and debated the environmental challenges. Using music, creative writing, design and dance as vehicles for expression, they shared their opinions and ideas for a more sustainable future.
The project culminated with the children’s original songs, designs and choreographed dances filling our Grange Theatre to celebrate their learning and creativity.
“Wild Hampshire is a perfect example of creativity and knowledge working hand in hand”
Professor Paul Sowden
“The Wild Hampshire project has given an opportunity for us to generate and embed knowledge through the creative process”
Primary Teacher
“Creativity is fun – you can problem solve, express yourself and you can be yourself”
Year 4 child
As part of this project, our team spearheaded interactive sessions for teachers and student teachers on how to integrate creative arts across all areas of learning, spanning from science and mathematics to humanities and language studies. Our goal was to give teachers a toolkit of practical ideas for creativity, from singing to memorising facts to bringing abstract learning to life through drama.
“Inspiring, motivating, and fabulous to gain an understanding about the amazing activities that we can do that promote deep creative learning for our children. I have never been on such a fantastic course that will make such a difference to the learning experience”
Creation of an original opera with a little help from AI friends
Education is on the brink of a major transformation thanks to artificial intelligence (AI) – one of the most disruptive forces humanity has ever seen.
There is no doubt AI is here to stay and unlike the cynics and naysayers, we are not shying away from it at The Grange Festival.
On the contrary, we are actively exploring its phenomenal capabilities in the belief that it can augment human ingenuity and explode creativity – but only if we embrace it and learn how to use it properly.
To that end, this year’s summer project, Come and Create, will see over 80 young people use AI to help conceive and create their own original, contemporary opera in just five days.
Guided by AI experts and our own exceptional team of creative professionals, they will go on an extraordinary journey, using AI tools to help ideate a story, craft original lyrics, compose music, choreograph dances and design staging. By day five, they will be ready to perform their unique and ground-breaking production on our stage.
As with all our devising projects, the children’s experience will be rich, impactful and lots of fun. They will not only learn about artificial intelligence, but also about themselves. They will bond as teams as they rise to the challenge of finding levels of courage, confidence and determination they previously believed only other people have.
Without knowing it, they will become better problemsolvers, more innovative thinkers and diplomatic team players.
Come and Create is delivered in collaboration with AI in Education.
Each year, our Open House scheme welcomes young audiences to The Grange, giving them a rare opportunity to delve into the professional productions of opera, jazz and dance.
Children, students and teachers are fully immersed in the experience, hearing from members of our production teams, casts, orchestras and backstage technicians giving them an insight and understanding of the rehearsal process and technical complexities involved in bringing a production to life.
Last year over 800 young people and their teachers joined our Open House. For many, this will have been their first visit to a professional theatre. We hope that the experience of hearing an opera singer, the sounds of a full orchestra and the sights of a staged production will open their eyes, broaden their horizons and encourage them to want more!
“Coming to a professional performance has given the children experiences and opportunities which are impossible to replicate”
Headmaster, Cheriton Primary
“I was mesmerised by the orchestra. It has inspired me to listen to different styles and genres of music more”
Year 5, Preston Candover Primary
Orfeo ed Euridice workshop
BuildinG h ampshire’s
c ulT ural capi Tal
The Grange Festival remains committed to fostering artistic engagement within challenged communities of Hampshire, particularly among young people with limited access to creative arts education.
Already in its fourth year, our involvement in Basingstoke has inspired hundreds of young people, communities and educators who have taken part in our workshops, projects and performances.
In its second year, our partnership with Hampshire Music Education Hub continues to celebrate culture and heritage in Gosport, which faces its own unique challenges in Hampshire. Our creative teams have explored local histories, environment, aspirations and hopes with young people through singing, music, technology, design and dance.
This July, the results of their work will be showcased in a week-long festival giving over 1,000 young people a platform at our Festival at Fort Brockhurst. This significant English Heritage site built in 1850s to guard the Hampshire coast from French invasion will provide a spectacular backdrop to what we hope will become an annual festival.
THANK YOU
With thanks to our outstanding creative artists
Hannah Conway, Lynsey Docherty, Rob Gildon, Jonathan Gill, Karen Gillingham, Hazel Gould, Natasha Khamjani, Pete Letanka, Rhiannon Newman Brown, Ruth Paton, Richard Taylor
And also to Kerry Kenward (Hampshire Music Education Hub)
Professor Paul Sowden, Drs Marnie Seymour and Frances Warren, Nicola Wells, Natasha Montagu (University of Winchester)
We’re pleased to be sponsoring the Come and Create Programme at The Grange Festival
A chance for young minds to be involved, explore the world of artificial intelligence, and...
create
bright futures
Like the festival’s artists, we’re always poised, balanced and precise. Wishing you a wonderful festival.
WAYS TO s upporT us
THANK YOU
Your support, donations and Memberships enable us to do so much. This is what we achieved in 2023, thanks to your generosity.
“During moments of global turbulence, opera shows us what it means to be human”
Sir Richard Mantle, Chairman
BECOME A FRIEND
The support of our Festival Friends underpins our work on the stage, and allows us to keep ticket prices as low as possible. Friends enjoy priority booking and are welcomed to exclusive events through the year, from insights to recitals, film screenings to trips abroad.
As a charity, The Grange Festival receives no public subsidy. We rely on your generous support to create exceptional art and to meaningfully engage with young people. Will you help us to do more?
“It’s not stuffy, it’s not elitist. I feel that I kind of belong”
Emma, Festival Friend
INTRODUCE A NEW HIGH FLYER
Our High Flyers programme welcomes those under 35 to social occasions across the year and to Festival performances with House-wide tickets priced at just £40. Can you help us to build the next generation of opera-lovers?
I love coming to The Grange Festival each summer. Tickets are affordable; I always feel warmly welcomed; and the moment the orchestra starts playing I feel total joy”
Anonymous High Flyer
DEEPEN YOUR INVOLVEMENT OR SUPPORT US PHILANTHROPICALLY
By supporting an aspect of our work, or through an unrestricted gift, you can help us to build a sustainable future and a vibrant cultural scene in Hampshire. You will become close members of The Grange family, enjoying unique opportunities to connect with our artists and creatives.
NAME A SEAT
Naming a seat in our auditorium is a wonderful way to make your mark on the fabric of The Grange or remember a loved one in a very special way. Your donation will have a lasting legacy, making unforgettable music and artistic performances available to everyone.
PLEDGE A GIFT IN YOUR WILL
Supporting the Festival with a gift in your will ensures that future generations will continue to benefit from exceptional art and cultural experiences, reflecting your commitment to the arts and acknowledging the part it has played in your life.
INSPIRE THE NEXT GENERATION
We engage with over 1,000 children and young people each year who have little or no cultural input. You can help us to welcome young visitors to experience a live performance, to create their own opera, and to share in the life-changing potential of the arts.
SUPPORT US THROUGH YOUR COMPANY
Our corporate partners – both local and national – align their brand with one of the UK’s most prestigious summer festivals, showcase their commitment to a vibrant artistic landscape, and enjoy unique networking experiences and exclusive events.
“It was a privilege to take part in this community project with The Grange. Our students created an entirely new piece of theatre that spanned cultures and continents…” Perins School
JOIN OUR INTERNATIONAL FRIENDS
By joining our American Friends or our Hong Kong Friends, you can connect with like-minded opera-lovers, help us to grow awareness of our work, and enjoy a warm welcome at performances.
START A CONVERSATION
To start a conversation about deepening your support for The Grange, or to discuss corporate sponsorship opportunities, please contact our Director of Development, Rachel Pearson: rachel@ thegrangefestival.co.uk 01962 792201
enrichinG m inds: THE GRANGE FESTIVAL LEARNING
Donations and ticket income from supporters like you enable us to deliver a thriving programme for young people in and around Hampshire each year.
Our Learning initiatives not only foster a deep appreciation and understanding of the arts, but also enrich the life of our community. Through workshops, free tickets, and the chance to explore our creative potential, we promote cultural diversity, social cohesion and wellbeing for all.
“In the end, it’s all about the performance and sharing the creativity and joy of the arts with the community and the next generation. That is why we exist”
Michael Chance CBE, Artistic Director
We are proud of our 40 local school partners, through which young people can take part in our impactful and – in some cases – life-changing projects. In 2023, we engaged with and inspired 1,158 local children.
With your support, we can do so much more. Next year, we want to expand our reach and offer our projects to more young people; launch a teacher training programme to support the teaching of the arts in schools; and share our resources online for use anywhere, anytime. Join with us to nurture the talents and creativity of the next generation.
To find out more about supporting The Grange Festival Learning please contact:
Rachel Pearson Director of Development rachel@thegrangefestival.co.uk 01962 792201
“All schools should have the amazing opportunity to work with The Grange Festival Learning. This is gold 5-star teacher development”
The peacock is the ancient symbol of immortality. By pledging a legacy and joining our Festival Peacocks you will play your part in making something wonderful happen each and every year for so many people of all ages.
If you have enjoyed your visits to The Grange Festival, and applaud our extensive year round education and outreach work, your legacy will help to ensure that this continues for future generations. In the last few years legacies have enabled us to make substantial improvements to the theatre. Our remodeled balcony, stage revolve and improved access have all been made possible by gifts large and small.
Whatever the size of your gift, you will make a difference to our long-term ability to produce innovative and engaging productions that delight and challenge audiences, as well as continue our extensive work in
schools, community groups and with early career professionals both on and off-stage.
There are many ways to leave a tax efficient legacy for The Grange Festival. The most straightforward is a cash donation. There are other tax-efficient options such as a gift of shares or leaving a share of your estate. All gifts can have a significant impact in reducing inheritance tax liability. Alternatively, a donor may wish to establish a charitable trust in their will that provides ongoing support for the Festival’s work, ensuring that their legacy continues to make a difference for many years to come.
If you do decide to join our glorious Pride of Peacocks please let us know so that we can show our gratitude and celebrate with you at our annual gathering of Peacocks. Your gift will make a difference. Please contact Rachel Pearson, rachel@thegrangefestival.co.uk
“By pledging a legacy and joining our Festival Peacocks you will play your part in making something wonderful happen each and every year for so many people of all ages”
WILKINS FOUNDER
Mark and Sophie Ashburton
Daniel and Alison Benton
Richard and Rosamund Bernays
David and Simone Caukill
Bernard and Caroline Cazenove
Malcolm Herring
Andrew and Caroline Joy
Malcolm and Sarah Le May
Joe and Minnie MacHale
Richard and Chrissie Morse
Sir Sigmund Warburg’s Voluntary Settlement
Michael and Cathy Pearman
Sir Simon and Lady Robertson and anonymous donors
COCKERELL FOUNDER
Mark and Clare Armour
John and Claudia Arney
Sally Ashburton
Chris and Tony Ashford
Jamie and Carolyn Balfour
Robin and Anne Baring
Nigel Beale and Anthony Lowrey
Glynne and Sarah Benge
Sophie Boden
John Booth and Tim Ashley
Simon and Sally Borrows
Robert and Fiona Boyle
Consuelo and Anthony Brooke
Sir Euan Calthorpe Bt
Rex and Sarah Chester
Edward and Antonia
Cumming-Bruce
Ina De and James Spicer
Michael and Anthea Del Mar
Sir Vernon and Lady Ellis
Catherine and Jón Ferrier
Mr and Mrs James Fisher
Marveen and Graham Flack
Tom and Sarah Floyd
Charles and Catherine Hindson
Herman and Claire Hintzen
Roger and Kate Holmes
Adrian Hope
David and Patricia Houghton
Howard and Anne Hyman
Owen and Jane Jonathan
David and Penny Kempton
Claudia Langdon and Janie Cadbury
Alan and Virginia Lovell
Thomas and Alexandra Loyd
The Peter and Elisabetta
Mallinson Trust
Simon and Nathalie Marshall-Lockyer
Nigel and Anna McNair Scott
Joanna and Luke Meynell
Patrick Mitford-Slade
Martin and Caroline Moore
The Ogilvie Thompson Family
Nick and Julie Parker
Clive and Deborah Parritt
William and Francheska Pattisson
Mark and Rachel Pearson
Lord and Lady Phillimore
Jonathan and Gillian Pickering
Ernst and Elisabeth Piech
Michael and Sue Pragnell
Richard and Iona Priestley
Sophie Service
John and Erica Simpson
Graeme and Sue Sloan
Dr Helmut and Anna Sohmen
The Stevenston Charitable Trust
Judy and Graham Staples
Tim and Charlotte Syder
Peter and Nancy Thompson
Mr Peter Stewart Tilley
Lou and John Verrill
Andrew and Tracy Wickham and anonymous donors
Domenica Dunne
Robina and Alastair Farley
For Elise
Peter and Judith Foy
Malcolm Herring
Peter and Sue Holland
The Hollingbery Family
Graham and Amanda Hutton
Owen and Jane Jonathan
David and Penny Kempton
Tammy Lavarello
Charles and Sue Marriott
James and Caroline Masterton
Patrick Mitford-Slade
Martin and Caroline Moore
Mr and Mrs Jonathan Moseley
Colin Murray
Roger and Virginia Phillimore
Jonathan and Gillian Pickering
Ernst and Elisabeth Piech
Bianca and Stuart Roden
David and Alexandra Scholey
Sophie Service
Paul and Rita Skinner
Peter Tilley Esq
Alan and Alison Titchmarsh
Lucy and Michael Vaughan
Mr and Mrs Hady Wakefield and anonymous donors
COX FOUNDERS
Boo and Bill Andrewes
Isla Baring OAM
Tom and Gay Bartlam
Beaulieu Beaufort Foundation
Simon and Julia Boadle
Anthony and Sarah Boswood
Michael and Belinda Boyd
Britwell Trust
Julian and Jenny Cazalet
William and Kathryn Charnley
Michael and Anthea Del Mar
Marveen and Graham Flack
Gamlen Charitable Trust
The Golden Bottle Trust
Roger and Victoria Harrison
Richard and Frances Hoare
Lucy Holmes
Luke and Polly Hughes
Andrew and Kay Hunter Johnston
Howard and Anne Hyman
John and Sara Jervoise
Max and Caroline Jonas
Ralph and Patricia Kanter
Morgan and Georgie Krone
Alan and Virgina Lovell
William and Felicity Mather
Dr and Mrs Jonathan Moore
Annette Oakes
The Ogilvie Thompson Family
Kevin Pakenham
David and Sarah Parker
Clive and Deborah Parritt
The Countess of Portsmouth
Richard and Iona Priestley
The Bernard Sunley
Charitable Foundation
James and Judy Scott
George and Veronique Seligman
Rebecca Shelley
Brian Spiby
Fiona and Geoff Squire OBE
Richard and Clare Staughton
Robert and Tiggy Sutton
Simon and Alison Taylor
Peter and Nancy Thompson
The Worshipful Company of Dyers
The Wykeham Gallery and anonymous donors
FESTIVAL F riends
THE SWEET SPOT
The Dowager Countess of Selborne and anonymous donors
THE LIMELIGHT
Nick and Sarah Allan
Isla Baring OAM
Robert and Caroline Bordeaux-Groult
Lord and Lady Bridges
Julian and Jenny Cazalet
Howard and Donna Dyer
Robert and Pirjo Gardiner
Richard and Judy Haes
Dr Hugh Laing
Lady Plastow
Andy Rogers and Stuart O’Donnell
Seawall Trust
George and Veronique Seligman
Robin and Sarah Thorne
Professor Michael and Dame Jenifer Trimble
Sara and Tim Watkins and anonymous donors
THE PROMPT CORNER
Georgina Agnew
Mark and Clare Armour
The Hon Mrs Susan Baring OBE
Geoffrey Barnett
Robert Baty
Peter and Valerie Bedford
Julian and Jane Benson
Anthony and Emma Bird
Nick and Sue Brougham
Mark Burrows AO
Tom and Elizabeth Busher
Michael and Linda Campbell
Anonymous
George and Anne Carter
Chris Carter and Stuart Donachie
Sir Christopher and the Reverend Lady Clarke
Jane Clarke
Pru de Lavison
Simon and Noni de Zoete
Felicity Fairbairn
Tim and Rosie Forbes
Jonathan Gaisman
Lindsey Gardener
David and Bridget Glasgow
Malcolm and Mary Hogg
Sue Humphrey
Andrew and Kay Hunter Johnston
Michel Kallipetis KC
Diane Katsiaficas
Paul and Diana Leonard
Family Lyon Charitable Trust
John and Pat Marden
Charles and Sue Marriott
Alison Mayne
Peter and Brigid McManus
Antony and Alison Milford
Dr and Mrs Jonathan Moore
Michelle Nevers and Nathan Moss
David and Angela Moss
Charles Parker
Sir Desmond and Lady
Norma Pitcher
The Countess of Portsmouth
Hugh Priestley
K A Radcliffe
Neil and Julie Record
Lord and Lady Remnant
Stephen Riley and Victoria Burch
George Davison and Judy Rivkin
James and Lygo Roberts
Dr Edward Rowland
Alicia Salter
Ginny and Richard Salter
Alex and So Scott-Barrett
Nigel Silby
David and Unni Spiller
Chris and Lisa Spooner
Marcus and Sarah Stanton
Peter and Sarah Vey
Mr Niko Vidovich
Edward and Katherine Wake
Marion Wake
Clare Williams
Oonagh Wohanka
Mary Rose and Charles Wood and anonymous donors
THE ROSTRUM
ADAM Architecture
Mrs Rosemary Alexander
Chris and Denise Amery
David and Jane Anderson
Dr Richard Ashton
Michael and Louise Baines
Richard Baker
Anne Beckwith-Smith
Adrian Berrill-Cox
Mrs Sheila Gay Bradley
Dr Douglas and Mrs
Susan Bridgewater
Alison and Michael Brindle KC
Adam and Sarah Broke
Tony and Mo Brooking
Hugh and Sue Brown
Mrs Maurice Buxton
Peter and Auriol Byrne
Julia Chute
Ian Clarkson and Richard Morris
Dr and Mrs Peter Collins
Dr Neville Conway
Anthony and Daryll Cooke
David and Nikki Cowley
Johnny and Liz Cowper-Coles
Lin and Ken Craig
Lady Curtis
Baron and Baroness de Styrcea
Patrick and Nikki Despard
Dr Graham and Janna Dudding
Christopher and Jenny Duffett
David and Jennie Wilson
Julia P Ellis
Alun Evans
Simon and Hilke Fisher
Iris Dell’Acqua and Alex Fisher
Michael and Nicola Fitzgerald
Mrs Andrea Frears
William Gething
Jenny Gove
Jane and Charlie Graham
Andrew Green
Alistair and Jenny Groom
Max and Catherine Hadfield
Allyson Hall
Melanie Hall
Edward and Rosie Harford
Wendell and Andrea Harris
Michael and Geneviève Higgin
Mark and Sarah Holford
Linda and Peter Hollins
Diane Hume
Peter and Morag James
John and Sara Jervoise
Nigel and Cathy Johnson-Hill
Stephen and Miriam Kramer
Mr and Mrs Bill Lawes
Mr and Mrs Andrew Lax
Roger and Natalie Lee
Derek and Susie Lintott
Ian and Jane Macnabb
Fairhurst Estates
Brian and Bernadette Metters
Paul and Emily Michael
Mr and Mrs Hallam Mills
Kate and Malcolm Moir
David and Alison Moore-Gwyn
Diana and Nigel Morris
Ian and Jane Morrison
Peter and Poppity Nutting
Roy and Carole Oldham
Dr Cecily O’Neill
Lavinia and Nick Owen
Peter and Sue Paice
Robin Pauley
Richard and Maria Peers
Robin and Christine Petherick
John and Judy Polak
Mrs C Rainey
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FREDERICK JOHN PYM GORE CBE RA, (1913-2009)
Spring Landscape, Clement’s Reach, Meopham, Kent ‹ GRAHAM SUTHERLAND (1903-1980)
Devastation: Bomb Damage, London 1940-1941
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Dance at The Grange
OKTETTO Dance at The Grange
June | 6
DANCERS
Arthur Abram
Gloria Benaglia
Manuele Bolzonello
Chanell Cabrera Sansón
Sarah Dadonova
João Gomes
Robert Hyland
Se Hyun An Rin Isomura
Ivona Jeličová
Bence Kaszab
Klaudie Lakomá
Glen Lambrecht
Thoriso Magongwa
Ilia Mironov
Shoma Ogasawara
Barbora Rašková
Momona Sakakibara
Adrian Sánchez
Antoneta Turk
Emilia Vuorio
Anna Yeh
ROSSINI
Cast: Arthur Abram, Rin Isomura, Shoma Ogasawara, João Gomes, Manuele Bolzonello, Glen Lambrecht, Bence Kaszab
Choreography: Mário Radačovský
SPOLU
Choreography: Mário Radačovský
DUET 1
Emilia Vuorio, Arthur Abram
DUET 2
Klaudie Lakomá, Thoriso Magongwa
DUET 3
Barbora Rašková, João Gomes
DUET 4
Ivona Jeličová, Ilia Mironov
DUET 5
Anna Yeh, Glen Lambrecht
DUET 6
Antoneta Turk, Rin Isomura
DUET 7
Sarah Dadonova, Manuele Bolzonello
This production is supported by Helen Webb
PAS DE DEUX
LE CORSAIRE
Momona Sakakibara, Shoma Ogasawara
SWAN LAKE 3 ACT
An Se Hyun, Robert Hyland
DON QUIXOTE
Chanell Cabrera, Adrian Sánchez
ROMEO A JULIE
Gloria Benaglia, Robert Hyland
GNAWA
Cast: Emilia Vuorio, An Se Hyun, Barbora Rašková, Klaudie Lakomá, Anna Yeh, Momona Sakakibara, Arthur Abram, Shoma Ogasawara, João Gomes, Manuele Bolzonello, Ilia Mironov, Thoriso Magongwa, Bence Kaszab
Choreography: Nacho Duato
THE HIDDEN FACE
Cast: Emilia Vuorio, An Se Hyun, Gloria Benaglia, Antoneta Turk, Chanell Cabrera, Arthur Abram, Robert Hyland, Adrian Sánchez, Thoriso Magongwa, Bence Kaszab
Music: John Tavener
Choreography: Mário Radačovský
I was approached by Michael Chance for its premiere at The Grange Festival, to create the choreography The Hidden Face to the music of John Tavener, and I deeply appreciate the opportunity. The music has inspired profound reflections on human nature, interconnection, and the desire for authenticity. The concept of ten characters whose faces are constantly hidden creates a poetic image of human anonymisation and hidden stories that connect us without our knowledge. The idea of eyes as a gateway to the soul deliberately concealed here prompts contemplation on the depth of human communication and expression. The body and movement become a universal language through which we convey our feelings and thoughts. The choreography expresses that sometimes it is ourselves who create obstacles to revealing our true nature, even as we seek connection with others. Questions arise about why some of us choose to hide behind masks and retreat into the safety of anonymity. When one of the characters reveals their face, it becomes a metaphor for discovering a new aspect of human existence. The act of unveiling symbolizes the courage to step out of safety and embrace the risk of one’s own identity.
Mário Radačovský
DANCE AT THE GRANGE Ballet NdB
The National Theatre Ballet Brno is the second largest professional ballet company in the Czech Republic with a rich history and tradition. In our repertoire, we offer exceptionally high quality performances of classical ballets such as Swan Lake, The Nutcracker, Sleeping Beauty, and La Bayadère, as well as famous neo-classics by George Balanchine and contemporary choreographic gems by Nacho Duato, Jiří Kylián and Johann Inger. The NdB Ballet also produces new original ballets such as Beethoven and Coco Chanel. In 2022, a long-gestating and unique junior ballet company project called Ballet NdB 2 was born – a new company of young talented dancers who are closely connected to the main artistic ensemble of Ballet NdB. This project is unparalleled in Central and Eastern Europe, and was organised and promoted by the Artistic Director of Ballet NdB, Mário Radačovský, with the strong support of the NdB Director Martin Glaser and the financial support of the South Moravian Region. The NdB Ballet has successfully toured European countries and Asia, was the first Czech professional ballet company to visit Japan, and
captivated Chinese audiences with the title Black and White In 2024, the repertoire will include classical titles such as Swan Lake, La Bayadère, The Nutcracker, and Cinderella, as well as contemporary progressive neoclassical titles such as Sleepless (Nacho Duato, Jiří Kylián), Bolero (Mário Radačovský, Johann Inger, Dan Datcu) and full-length ballets such as Beethoven, Coco Chanel and Cyrano de Bergerac. Original works are a clear strategy for the future, and the NdB 2 junior ensemble is by definition dominant in this line.
A quality repertoire is a guarantee of the ensemble‘s success if it is interpreted by artists matching its quality to its demanding nature. In the NdB Ballet there is a generational change in the positions of soloists and the leading roles in the repertoire of the NdB Ballet are taken over by soloists of the younger generation: Se Hyun An, Chanell Cabrera, Adrian Sánchez, Robert Hyland and other prominent personalities. NdB Ballet‘s company is made up of almost 90% foreign dancers and so far has always done without guest soloists, except for planned guest appearances by extraordinary stars of the ballet world.
UPCOMING PROJECTS
COCO CHANEL
Choreography and Direction by Mário Radačovský
Premiere: 3 May 2024
Mahen Theatre
The spring premiere of Coco Chanel completes ten years of artistic Director Mário Radačovský‘s tenure at the helm of the NdB Ballet. As a choreographer, he has in the past been fond of full-length titles in which he has often been inspired by the lives and works of great figures of human cultural history. Radačovský’s creative attention turned to an extraordinary woman who profoundly influenced the world of fashion. The musical selection will include composers such as Dmitri Shostakovich, Yan Tiersen, Jacques Brel, Alex Desplat and others. An important aspect of the production, given the theme, is the visual component. Radačovský approached an experienced team of renowned Slovak artists. The stage will be created by Marek Hollý and the costumes, which will be the most important visual element besides the choreography, by Ľudmila Várossová.
CYRANO DE BERGERAC
Choreography and Direction by Jiří Bubeníček
Premiere: 27 September 2024
Janáček Theatre
The NdB Ballet has long planned to approach Jiří Bubeníček, one of the world‘s most outstanding ballet interpreters, who has combined his career with the Hamburg Ballet of John Neumeier and the Dresden Ballet of the Semper Opera. Jiří Bubeníček is a choreographer with a reputation as a great dance storyteller and his choreographies, based on his own dance experience, are spectacular for the audience and challenging for the dancers due to their technical difficulty. This contemporary action ballet, choreographed and directed by Jiří Bubeníček, will bring the hero Cyrano de Bergerac to life on our stage, with set design by his brother Otto Bubeníček and costumes by Nadina Cojocaru.
DON QUIXOTE
Choreography and Direction by José Carlos Martínez
Premiere: 25 April 2025
Janáček Theatre
The production we will bring to the Brno audience premiered at the Compania Nacional de Danza in Madrid in 2015. This version was created for the local company by José Carlos Martínez, then artistic Director of the company and an emeritus star of the Paris Opera, who is currently the artistic Director of this leading world stage.
The junior company Ballet NdB 2 project of the NdB 2 Ballet operates within the National Theatre Brno as part of the ballet‘s artistic ensemble from September 2022. In addition to functioning within the ballet‘s classical repertoire and participating in other projects, the juniors have the unique opportunity to perform two premieres each year at the Reduta Theatre with subsequent reprises. They are currently preparing the premiere of their fourth programme. The operational concept and artistic level of the junior company did not escape the attention of the European ballet elite, who gathered at Opera Europa‘s Dance Forum & Positioning Ballet Symposium at the Reduta Theatre. Proof of the project‘s success is the domestic touring activity and the planned tour abroad in 2024 – England and South Korea.
INTERNATIONAL GUESTS
Not only in the framework of gala concerts, international stars also perform with the NdB Ballet in repertoire performances, which only confirms the excellent reputation of the company. For example, Fumi Kaneko and Vadim Muntagirov from the The Royal Ballet in London and Anastasia Matvienko in Swan Lake have guest-starred in La Bayadère and Balanchine For the first time in Brno we also welcomed the stars of the Paris Opera Dorothee Gilbert and Guillaume Diop. The Brno stage also hosted the star Marianella Nunez, who together with Reece Clarke masterfully interpreted Balanchine‘s famous Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux
FUTURE INTERNATIONAL APPEARANCES
NdB Ballet
4–6 June 2024 – The Grange Festival, UK, composed programme February 2025 – Dubai Opera, 5 performances of the ballet La Bayadère
Ballet NdB 2
12–25 March 2024 – South Korea tour, five performances NdB 2 Dance Programme, 11–14 June 2024 – Next Generation Festival, Linbury Theatre, Covent Garden, London
Libretto by Giovanni Francesco Busenello | Sung in Italian with English surtitles by Kenneth Chalmers
June | 7 14 16 20 22
Conductor David Bates
Director Walter Sutcliffe
Designer Jon Bausor
Lighting Designer Peter Mumford
CAST
Poppea/Fortuna Kitty Whately
Drusilla/Amore Vanessa Waldhart
Ottavia/Virtu Anna Bonitatibus
Ottone Christopher Lowrey
Nerone Sam Furness
Seneca Jonathan Lemalu
Arnalta/ Famigliari 1 Frances Gregory
Nutrice Fiona Kimm
Soldato 1/Lucano/Famigliari 2 Gwilym Bowen
Soldato 2/Liberto Jorge Navarro-Colorado
Littore/Famigliari 3 Armand Rabot
LA NUOVA MUSICA
Leader Jane Gordon
Assistant Conductor Mariangiola Martello
Assistant Director David Laera
Repetiteur James Orford
Language Coach Matteo dalle Fratte
Production Manager Tom Nickson
Wardrobe Supervisor Michelle Bristow
This co-production with Oper Halle is supported by Rosamond Brown | Tim and Rosie Forbes
An anonymous gift is supporting young players on the Theorbo and Lirone Viol
Clifford Bartlett’s edition of L’incoronazione di Poppea is published by The Early Music Company. www.primalamusica.com
SYNOPSIS
PROLOGUE
( IN THE HEAVENS )
The goddesses Fortuna and Virtu argue over who has the most power over humankind. They are interrupted by Amore who claims to be the one to make the world go around. To end the debate they all agree to an experiment that will prove which of them is superior.
To follow…
The experiment takes place in Rome, 65AD. The figures are historical and their representation may or may not be accurate, depending on whom you believe…
ACT I
Ottone, Poppea‘s fiancé, returns from a long trip abroad and arrives outside her palace just before dawn. He‘s concerned about rumours but lets himself hope that she’s waiting for him. When he spots the emperor Nerone’s guards asleep on watch, he realises that Nerone has replaced him in her bed. He wrestles with a number of extreme emotions.
Nerone’s guards wake up and complain about their long working hours, and curse the fact that since Nerone has taken up with Poppea he’s stopped bothering to run the empire properly.
Nerone is getting ready to leave but Poppea wants him to stay. Before he goes they brooch the topic of him divorcing his wife.
Poppea believes that her good fortune will carry her to the throne, but her servant Arnalta warns her not to trust powerful men.
In the emperor’s palace, Nerone’s wife Ottavia wrestles with what her husband’s behaviour means for her and the empire.
Her servant Nutrice suggests she take revenge in the form of lovers of her own: this Ottavia firmly rejects.
The philosopher Seneca arrives and reminds her of the meaning of virtu and reason of state. Alone Seneca meditates on the difference between private and public lives.
Nerone tells Seneca that he wants to divorce Ottavia and marry Poppea. Seneca tries to remind him of his duties but Nerone declares that he will do whatever he wants and in a fit of rage, dismisses him.
Nerone’s anger is soothed by Poppea over an erotically charged conversation and he promises to make her empress. Poppea suggests that Seneca be killed.
Ottone attempts a reconciliation with Poppea, but she scorns his advances and tells him that she is now Nerone’s.
Rejected by Poppea, Ottone returns to his former lover Drusilla, a lady of the court, while trying to suppress his feelings for Poppea. Drusilla, seeing herself as the embodiment of love, is willing to oblige him.
ACT II
Seneca fears his philosophy and values will be imminently put to the test. This is confirmed by Liberto’s arrival and news that Seneca is finished. Seneca must now put his philosophy into practice, and while struggling to find the courage to leave this world he is inspired by virtu and departs in confidence.
INTERVAL (100 minutes)
Nerone and his friend the poet Lucan celebrate the news of Seneca’s death and Nerone’s plan to marry Poppea.
Ottavia orders Ottone to kill Poppea and suggests he do so disguised as a woman. If he refuses she will make sure he is killed. Drusilla will now do anything for the unfortunate Ottone and suggests she dress him up in her clothes.
Poppea prays that Amore will keep helping her, and confides her stress and exhaustion to Arnalta. Lulled by Arnalta’s lullaby, Poppea falls asleep. Ottone, disguised as Drusilla, enters and attempts to murder Poppea as she sleeps, but is stopped by Amore. Poppea wakes up suddenly and mistakes the fleeing Ottone for Drusilla. Amore sings of her success and declares that she will crown Poppea empress that very day.
ACT III
Drusilla anticipates the end of Ottone’s infatuation with Poppea but is suddenly arrested for attempted murder and sentenced to death.
Nerone questions Drusilla: she initially protests her innocence. Ottone, seeing that Drusilla is to be killed, begins to confess his guilt. She changes her story and both admit the plot. Nerone banishes them, along with Ottavia, having also discovered her complicity. Nerone tells Poppea that she will be crowned empress the same day.
As the opera ends, Nerone and Poppea sing of their love.
v ice and p leasure in i mperial rome
“This Poppea had every asset but goodness. From her mother, she inherited distinction and beauty… She seemed respectable. But her life was depraved. To her, married or bachelor bedfellows were alike. She was indifferent to her reputation – yet insensible to men’s love, and herself unloving. Advantage dictated the bestowal of her favour”
Tacitus, Annals, 13:45
With these words the first-century Roman historian Cornelius Tacitus described Poppea Sabina, mistress and later wife of the emperor Nero, and the eponymous heroine of Claudio Monteverdi’s final opera, L’incoronazione di Poppea (1643). Ever critical of empire, Tacitus was eager not only to condemn the evils of Nero and the other Julio-Claudian emperors, but also to place the blame on the women who surrounded them: the promiscuous Messalina, unfaithful wife of the emperor Claudius and mother of the empress Ottavia; the ambitious Agrippina, second wife to Claudius and mother of Nero; and Poppea, who used her seductive powers and eloquence to persuade Nero to rid himself of Ottavia so that she might be crowned empress of Rome.
In imbuing recent Roman history with sexual intrigues and scandal, Tacitus could scarcely have imagined that he was providing the inspiration for the first historical opera, or that his own cynical views about empire and women would provide such a unique way of celebrating the political wisdom and glory of the Venetian Republic. Indeed, for librettist Giovanni Francesco Busenello, lawyer, poet, and member of the libertine literary academy, the Venetian Accademia degli Incogniti, Tacitus’ tale of Poppea’s ascent to the throne likely had a double appeal. By playfully distorting Tacitus’ narrative – portraying the unrestrained passion between Nero and Poppea, the vengeance of Ottavia and Ottone, and an ambivalent view of Seneca’s brand of Stoicism – he captured Venice’s well-documented anxiety about female power and disdain for monarchy, while celebrating the sensual freedoms for which the Republic and its famous carnival were so renowned.
It may also have been the moral flaws of virtually every character in the opera – the triumph of vice over virtue –that so inspired Claudio Monteverdi in his final years. By this time, Monteverdi had proven his mastery over every musical genre and nuance of musical and dramatic expression, and he brought to his last operas a sophisticated insight into human nature, and an ability to plumb the depths of human passion and spirituality that he had so masterfully demonstrated in his Madrigali guerrieri et amorosi (1638) and the introspective Selva morale e spirituale (1641). While Il ritorno d’Ulisse (1640) had presented Venetian audiences with a quite faithful representation of the final books of Homer’s Odyssey, endorsing masculine heroism and presenting the sensual pleasure of music as a force to be resisted by the virtuous Penelope, the moral ambiguity of Tacitus’ historical narrative provided the composer with characters and situations that inspired a broader palette of affects. Monteverdi vividly portrays Poppea’s sensuality and her ability to feign virtue in her duet with Nero (Act I scene 3, “My lord, do not leave me”), as she seduces the emperor with chromatically inflected recitative and bursts of coloratura, persuading the emperor to repudiate his wife Ottavia and make her empress instead. “Love and Fortune are fighting for me,” Poppea proclaims triumphantly in warlike vocal fanfares. Indeed, Poppea’s vocalism throughout the opera contrasts markedly with the chilling austerity of the laments of the “rejected empress” – the ostensibly frigid Ottavia, who differs so from the innocent girl described by Tacitus. At once sympathetic and forbidding, Ottavia’s explosions of anger, condemnation of the fate of women, and thwarted desire for vengeance that culminate in Act III with a tearful farewell to Rome (“Addio Roma”) are expressed musically not with the grand lyric gesture, but with the strangled, inarticulate sobs of a woman defeated.
“We empathise with Ottone’s pain at his discovery of Poppea’s infidelity, and yet are shocked at his willingness not only to murder Poppea at Ottavia’s insistence, but the fact that he would attempt to do so in female clothing – thus implicating his former lover Drusilla”
The moral ambivalence of the male characters is no less musically intriguing. Indeed, while the opera may concern Nero (the opera was titled Il Nerone for Naples), Ottone, Poppea’s lover, spends the most time on the stage, and it is through his eyes that the drama seems to unfold. Ottone is the first character to appear after the prophetic power struggle between Amor, Fortune, and Virtue in the Prologue (in which Love claims victory). We are certainly moved by his lyricism and sincerity in the opening scene (“Once more I’m drawn here”) and his tender serenade (“Open, open your window Poppea”). We empathise with Ottone’s pain at his discovery of Poppea’s infidelity, and yet are shocked at his willingness not only to murder Poppea at Ottavia’s insistence, but the fact that he would attempt to do so in female clothing – thus implicating his former lover Drusilla. Indeed, it is his masculine failings – his debilitating desire for Poppea, outbursts of jealousy, indecision, selfhatred, and inability to control his emotions – which Monteverdi seems to have captured with such accuracy. The composer was no less inspired by Nero’s petulance (as in his confrontation with Seneca) and his capacity for erotic excess, as in Act I, scene 10 when – barely recovered from a night of lovemaking – Nero admires his lover’s breasts. Even the Stoic philosopher Seneca, whose imminent suicide is mourned with such passionate chromaticism by his followers (“Do not die, Seneca”), inspired an ambivalent response from Monteverdi. Is he truly the insensitive peddler of platitudes that he appears to be in Act I, insensitive to Ottavia’s genuine sorrow? Or does he serve as the upholder of moral truths, as suggested by his willingness to face death and the extraordinarily moving chromatic farewell sung by his followers (“Do not die, Seneca) in Act II scene 3. Indeed, with Seneca’s suicide, the passing of this ostensible guardian of morality arguably becomes the impetus for music’s triumph. It is no coincidence that the suicide is followed immediately by two of Monteverdi’s most marvellously erotic duets, only the second sung this evening. First, the young servant Page Boy and Lady-in-Waiting celebrate their sexual awakening in “Sento un certo non so che” (I feel something I can’t describe). Then, Nero gleefully announces the death of Seneca to his companion the poet Lucan (“Hor, che Seneca è morto”). The two young men, exulting in the sheer pleasure of singing, abandon themselves to an obsessive,
erotically charged ostinato bass, meditating upon Poppea’s beauty, as Monteverdi’s music builds to a climax that is not without at least some homoerotic implications. The phrase “Now that Seneca has perished,” reiterated exultantly by Poppea to her Nurse in Act II scene 12, evokes more merriment as the ambitious young woman uses her most compelling lyricism to plead with Love to make her the wife of the emperor. When Love, as the deus ex machina, steps improbably into this historical narrative to save Poppea’s life at the end of Act II, it is apparent – at least for the time being – Virtue has lost her hold on the Roman Empire.
The invented, non-historical characters further heighten the irony of Tacitus’ discourse in a typically Venetian manner. Poppea’s nurse Arnalta urges her mistress to restrain her desires, yet nonetheless rejoices in her ultimate triumph with strident comic commentary on female ambition.
Ottavia’s nurse instructs her charge on gender inequality by advising that she should respond to Nero’s infidelity by taking her own lover. “Listen to my discourse,” she repeats with a suggestive refrain, “and every sorrow will turn to joy.” Even the ostensibly innocent Drusilla, suffering from unrequited love for Ottone, anticipates Poppea’s death with a joyful lyricism – and a callous disregard for human life.
Critics have long argued about the message of L’incoronazione di Poppea. Since Venetian audiences would have known from Tacitus that Nero would kill Poppea with a violent kick, should we perhaps extract a moral from the story and recognise that unrestrained female ambition and lust will ultimately prove fatal? Or might we simply see this opera as celebrating the triumph of Love in all its guises, as foretold in the Prologue? Regardless, in the aftermath of Poppea’s coronation, as we hear Nero and the newly-crowned empress intertwine their voices in the luscious final duet “Pur ti miro,” inflaming our ears with the searing dissonances and tender resolutions, it is hard to condemn the sensual delights and imperial crimes that inspired such a fitting evening’s entertainment for Venice’s carnival – and a glorious experience for the listener today.
Wendy Heller Scheide Professor of Music History, Princeton University
‘a h v irT ue, hide yoursel F!’
Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea (1643) is one of those famously immoral operas that constantly challenges its audiences. Emperor Nero is married to Octavia but spends his days in amorous dalliance with Poppea, wife of (in the opera, loved by) Otho. Octavia and Otho each end up in exile; Seneca, Nero’s disapproving tutor, is forced to die by his own hand. And if we know our Roman history, even the ‘crowning’ of Poppea is but a temporary victory: she will be viciously murdered by an emperor who himself will come to a fiery end. Is this really what opera should be about?
“If we know our Roman history, even the ‘crowning’ of Poppea is but a temporary victory: she will be viciously murdered by an emperor who himself will come to a fiery end”
Those facts of history may provide some vindication for the plot of L’incoronazione, and librettist Giovanni Francesco Busenello acknowledged his debt to the Roman historians Tacitus and Suetonius. ‘But here’, he said, ‘we represent things differently.’ As usual in the case of seventeenth century opera, it is the prologue that sets the frame. Three allegorical characters take to the stage: Virtù, Fortuna and Amore (Cupid/Love). ‘Ah Virtue, hide yourself!’ says Fortuna, only to be browbeaten by Amore, who says that he will always triumph over virtue and fortune, as the work to come will prove. But if L’incoronazione presents the triumph of love, our moral problems return: how can we possibly condone what Nerone and Poppea do to each other in bed and out?
When opera was ‘invented’ in Florence in the late 1590s, its focus on Greek mythology gave a veneer of classical respectability to an essentially anti-classical genre, and also justified precisely what was most irrational about opera, the fact that dramatic characters should sing rather than speak. This was essentially an art for the court, designed to entertain and edify the princes of Italy, and to display their grandeur. In 1637, however, the first ‘public’ opera house opened in Venice, and the genre took a very different turn. The city stood at the head of a republic, fiercely proud of its detachment from the north Italian courts, on the one hand, and from Rome and the Church on the other. It vaunted itself as the last, great heir to the Roman republic of antiquity. Placing on the stage the antics of a famously degenerate emperor, who might feasibly be compared with a degenerate papacy, clearly served the purpose of political propaganda.
But Venice was also the pleasure-garden of Europe, a mecca then, as now, for tourists on the Grand Tour seeking to admire its art and architecture, and still more, to revel in its libidinous pleasures. Delights both licit and illicit were the stuff of that particularly Venetian phenomenon, Carnival, the period between Christmas and Lent when identities were masked, when the world turned upside down, when sex was for sale on every street corner, and when Venetian theatres opened their doors nightly. How better to draw a ticket-buying audience than to have an opera that celebrated on the stage the libidos seeking no less satisfaction in the bedchambers of Venice’s celebrated courtesans? And if the singers were beautiful, and the voices seductive, the attraction was greater still.
MONTEVERDI IN VENICE
Claudio Monteverdi (1567–1643) had started his professional life as an instrumentalist at the court of Duke Vincenzo Gonzaga in Mantua, working his way up the ranks to become the Duke’s maestro della musica. However, the court lost its lustre for the overworked, underpaid composer, and various intrigues led to his dismissal in 1612. He was lucky when, the next year, he was appointed maestro di cappella at the great St Mark’s Basilica in Venice. When opera went public in 1637, he was at the grand old age of 70. No one can have expected him to produce three new operas in quick succession: Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria (1640), Le nozze d’Enea con Lavinia (1641; now lost) and L’incoronazione di Poppea
The role of music, Monteverdi said, was to move the passions. How it might best do so, however, was open to debate. The initial solution was to treat music as some rhetorical form of heightened declamation: this was the basis for the musical recitative that formed the basis of the first operas. Here, the drama is carried by sung speech, while any actual songs – distinguished by stronger melodic writing and clearer formal structures – were incidental. Increasingly, however, these songs – arias –began to reclaim the ground for music as music. By the 1620s and ’30s, Monteverdi and his contemporaries were exploring new types of aria-writing as rhetorical and expressive tools. They frame and punctuate the dramatic discourse: Nerone and Poppea both ‘speak’ and ‘sing’ –the question is just what they speak and sing about.
The surviving sources for L’incoronazione are complex. We have a scenario associated with the first performances, a printed libretto for a performance in Naples in 1651, and Busenello’s edition of the libretto in his collected works, Delle hore ociose (Venice, 1656). The music survives in two manuscripts: one in Naples, perhaps associated with the 1651 performance; the other in Venice, copied in the early 1650s. These musical sources seem to mix the work of various composers – whether the 1643 L’incoronazione did the same is an unanswerable, question – and the consensus is that much of the final scene and the parts for Ottone are by one or more other hands, probably including another Venetian opera composer, Francesco Sacrati.
This is a problem for those seeking to hear a single composer’s voice in the opera, although it reflects the realities of working in the seventeenth-century opera house, when music would be added, subtracted or revised according to immediate performance needs. And these musical sources reflect theatrical realities in other ways, too. Instrumental parts are left blank, and the vocal lines often seem presented in a skeletal format. Bringing this music to sonic life is a challenge designed both to vex and to delight the performer. That, too, is part of the theatrical game.
TRUSTING OUR EARS
We have to trust the performers, but can we trust our own reading of the performance? Or to put the question another way, how can we be sure that the music expresses what we think it expresses? Poppea’s siren songs may seem seductive enough, but do they enhance or diminish the status of the character? When Ottavia sings almost wholly in recitative, does that make her noble or barren? When Seneca’s famigliari exhort him not to die, they do so by way of tortuous chromaticism (so, serious) followed immediately by a dance-tune (so, comic). The musical signs remain frustratingly unclear, and the music itself seems constantly to shift focus.
The problems are compounded when one brings into play various possible levels of ironic subversion (so the serious becomes comic, and the comic serious). Such questions might not have bothered a Venetian audience in 1643, although certainly they are troublesome today. But this is what makes L’incoronazione still so fascinating, with questions far more interesting than the answers it may or may not provide. And love her or hate her, Poppea will never leave you cold.
Tim Carter
Tim Carter, David G Frey Professor of Music Emeritus at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (USA), is the author of Monteverdi’s Musical Theatre
“Poppea’s siren songs may seem seductive enough, but do they enhance or diminish the status of the character? When Ottavia sings almost wholly in recitative, does that make her noble or barren?”
RECONSTRUCTING THE TEATRO SAN CASSIANO: reimaGininG mon T everdi’s v enice
In 1637, the newly reconstructed Teatro Tron di San Cassiano staged Benedetto Ferrari and Francesco Manelli’s L’Andromeda before a paying public and with it the concept of public opera was born. This momentous act sparked a global opera boom with Venice as its celebrated capital and ensured that forevermore the Teatro San Cassiano would be revered as the world’s first public opera house.
Thereafter, the first Venetian theatres not only offered the greatest music performed by the best singers, musicians and dancers of the day, they also used the latest technology available of stage machinery and special effects of the time to set the operas in a magical world of descending dei ex machina, rolling seas, thunderstorms, twinkling stars and scene-sets which changed in the blink of an eye. It was like nothing ever seen or heard before, and sadly since. Almost 400 years later this legacy has been lost. Today, no such theatre exists.
That is until now. The project to reconstruct the original Teatro San Cassiano of 1637 targets completion by 2028 and with it will seek to restore Historically Informed Performances (“HIP”) of Baroque opera to Venice. The newly reconstructed theatre will mirror in many ways Shakespeare’s Globe on London’s Bankside and will aim to become a world-renowned centre for the research, exploration and staging of “HIP”, literally
studying and celebrating Baroque opera through its recital on stage and in the orchestra.
This will be Venice at its most glorious. Entering a box will be like walking through a time-machine. Once inside, we will find a Venetian Baroque theatre of 153 boxes over five tiers and with a platea (stalls) just six rows deep. With each box at just under a metre’s width and a capacity of just 405 spectators, the theatre will be intense, immediate, and intimate. It will introduce its guests to a world of “HIP”, where each opera will have been meticulously researched, now to be performed as its composer would recognise it, complete with period staging, gestures and costumes. It will celebrate the world’s greatest composers, but also restore those currently forgotten. The aim in going backwards is to improve our understanding to take opera forwards.
Importantly, it will give us an insight into the type of Venetian theatre that allowed opera to evolve as it did in its early years. These small auditoriums encouraged ornamentation in a way that is impossible in the larger “grand” theatres today, while the smaller casts and orchestras would combine to deliver drama through music that was clearly articulated in both diction and counterpoint: opera da camera one might say.
But what do we know of the experience of the Venetian opera-going public in Monteverdi’s Venice?
“The newly reconstructed theatre will mirror in many ways Shakespeare’s Globe on London’s Bankside and will aim to become a world-renowned centre for the research, exploration and staging of Historically Informed Performances”
To set the scene, it is important to remember that in 1637 Venice was still recovering from the devasting plague of 1631, in which half of its population had been lost and in which all public music in La Serenissima had been silenced. It is no surprise, then, that L’Andromeda was the spark that caused such an explosion of energy. Three years later, and notably, perhaps critically, after the publication of his Ottavo libro, Monteverdi restaged L’Arianna (Teatro San Moisè, 1640), before composing new operas for Venice, of which only Il ritorno di Ulisse in patria (1641) and L’incoronazione di Poppea (1643), both at the Teatro Santi Giovanni e Paolo, are known to have survived intact. If Il ritorno is about loyalty, fidelity and constancy, Poppea is about lust, power, ambition and hedonism. So, we see two entirely contrasting subjects set before the Venetian public. By now, we are only in the seventh year of public opera, and we are already moving at great speed from mythology to historical drama. Busenello and Monteverdi’s Poppea was unquestionably cutting edge. Busenello was a key figure of the “Accademia degli Incogniti” (the freethinking intellectual driving force of early opera) and his openly-stated intent to change history relied on a shared perception with his Venetian public, and therein presumably required its permission to indulge in dramatic licence. In turn, Monteverdi’s exhilarating, often sensual, music must have conveyed a sense of something never heard before. The excitement and energy of the opera must, therefore, have been palpable, but more, it gives us an insight not only into what was acceptable in a Venetian theatre, but of the extraordinary forces simultaneously at play. It is when we then consider this new movement of artistic and intellectual creativity, set against the ingenuity and ever greater demands for special effects, driven continually by
the competing commercial theatres, and all to be performed as one spectacle before the collective emotional release of a post-plague Venetian public set on pleasure, that we then start to get some understanding as to just how intoxicatingly captivating and complex the world of early Venetian theatre must have been: the opera boom is perhaps explained. There is little wonder, then, that the authorities were cautious. Here, Venice was no different to London and location tells us much. As with the Shakespeare’s Globe being built south of the Thames, cheek by jowl with the brothels and safely out of sight of both the religious and political powers of the City, this too was true in Venice. While the Gran Teatro La Fenice is today a flagship of Venetian culture, a short distance from Piazza San Marco and its Basilica and Ducal Palace, the Teatro San Cassiano was set across the Canal Grande and tucked away in Santa Croce, just yards away from the prostitutes (Carampane) of the infamous Ponte delle Tette. This wasn’t grand opera as we would come to know it. There was a reason why they wore masks and why the prostitutes in the theatre would wear double-masks: with identities protected, the richer side of Venetian life stayed within the theatre and out of public view. For all Poppea tells us of Ancient Rome, it too mirrors Venice in 1643: the analogy between Poppea herself and Venetian courtesans having long since been posed and surely never lost within the theatre. Similarly, sex was also seemingly ever-present: the authorities intervening to decree that the doors to the boxes must be kept open to ensure that any activity inside could be monitored. Externally, we simply have no detailed iconography for these early theatres. It says much of their place in Venetian society: no evidence of grand façades in 1637, side entrances under a discrete sotoportego being the more appropriate reality.
But with success came competition and by 1639 the Teatro Grimani di Santi Giovanni e Paolo was constructed not simply “to emulate” the Teatro San Cassiano, but also to “overshadow [its] fame”, and this it did. The new theatre with its deeper stage and greater technology exceeded the San Cassiano in spectacle and magnificence. By 1645, it was considered “the most comfortable and beautiful in the city”. It maintained this reputation until the construction in 1678 of the Teatro Grimani di San Giovanni Grisostomo (today the site of the Teatro Malibran). Opera was, by now, a thriving business and so responding to the laws of supply and demand the owners built ever larger theatres, requiring ever larger orchestras and putting ever greater demands on the singers. The result was to leave the smaller teatri outdated and eventually obsolete. The final death knell for the Teatro San Cassiano came not in 1812, when Napolean gave the final decree to demolish the theatre, but in 1792 when the new Gran Teatro La Fenice gave Venice the very latest in theatre technology, design and comfort. By comparison to the San Cassiano, which tellingly ceased staging opera in 1798, it was enormous, approximately three times larger. It thus dominated the market, and with it one might also argue that opera as we know it had arrived.
Paul Atkin
CEO of the project to reconstruct the Teatro San Cassiano
Digital reimagination of the Teatro San Cassiano of 1637, complete with Nero centre stage, as he would have been seen in the 17th century. Taken from Antonio Gianettini’s L’ingresso alla gioventù di Claudio Nerone (Modena, 1692, restaged Český Krumlov as a co-production with Teatro San Cassiano in 2018)
TOSCA Giacomo Puccini
TOSCA Giacomo Puccini
Libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa | Sung in Italian with English surtitles by Kenneth Chalmers
June | 8 15 21 26 30 July | 5
Conductor Francesco Cilluffo
Director Christopher Luscombe
Designer Simon Higlett
Lighting Designer Mark Jonathan
Fight Director Maisie Carter
CAST
Floria Tosca Francesca Tiburzi
Mario Cavaradossi Andrés Presno
Baron Scarpia Andrew Manea
Cesare Angelotti Dan D’Souza
Sacristan Darren Jeffery
Spoletta Vladimir-Mihai Sima
Sciarrone Stuart Orme
Gaoler Meilir Jones
Shepherd boy Sion Llywelyn-Davies
Judge David Menezes
Roberti Warren Gillespie
Cardinal Richard Stead
BOURNEMOUTH SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
Leader Amyn Merchant
THE GRANGE FESTIVAL CHORUS
Chorus Master William Vann
THE GRANGE FESTIVAL CHILDREN’S CHORUS
Chorus Master David Hall
Assistant Conductor Valeria Racco
Assistant Director Rachel Wise
Repetiteur Nicholas Bosworth
Religious Advisor The Rev’d Thomas Crowley
Production Manager Tom Nickson
Wardrobe Supervisor Karen Large
This production is supported by Lord and Lady Laidlaw | Joe and Minnie MacHale | Cathy and Michael Pearman 5 July BMW
SYNOPSIS
ACT I
Rome, June
To follow…
Cesare Angelotti, an escaped political prisoner, rushes into the Church of Sant’Andrea della Valle. After finding the key his sister has hidden for him, he hides in his family’s private chapel. Soon, the painter Mario Cavaradossi arrives to work on his portrait of Mary Magdalene. The painting has been inspired by Angelotti’s sister, the Marchesa Attavanti, whom Cavaradossi had seen praying in the church. Angelotti, who was a member of the former Bonapartiste government, emerges from his hiding place. Cavaradossi recognises him and promises help, then hurries him back into the chapel as the singer Floria Tosca, his lover, calls from outside. When he lets her into the church, she jealously asks Cavaradossi to whom he has been talking and reminds him of their rendezvous that evening. Suddenly recognising the Marchesa Attavanti in the painting, she accuses him of being unfaithful, but he assures her of his love. When Tosca has left, Angelotti again comes out of hiding. A cannon signals that the police have discovered the escape, and he and Cavaradossi flee to the painter’s home. The sacristan enters with choirboys who are preparing to sing in a Te Deum celebrating the recent victory against Napoleon at the Battle of Marengo. At the height of their excitement, Baron Scarpia, chief of the secret police, arrives, searching for Angelotti. When Tosca comes back looking for Cavaradossi, Scarpia shows her a fan with the Attavanti crest that he has just found. Seemingly confirming her suspicions about her lover’s infidelity, Tosca is devastated. She vows vengeance and leaves as the church fills with worshippers. Scarpia sends his men to follow her to Cavaradossi, with whom he thinks Angelotti is hiding. While the congregation intones the Te Deum, Scarpia declares that he will bend Tosca to his will.
ACT II
That evening in his chambers in the Palazzo Farnese, Scarpia anticipates the pleasure of having Tosca in his power. The spy Spoletta arrives with news that he was unable to find Angelotti. Instead, he brings in Cavaradossi. Scarpia interrogates the defiant painter while Tosca sings at a royal gala in the palace courtyard. Scarpia sends for her, and she appears just as Cavaradossi is being taken away to be tortured. Frightened by Scarpia’s questions and Cavaradossi’s screams, Tosca reveals Angelotti’s hiding place. Henchmen bring in Cavaradossi, who is badly hurt and hardly conscious. When he realises what has happened, he angrily confronts Tosca, just as the officer Sciarrone rushes in to announce that Napoleon actually has won the battle, a defeat for Scarpia’s side. Cavaradossi shouts out his defiance of tyranny, and Scarpia orders him to be executed. Once alone with Tosca, Scarpia calmly suggests that he would let Cavaradossi go free if she’d give herself to him. Fighting off his advances, she declares that she has dedicated her life to art and love and calls on God for help. Scarpia becomes more insistent, but Spoletta bursts in: Faced with capture, Angelotti has killed himself. Tosca, now forced to give in or lose her lover, agrees to Scarpia’s proposition. Scarpia orders Spoletta to prepare for a mock execution of Cavaradossi, after which he is to be freed. Tosca demands that Scarpia write her a passage of safe-conduct. After he has done so, he attempts to make love to Tosca, but she grabs a knife from the table and stabs him. She takes the pass and flees.
INTERVAL (100 minutes)
ACT III
At dawn, Cavaradossi awaits execution on the ramparts of Castel Sant’Angelo.
He bribes the jailer to deliver a farewell letter to Tosca, and then, overcome with emotion, gives in to his despair. Tosca appears and explains what has happened. The two imagine their future in freedom. As the execution squad arrives, Tosca implores Cavaradossi to fake his death convincingly, then watches from a distance. The soldiers fire and depart. When Cavaradossi doesn’t move, Tosca realises that the execution was real, and Scarpia has betrayed her. Scarpia’s men rush in to arrest her, but she cries out that she will meet Scarpia before God and leaps from the battlements.
Tosca, T he opera m ahler never W roT e
A turn of the century is a strange time, as we all know.
A turn of the century in opera is no exception, so imagine a work like Tosca set in the year 1800, being premiered in the first days of the year 1900.
To make expectation soar, consider that this opera was created at the Teatro Costanzi in Rome, the same venue where, only ten years before, operatic verismo was born, bringing overnight stardom to composer Pietro Mascagni with the creation of Cavalleria Rusticana
And yet, on the evening of 14 January 1900, Puccini’s Tosca became an instant and everlasting success, officially putting its composer on the map as “the new Verdi of Italian opera” (after the successes of Manon Lescaut and La bohème) and leaving behind once and for all strong contenders such as Mascagni and Giordano. A turn of events, considering that Verdi himself thought Puccini too “European” and “symphonic” a composer to be his successor. He had himself toyed with the libretto of Tosca, as had Alberto Franchetti; but being the great man of theatre that he was, Verdi understood that Tosca belonged to another era, featuring a plot with no concept of salvation or redemption – one could perhaps sum it up as “Fidelio gone wrong” – where violence and neurosis, predation, political murders, lust and guilt abound. If some of those elements were not completely foreign to some of Verdi’s operas, here the strong moral code that sustained the Risorgimento and the unification of Italy is completely absent. In Tosca the world is an amoral place where good deeds are not rewarded, and politics and power are weapons to further one’s private agenda (how far are we from the world of Simon Boccanegra!). As Tosca experiences first hand, there is no God available to bargain with: in “Vissi d’arte” she asks the forbidden question “Why, God?”, and no answer is forthcoming. Verdi, the Moses of nineteenth century Italian opera, realised that Tosca needed a new kind of composer, someone who truly belonged to the twentieth century, that Promised Land that the old composer (who died in January 1901) could only see from afar but could never really enter, like his biblical counterpart.
So what makes Tosca one of the most perfect operas? We could start by considering it as a masterful mix of choice ingredients: a famous play by Victorien Sardou, modeled partially on Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure (the common element being sex used as currency for releasing a political prisoner), the cinematic quality of the action, where even arias are in “real time” and not simple “aside” reflections of the characters. Last but not least the seductive portrait of the Eternal City, Rome, itself a vibrant character in the background of the drama: while there is very little of Paris in La bohème, Manon Lescaut or La rondine, each note of Tosca has Rome’s light and sound in it. Tosca is also the first important opera whose protagonist is herself a singer, and it seems to anticipate the contemporary trend for morbid biopics of the tragic life of divas such as Maria Callas (allegedly the greatest Tosca of all time), Sarah Bernhardt (for whom Sardou wrote La Tosca), all the way down to Marilyn Monroe and Amy Winehouse.
But it’s the incredible modernity of Puccini’s musical writing that makes Tosca still resonate with us today. For the first time in his career, and years before the cinema really existed, the composer manages to find the perfect balance between narration, the pacing of the action and psychological insight, resulting in an appealing tapestry made up of a wide variety of music genres. Only Mahler achieved something similar, in his symphonies; in fact we could argue that Tosca gives a glimpse of the horror that the new century had in store as the opening of Mahler’s Sixth Symphony seems to suggest the marching armies of the imminent world wars.
“We could argue that Tosca gives a glimpse of the horror that the new century had in store”
Mahler, at that time, was the most famous opera Conductor of the world, and the Director of the Vienna State Opera, and I strongly believe it was Tosca that put him off operatic writing for good. Tosca has perhaps the most Mahlerian orchestral writing one could ever find in opera, particularly considering how the orchestration seems to embrace and recreate the sound of a whole world, while deploying a movie-like mixture of descriptive and subjective context. The score includes bells, landscapes, folksongs, quotations of Gregorian chant, Palestrina-like counterpoint, military marches, sudden burst of brutal music… all elements that are immediately distinctive of a Mahler symphony to the ears of a concertgoer. It is a known fact that Mahler hated Tosca, and even walked out of a performance, calling it a “sham masterpiece”, while claiming that “nowadays even a cobbler orchestrates to perfection”. One cannot help thinking that something struck too close to home for the famous opera Director who kept failing to produce an opera of his own… And how interesting that the words “masterpiece” and “perfect orchestration” are there… While Mahler preferred Catalani (author of La Wally) to any other Italian operatic composer, it is clear that he recognised in Puccini a dangerous talent, one that, while using the same musical vocabulary as his, could succeed where he himself kept failing.
As a latter-day Floria Tosca, Madonna, would sing much later in a James Bond song: “Sigmund Freud, analyse this”.
And Freud did, since a mere three months before Tosca was premiered in Rome, he was publishing his revolutionary theories about repressed desire, sexuality and neurosis in his book The Interpretation of Dreams. We are not sure how much Freud Puccini knew and read (I suspect a certain degree, Puccini being an avid, curious international reader), but in very few operas other than Tosca do neurosis, desire, lust and guilt create the very fabric of which the musical discourse is made. It is surely not coincidental that some of the great performances of Tosca have been conducted by Conductors particularly rooted in Mahler and early-twentieth century Viennese music such as Mitropoulos, Leinsdorf, Maazel, Levine, Mehta and Sinopoli.
Tosca is the first opera to deal with modern neurosis, bridging Italian opera, in just under two hours of music, from late-nineteenth century verismo to twentieth century expressionism.
“Tosca is the first opera to deal with modern neurosis, bridging Italian opera… from late-nineteenth century verismo to twentieth century expressionism”
A perfect example of psychology in music is the opening of Act III: while the peaceful portrait of the Roman countryside at dawn is disturbed by the return of Scarpia’s libido theme (given to the clarinet) and the notes of his signature chords (a warning that Scarpia still lives in Tosca’s guilty conscience), we hear a voice of a shepherd boy singing a Roman folksong. Listeners might just consider this landscape music, but we must remember that Floria Tosca in Sardou’s play is a shepherdess of humble origins, whose voice was discovered by chance and who therefore made the proverbial rags to riches journey. What Puccini is doing here is zooming in on the singer’s face (long before such cinematic tricks existed), showing us Tosca reflecting on the trajectory that has brought her to Castel Sant’Angelo, to see Cavaradossi in jail after murdering Scarpia.
On a more personal note, Tosca is an opera that has a recurrent presence in my life. My first musical job, at ten, was singing in the children’s choir at the Teatro Regio in Turin, in a production starring Renata Scotto; later, it was a TV documentary about Zubin Mehta and Jonathan Miller rehearsing Tosca at the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino in the eighties that made me fall in love with the idea of being an opera Conductor. More recently, Tosca was the opera with which I made my USA debut, in the historic production by Jean Pierre Ponnelle. As Floria herself tells Cavaradossi in Act One, I could say “Ah, how well you know the art of making people fall in love with you”.
Francesco Cilluffo Conductor, Tosca
Tosca and iTaly’s y ears oF l ead
Tosca’ s story of a powerful man blackmailing a virtuous woman to succumb to his libidinous desires has many precedents in Italian and French literature: Stendhal’s The Charterhouse of Parma (1839) sees Gina give herself up to the Prince of Parma to save her nephew; and Alessandro Manzoni’s The Betrothed (1827) describes Don Rodrigo impeding Lucia’s wedding because he wants her for himself.
But in many ways the story of Tosca, famously set just as Rome was about to fall back into the hands of Napoleon Bonaparte, has parallels with another, more recent period of Italian history: its “Anni di Piombo”, or “Years of Lead”.
This suggestive name was given to the era, from the late 1960s to the early 1980s, in which extremists from both ends of the political spectrum conducted terrorist campaigns involving bombings and assassinations, kneecappings and kidnappings. As with that notorious summer of 1800, when Napoleonic and Habsburgian troops faced each other in Marengo (south-west of Milan), there was uncertainty as to where the political chips were going to fall, and whether revolutionaries or reactionaries would triumph and take the capital.
“Tosca, famously set just as Rome was about to fall back into the hands of Napoleon Bonaparte, has parallels with another, more recent period of Italian history”
At the outset, the revolutionaries appeared creative counter-culturalists. In 1968, the 14th Triennale in Milan was overtaken by an alliance of workers, students and artists. The squat lasted for ten days, with the building becoming covered with hand-painted slogans: “the artists’ self-determination”, read one board, “is a moment of struggle against the institutions of the bourgeois state.”
Something similar happened at that year’s Venice Film Festival when two of the great auteurs of Italian cinema –Pier Paolo Pasolini and Cesare Zavattini – squatted the Sala Volpi in protest at the side-lining of (artistic) screenwriters by (capitalistic) producers. Pasolini’s 1968 novel Teorema, and its subsequent film adaptation, dramatised this rebellion: an unexpected visitor to a well-heeled Milanese household seduces all and sundry, up-ending their lives and giving them renewed appetites and interests. The son becomes, like Tosca ’s Cavaradossi, an artist.
1968 was also the year in which a uniquely Italian sub-culture was born: the ultras, hard-core football fans who were like a cross between Hells Angels and hooligans, began turning stadia into carnivalesque protests against conventionality, giving their groups names borrowed from far-left insurgencies across the globe.
Very soon, however, that exuberant creativity had turned into something far darker. On 12 December 1969, a bomb ripped through the Banca Nazionale dell’Agricoltura’s circular atrium in central Milan, just behind the Duomo. 17 people were killed and 88 injured in what came to be known as “the Piazza Fontana Massacre”.
Anarchists were immediately suspected and a railway worker, Giuseppe Pinelli, was arrested that evening. The former World War II partisan was held in custody and interrogated for three days until, inexplicably, he was found outside police headquarters, having fallen to his death from a fourth storey window.
The official version was that he had realised his alibi was leaky and had decided to take his own life. But the improbability of Pinelli side-stepping the various policemen to get to the window, and the fact that he was later proved to be entirely innocent, meant that the official version was quickly discredited. It seemed more plausible that he had been killed, deliberately or accidentally, by the interrogating police officers. Pinelli’s fate became globally known thanks to Dario Fo’s 1970 play, the bitter comedy Accidental Death of an Anarchist Luigi Calabresi was, like Tosca ’s Scarpia, a policeman. He was the Commissioner responsible for Pinelli’s interrogation and he quickly became the focus of a hate campaign by the far-left. All over Italy, walls were daubed with “Calabresi murderer”. Even though he almost certainly hadn’t been in the room when Pinelli fell, many publications – especially Lotta Continua (Continuing Struggle) – accused Calabresi of being a killer. The inevitable happened on 17 May 1972: as he was going to work, the 34 year old Calabresi was shot dead, leaving behind two children and a pregnant wife.
Only decades later did a degree of clarity begin to emerge about what truly happened in those bloodsoaked years: far from being an Anarchist atrocity, the Piazza Fontana Massacre was proven to be a neoFascist one. The bombing was part of the so-called “strategy of tension”, a grim campaign of destabilisation aiming to create a yearning for, and acceptance of, an authoritarian regime, comparable to those of Italy’s Mediterranean peers – Spain, Portugal and Greece.
In 1964 and 1970 there had been two attempted coups d’etat, known respectively as the “Piano Solo” and the “Golpe Borghese”, and throughout the 1970s neo-Fascist bombings continued, often on trains or in railway stations: 6 people were killed in Gioia Tauro in 1970, 3 in Peteano in 1972, 8 in Brescia, and 12 on an Italicus train, in 1974. The most notorious bombing occurred at Bologna railway station in August 1980, when 85 people lost their lives.
The far-left terror group, the Red Brigades – often compared to the IRA or ETA, or to Germany’s BaaderMeinhof gang – used different tactics: holding up banks and kidnapping or murdering industrialists, magistrates and policemen. It has been estimated that the group committed 86 murders, including the drawn-out kidnap and eventual murder of the former Italian Prime Minister, Aldo Moro, in 1978.
But even amidst this political turmoil and extremism there was a melodramatic romance. Two of the founders of the Red Brigades, Renato Curcio and Mara Cagol, had married in 1969. In 1974, in a story that itself sounds operatic, Curcio had been due to meet a revolutionary priest who had taken part in liberationist struggles in South America. Nicknamed Friar Machine Gun, Silvano Girotto had informed the police of the meeting and Curcio was arrested. Cagol, however, broke her husband out of prison only to be, herself, killed in a shoot-out a few months later.
Behind those headline events were dozens of titfor-tat killings. Both the far-right and far-left had their pantheon of martyrs who had died for the cause and who duly had to be avenged. You can still see or hear their names today, commemorated in posters and protests in many Italian cities. But the irony of that extremism was that neither the revolutionaries nor the reactionaries actually triumphed: thanks to what was called “the theory of opposing extremes”, the centre was continually reinforced, with the Christian Democrats permanently in power throughout the First Republic (1946-1994).
In a country renowned for subterfuge and conspiracy theories, there has been much speculation about how the Years of Lead were fomented and fuelled by dark forces. It has been proven that both the Sicilian and Calabrian Mafias had fringe roles in atrocities and coup attempts;
so too did a sinister masonic lodge called P2, which was also connected to various scandals and iconic murders. Clandestine organisations like “Gladio” (a CIA-inspired antiCommunist resistance movement with many arms-caches across Italy) and “Anello” (a secondary secret service headed by Giulio Andreotti, the seven times Prime Minister) were also implicated in the murkiest aspects of those violent years. As in all dirty, undeclared wars, there were was more confusion than clarity about the true combatants.
Some, however, expressed certainty. “I know the names of those responsible”, Pasolini wrote in 1974. He pointed the finger squarely at those mainstream politicians who benefitted from the bloodshed and instability: “Andreotti, Fanfani, Rumor [leading politicians], and at least a dozen other powerful Christian Democrats, should be dragged into the dock”. Less than a year later, Pasolini himself had been murdered in Ostia, to the west of Rome, a case which remains unresolved to this day.
As violent ideologies subsided, and the country transitioned into the hedonism of the 1980s, various terror networks were painstakingly dismantled. The man principally responsible for arresting the Red Brigadiers, Carlo Alberto Della Chiesa, was subsequently promoted to Prefect of Palermo in the hope that he could also subdue Cosa Nostra. Having repeatedly complained that the government of the day was unsupportive of his mission, and after less than five months in the post, he was murdered by Cosa Nostra along with his wife and body-guard. As with Tosca, at the end of the Years of Lead there seemed to be very few protagonists left standing.
Tobias Jones
Tobias Jones lives in Parma. He is the author of nine books including The Dark Heart of Italy, Ultra and The Po
Libretto by WH Auden and Chester Kallman | Sung in English with surtitles
June | 23 27 July | 4 6
Conductor Tom Primrose
Director & Designer Antony McDonald
Lighting Designer Peter Mumford
Movement Director Lucy Burge
CAST
Tom Rakewell Adam Temple-Smith
Anne Trulove Alexandra Oomens
Nick Shadow Michael Mofidian
Baba the Turk Rosie Aldridge
Father Trulove Darren Jeffery
Sellem John Graham-Hall
Mother Goose Catherine Wyn-Rogers
Keeper of the Madhouse Armand Rabot June 23 27
Keeper of the Madhouse Dan D’Souza July 4 6
BOURNEMOUTH SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
Leader Amyn Merchant
THE GRANGE FESTIVAL CHORUS
Chorus Master William Vann
Assistant Conductor Quintin Beer
Associate Director Sophie Daneman
Repetiteur Chad Vindin
Production Manager Tom Nickson
Wardrobe Supervisor Frederica Romano
This co-production with Nouvel Opéra Fribourg is supported by Simon and Sally Borrows | Jonathan and Gillian Pickering
Theses performances are given by permission of Boosey & Hawkes Music Publishers Limited.
ACT I
To follow…
In the garden of her father’s country house, Anne Trulove and her fiancé, Tom Rakewell, celebrate springtime. Trulove, who has doubts about Tom’s character, has arranged an accountant’s job for him in the city, but Tom declines the offer. Alone, he declares his intention to trust his good fortune and enjoy life. When he expresses his wish for money, a stranger appears and introduces himself as Nick Shadow. He tells Tom that a forgotten uncle has died, leaving him a fortune. Anne and Trulove return to hear the good news. Shadow suggests accompanying Tom to London to help settle his affairs, and Tom agrees to pay him for his services in a year and a day. As they leave, Tom promises to send for Anne as soon as everything is arranged. Shadow turns to the audience announcing, “The progress of a rake begins.”
At a brothel in the city, Tom recites the catechism Shadow has taught him to the madam, Mother Goose: to follow nature rather than rules and to seek beauty and pleasure. When asked about love, he becomes momentarily terrified. He is eager to escape as the clock strikes one, but Shadow turns it back an hour and assures Tom that time is his. Tom responds with reflections on love, which he feels he has betrayed, but then accepts Mother Goose’s offer to spend the night with her.
As night falls, Anne wonders why she hasn’t heard from Tom. She leaves her father’s house, determined to find him.
ACT II
Tom, in his house in the city, is bored and disillusioned with his decadent life and no longer dares to think of Anne. He pronounces his second wish: for happiness. Shadow appears and shows him a poster of Baba the Turk, a bearded lady on display at the fair. He suggests that Tom marry her to express his freedom and thus know true happiness. Amused, Tom agrees.
Anne comes to Tom’s house, surprised to see servants enter with strangely shaped packages. Tom arrives in a sedan. Startled at the sight of Anne, he declares himself unworthy and tells her to leave and forget him. Baba calls out from the sedan, and Tom admits to the astonished Anne that he is married. Both wonder what might have been, while Baba interrupts with impatient remarks. Anne faces reality and leaves, as a crowd of passers-by hails Baba.
INTERVAL (100 minutes)
ACT II (cont.)
In his morning room, Tom sits sulking while Baba chatters away. When he refuses to respond to her affection, she complains bitterly. Tom silences her, then falls into an exhausted sleep, as Baba remains motionless. Shadow wheels in a strange machine that seems to turn stones into bread. Tom awakes, saying “I wish it were true” –only to realise that the machine is what he saw in his dream. Elated, he wonders if in return for doing one good deed he might again deserve Anne. Shadow points out the device’s usefulness in fooling potential investors.
ACT III
Tom’s business venture has ended in ruin and his belongings – including Baba, who has remained in the same position – are up for auction. As gossiping customers examine the objects, Anne enters looking for Tom. The auctioneer, Sellem, begins to hawk various articles. When the crowd bids for Baba, she resumes her chatter and, indignant at finding her possessions up for sale, tries to order everyone out. She advises Anne to find Tom, who still loves her. Tom and Shadow are heard singing in the street and Anne rushes out after them while Baba makes a dignified exit.
Shadow has led Tom to a graveyard with a freshly dug grave and reminds him that a year and a day have passed and his payment is due. Tom must end his life by any means he chooses before the stroke of midnight. Suddenly, Shadow offers an alternative: they will gamble for Tom’s soul. Placing his trust in the Queen of Hearts, Tom calls upon Anne as her voice is heard. The defeated Shadow disappears, condemning Tom to insanity in retaliation. As dawn breaks, Tom imagines himself Adonis, the lover of Venus.
In an insane asylum, Tom awaits his wedding to Venus, mocked by the other inmates. The Keeper admits Anne. Believing her to be Venus, Tom confesses his sins, and for a moment they imagine timeless love in Elysium. Tom asks her to sing him to sleep. The other inmates are moved by her voice. Trulove comes to fetch his daughter and Anne bids the sleeping Tom farewell. When he wakes to find her gone, he cries out for Venus as the inmates mourn Adonis.
EPILOGUE
The principals gather to tell the moral of the story. Anne warns that not every man can hope for someone like her to save him; Baba warns that all men are mad; Tom warns against self-delusion, to Trulove’s agreement; Shadow mourns his role as man’s alter ego. All agree that the devil finds work for idle hands.
“ice and Flame” STRAVINSKY’S THE RAKE’S PROGRESS
Venice, 11 September 1951. The premiere of Igor Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress at one of the world’s most prestigious opera houses, the Teatro La Fenice. After a glittering twenty-minute ovation, Stravinsky heads out to celebrate his triumph in the company of various close friends, including the couple who had written the libretto, WH Auden and Chester Kallman. Handily for posterity, Robert Craft was on hand to record their lively conversation:
At the Taverna, afterward, a tune detection game of citing resemblances to other operas. Auden says the beginning of Act III, and especially the woodwind trill with the fermata reminds him of the dance of the apprentices in Die Meistersinger, and he says the “they are rebuked” in Bedlam is “an unexpected venture into Richard Strauss.” The Terzetto, he says, is “Tchaikovskyian,” and the Epilogue is modelled on Don Giovanni. Here I.S., who does not recognize or admit to any of the attributions, objects. “The Epilogue is a vaudeville or pasquinade, the Seraglio or L’Heure espagnole. In fact, some of the Rake is close to Broadway, Baba’s music especially.”
Wagner, Strauss, Tchaikovsky, Mozart, Ravel, even Broadway. The guessing game could go on – and indeed it has, ever since. The Rake’s Progress is a self-consciously clever work, and part of its delight comes from spotting its knowing dialogue with other works from the operatic repertoire (at least if we are seasoned opera-goers).
It began life, though, not in an opera house, but in a picture gallery. On 2 May 1947, Stravinsky visited the Art Institute of Chicago, where he happened upon William Hogarth’s sequence of eight paintings depicting the life and times of one Tom Rakewell. The episodic nature of Tom’s story, as well as its satirical depiction of depraved London high society, struck him as ideal subject matter for an opera, and on the advice of Aldous Huxley, he soon engaged Auden and Kallman as librettists. Hogarth’s paintings gave them the bare skeleton of a story, which they translated into a more detailed scenario consisting of nine scenes and an epilogue. At the same time, they fleshed out details of the plot and revisited its principal
characters. Hogarth’s Sarah Young becomes Anne Trulove and acquires a doting father. In Hogarth, Tom enters into a loveless marriage with a wealthy unnamed old maid. In Stravinsky, he weds Baba the Turk, who represents not so much the grotesquery and slapstick of the circus, as the pride and self-sufficiency of the true artist. As she tells Anne, wisely:
My dear, a gifted lady never need have fear.
I shall go back and grace the stage where manner rules and wealth attends.
Auden, Kallman, and Stravinsky even invented an entirely new character, Nick Shadow. Or, rather, they borrowed him from the Faust myth, as retold by Marlowe, Goethe, and – on the operatic stage – Gounod. Nick’s diabolical intent surely also recalls the legend of Don Juan, itself retold by Mozart and Da Ponte in their Don Giovanni. Appropriately enough, Stravinsky’s music is an unashamed raid on the musical conventions of the past. The opera’s overture recalls the opening of Monteverdi’s Orfeo, and the Act I cabaletta that Stravinsky penned for Anna Trulove harks back to the glory days of nineteenthcentury bel canto and ends with a ringing top ‘C’ to delight every diva and her adoring public. The opera’s concluding epilogue nods to the endings of Don Giovanni and Così fan tutte (which Auden and Stravinsky had heard “in the parish hall of a Hollywood church” in November 1947). And given that he was now composing in what was his third language, after Russian and French, Stravinsky took care to consult examples of effective English prosody, including Gay’s Beggar’s Opera, Purcell’s Funeral Music for Queen Mary, and Handel’s Messiah and Israel in Egypt. If all of that opens Stravinsky to charges of musical plagiarism, then it was a charge he gladly accepted. His admiration of Tchaikovsky’s The Queen of Spades – an opera with striking parallels to The Rake’s Progress – was based squarely on its audible borrowings from Bizet’s Carmen. As Stravinsky confessed in conversation with Craft: “the plaintiff would have to admire Tchaikovsky’s taste, even as a thief.”
Little wonder that the day after its premiere, one Italian critic described The Rake’s Progress as a “zibaldone” – which might generously be translated as a “miscellany”, or more unfavourably, a “hodgepodge”. Stravinsky himself offered a more sophisticated interpretation of his opera’s approach to musical form. It was, he suggested, “an eighteenthcentury ‘number’ opera, one in which the dramatic progress depends on the succession of recitatives and arias, duets and trios, choruses and instrumental interludes.” Stravinsky’s reference to the eighteenth century, as well as his stylisation of various historical musical genres, might suggest that The Rake’s Progress is a nostalgic, retrospective, not to say conservative work. After all, here was Stravinsky – the composer of Petrushka, The Rite of Spring, and Les Noces, seemingly turning his back on artistic innovation and musical progress. And wasn’t its premiere in Venice – that fossilised, commodified, touristy city of faded historical glory – yet further evidence of his withdrawal into an arid world of artifice and ingenuity for its own sake?
In fact, Venice had long been home to a lively modern art scene, and although Milan’s La Scala had been originally promised the right to stage Stravinsky’s new opera, The Rake’s Progress eventually made its debut during Venice’s Festival Internazionale di Musica Contemporanea, itself part of the famous Biennale. Britten’s Turn of the Screw would open at La Fenice three years later, followed in 1955 by the posthumous premiere of Prokofiev’s The Fiery Angel In 1961, Luigi Nono’s Intolleranza caused a public scandal on account of its avant-garde style and profound sense of social commitment. Stravinsky would never share Nono’s revolutionary left-wing politics, but he would soon go on to explore a radically new musical language of severe
complexity. Discussing The Rake’s Progress, Stravinsky had mused: “Can a composer reuse the past and at the same time move in a forward direction?” The answer was a clear and confident yes. In the coming years, two of his knottiest works – the Santicum Sacrum (1956) and Threni (1958) –would be premiered in Venice (in the basilica of San Marco and Scuola Grande di San Rocco respectively). In 1960, he would conduct his transcription of three motets by Gesualdo in the Doge’s Palace. And it would be in the cemetery of San Michele that Stravinsky was buried in 1971, not far from his friend, Sergei Diaghilev, who had died in the city in 1929.
Stravinsky had infamously claimed that “music is, by its very nature, essentially powerless to express anything at all.” Auden too is often quoted as having argued that “poetry makes nothing happen.” Is, then, The Rake’s Progress too clever by half, as barren and deceptively futile as Tom’s machine for turning stones into bread? Can a work that is so erudite and so self-aware possibly offer the emotional engagement on which opera traditionally trades? Deep down, The Rake’s Progress turns out to be a surprisingly heartfelt work. Who could not be moved by Anne’s resolution to follow her unworthy beloved in Act I? Or, in Act III, touched by her gracious visit to Tom, now in Bedlam and convinced that she has been sent to play Venus to his Adonis? Such moments, fleeting as they are, are all the more precious precisely because they are offset by such bracing irony elsewhere. The Rake’s Progress offers, then, the perfect balance between head and heart.
Philip Ross Bullock
Professor
of Russian Literature and Music, University of Oxford
Stravinsky had been keen to write an opera in English since arriving in America in 1939, and when he chanced to see The Rake’s Progress series of engravings while visiting the Art Institute in Chicago in 1947, he was struck at once by the way that the sequence of Hogarth’s pictures suggested a succession of operatic scenes. Back home in California he asked his neighbour Aldous Huxley if he knew of a likely librettist for such a project. WH Auden was Huxley’s nomination. Auden, a New York resident, met initially with Stravinsky’s publisher Ralph Hawkes, who was pleased to report back that the poet was “intensely interested and is free to go to work immediately”. Stravinsky followed up with a letter, asking Auden to prepare “a general outline” and a “free verse preliminary for the characters”; but the only specific idea he mentioned was that the Rake would play the fiddle in the final asylum scene. This seems to have been what originally hooked Stravinsky’s imagination, a detail taken from Hogarth’s final image of Bedlam, though actually in the picture it is not the Rake playing the violin but a fellow lunatic, and, as Auden later pointed out, no such figure appears in the final opera anyway: still, he remarked, “as a sidelight on how a creative mind works, the anecdote has interest”. One might speculate that Stravinsky was thinking of the closing scenes of his earlier opera L’Histoire du soldat (1918) in which the protagonist seeks to win back his violin (a symbol of his soul) from the devil in a card game, and appears to succeed but finds himself damned all the same, a foreshadowing of Rakewell’s fate.
Auden began at once to toy with possibilities: he told a friend he wanted the mad Rake to end the opera in a mock coronation, anointed with the contents of a chamber pot – perhaps another oblique reference to Hogarth’s final plate, in which a lunatic bearing a crown and sceptre urinates against the wall of his cell. (That colourful touch
didn’t make the final cut either.) But Auden felt the main problem eluded him, as he admitted: “what am I going to do with the plot?” That proved much too complicated to solve by letter, so in November he travelled to California to stay with the Stravinskys, an amiable, erudite, dishevelled house-guest – a “big, blond, intellectual bloodhound”, as his host fondly recalled. The first morning, “primed by coffee and whisky”, Stravinsky remembered, they began drawing up a detailed outline for the opera written in a mixture of French (Stravinsky’s preference) and English, and within a week the work was done. The story deviated quite a lot from Hogarth’s original, an account of the dangers of conspicuous consumption. Having inherited a fortune from his father, the Rake abandons Sarah Young, his pregnant common-law wife, and heads for the bright lights, where he splashes cash on fine clothes and booze and sex. With resources dwindling, he cynically marries a one-eyed elderly hunchback for her money, but he has soon gambled that all away too, and shortly after he descends from debtors’ prison to madhouse, where he dies in the arms of the faithful Sarah, mother of his utterly neglected child. It is, as Auden later remarked, “a bourgeois cautionary tale”, involving merely a repeated succumbing to worldly temptation; and, Auden thought, such passivity would simply never work on the operatic stage. In that sense, Auden would later say in a BBC broadcast, “the subject as it is in Hogarth is not really very interesting for a contemporary opera”. Accordingly, the outline he co-authored with Stravinsky describes quite a different central character, one with much more agency as well as a distinctive temperament – “a man to whom the anticipation of experience is always exciting and its realisation in actual fact always disappointing”, as Auden explained in a magazine article. This Rakewell was not really defined by his rakishness at all – he is only a rake at all during the interval
between Acts I and II, Auden pointed out: he is a study in manic depressive personality, a man struggling with his terror of boredom. In the outline, symbolically, the “Villain” (later Shadow) arrives when the “Hero” yawns, and finds new and ruinous distractions for his victim to choose.
Back in New York Auden discussed his commission with his companion Chester Kallman. Kallman was much more knowledgeable about opera than Auden and made some observations, including the practical one that the device of the yawn was unlikely to play well in the theatre. Kallman became increasingly involved in the project and by the middle of January the following year Auden could report to Stravinsky “I have taken in a collaborator, and old friend of mine in whose talents I have the greatest confidence”. Kallman’s contribution was substantial, amounting to about half the scenes, including Anne’s lovely departure from home at the end of Act I and the devilish card-guessing game in Act III, as well as the important organising idea of the Rake having three wishes. The structure of the work became increasingly clear to its authors as occurring in three steps, and Auden spelled them out to Stravinsky: “Bordel – la plaisir. Baba – L’acte gratuit. La Machine – Il désire devenir Dieu”. Succumbing to the temptations of the flesh had a source in Hogarth of course, although Mother Goose was Auden’s invention; but debauchery is merely stage one in Rakewell’s triadic moral catastrophe, and not the most important. In place of the old crone of Hogarth’s print, Auden suggested the comical grotesque of the bearded lady Baba, whom Rakewell chooses to marry, not for her money, but in a misplaced attempt to convince himself of his moral freedom. The climactic disaster is precipitated by the machine to make bread out of stones, investing in which ruins Rakewell in a futile attempt to
establish himself as a saviour of mankind: this is the worst temptation, as Auden later explained, “to do good by magic without having to change”. (The machine appeared in the original outline as one making gold out of sea water, which must have come to seem an impracticable bit of stage business: in fact, Kallman came to consider the breadmaking machine impossible effectively to put across too.)
The opera that emerged from this complicated threeway collaboration occupies squarely Audenesque territory: his poetry and plays had always explored the paradoxes of freedom and obligation, the necessity and imponderability of choice, and the sovereignty of love. Perhaps the most significant of all the variations on the Hogarthian original was the decision to set the first scene, the depiction of Anne Trulove’s home, in a pastoral otherworld. Hogarth has as his first picture the Rake, newly rich, discarding Sarah and getting measured up for a posh new suit before he has even quit the old house; but Auden does not allow his Rake’s degradation to begin until he arrives in London, and will not let death enter his arcadian space: in the opera, the money comes not from a dead father but an unknown uncle faraway – “la note pastorale n’est pas interrompue par le douteur”, Auden explained to Stravinsky. Anne remains throughout the creature of the Good Place, conjured in the beautiful last lines, through the strange benediction of Rakewell’s madness, into the figure of Venus herself. “O every day in sleep and labor / Our life and death are with our neighbor”, as Auden wrote in The Double Man, “And love illuminates again / The city and the lion’s den, / The world’s great rage, the travel of young men”.
Seamus Perry
Fellow of Balliol College and Tutor in English Literature, University of Oxford
II – The Levée, Surrounded by Artists and Professors, from A Rake’s Progress by William Hogarth
Sir John Soane’s Museum / public domain
A FRENCH SALON Jazz at The Grange
A FRENCH SALON
Jazz at The Grange
June | 28 29
MUSICIANS
Vocals Cécile McLorin Salvant
Pianist and Composer Dan Tepfer
Guest Pianist Thomas Enhco
PRODUCTION TEAM
Conductor Gavin Sutherland
Artistic Director & Producer Piers Playfair | 23Arts Initiative
Producer Frankie Parham | Mascarade Opera
Arranger Philippe Maniez
BOURNEMOUTH SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
Leader Amyn Merchant
FIRST HALF
Once Upon A Summertime (Legrand)
Dites moi que je suis belle (McLorin Salvant)
Venez donc chez moi (Boyer)
Hotel (Poulenc)
Improvisations on the French Song Book
Ma Plus Belle Histoire d’Amour (Barbara)
Amour oiseau d’etoile (Messiaen)
Si j’etais blanche (Baker)
La Vie en Rose (Piaf)
INTERVAL (100 minutes)
SECOND HALF
Dan, Cecile
Dan, Cecile
Dan, Cecile
Dan, Thomas, Cecile
Dan, Thomas
Dan, Thomas, Cecile
Dan, Thomas, Cecile
Dan, Thomas, Cecile
Dan, Thomas, Cecile
Three Last Poems of Virginie Sampeur Cecile and String Orchestra
Ravel Piano Concerto
Finale:
J’ai Deux Amants (Guitry Messager)
Ne me quitte pas (Brel)
Mon Dieu (Piaf)
Dan and BSO
Dan, Thomas, Cecile and BSO
Please note that the repertoire of this concert is subject to some change and improvisation.
a French salon
Tonight, we dive into the rich and varied tradition of the Parisian salon in an extraordinary performance that will bring together some of the world’s most singularly brilliant and distinctive musicians. In doing so, we pay tribute to the revolutionary spirit of these salons, whose spirit helped jolt the world into extraordinary new ideas. We also celebrate the boundless creativity found across centuries’ worth of salon gatherings, and join a tradition whose gatherings exposed listeners to the intimate piano works of Chopin, the transgressively rich playing of Liszt, and ultimately even the earliest European arrivals of ragtime and jazz.
In fact, it was France that proved an early ally to African-American art. The Great War and America’s entry into it brought James Reese Europe, New York’s greatest bandleader of the day and one of the 1910s most extraordinary musicians, to France. Serving in the 369th Infantry, dubbed the “Harlem Hellfighters”, Europe and his troop of Black and Puerto Rican musicians served alongside the French military. This collaboration brought Europe and his musicians directly into the orbit of the French military and soon after the French public. This music, an exciting amalgam of marching band drive mixed with ragtime, popular song, blues, and early jazz, was quickly embraced by the French, sparking a now decades-long mutual love.
“We also celebrate the boundless creativity found across centuries’ worth of salon gatherings, and join a tradition whose gatherings exposed listeners to the intimate piano works of Chopin, the transgressively rich playing of Liszt, and ultimately even the earliest European arrivals of ragtime and jazz”
From there, the proverbial lid was off the box, and subsequent visits by artists only intensified the French love for these extraordinary new styles. Later arrivals like clarinet and saxophone master Sidney Bechet drew breathless praise, rapidly signaling to Black American artists that France would prove a far more welcoming place for them to create their art. Subsequent arrivals of future icons like Josephine Baker only intensified the bond that Parisians felt for Black America. While the artists still encountered racism, scores of interviews, memoirs, and biographies with artists who relocated to France affirmed a far more welcoming and hospitable place for African-American artists. Indeed, for Sidney Bechet in particular, his many visits and eventual permanent move to France spoke to a mutual love affair: the country inspired him to create some of his most immortal works like Petite Fleur, and he in turn emerged as a national hero in his adoptive homeland.
Perhaps Parisians heard more than a little of themselves in jazz’s sound. New Orleans as a city traces its lineage back to its 1718 founding by the French, and the influence of France and the French Caribbean (in particular Haiti) on the city’s musical styles and identity cannot be overstated. Venues like the Théâtre de l’Opéra’s productions proved a massive influence in shaping the operatic sounds of many early jazz horn players, and the French-descended Creole musicians and composers from Louis Moreau Gottschalk to John Robichaux to Jelly Roll Morton (born Ferdinand Joseph LaMothe) speak to the country’s extremely deep ties with the sounds and styles of New Orleans. No small wonder, then, that the French public may have heard something familiar in these new sounds they encountered. Many of France’s musicians were similarly entranced, as demonstrated by Maurice Ravel’s exquisite Piano Concerto in G Major. Ravel, himself a longtime beneficiary
of the salon tradition who enjoyed a particularly close association with the gatherings organised by Winnaretta Singer, was stunned by the new language of jazz, and aimed to incorporate its language into his own style. His work on the concerto began in 1929, one year after a lengthy tour of the United States and a series of encounters with American music, and that influence shows: swinging rhythms, jazz’s iconic blue notes, and more all make distinctive appearances in this extraordinary work.
The unique cultural resonance between jazz and France naturally ensured a musical exchange too. France’s own rich song tradition would captivate many American jazz and popular song artists: La Vie en Rose would entrance artists from Louis Armstrong to Grace Jones, while Ne me quitte pas would become the stuff of legend in the hands of Nina Simone, to name but a few. In turn, French jazz artists would become compatriots and colleagues to their American counterparts, and the world fell in love with the work of artists like Pierre Michelot, Michel Petrucciani, Jacques Loussier, and more. Indeed, Paris’ own Quintette du Hot Club de France stands to this day as one of the greatest and most imitated ensembles in music history.
With that, we return to tonight’s show. By wending our way through the salons’ history and linking up with the musical revolutions of the New World, we understand how tonight’s show represents a glorious continuation of some of our finest cultural and intellectual traditions.
Musically, one would be hard-pressed to think of two artists who so beautifully embody the French-American simpatico as Dan Tepfer and Cécile McLorin Salvant. What’s more, the opportunity to hear a song-cycle composed by the Paris-born Tepfer for Salvant, whose own musical projects find her singing effortlessly in English, French, Kreyòl, and even Occitan, provides us with a chance to briefly embrace the experience of the salons. Just as 19th century Parisians swooned to the virtuosic joys of Frédéric Chopin’s or Franz Liszt’s music and playing, tonight we can enjoy its 21st century echo in the contemporary piano wizardry of Tepfer and guest pianist Thomas Enhco. And while Parisians watched in awe as Josephine Baker helped redefine the city’s popular culture, a century later we can continue this tradition as we hear the sheer genre-defying brilliance of Salvant, an artist whose genius, like Baker’s, cannot be confined to any easy categorisation. A look through her discography reveals a brilliant and rigorous musical mind, one that can leap a seeming chasm that might otherwise separate the popular songs of Kate Bush from the rich blues traditions of Bessie Smith, or the iconic works of the Great American Songbook from the exquisite fare of 14th century French folk songs. Tepfer is no less adventurous: few pianists can claim an in-depth duo collaboration with jazz legend Lee Konitz, while also touring the world with a glorious improvisation-driven reinterpretation of the Goldberg Variations, while also improvising at the piano in tandem with self-coded computer programs interacting sonically and visually with his work.
What’s more, tonight’s repertoire reflects that very same adventurous spirit. A newly commissioned song
cycle of three poems by Haitian poet Virginie Sampeur composed by Dan Tepfer specifically for Cécile McLorin Salvant (whose father hails from Haiti) will stand alongside the time-honored classic of Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G, before the show ends with a show- stopping closer featuring orchestral renditions of Messager’s J’ai Deux Amants, Jacques Brel’s Ne me quitte pas and Édith Piaf’s Mon Dieu. That eclecticism may seem daunting, and yet it is also perfectly in line with the very nature of a salon. What’s more, this risk-taking is fully in keeping with the programming vision that Piers Playfair has brought to his work with The Grange Festival. The previous programmes From Blues to Rhapsody and Ellington: From Stride to Strings revealed a desire to break from conventions and genres and explore the genuine ties that unite the brilliant music of the past century. Tonight’s show represents a new and exciting addition to that programming history, pairing uniquely brilliant artists in an exciting and new dialogue.
We invite you now to join us in a singular celebration of some of the greatest creative traditions in the world, brought together in an extraordinary celebration of musical styles and of centuries of innovation and revolution, woven into a truly one-of-a-kind concert. It is the kind of evening that reminds us why we love live experiences, and why we are so nourished by our ability to take part in these concerts together as a community.
Seton Hawkins
Seton Hawkins is the Director of Public Programs and Education Resources at Jazz at Lincoln Center and Adjunct Professor at The Juilliard School in New York City
THE GRANGE FESTIVAL INTERNATIONAL SINGING COMPETITION
2017–2019
2018
DANCE AT THE GRANGE
Studio Wayne McGregor
AGRIPPINA
Georg Frideric Handel
IL BARBIERE DI SIVIGLIA
Gioachino Rossini
THE ABDUCTION FROM THE SERAGLIO
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
CANDIDE
Leonard Bernstein TIME CAPSULE
The Grange Festival Learning Youth Opera
GOYESCAS
The Grange Festival at The Wallace Collection
2019
LE NOZZE DI FIGARO
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
FALSTAFF
Giuseppe Verdi
BELSHAZZAR
Georg Frideric Handel
DANCE AT THE GRANGE
Studio Wayne McGregor
INIMITABLE, IRRESISTIBLE HOLLYWOOD AND BROADWAY
The John Wilson Orchestra #LITONLINE
The Grange Festival Learning Youth Opera
THE GRANGE FESTIVAL INTERNATIONAL SINGING COMPETITION
2020
PRECIPICE
Sinéad O’Neill
PAGLIACCI
Ruggero Leoncavallo
2021
LA CENERENTOLA
Gioachino Rossini A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM
Benjamin Britten
MANON LESCAUT
Giacomo Puccini MY FAIR LADY
Lerner & Loewe
KING LEAR
William Shakespeare
2020–2023
2022
MACBETH
Giuseppe Verdi
TAMERLANO
Georg Frideric Handel
THE YEOMEN OF THE GUARD
Gilbert & Sullivan FROM BLUES TO RHAPSODY
Jazz at The Grange DANCE AT THE GRANGE
Shobana Jeyasingh Dance
New English Ballet Theatre OUR WORLD
The Grange Festival Learning Youth Opera
2023
COSÌ FAN TUTTE
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
ORFEO ED EURIDICE
Christoph Willibald Gluck
DIDO AND AENEAS
Henry Purcell
THE QUEEN OF SPADES
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky ELLINGTON: FROM STRIDE TO STRINGS
Jazz at The Grange
DAWN TO DUSK: THE MOON IS LISTENING
The Grange Festival Learning Youth Opera
THE GRANGE FESTIVAL ARTISTIC BIOGRAPHIES
Arthur Abram
DANCE AT THE GRANGE OKTETTO
Festival Debut
Recent Engagements: National Theatre Brno. Biography: Born in Paris, France. Move to Canada at a young age. Graduated from École Superieure de Ballet du Québec, in Montreal in 2008. Got first engagement in Slovakia with the Slovak National Theater. 3 years later join Balet Bratislava. In 2013, moved to Brno, Czech Republic to dance with the National Theater Brno. Got promoted to the rank of demi soloist in 2015 and to the rank of soloist in 2018.
Rosie Aldridge
BABA THE TURK THE RAKE’S PROGRESS
Festival Debut
Recent Engagements: Kostelnička Jenůfa (Staatsoper Berlin, Deutsche Oper am Rhein, Staatsoper Stuttgart); The Witch Hansel and Gretel (ROH and Staatsoper Stuttgart); Mrs Sedley Peter Grimes (ROH, Opera national de Paris, Staatsoper Hamburg, Royal Danish Opera, Teatro Real, Madrid); Baba the Turk The Rake’s Progress (Glyndebourne Festival); Margret Wozzeck (ROH); Mary The Flying Dutchman (Canadian Opera Company); Kabanicha Káťa Kabanová (Gran Teatre del Liceu, Barcelona).
Future Engagements: Kundry Parsifal (Staatsoper Stuttgart); Judith Bluebeard’s Castle) (Opera national de Lorraine); Dame Marthe Faust (ROH), Mrs Lovett Sweeney Todd (Komische Oper Berlin); Baboulenka The Gambler (Staatsoper Stuttgart); The Witch Hansel and Gretel (Bayerische Staatsoper). Biography: Rosie Aldridge is established as one of the leading singing actresses of her generation; her international career encompasses operatic and concert appearances, in the great theatres and concert halls of the world, with many of today’s leading Conductors and Directors.
David Bates
CONDUCTOR
L’INCORONAZIONE DI POPPEA Festival Debut
Recent Engagements: Appearances at the Wigmore Hall in London with Anthony Roth Costanzo and Lucy Crowe, and at the Bath and Cambridge Festivals; Arianna
in Creta (London Handel Festival); Alcina, Orfeo (Staatsoper Hannover); Serse (Opéra de Rouen Normandie debut); Saul (a new production at the Komische Oper Berlin). He explored Mozart and Beethoven with the Munich Symphony Orchestra and conducted Monteverdi madrigals and motets at Wigmore Hall.
Future Engagements: Further titles at the Komische Oper Berlin and Opéra de Rouen Normandie and his debut at the Theater an der Wien.
Biography: A graduate of the Royal Academy of Music and of the Schola Cantorum
Basiliensis, David Bates initially embarked on a professional singing career before turning to directing/conducting. He founded La Nuova Musica (LNM) in 2007. Together their most recent highlight was a semi-staged performance of Dido and Aeneas at the 2022 BBC Proms. Together with LNM, David has made a number award-winning recordings for Pentatone and Harmonia Mundi. The most recent Dido and Aeneas was selected as BBC Record Review’s recording of the week.
Jon Bausor
DESIGNER
L’INCORONAZIONE DI POPPEA
Previous Appearances: Agrippina (2018).
Recent Engagements: Cold War (Almeida); King Lear (West End); Metamorphosis (Frantic Assembly); Spirited Away (Toho, Japan); Into The Woods (Bath); Bat Out of Hell (London/Toronto/ New York); Wicked (Hamburg); Oedipus (Tokyo); Tree (Young Vic/MIF); Grinning Man (Bristol/ West End); James Plays (NT Scotland); Lord of the Flies (Regents Park); Mametz (NT Wales); You For Me For You (RCT).
Future Engagements: Minority Report (Nottingham); La bohème (Halle); The Ballad of Hattie And James (Kiln); Spirited Away (Coliseum, London); Ainadamar (Met Opera NY); King Lear (starring & directed by Kenneth Branagh, New York).
Biography: Jon Bausor is a multi-award winning international Stage Designer and Creative Director based in London. He designed the opening ceremony of the 2012 Paralympic Games and was nominated for an Emmy Award for his Production Design for the Redbull parkour film, Human Pinball. Originally trained as a classical musician at Oxford University and the Royal Academy of Music, Jon retrained on the Motley Theatre Design Course graduating as a Linbury Prize finalist in 2000. As an associate artist of the RSC he has designed numerous productions including Hamlet, King Lear, The Winter’s Tale and the entire 2012 season. His extensive dance collaborations include designs for Rambert, The Royal Ballet and ROH, Norwegian and Finnish National Ballets, Netherlands Dans Theater and ENB.
Gloria Benaglia
DANCE AT THE GRANGE OKTETTO
Festival Debut
Recent Engagements: National Theatre Brno. Biography: Born in Genova, Italy. Graduated from Ellison Ballet School in NYC. Winner of Youth America Grand Prix 2016 (pas de Deux category) and 2017 (solo variation category). Joined Houston Ballet In 2017. Three years later she joined the National theatre of Brno. She was promoted to demisoloist in 2022.
Manuele Bolzonello
DANCE AT THE GRANGE OKTETTO
Festival Debut
Recent Engagements: National Theater Brno. Biography: Born in San Vito Al Tagliamento, Italy. Currently working for the National Theater Brno. After obtaining a BA degree in linguistic mediation in 2021, he also works part-time as a translator and SEO content creator for a marketing company based in Prague.
Anna Bonitatibus
OTTAVIA/VIRTU L’INCORONAZIONE DI POPPEA
Previous Appearances: Penelope Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria (2017), Agrippina Agrippina (2018).
Recent Engagements: Ruggiero Alcina (La Scala, Philharmonie de Paris, Elbphilharmonie, Liceu Barcelona, Opera Bordeaux, Palau de les Arts, Auditorio Nacional Madrid); Serse Serse (Handel Festival Halle); Idamante Idomeneo (Festival Aix-enProvence); Agrippina Agrippina (Bayerische Staatsoper, Staatsoper Hamburg); Licida L’Olimpiade (Opernhaus Zürich); Tigrane Radamisto (Europe tour).
Biography: Anna Bonitatibus, a native of Basilicata in Italy, made her debut at La Scala Milan in Don Giovanni under the baton of Riccardo Muti. Since then, her interpretations have included over fifty operatic titles, covering early baroque to bel canto repertoire and collaborating with all the major Conductors and Directors. Anna Bonitatibus is the recipient of the 2023 Handel Prize of
the city of Halle, honouring her longstanding interpretations of Handel’s music, as well as her passionate dedication leading to performances also of lesser-known works.
Gwilym Bowen
SOLDATO 1/LUCANO/ FAMIGLIARI 2
L’INCORONAZIONE DI POPPEA
Previous Appearances:
Eurimaco/Giove Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria (2017), Snout A Midsummer Night’s Dream (2021).
Recent Engagements: Flute A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Opéra de Lille); Damon Acis and Galatea (The English Concert); Damon, Valletto & 1st Soldier L’incoronazione di Poppea, Eurimaco Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria (Academy of Ancient Music); Father Piramo e Tisbe (The Mozartists); Slph Zaïs (OAE).
Future Engagements: Bach From Darkness to Light (Insula Orchestra); Monteverdi’s Vespers 1610 (Solomon’s Knot); J S Bach’s Christmas Oratorio (Music of the Baroque, Chicago); Messiah (Oslo Cathedral Choir).
Biography: Born in Hereford, Gwilym Bowen performs internationally with orchestras and ensembles of the highest calibre throughout the UK, Europe and further afield in Australia and the USA, as well as on the operatic stage. Engagements during 2023/2024 include projects with Brecon Baroque, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Solomon’s Knot, Concerto Copenhagen, Accentus, La Grande Écurie, Croatian Radio Television Symphony Orchestra, Concerto Copenhagen, Heidelberg Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano, Oslo Cathedral Choir, La Scintilla and Music of the Baroque, Chicago. With Academy of Ancient Music, he has recorded Dussek’s Messe solemnelle and Handel’s Brockes Passion
Chanell Cabrera Sansón
DANCE AT THE GRANGE OKTETTO
Festival Debut
Recent Engagements: National Theatre Brno.
Biography: Born in Havana, Cuba. Began her ballet studies at the Cuban National Ballet School under the direction of Ramona de Saa. Joined the National Ballet of Cuba in 2014 under the direction of Alicia Alonso and Viengsay Valdés, where I was promoted to Principal Dancer in 2019. Joined
the National Theater of Brno in 2022 as soloist, and in December of the same year she was promoted to First Soloist.
Recent Engagements: Nerone (Cagliari); Falstaff (Kiel); Madama Butterfly (Festival Puccini, Torre del Lago); German Requiem and Le Nozze di Figaro (Volksoper Vienna); Le Villi (OHP); Gloria (Cagliari); Two women; Edmea; La Tempesta (WFO).
Future Engagements: Pagliacci (OHP); Le Maschere (WFO); Tosca (Teatro Petruzzelli, Bari); symphonic concerts with Orchestra La Toscanini, Parma.
Biography: Born in Turin (1979) Francesco graduated in conducting and composition at the Conservatorio G Verdi, and was awarded a MMus at Guildhall School of Music and Drama, followed by a PhD in composition at King’s College London. He is Principal Conductor at the Wexford Festival Opera since 2020, and is in great demand as Conductor in Italy, Europe, UK, USA and Israel.
Sarah Dadonova
DANCE AT THE GRANGE OKTETTO
Festival Debut
Recent Engagements: National Theatre Brno. Biography: Born in Prague, Czech Republic. Graduated from Prague Dance Conservatory. Then joining The Dutch National Ballet Academy as a guest student for one year.
Dan D’Souza
CESARE ANGELOTTI TOSCA
Festival Debut
Recent Engagements: Recent roles include Flemish Deputy Don Carlo (ROH); Boatswain (cover) HMS Pinafore (ENO); Schaunard La bohème (Mid Wales Opera); Silvio Pagliacci (Iford Arts New Generation); Trinculo La Tempesta (Wexford Festival Opera); Riff West
Side Story (Edinburgh International Festival) and Cirillo/Boroff Fedora, Rabbit Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Ebn-Hakia Iolanta (If Opera).
Biography: Dan was educated at Tiffin Boys School, University of Cambridge, Royal College of Music, and Royal Academy Opera where he performed Demetrius A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Papageno Die Zauberflöte, and Aeneas Dido and Aeneas. Concert performances include High Priest Semele (Paris Philharmonie), Christus St John Passion, Mozart Requiem (Huddersfield Choral Society), Monteverdi Vespers (Cadogan Hall), Handel Messiah (Nevill Holt Opera), Mendelssohn Elijah (West Road Concert Hall), and Christus St Matthew Passion (National Concert Hall, Dublin). Dan is a laureate for the Académie Orsay-Royaumont, performing in Paris with Dylan Perez, and performed Winterreise with the Ragazze Quartet (St Magnus International Festival).
Thomas Enhco GUEST PIANIST
A FRENCH SALON
Festival Debut
Biography: Thomas Enhco, born in Paris in 1988, is a pianist and composer of jazz and classical music. Since training at the CMDL and the Paris National Conservatory, he has achieved international recognition, recording for Verve, Deutsche Grammophon and Sony Music, and performing around the world at jazz festivals in Tokyo, Montréal, Vienna, Montreux, Istanbul and New York, and concert halls such as the Philharmonie de Paris, Bordeaux Opéra, Brussels Flagey, La Roque d’Anthéron Piano Festival, Shanghai Grand Theatre, Salzburg Mozarteum, Théâtre du Châtelet, Beijing Concert Hall, Kyoto Concert Hall and Sapporo Kitara Hall. His most recent album releases include Thirty, which includes his own piano concerto (Sony Classical, 2019), Bach Mirror (Sony Classical, 2021), Funambules in duo with virtuoso percussionist Vassilena Serafimova (Deutsche Grammophon, 2016), Feathers (Verve, 2015) and Fireflies with his jazz trio (Label Bleu, 2012). As a jazz pianist, Thomas performs both solo and in ensembles, including a duet with trumpeter David Enhco, his brother. His unique improvisations of jazz standards, pop songs and melodies by great classical composers, as well as his own compositions, are universally praised by audiences and critics. Since 2013, Thomas has been supported by the BNP Paribas Foundation.
Sam Furness
NERO
L’INCORONAZIONE DI POPPEA
Festival Debut
Recent Engagements: Acis Acis and Galatea (Potsdamer Winteroper); Tebaldo I capuleti e I Montecchi (Croatian National Opera) Andres Wozzeck (ROH); Tybalt Roméo et Juliette (Savonlinna Opera Festival); Kudryas Káťa Kabanová (Teatro dell’Opera di Roma, Grand Théâtre de Genève followed by performances at National Theater Brno); Turiddu Cavalleria rusticana and Beppe Pagliacci (Åbo Svenska Teater, Turku); Pang Turandot (Grand Théâtre de Genève); Albert Gregor The Makropoulos Case (Opernhaus Zürich); White King/Mad Hatter Alice’s Adventures Under Ground (ROH); Rodolphe Guillaume Tell (Theater an der Wien); Glass Maker Death in Venice (ROH); Lensky Eugene Onegin (La Monnaie Brussels, Garsington Opera); Novice Billy Budd (ROH, Teatro Real Madrid and Teatro Municipal Santiago).
Future Engagements: Beethoven 9 with the National Symphony Orchestra UK, Hold Your Breath, a new commission for Bregenzer Festspiele by the composer Éna Brennan which will be directed by David Pountney. The new commission Awakening – A Cycle of Hope by Paul Carr with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra.
Biography: Described as having “all the makings of a star” in The Guardian and hailed as “a lyric tenor clearly going places” in Opera magazine, British tenor Sam Furness has sung major roles for Scottish Opera, Garsington Opera and the Teatro Real, Madrid, always earning praise for his compelling acting and innate musicality.
João Gomes
DANCE AT THE GRANGE OKTETTO
Festival Debut
Recent Engagements: National Theatre Brno. Biography: Born in Leiria, Portugal. Started dancing in Academia Annarella and graduated from Conservatório internacional de ballet e dança Annarella Sanchez in Portugal. Got his first contract in Sibiu Ballet Theatre, Romania. Two years later joined the National Theatre of Brno. Got promoted to Demi soloist in 2023.
John Graham-Hall
SELLEM THE RAKE’S PROGRESS
Previous Appearances: Old Gentleman King Lear (2021).
Recent Engagements: Bob Boles Peter Grimes (Paris Opera, Madrid, ROH); Porter/Hécat Macbeth Underworld (Opéra Comique); Tanzmeister Ariadne auf Naxos and Arbate Mitridate (Garsington); Witch of Endor Saul (Glyndebourne, Chatelet).
Future Engagements: Bob Boles Peter Grimes (Rome, ROH); Dr Caius Falstaff (La Monnaie). Biography: John Graham-Hall studied at King’s College‚ Cambridge and the Royal College of Music. Highlights include Aron Moses und Aron (Paris and Madrid)‚ Aschenbach Death in Venice (for which he won the Franco Abbiati prize for best male singer), Grimes Peter Grimes (both La Scala‚ Milan); Basilio Le nozze di Figaro‚ Valzacchi Der Rosenkavalier, Triquet Eugene Onegin (Metropolitan Opera); Peter Grimes (Opéra de Nice and Säo Carlos); Ashenbach Death In Venice (ENO and on DVD); Aschenbach Death In Venice‚ Tikhon Káťa Kabanová‚ Berger Oedip, Sellem‚ Tanzmeister Ariadne auf Naxos, Basilio Le nozze di Figaro (La Monnaie); Podesta La finta giardiniera (Salzburg); Doctor The Fall of the House of Usher‚ L’Incredibile Andrea Chenier, Edrisi King Roger (Bregenz).
Frances Gregory
ARNALTA/FAMIGLIARI 1 L’INCORONAZIONE DI POPPEA
Festival Debut
Recent Engagements: Alto soloist, Bach B Minor Mass (KKL Lucerne/ Gabrieli Consort and Players); Arnalta L’incoronazione di Poppea (Palau de la Musica/ Auditorio Nacional/The English Concert); La Messaggera/Proserpina l’Orfeo (Longborough Festival Opera); Flosshilde The Rhinegold (ENO, cover); Apsara/La Messaggera Orpheus (Opera North); Laura Violet (Tom Coult/Aldeburgh Festival, in association with ROH).
Future Engagements: Alcandro L’Olimpiade (Vache Baroque Festival); Dido Dido and Aeneas (Eboracum Baroque); Sea Pictures (Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Southbank Centre).
Biography: Praised by The Telegraph for her “idiomatic and stylish singing”, mezzosoprano Frances Gregory is a rising star of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment for 23/25. A graduate of the Royal Academy of Music, where she won the RAM Club Prize, the Tom Hammond Opera Prize and made her Wigmore Hall debut as a member of their renowned Song Circle, she went
on to join the studio of the Opéra National de Lyon for 20/21. She has worked for Glyndebourne, Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, English National Opera, Garsington Opera, Opera North, Buxton International Festival and Longborough Festival Opera.
David Hall
CHILDREN’S CHORUS MASTER
TOSCA
Biography: David Hall studied music at Cambridge University where he was organ scholar of Corpus Christi College. He studied piano with Freni Sanders and organ with Anne Marsden Thomas at the Royal Academy of Music.
David is Director of Music at Twyford School in Hampshire. Under his leadership, the children at Twyford School have taken part in nine operas at The Grange, recorded two CDs and performed at cathedrals in the UK and France.
David is the Musical Director of Finchcocks Piano Courses in Kent. He is the author of There’s More to Playing the Piano and There’s Even More to Playing the Piano – practical guides to music theory and keyboard harmony.
Simon Higlett DESIGNER
TOSCA
Previous Appearances: Falstaff (2019); The Yeomen of the Guard (2022).
Recent Engagements: Coram Boy, The Jungle Book, The Chalk Garden (Chichester); Laughing Boy (Jermyn Street); Private Lives, Noises Off, Derren Brown Showman, Big The Musical, The Price, Blithe Spirit (West End); Charlie and The Chocolate Factory (UK tour); Il Barbiere Di Siviglia (Garsington); Don Giovanni, The Magic Flute (Scottish Opera); Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (UK tour); Singin’ In The Rain (West End/international tour), Twelfth Night, Much Ado About Nothing, Love’s Labour’s Lost, Love’s Labour’s Won, Thomas More (RSC).
Future Engagements: Saturday Night Fever (Copenhagen); Cinderella (Chichester). Biography: Simon designs for theatre and opera worldwide. He trained at the Wimbledon School of Art, gaining a BA in Theatre Design, followed by an MA from the Slade School of Fine Art. He is the recipient of several Best Designs awards including the Manchester Theatre Award for Wonderful Town, two TMA Awards for Elizabeth Rex and The Three Sisters, and in the USA the Helen Hayes Award for Lady Windermere’s Fan
Robert Hyland
DANCE AT THE GRANGE
OKTETTO
Festival Debut
Recent Engagements:
National Theatre Brno.
Biography: Born in Vienna, Austria. Graduated 2019 from the Ballet Academy of the Vienna State Opera. Since 2019 a member of Ballet NdB, currently first Soloist.
Se Hyun An
DANCE AT THE GRANGE OKTETTO
Festival Debut
Recent Engagements:
National Theatre Brno.
Biography: Born in Seoul, Korea. Graduated Seoul Arts High School, the Korean National Institute for the Gifted in Arts. Previously dancing with Bavarian Junior Ballet in Munich. Joined the National Theatre Brno, promoted to Principle Artist in 2023.
Rin Isomura
DANCE AT THE GRANGE OKTETTO
Festival Debut
Recent Engagements:
National Theatre Brno.
Biography: Born in Nagoya, Japan. Attended HW school of ballet in Canada. In 2019 joined Junior ballet Antwerp. He joined National Ballet of Brno in 2021 and is currently dancing as a soloist. Career highlights include: Solor La bayadere; Sleepless by Jiři Kylián; Sugar Plum Cavelier The Nutcracker; and Metamorphosis by David Dawson.
Darren Jeffery
SACRISTAN | FATHER TRULOVE
TOSCA | THE RAKE’S PROGRESS Festival Debut
Recent Engagements: Title role Der Fliegende Hollander and Husband Das Wunder der Heliane (Nationale Reisopera); Achilla Giulio Cesare (Opera North), Sprecher / Die Zauberflöte and Father / Hansel und Gretel
(ROH), Mill Foreman Jenůfa (ENO). Future Engagements: Sergeant Meryll The Yeomen of the Guard (Opera Holland Park). Biography: Darren Jeffery has a broad repertoire from Monteverdi to Verdi, Wagner to Birtwistle. He performs in major houses including La Monnaie, Teatro Real and the Bolshoi as well as at major festivals including Salzburg, Glyndebourne, Aix-en-Provence and BBC Proms. Oratorio appearances including concerts with the Hallé, London Philharmonic, London Symphony, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, the Philharmonia, BBC Philharmonic, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Colorado Symphony, the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome and Freiburg Baroque. He was an inaugural member of the Royal Opera Young Artists Programme and was a finalist in the Seattle International Wagner Competition. Recordings include the Mozart Requiem, Falstaff and Billy Budd with the LSO which have received Grammy awards.
Ivona Jeličová
DANCE AT THE GRANGE
OKTETTO
Festival Debut
Recent Engagements: National Theatre Brno, Professor at the Dance Conservatory Brno. Biography: She is a graduate of the Dance Conservatory in Brno (2000). Since 2000 she has been a soloist of the J K Tyl Theatre in Pilsen, where she worked for nine seasons. Since the 2009/2010 season she has been a soloist and since the 2018/2019 season she has been a principal soloist of the NdB Ballet. Currently she is a professor at the Dance Conservatory in Brno. She is the recipient of prestigious awards such as the Thalia Award, Philip Morris Award, Best Soloist Award, etc.
Mark Jonathan
LIGHTING DESIGNER
TOSCA
Festival Debut
Biography: Mark has lit Opera, Ballet, Drama and Musical Theatre across the World.
His opera credits include: Vanessa Madama Butterfly (Glyndebourne); Die Zauberflöte, Semele, Le nozze di Figaro, Il turco in Italia (Garsington); Cosí fan tutte, I Puritani, Pelléas et Mélisande,
Lulu, Dead Man Walking, Fidelio, The Consul, The Prisoner (WNO); The Mikado, Jenůfa, Don Giovanni, Magic Flute, Le nozze di Figaro, La traviata, Il barbiere di Siviglia, Orpheus ed Eurydice, (Scottish Opera); Alzira, Idomeneo, Daughter of the Regiment (Buxton); Elisir d’amore (Longborough Festival); The Enchanted Island, The Rake’s Progress (BYO); I Puritani (Barcelona); Dead Man Walking, (Royal Danish Opera); Pelléas et Mélisande, Jenůfa (Royal Swedish Opera); Giulio Cesare, Mathis der Maler, Les contes d’Hoffmann, The Rape of Lucretia (Vienna); Salome, Das Gehege, (Bavarian State Opera); Il trittico, Ariadne auf Naxos, Hansel and Gretel, Falstaff, Peter Grimes and Don Pasquale (Los Angeles Opera); A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Tale of Januarie, The Rape of Lucretia, Owen Wingrave, Chérubin (Guildhall School and productions at Aarhus, Antwerp, Banff, Belfast, Florence, Ghent, Helsinki, Holland Park, Madrid, Potsdam, Spoleto, Strasbourg and Washington). He was nominated for The Knight of Illumination in 2013, was a finalist in World Stage Design 2013. In 2014 he received an Honorary Fellowship to the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and he won the Knight of Illumination in 2019 for Vanessa
He has lit many productions for The Royal Ballet, BRB, Northern Ballet, LCB, American Ballet Theatre, Houston Ballet, National Ballet of Japan, Tokyo Ballet, Stuttgart, Berlin, Toulouse and Finnish National Ballet.
Recent drama includes Private Lives at the Ambassadors Theatre. Previously, he was head of lighting at the National Theatre (1993–2003) and has lit plays and musicals for all the leading British drama companies including the NT, RSC, Royal Court, Royal Exchange, Chichester Festival, the Edinburgh Festival, the West End and on Broadway, the USA and Ireland. He received a Drama Desk nomination for most outstanding lighting in New York for Prometheus Bound. He is the Deputy Chair for the Association for Production Lighting and Design.
Zoltán Bence Kaszab
DANCE AT THE GRANGE OKTETTO
Festival Debut
Recent Engagements:
National Theatre Brno.
Biography: Born in Eger, Hungary. Graduated from Hungarian Dance University. Dancer with National Theatre Brno since 2022.
Fiona Kimm
NUTRICE
L’INCORONAZIONE DI POPPEA
Previous Appearances: Ericlea, Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria (2017).
Recent Engagements: Grandmother Jenůfa (ENO); Annina La traviata (Opera Glassworks Film); Mère Jeanne Dialogues des Carmelites (Glyndebourne Festival Opera); Madame Armfeldt A Little Night Music (Opera North); Madelon Andrea Chénier (Chelsea Opera Group); Baba the Turk The Rake’s Progress (Glyndebourne On Tour); Mrs Caution The Dancing Master (Buxton International Festival).
Biography: Fiona Kimm has performed throughout the UK, Europe and North America in opera and concert. Companies for whom she has sung include The Royal Opera, London, English National Opera, Garsington Opera, Glyndebourne, The Grange Festival, Opera Holland Park, Opera North, Scottish Opera, Canadian Opera Company, Oper Frankfurt, Nederlandse Reisopera, Opera Zuid and Teatro Sao Carlos, Lisbon, as well as Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Ensemble Modern and Radio Filharmonisch Orkest. Recently released recordings including Malcolm Arnold’s The Dancing Master on Resonus Classics (BBC Music Magazine Award) and Arthur Sullivan’s Haddon Hall on Dutton Epoch, both with BBC Concert Orchestra.
Klaudie Lakomá
DANCE AT THE GRANGE OKTETTO
Festival Debut
Recent Engagements: National Theatre Brno.
Biography: Born in Olomouc, Czech Republic. Started dancing in Ballet School at the Moravian Theater in Olomouc and graduated from the Dance Conservatory in Brno. Since 2019 has been a member of the ballet company of National Theatre Brno. She was promoted to demisoloist in 2022.
Glen Lambrecht
DANCE AT THE GRANGE OKTETTO
Currently, Glen is dancing with the National Theatre Brno where he was promoted to demi soloist In July 2023. Glen worked with renowned choreographers such as Wayne McGregor, Edward Clug, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, Christian Spuck, Hans Van Manen, Maurice Béjart, Alexander Ekman, Jiři Kylián, Nacho Duato and Boris Eifman. As a choreographer Glen created work for the Slovak National Ballet and recently for NDB junior Company. In January 2020, Glen founded a nonprofit neo – classical dance company based in Flanders, Belgium.
Jonathan Lemalu
SENECA L’INCORONAZIONE DI POPPEA
Supported by an anonymous donor
Future Engagements: Guildenstern Hamlet (Opera Australia); Oberon A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Opéra de Lausanne); Roberto Griselda (Royal Danish Opera).
Festival Debut
Recent Engagements: National Theatre Brno, Glen Lambrecht Production. Biography: Belgian dancer and choreographer, Glen Lambrecht, graduated from The Royal Ballet School Antwerp in 2012. Glen danced with The Royal Ballet of Flanders and the Slovak National Ballet in Bratislava, Slovakia. (promoted demi soloist January 2020).
Previous Appearances: Osmin The Abduction from the Seraglio (2018); Banco Macbeth (2022).
Recent Engagements: Doctor La traviata, as well as Sarastro and Speaker Magic Flute (ENO); Father Antonin Anna (world premiere at The Grange Festival). Previous concert performances include The Seasons (AAM) and Samson (BBC Proms) both conducted by Laurence Cummings. Future Engagements: Future operatic engagements include returns to ROH and Garsington Opera.
Biography: Jonathan Lemalu is a New Zealand-born Samoan who holds a Bachelor of Laws (Otago University) and an Artists Diploma from the Royal College of Music where he won the Tagore Gold Medal. Jonathan has sung at the Royal Opera House, Glyndebourne, Bayerische Staatsoper, Metropolitan Opera, Chicago Lyric, as well as the Salzburg, Baden-Baden, and Edinburgh Festivals with Conductors including Sir Simon Rattle, Sir Antonio Pappano and Charles Dutoit. In 2022, Jonathan was made an RCM Honorary Fellow, a patron of New Zealand Opera and an ONZM in the Queen’s Jubilee Honours for services to opera.
Christopher Lowrey
OTTONE
L’INCORONAZIONE DI POPPEA
Supported by Nigel Beale and Anthony Lowrey
Festival Debut
Recent Engagements: Giulio Cesare Giulio Cesare (TCE, Palau de la Musica Barcelona); Farnace Farnace (Pinchgut Opera); Guildenstern Hamlet (Glyndebourne, MET, Staatsoper Munich); Bertarido Rodelinda (Göttingen Festival); Armindo Partenope (Teatro Real in Madrid); Medoro Orlando (Oper Frankfurt); Didymus Theodora (Theater an der Wien, Opera Australia).
Biography: Countertenor Christopher Lowrey is considered “one of the operatic countertenors of our day, excelling dramatically and vocally, with clear, ringing and flexible tone” (Bachtrack, Sandra Bowdler). From the United States, and inflected by many years in the UK, he balances the best elements of these diverse traditions, merging directness of expression and beauty of tone with precision and agility. He appears regularly with a wide range of distinguished companies around the world, including Royal Opera House, Carnegie Hall, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Philharmonie de Paris, La Fenice, Academy of Ancient Music, Boston Early Music Festival, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, and Cappella Mediterranea.
Christopher Luscombe
DIRECTOR
TOSCA
Previous Appearances: Falstaff (2019); The Yeomen of the Guard (2022).
Recent Engagements: Il barbiere di Siviglia (Garsington); Gigi (West Green Opera); A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Royal Academy’s Opera Studio); Sweeney Todd (Bergen National Opera). Other directing credits include: Star Quality and The Madness of George III (Apollo); Home and Beauty (Lyric); The Comedy of Errors and The Merry Wives of Windsor (Shakespeare’s Globe); Nell Gwynn (Shakespeare’s Globe and Apollo); A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Regent’s Park), Enjoy (Gielgud); Alphabetical Order (Hampstead); When We Are Married (Garrick – Olivier Award nomination for Best Revival); Travels With My Aunt (Menier Chocolate Factory); and Spamalot (Playhouse).
Future Engagements: Future prouctions planned for Garsington and Wexford Festival. Biography: Christopher Luscombe read English at Cambridge. He began his career as an actor, spending seven years with the Royal Shakespeare Company and went on to appear at the National Theatre, the Old Vic and in the West End. Whilst at Stratford-upon-Avon, he devised and directed The Shakespeare Revue with Malcolm McKee, and this transferred to the Vaudeville Theatre in London. His subsequent productions at Stratford include Twelfth Night, Love’s Labour’s Lost and Much Ado About Nothing, the last two transferring to Chichester Festival Theatre and then to the Theatre Royal, Haymarket. He is an Associate Artist of the RSC. His production of The Rocky Horror Show has toured for the last thirteen years. It has completed many seasons in the West End, three Australian tours and has also been broadcast in cinemas worldwide. In 2024 it will open in Paris.
Thoriso Magongwa
DANCE AT THE GRANGE
OKTETTO
Festival Debut
Recent Engagements:
National Theatre Brno.
Biography: Thoriso
Magongwa is a South African born artist who started his dancing career at Ballet Theatre Afrikan dance academy in Johannesburg South Africa and simultaneously attended the National School Of the Arts. At the age of 20, Thoriso was a founding member and Principal dancer with repertory company Ballet Theatre Afrikan, where he was later promoted to resident choreographer and board member.
In the year 2000, Thoriso was a semi finalist at the prestigious Prix de Lausanne International ballet competition, where he received numerous offers from notable international European ballet schools. In 2002, Thoriso graduated as a teacher in the internationally recognized Cecchetti Ballet method. He also excelled in his Royal Academy of Dance exams and was also educated through a special course of the renowned Vaganova ballet method.
Thoriso was featured in the opening ceremony of the United Nations world conference against racism and performed at the Holland Dance Festival in 2001. He has received many accolades which include being a finalist at the Helsinki International ballet competition, and prize winner at the 1st and 2nd South African international ballet competition. He was later invited as one of the Jury panelists for the international ballet competition in 2020. Thoriso was also nominated for the Gauteng MEC Award in the category “Most Outstanding Male Dancer”. Thoriso was notably named “one of the top 100 young South Africans to watch” by the Mail and Guardian Newspaper.
Since 2014 Thoriso became a member of the touring classical ballet Company Narodni Divadlo Brno in the Czech Republic. He later climbed the ranks to his current Soloist status, becoming a notable brand and ambassador for the company. His repertoire includes works such as Swan Lake, La Bayadère, The Nutcracker, Petit Mort, Sleeping Beauty, Episodes, Romeo and Juliet, La Dame aux Camelias and dancing title pieces by renowned International choreographers such as George Balanchine, Nucho Duarto, Edward Clug, Jiři Kylián, Valentina Turko, Mario Radacovsky, Lukas Timulak, Petr Zuska and many others. Thoriso Magongwa is also a notable events host/moderator, a visible vocal advocate for the arts, a social media content creator and a resplendent persona living as a crusader on a mission to concur the world through his multi talents.
Andrew Manea
BARON SCARPIA TOSCA
Supported by Patrick Mitford-Slade Festival Debut
Recent Engagements: Scarpia Tosca (Maryland Opera); Escamillo Carmen (Sarasota Opera); Germont La traviata (North Carolina Opera); Tonio Pagliacci (Nashville Opera); Baritone soloist Carmina Burana (Carnegie Hall); Ford Falstaff (Palm Beach Opera); Don Carlo cover Ernani (Lyric Opera of Chicago) Future Engagements: Monterone/Rigoletto cover Rigoletto (Lyric Opera of Chicago); Don Carlo Ernani (North Carolina Opera). Biography: Lauded for his “Charming… robust baritone…” rising Romanian-American baritone Andrew Manea recently made his role début as the Duke of Nottingham in Roberto Devereux with San Francisco Opera. These performances “thrust him into the spotlight, solidifying his status as the next leading baritone of his generation…” (OperaWire). Manea recently embarked upon a foray into larger repertoire, with four house débuts this season: Nashville, singing Tonio Pagliacci (Nashville); Germont La traviata (North Carolina Opera); Escamillo Carmen (Sarasota); Scarpia Tosca (The Grange Festival).
Antony McDonald
DIRECTOR/DESIGNER THE RAKE’S PROGRESS
Festival Debut
Recent Engagements: As a Designer: Madama Butterfly (Bregenz Festival); Alcina (ROH); Into the Woods Phaedra/Minotaur (Bath); Raymonda (ENB, Finnish National Ballet); Gianni Schicchi (Canadian Opera Company). As a Director-Designer: 4/4 – Knoxville: Summer of 1915, Alice’s Adventures Under Ground (Irish National Opera, ROH); Hansel and Gretel (ROH); Werther (Bergen National Opera).
Future Engagements: Simon Boccanegra (Rome); Wozzeck (New National Theatre Tokyo).
Biography: As a Director-Designer: 4/4 –Knoxville: Summer of 1915, Alice’s Adventures Under Ground (INO, ROH); Hansel and Gretel (ROH); On The Town, A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Japan); Powder Her Face (NIO, Nevill Holt Opera, INO); Lohengrin (WNO, Polish National Opera, GNO); Fiddler on the Roof, Wonderful Town, Rusalka, The Queen of Spades (Grange Park Opera); Ariadne auf Naxos, Rusalka, Aida, Samson and Delilah (Scottish Opera) As a Designer: Madama Butterfly (Bregenz Festival); Alcina (ROH); Into the Woods, Phaedra/Minotaur (Bath); Raymonda (ENB, Finnish National Ballet); 4/4: Apollo
& Daphne – Phaedra – Frankenstein!!, The Gambler, Káťa Kabanová (ROH); La Finta Giardinera (Glyndebourne, La Scala); Alice, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, The Nutcracker (Scottish Ballet).
Cécile McLorin Salvant
VOCALS A FRENCH SALON
Festival Debut
Biography: Cécile McLorin
Salvant is a composer, singer and visual artist. The late Jessye Norman described her as “a unique voice supported by an intelligence and fullfledged musicality, which light up every note she sings”. Cécile has developed a passion for storytelling and finding the connections between vaudeville, blues, folk traditions from around the world, theatre, jazz and baroque music. She is an eclectic curator, unearthing rarely recorded, forgotten songs with strong narratives, interesting power dynamics, unexpected twists, and humour. Cécile won the Thelonious Monk competition in 2010. She has received Grammy Awards for Best Jazz Vocal Album for three consecutive albums: The Window, Dreams and Daggers and For One To Love. In 2020, she received the MacArthur fellowship and the Doris Duke Artist Award. Cécile had her debut Nonesuch records release Ghost Song in 2022; the album went on to receive two Grammy nominations. Mélusine, an album mostly sung in French, along with Occitan, English, and Haitian Kreyòl, was released on 24 March 2023.
Ilia Mironov
DANCE AT THE GRANGE OKTETTO
Festival Debut
Recent Engagements:
National Theatre Brno.
Biography: He is a graduate of the Academy of Russian Ballet A J Vaganova Academy of Ballet in St. Petersburg (2003), where he also studied ballet pedagogy (2014). He has danced with the Leonid Yakobson Ballet in St. Petersburg, the Vanemuine Theatre in Tartu, Estonia (2006–2013), the State Rimsky-Korsakov Conservatory in St. Petersburg (2013–2016) and the Primorsky Stage of the Mariinsky Theatre in Vladivostok (2016–2017). His portfolio includes first-rate and character roles of mostly classical and neoclassical repertoire such as Albrecht/Hans Giselle; Garcia Carmen; Carabosse Sleeping Beauty; Prince The Nutcracker and Cinderella; Lenski Onegin; Young Man Les Sylphides. He is currently a soloist with the National Theatre Ballet in Brno.
Michael Mofidian
NICK SHADOW
THE RAKE’S PROGRESS
Festival Debut
Recent Engagements: Créon Medea (debut at Teatro Real, Madrid); Colline La bohème and Der Pfleger des Orest Elektra (ROH); Polyphemus Acis and Galatea (German operatic debut at Potsdamer Winteroper); Angelotti Tosca and Kuligin Kat’a Kabanová (Salzburger Festspiele); Theseus A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Opéra de Rouen); Masetto Don Giovanni (Glyndebourne Festival).
Future Engagements: Ermione, Fenicio and Lord Sidney Il viaggio a Reims (Rossini Opera Festival, Pesaro); Figaro The Marriage of Figaro (WNO).
Biography: Praised by The Times for his “immense, dark-hued voice that’s eventoned from top to (very deep) bottom” and compared by a number of critics to Samuel Ramey, Michael Mofidian is increasingly in demand in opera, concert and recital. Michael was born in Glasgow and graduated from the University of Cambridge and the Royal Academy of Music. In 2018 he was a Jerwood Young Artist at Glyndebourne Festival, from 2018 to 2020 he was a member of the Royal Opera House’s Jette Parker Young Artists Programme and was in the studio programme of the Grand Théâtre de Genève during the 2021/2022 Season.
Jorge NavarroColorado
SOLDATO 2/LIBERTO L’INCORONAZIONE DI POPPEA
Festival Debut
Recent Engagements: Telemaco Il Ritorno d’Ulisse (Grand Théâtre de Genève); Goffredo Rinaldo (Halle Handel Festival); Bajazet Tamerlano; ETO Tenor, Mozart’s Requiem; L’Auditori (T Pinnock); Gualtiero Griselda (La Fenice); Damon Acis and Galatea (Buxton Festival); Oronte Alcina (Lautten Compagney); Petrus Brockes Passion (Halle Oper); Giuliano Rodrigo, Berengario Lotario (Göttingen Festspiele).
Future Engagements: Tempo Il Trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno (Buxton Festival); Tanete Giuseppe Riconosciuto (Vespres d’Arnadí); Tenor Christmas Concert; Arcangelo Pensiero di sospetto (La Santissima Annunziata, Europa Galante/Halle Händel Festspiele).
Biography: Jorge studied singing at GSMD and the Britten-Pears and Samling programs. Highlights include Telemaco Il Ritorno d’Ulisse (GT Genève, Biondi); Mozart’s Requiem (OBC, Pinnock, L’Auditori); Gualtiero Griselda (La Fenice, Fasolis); Arias for Ballino (O Settecento
LHF, Lotario, Rodrigo and Ariodante Göttingen HF Cummings), Pulcinella and El Retablo de Maese Pedro (BBC NOW); Die Schöpfung OBC, The Messiah (Vespres d’Arnadí, OS Bilbao, OB Sevilla in the main auditoriums in Spain, Rinaldo Capella Cracoviensis Halle HF and Scipione EOC LHF). Jorge’s discography includes Lotario and Rodrigo (Accent), Cleofida by Telemann/Handel with Il Gusto Barocco (CPO), German Cantatas with Ensemble Diderot (Audax) and Infinite Refrain with the AAM led by Cummings (Signum).
Shoma Ogasawara
DANCE AT THE GRANGE
OKTETTO
Festival Debut
Biography: Born in Hyogo, Japan. Graduated from the Oslo National Academy of the Arts in Norway. Joined the National Theatre Brno in 2018. Got promoted to Demi Soloist in 2020 and promoted to Soloist in 2023.
Alexandra Oomens
ANNE TRULOVE
THE RAKE’S PROGRESS
Supported by The Tait Trust
Previous Appearances: Euridice/Belinda Orfeo ed Euridice/Dido and Aeneas (2023).
Recent Engagements: Pamina/Papagena
The Magic Flute; Musetta La bohème; Frasquita Carmen; Josephine HMS Pinafore (ENO); Almirena Rinaldo; Dafne, Aurora Gli amori d’Apollo e di Dafne (Pinchgut Opera); and Musetta La bohème (Nevill Holt Opera).
Future Engagements: Despina Così fan tutte (Opera Australia); title role The Cunning Little Vixen; Frasquita Carmen; Pamina/ Papagena Die Zauberflöte; Countess Ceprano Rigoletto; Musetta La bohème; Annina La traviata; Modestina Il viaggo a reims (Deutsche Oper Berlin).
Biography: London-based Australian soprano Alexandra Oomens is a Harewood Artist with English National Opera. She is a graduate of the Opera Programme at the Royal Academy of Music and is an alumna of the Georg Solti Accademia and Festival D’Aix-En-Provence. Concert performances include Creation (Australian Haydn Ensemble), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Melbourne Symphony Orchestra), Membra Jesu Nostri (Pinchgut Opera), the French premiere of Puzzles and Games (Orchestra Philharmonique de Radio France), and soloist performances with Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (Cadogan Hall), Australian Chamber Orchestra, Netherlands Radio Symphony Orchestra, and Sydney Symphony Orchestra.
Biography: Stuart is from Bewdley in Worcestershire and trained at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester. He currently lives in London where he works as a concert/operatic soloist and choral singer. Recent concert works include Vaughan Williams’ Five Mystical Songs, Haydn’s The Creation, and Handel’s Messiah. He also is a regular singer at the Liberal Jewish Synagogue and Temple Church. Stuart has appeared in four productions at The Grange Festival over the years, most notably Leone in Tamerlano, and three small roles in Manon Lescaut. Stuart is very excited to return to The Grange Festival to perform in Tosca, his favourite opera.
Frankie Parham PRODUCER A FRENCH SALON
Mascarade Foundation
Previous Appearances: From Blues to Rhapsody (2022); Ellington: From Stride to Strings (2023).
Biography: Together with Max Fane and Roger Granville, Frankie Parham co-founded The New Generation Festival, a music, theatre and opera festival that showcased emerging talent, in Florence, Italy, and partnered with the 23Arts Initiative. They also established Andermatt Music and co-founded Mascarade Opera, an Italian charitable foundation which runs a performance and training programme in collaboration with Teatro La Fenice in Venice designed for the career development of the world’s most promising young singers and répétiteurs. Frankie read Classics and Russian at the University of Oxford after which he studied Law at both SOAS and BPP University in London and qualified as a solicitor with White & Case LLP.
Piers Playfair
CREATIVE DIRECTOR & PRODUCER
A FRENCH SALON
23Arts Initiative
Previous Appearances:
From Blues to Rhapsody (2022); Ellington: From Stride to Strings (2023).
Biography: Piers Playfair is the Artistic Director of the 23Arts Initiative, which he founded with his wife Lucy in 2011. The 23Arts Initiative is a US-based non-profit organisation dedicated to supporting worldclass performing artists and programmes. 23Arts has a history of presenting year-round artist residencies, community outreach, educational visits and both pop-up style as well as traditional concert hall performances spanning across countless unique locations and venues. Featuring internationally recognised artists across all genres with a focus on classical, jazz, gospel, and blues, the mission of 23Arts is to provide a platform for the creation of new forward-thinking and ground-breaking independent productions.
Piers’ work at 23Arts has included the curation of programmes and major productions for multiple venues and festivals, including the Fisher Center at Bard; the Kings Theatre, Brooklyn; the New York Botanical Garden, the Bronx; and, The New Generation Festival, Florence.
Andrés Presno
MARIO CAVARADOSSI
TOSCA
Previous Appearances: Malcolm Macbeth (2022).
Recent Engagements: Il Messaggero Aida, Arturo Lucia di Lammermoor (ROH); Cavaradossi, Turiddu Cavalleria Rusticana, Young Lover Aleko (Opera North); Des Grieux Manon and Don José Carmen (Teatro Municipal, Santiago).
Future Engagements: Luigi Il Tabarro (WNO). Biography: Uruguayan tenor Andrés Presno was a member of the Jette Parker Young Artists Programme from 2019/20 to 2021/22. His roles included First Man in Armour Die Zauberflöte; Roderigo Otello; Gastone de Letorières La traviata; and First Elder Susanna; cover Rodolfo La bohème; cover Duca Rigoletto; singing Abdallo and cover Ismaele Nabucco; singing Gastone de Letorières and cover Alfredo Germont La traviata; singing Roderigo and covering Cassio Otello Presno studied as the Escuela Departamental de Canto Lirico with Rina Baffa, at Escuela Nacional de Arte Lirico del SODRE under Raquel Pierotti and with Yvonne Kenny at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama where he was a scholar and was supported by the Centro Cultural de Música, Uruguay.
Tom Primrose
CONDUCTOR
THE RAKE’S PROGRESS
Supported by Jonathan and Gillian Pickering
Previous Appearances: The Abduction from the Seraglio (2018), Il nozze di Figaro (2019), The Grange Festival Chorus Master (2021, 2022 and 2023).
Recent Engagements: Assistant Conductor The Makropoulos Affair (Opéra National de Paris); Assistant Conductor Lohengrin (Opéra National de Paris); Assistant Conductor Peter Grimes (Opéra National de Paris); Conductor Haydn Nelson Mass (Newbury Spring Festival/Southbank Sinfonia), Conductor Elijah (Saffron Hall/ Cambridge Philharmonic).
Future Engagements: Conductor, Missa Solemnis (Newbury Festival Chorus, Bournemouth Symphony).
Biography: Equally at-home on the concert stage and in the opera-pit, Tom’s freelance work takes him all over the world, including Opéra National de Paris, Opéra de Montecarlo, Det Kongelige Teater og Kapel Copenhagen, Polish National Opera, Korea National Opera, and the Mariinsky (Concert Hall) in St Petersburg. In the UK he has worked for ROH, ENO, The Grange Festival, Shadwell Opera, OHP, and Opera South. In addition to the core operatic repertoire, Tom is particularly sought-after in the preparation of twentieth-century works. He is an awardwinning piano accompanist, and is also Co-founder/Director of the Southrepps Music Festival.
Armand Rabot
LITTORE/FAMIGLIARI 3 | KEEPER OF THE MADHOUSE L’INCORONAZIONE DI POPPEA, THE RAKE’S PROGRESS
Previous Appearances: Narumov The Queen of Spades (2023).
Recent Engagements: Father Hänsel und Gretel (HGO); Narumov The Queen of Spades (The Grange Festival); Uberto La Serva Padrona (EMAE); Pistol Sir John in Love and Envy Mistrust, Apollyon A Pilgrim’s Progress (BYO). Armand also sang at Ann Murray’s Lifetime achievement award concert at the National Concert Hall, Dublin.
Future Engagements: Armand will participate in the prestigious Young Singers Project at the Salzburger Festspiele in summer 2024.
Biography: Armand Rabot is a British-Sri Lankan Baritone from the Northwest of England studying with Ben Johnson. In 2023 he won The Grange Festival Prize and First Prize at the Hurn Court Opera Singer of the Year Competition. Previously he won the Junior Kathleen Ferrier Society Bursary for
Young Singers and was a Semi-Finalist in the London Mozart Competition. On the concert platform he has performed Elijah (Birkenhead Choral Society); Mozart Requiem (Liverpool Cathedral); Messiah (Shrewsbury Cathedral); The Creation (Keele Bach Choir); Faure Requiem (Blackburn Cathedral), Mozart C minor Mass (Amadeus Choir) and St John Passion and St Matthew Passion (Liverpool Bach Collective).
Barbora Rašková
DANCE AT THE GRANGE OKTETTO
Festival Debut
Recent Engagements:
National Theatre Brno. Biography: Born in Czech Republic. Graduated from the Dance Conservatory in Brno, and since 2010, has been a member of the ballet company of National Theatre Brno. In her career in NdB she had the opportunity to work with acclaimed choreographers, such as Jiří Kylián, Johan Inger, Nacho Duato, George Balanchine, Moses Pendleton, Olivier Wievers and many others. Currently also a choreographer and student of Scenography in Janacek Academy of Musical Arts in Brno.
Momona Sakakibara
DANCE AT THE GRANGE OKTETTO
Festival Debut
Recent Engagements:
National Theatre Brno.
Biography: Born in Kyoto, Japan. Graduated from the Munich International Ballet School, Germany. Joined the National Theatre Brno in 2017. Got promoted to Demi Soloist in 2022 and promoted to Soloist in 2023.
Adrian Sánchez
DANCE AT THE GRANGE OKTETTO
Festival Debut
Recent Engagements: National Theatre Brno. Biography: Born in Habana, Cuba. Began ballet studies at Cuban National Ballet School, under the direction of Ramona de Saa. Joined the Cuban National Ballet under the direction of Alicia Alonso and Viengsay Valdés, where I was promoted to principal dancer. In 2022 I joined the National Theater of Brno as first soloist.
Vladimir-Mihai Sima
SPOLETTA
TOSCA
Festival Debut
Previous Appearances: Chorus/Macolm cover Macbeth (2021); Chorus/3rd Yeoman The Yeomen of the Guard (2022); Chorus/Chekalinsky cover The Queen of Spades (2023); Chorus Orfeo ed Euridice/Dido and Aeneas (2023).
Recent Engagements: Goro Madama Butterfly (Lyric Opera Productions Dublin); Gherardo Gianni Schicchi (Wexford Festival Opera). Future Engagements: TBC Wexford Festival Opera 2024.
Biography: Vladimir Sima is a graduate of the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and the Royal Irish Academy of Music. As part of the Wexford Factory Young Artist Programme he sang Bardolfo Falstaff and Dion Ein Wintermärchen and was coached by renowned artists such as Ermonela Jaho, Carmen Santoro, Giulio Zappa and Ernesto Palacio. Operatic roles include: Gherardo Gianni Schicchi (Wexford Festival Opera); Edoardo La Cambiale di Matrimonio (Northern Ireland Oper); Goro Madama Butterfly, 1st prisoner Fidelio; Parpignol La bohème (Lyric Opera Dublin); Gastone La traviata (Clyde Opera) and Le Remendado Carmen (North Wales Opera).
Walter Sutcliffe
DIRECTOR
L’INCORONAZIONE DI POPPEA
Previous Appearances: Agrippina (2018).
Recent Engagements: La bohème, Faust, Der Rosenkavalier, Les contes d’Hoffmann, A Midsummer Night’s Dream (all Bühnen Halle); Orlando (Händel-Festspiele in Halle); Kiss me, Kate (Pfalztheater Kaiserslautern).
Biography: Walter Sutcliffe has been Artistic Director of Halle Opera in Germany since September 2021, winning the German Theatre Prize ‘Der Faust’ in 2022. Previously he was Artistic Director and CEO of the Northern Ireland Opera, where he quadrupled audience attendances in his first two seasons.
He has directed opera in more than 10 countries, including prize winning and award nominated productions in Germany, France, Ireland and Estonia. His work spans the operatic repertory and includes (for Halle) La bohème, Tales of Hoffmann, Der Rosenkavalier, Faust, Orlando, A Midsummer Nights Dream and Brockes Passion. Further productions include Kiss me, Kate, Die Fledermaus, Sweeney Todd, Rigoletto, and The Threepenny Opera (Northern Ireland Opera); Faust (Badischen Staatstheater Karlsruhe); Rodrigo (International Händel-Festspiele Göttingen);
Agrippina (The Grange Festival); Tiefland as well as The Turn of the Screw, Owen Wingrave (Toulouse); Cesti’s L’Orontea, Ghost Sonata and Owen Wingrave (Oper Frankfurt); Otello (Turin); Rigoletto (Santiago de Chile); Die Brüder Löwenherz (world premiere at the Semperoper Dresden); Così fan tutte, Carmen (Tallinn); Manon Lescaut, Orpheus in the Underworld, Don Giovanni (Osnabrück); Werther and Kiss me, Kate (Magdeburg); Die Fledermaus (Halberstadt); Le Grand Macabre, Der Zwerg (Chemnitz); La traviata and Luisa Miller (Braunschweig); Albert Herring (Linz); Zar und Zimmermann (Bremerhaven); Šárka (Dicapo Opera, New York); The Lady’s not for Burning (Finborough Theatre, London); Great Highway (Gate Theatre, London); and The Knot Garden (Klangbogen Festival, Wien).
Gavin Sutherland CONDUCTOR A FRENCH SALON
Previous Appearances: From Blues to Rhapsody (2022); Ellington: From Stride to Strings (2023).
Recent Engagements: You’re Dead To Me (with BBC Concert Orchestra for Radio 4); Our Voices (English National Ballet, Sadlers Wells); Swan Lake (ENB, RAH); Nureyev – Legacy and Legend (Dubai Opera); Raymonda (Finnish National Ballet); Akram Khan’s Creature (Royal Ballet of Flanders); Sleeping Beauty (LSO, Audible); Cinderella (Bayerischer Staatsballett); Askungen (Royal Swedish Ballet).
Future Engagements: Conductor/ orchestrator in Akram Khan’s Giselle (English National Ballet, Sadlers Wells); Sleeping Beauty (New National Ballet of Japan); arrangement/ orchestration in Lucile (National Ballet of Cuba); arrangement/Conductor Giselle (Finnish National Ballet); Friday Night is Music Night (BBC Concert Orchestra); Romeo and Juliet (Royal Ballet of Flanders); Illusions like Swan Lake (Bayerischer Staatsballett).
Biography: Gavin Sutherland was born in Durham, UK, and graduated from the University of Huddersfield, winning the Kruczynski Prize for Piano and the Davidson Prize for Distinction brought to the Institution. He began his career as staff Conductor and pianist at Northern Ballet, and over the last 30 years he has collaborated with many nationally- and internationally acclaimed dance companies and orchestras. He was Music Director for English National Ballet for fifteen years, stepping down to become Principal Guest Conductor in 2022. He has recorded over 100 CDs, mainly of British music and including many world premiere performances. This strand of his career has led to a fruitful collaboration with the BBC, most notably with the BBC Concert Orchestra. Besides his prolific ballet, concert and recording work, Sutherland regularly arranges for leading international orchestras, often involving reconstruction of notable lost scores,
and also broadcasts regularly as performer and interviewee. In 2019 he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of the University of Huddersfield, and in 2020 won the Critics’ Circle National Dance Award for Outstanding Creative Contribution.
Adam Temple-Smith
TOM RAKEWELL
THE RAKE’S PROGRESS
Festival Debut
Recent Engagements: Itchingham Lofte Itch (world premiere at OHP); White King/White Rabbit Alice’s Adventures Under Ground (Theater Magdeburg); Sergeant Lombardi Passion (Montepulciano); Guido Eine Nacht in Venedig, Novice/Squeak Billy Budd, Madwoman Curlew River, 1st Jew Salome (all for Musiktheater im Revier, Gelsenkirchen).
Future Engagements: Itchingham Lofte Itch (Canadian Opera Company), White King/ White Rabbit Alice’s Adventures Under Ground (Geneva), Fenton Falstaff, Rodolfo La bohème and Die Hexe Hänsel und Gretel (all for Musiktheater im Revier, Gelsenkirchen).
Biography: Adam Temple-Smith studied at Chetham’s School and the Royal Northern College of Music. He is also an alumnus of the National Opera Studio. After his time there, he joined the Opern Studio NRW, a collaboration between four renowned German theatres in Dortmund, Essen, Gelsenkirchen and Wuppertal. He is now a permanent member of the solo ensemble at the Musiktheater im Revier in Gelsenkirchen, dovetailing his busy German diary with appearances in Europe and North America.
Dan Tepfer
PIANIST A FRENCH SALON
Festival Debut
Biography: Dan Tepfer has earned an international reputation as a pianistcomposer of wide-ranging innovation, individuality and drive – one “who refuses to set himself limits” (France’s Télérama). Born in Paris to American parents, Dan has recorded and performed around the world with some of the leading lights in jazz and classical music, from Lee Konitz to Renée Fleming, and released 11 albums of his own in solo, duo and trio formats. He earned global acclaim for his 2011 release Goldberg Variations / Variations, a disc that sees him performing JS Bach’s masterpiece as well as improvising upon it to “elegant, thoughtful and thrilling” effect (New York magazine). His 2019 video album Natural Machines stands as one of his most ingeniously forward-minded
yet, finding him exploring in real time the intersection between science and art, coding and improvisation, digital algorithms and the rhythms of the heart. His 2023 return to Bach, Inventions / Reinventions became a best-seller, spending two weeks in the #1 spot on the Billboard Classical Charts. During the global pandemic, Dan dived headlong into live-streaming, performing close to 200 online concerts. As part of this effort, he pioneered ultra-low-latency audio technology enabling him to perform live through the internet with musicians in separate locations, culminating in the development of his own app: FarPlay.
Francesca Tiburzi
FLORIA TOSCA TOSCA
Supported by David and Penny Kempton Festival Debut
Recent Engagements: La Gioconda (Salzburg Festival); Tosca (Teatro della Fortuna); Fano (An, Italy); Tosca (Teatro Verdi, Rovigo, Italy); Madama Butterfly (Teatro Rendano, Cosenza); Tosca (Opera di Roma-tournée in Japan); Il Trittico (Teatro Antico di Taormina); Madama Butterfly (Opera de Québec, Canada); Madama Butterfly (Aalto Theatre, Essen, Germany); Tosca (Opera de Metz, France). Future Engagements: Tosca (Opera de Metz, France).
Biography: Francesca Tiburzi was born in Bergamo where she began her lyrical singing studies at the age of fourteen. In 2005, she attended courses in early music at the Accademia Internazionale della Musica in Milan, performing music from the sacred repertoire of Palestrina, Cavalli, Rossi, Monteverdi, Bach and Mozart. She made her debut in 2013 playing Violetta Valery in La traviata. She is the overall winner of the Salice d’Oro competition (2015), and has gone on to win prestigious competitions including: Etta Limiti international opera competition (2015) second prize; Rosa Ponselle international opera competition (2011) second prize; IV international opera competition Marcello Giordani, third prize; international opera competition Marcella Pobbe (2014) first prize; opera competition Lina Bertasi Aimaro (2009) first prize; she won the study prize 18th edition of the Rotary Club Bergamo Città Alta (2012) as best student of the Istituto Superiore di Studi Musicali G Donizetti.
Antoneta Turk
DANCE AT THE GRANGE
OKTETTO
Festival Debut
Recent Engagements: National Theatre Brno. Biography: Born in Celje, Slovenia. Graduated from Hungarian Dance University. Dancer with National Theatre Brno since 2022.
William Vann
CHORUS MASTER
TOSCA, THE RAKE’S PROGRESS
Festival Debut
Recent Engagements: Appearances at Royal Festival Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Wigmore Hall, Cadogan Hall, ROH, at the Norwich and Norfolk, Aldeburgh, Edinburgh, Oxford International Song Festivals, the Northern Ireland Festival of Voice and abroad in France, Germany (live ZDF television), Ireland, Italy, Nigeria, South Africa (National Arts Festival) and Sweden.
Future Engagements: Recitals with tenor James Gilchrist and soprano Laura Lolita Perešivana and several recording projects for Chandos Records, as well as a busy programme of concerts with his various choirs.
Biography: A multiple-prize winning and critically acclaimed choral, orchestral and opera Conductor and song accompanist, William Vann is delighted to be making his debut at The Grange Festival, 2024. He collaborates across the UK and internationally with a vast array of artists and is particularly renowned for his revival performances and recordings of lost and lesser-known works of vocal and choral music. He is an Associate of the RAM, a Conductor and vocal coach at the Oxenfoord International Summer School, the Music Director of Dulwich Choral Society and the Director of Music at the Royal Hospital Chelsea.
Emma Emilia Vuorio
DANCE AT THE GRANGE
OKTETTO
Festival Debut
Recent Engagements:
National Theatre Brno.
Biography: Born in Helsinki, Finland. High-school and vocational qualification in dance. Previous professional engagements with Finnish National Ballet, Scottish Ballet and Ballet Dortmund in Germany. Dancer with National Theatre Brno since 2012.
Certified Pilates instructor and part time instructor at a local Pilates studio in Brno.
Vanessa Waldhart
DRUSILLA/AMORE
L’INCORONAZIONE DI POPPEA
Festival Debut
Recent Engagements: Olympia Contes d’Hoffmann, Adele Die Fledermaus, Rosina Il barbiere di Siviglia, Tytania A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Opera Halle); Fiakermilli Arabella (AaltoTheater Essen); Queen of the Night Magic Flute (Chemnitz, Schwerin, at National theatre Sarajevo); Cleopatra Giulio Cesare, Dorinda Orlando, Atalanta Serse (Int. Handel Festival Halle); Konstanze Die Entführung aus dem Serail (Schloss Rheinsberg).
Future Engagements: Vitellia La clemenza di Tito (Int. Gluck Festival); Königin der Nacht Die Zauberflöte and Musetta La bohème (Opera Halle); Poppea Agrippina (Int. Handel Festival Halle).
Biography: The Austrian soprano, currently ensemble member at Opera Halle, won the Eva Kleinitz Award at the 9th CLIP Competition in Italy & was nominated as newcomer in the “Opernwelt”. Her repertoire in opera & concerts ranges from Monteverdi, Bach, Händel to Mozart, Weber, Rossini, Verdi, Strauss, Britten, Offenbach & Strauß. Guest appearances took her to the GrachtenFestival Amsterdam, Int. Gluck-Festival, Int. Handel-Festival Halle, Musikverein and Konzerthaus Vienna, Italy, Sarajevo, Austria, Switzerland and Germany. She has worked with well-known Conductors and Directors, including R Jacobs, A Cremonesi, Ch Curnyn, M Hofstetter, T Netopil, A Matiakh, P Konwitschny, Kratzer, A Pilavachi, and W Sutcliffe.
Kitty Whately
POPPEA/FORTUNA
L’INCORONAZIONE DI POPPEA
Previous Appearances: Nancy Albert Herring (2017); Dorabella Così fan tutte (2023).
Recent Engagements: Missy Mazzoli’s one-woman opera Song from the Uproar (BBCSO, The Barbican), Hermia A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Rouen, Aix, Beijing, Bergen); Meg in the British premiere of Little Women, Dorabella Così fan tutte (Opera Holland Park); Displaced (world premiere, Woolwich Works); Dog/Forester’s Wife/Woodpecker/Owl The Cunning Little Vixen (CBSO in Birmingham, Paris, Hamburg, Dortmund).
Future Engagements: Michelle Festen (ROH); Jocasta Oedipus Rex (Scottish Opera); Marcellina Le Nozze di Figaro (Verbier Festival), Lyel The Snowmaiden (ETO and a recording for Chandos).
Biography: Kitty trained at Chetham’s School of Music, the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, and the Royal College of Music International Opera School. She won both the Kathleen Ferrier Award and the 59th Royal Overseas League Award in the same year, was part of the prestigious Verbier Festival Academy and was a BBC New Generation Artist. Kitty is in high demand as a recitalist and concert artist. Recent performances include Das Lied von der Erde (Mizmorim Festival, Basel), The Dream of Gerontius (Crouch End Festival Chorus, Queen Elizabeth Hall, and St John’s Smith Square), and recitals at Wigmore Hall and around the UK. Kitty has made numerous recordings and solo albums, her latest, Befreit: A Soul Surrendered with pianist Joseph Middleton, was released in 2023.
Catherine Wyn-Rogers
MOTHER GOOSE THE RAKE’S
PROGRESS
Festival Debut
Recent Engagements: Queen of the Fairies Iolanthe (ENO); Widow Zimmerlein Die Schweigsame Frau (Bayerische Staatsoper); Auntie Peter Grimes (Opéra de Paris).
Previous concert work includes Dream of Gerontius and Dvořák’s Stabat Mater (King’s College Cambridge).
Future Engagements: Auntie Peter Grimes (House debut Teatro dell’Opera di Roma, WNO).
Biography: Catherine Wyn-Rogers was a Foundation Scholar at the Royal College of Music, studying with Meriel St Clair and gaining several prizes including the Dame Clara Butt award. She continued her studies with Ellis Keeler and now works with Diane Forlano.
She is a regular guest of the Three Choirs and Edinburgh festivals, and BBC Proms. She has also appeared at the Bayerische Staatsoper, English National Opera, Royal Opera House, Teatro alla Scala Milan, Opéra National de Paris and Glyndebourne Festival Opera.
Amongst her many performances, she has appeared at the Lyric Opera of Chicago as Sosostris The Midsummer Marriage, and made her debut with the Metropolitan Opera as Adelaide Arabella. Catherine has also performed for the Salzburg, Verbier, Aldeburgh and Enescu festivals.
Anna Yeh
DANCE AT THE GRANGE OKTETTO
Festival Debut
Recent Engagements:
National Theatre Brno. Biography: Born in California, USA. Moved to Berlin at age 15 to attend the State Ballet School of Berlin. Upon graduation she joined Junior Ballet Antwerp in 2019 where she had the opportunity to work with many acclaimed choreographers. In 2021 Anna joined National Ballet of Brno and is currently dancing as a soloist of the company. A few career highlights include: Nikiya in La Bayadère; Sleepless by Jiři Kylián; Metamorphosis by David Dawson, Princess Florine in Sleeping Beauty
I’m delighted to be making my debut at The Grange Festival this season in the role of Chorus Master. Opera is famed for its multidisciplinary nature: for me it is a thrill to draw simultaneously on my extensive training as a singer, keyboard player, Conductor, choral trainer, vocal coach and musical mentor. I was first awakened to the intense emotional thrill of music making when I was a Chorister at King’s College, Cambridge under the direction of the late Stephen Cleobury. The choir was recording and giving a series of concerts of JS Bach’s St Matthew Passion with a superb line-up of soloists including, as it happens, the famous countertenor Michael Chance; I strongly suspect that it was the continued impact of
hearing Bach’s profound arias as a child that led me later to abandon my planned career in law and head instead to the Royal Academy of Music to study the piano with Malcolm Martineau. Since then, I have had a busy career traversing the worlds of song accompaniment, opera (in particular at the wonderful Bury Court) and choral music; it was in my position as Director of Music at the Royal Hospital Chelsea that I met Michael again, working together on a Christmas fundraiser for Maggie’s cancer charity. The Grange is a very special place to make music: glamorous and captivating, yet intimate, and it has been the utmost pleasure to prepare two wonderful operas with our carefully selected, talented and boutique chorus.
“Dove? Mache avvenne?” (Where? What’s happened?) sing the Twyford School pupils in great excitement when they first enter the stage in Puccini’s Tosca. In their scene, the children are excited to meet the famous singer, Floria Tosca. In reality, our pupils have had an even greater experience. They have had the opportunity to get to know the Directors, Conductors, Choreographers, share the stage with famous singers, work with world-class orchestras, enjoy beautiful tailor-made costumes that are their own for a week or two and experience the inner workings of an opera company. For fifteen years now, Twyford School has been providing young singers for operas at The Grange. Some have gone on to careers in music; some have pursued other dreams; all relished the opportunity to perform at The Grange and loved every minute of it.
CHILDREN’S CHORUS
Georges Appleby
Haydon Ashton
Harry Bevan
Harry Butterfill
Hector Curzon-McKie
Dylan Dolphin
William Hall
William Henderson
Sion Llywellyn-Davies
Theo Montagu
Kai Patel
Parker Temple
There is a palpable sense of excitement at Twyford when opera season begins. It is not just the singing that the children love. Every prep school enjoys the sound of leather on willow in the summer term, but Twyford School is one of very few to have the sounds of Puccini, Verdi or Tchaikovsky ringing through the corridors at this time of year. Alongside our involvement with The Grange Festival, all the children at Twyford School benefit from weekly lessons in music and drama and an extensive extra-curricular programme. Music is on the timetable from Nursery to Year 8 with over 75% of pupils learning instruments. Two school choirs and various instrumental ensembles give our pupils plenty of opportunities to play and sing. The children regularly perform in lunchtime concerts, musical theatre and chapel services.
We were delighted to be recognised in 2023 with an award for Best of the Best “Great for Music” in the Week Independent Schools Guide: “Twyford, a co-ed, day and weekly boarding prep near Winchester, has a deserved reputation for the excellence of its music provision.”
In 2022, we launched a new annual summer prize for a member of the company who has shone during the season and shows the most potential for a successful career.
Aimed at young professional singers early in their careers, it encompasses vocal and stage craft, as well as communication skills.
In 2023 we decided to open up this award to include
Since I won The Grange Festival Prize last summer, I have been working very hard on my singing and fitting in as many games of cricket as I could, as a diversion. In the British Youth Opera’s production of A Pilgrim’s Progress, at Gloucester Cathedral, as part of the Three Choirs Festival I sang the parts of Apollyon, Envy, Mistrust, and the third Shepherd. Then, perhaps the highlight of 2023, my support and contribution to the New Brighton Cricket Club 2nd XI, for whom I open the batting, helped them win the league. With Hampstead Garden Opera, I sang the Father in their production of Hänsel und Gretel. I spent a very productive and stimulating week in Salzburg with Chris Purves in the Stimme, Lieb & Seele masterclass programme. I auditioned and got a place at the Salzburger Festspiele as a young singer on their Young Singer Project. And subsequently got trapped in a blizzard in Salzburg! I’ve had some competition successes with winning the Hurn Court Opera Prize, Language Prize and Audience Prize and was recently a finalist in the Royal Over-Seas League competition.
also those not seen on the stage during the Festival: the Assistant Directors and the large band of technicians who are essential for every non-musical aspect of the performance, both on and behind the stage.
We now award two prizes: £7500 for the most promising young performer, and £5000 for the most promising young technical member of the company.
In addition to several engagements, I also sang at the gala concert at the National Concert Hall Dublin where Dame Ann Murray received her Lifetime Achievement Award. I am singing in Faust et Helene by Lili Boulanger with London City Orchestra in March and looking forward to performing at The Grange Festival this summer.
The Grange Festival Prize has been a great help financially with paying for singing lessons with my teacher Ben Johnson and paying for all the travelling from Liverpool to London. It has also helped me pay for travel to Salzberg, Edinburgh, Norwich, Bournemouth and other venues for auditions and competitions. I also value the help it has given me to purchase expensive scores and tickets to operas and concerts that have helped in my development.
My fears about the future are about dealing with visa complications involved with working abroad post Brexit, the uncertain state of English opera and uncertainty about career validity. But overall I maintain a happy optimism.
My hopes for the short-term future are to play a lot of cricket on The Grange Green! Then get a place on a young artist programme and to start singing more and more roles at various opera houses. My hopes for the long-term future are to have a happy and prosperous life with the perfect balance of singing and cricket – and to watch an ashes Boxing Day test at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.
Since receiving the prestigious The Grange Festival prize in 2023, I have significantly broadened my horizons as a Stage Director and creative, including joining Magdeburg Theatre as a Regie Hospitantin and contributing to English Touring Opera’s The Coronation of Poppea
My journey also led me to teach movement at institutions Guildhall and Royal Academy of Music and to conduct masterclasses across China. These included working with Xiamen chamber choir, Zhejiang Conservatoire of Music, Peking University, and Beijing Theatres. This tour culminated in developing a unique Shakespearean adaptation of A Midsummer Night’s Dream to Madarin, underpinned by Benjamin Britten’s opera score, with Beijing Theatre company, Drama Spirit. This year marked my involvement with English Touring Opera as Assistant Director and Touring Staff Director for Manon Lescaut and The Rake’s Progress. Additionally, I served as Movement Director and intimacy coordinator for Aci, Galatea e Polifemo at The London Handel Festival, and I prepared for return to The Grange Festival to assist Christopher Luscombe on Tosca.
In a significant recognition of my work outside of opera, I was honoured with a nomination by the Arts Humanities and Research Council as a Fellow for the Royal Shakespeare Company in 2024. In my role I will research, write, and direct a short documentary film that sheds light on the lives of freelancers within the performing arts creative industry.
In the near future, I am undertaking the roles of Writer and Director for the upcoming musical, Rhapsody inspired by the iconic works of George Gershwin. Additionally, I am embracing the roles of executive producer and cocreator for a new international online streaming drama series set in India and Canada. I am also directing a new opera supported by the Arts Council and the Britten Pierce Residency, and I have Assistant Director roles lined up at venues including Teatro Colon, Opéra national de Paris, Staatstheatre Oldenburg and The Grange Festival.
Following receiving this prestigious award from The Grange Festival, my aim is to deepen my directorial work whilst continuing to contribute to developing innovation in the arts and widening audience engagement. I am dedicated to storytelling and cultural enrichment, to supporting pathways for young artists and fostering collaborations that highlight and nurture talent in the performing arts.
The Grange Festival is delighted to be continuing its partnership with award-winning arts charity Outside In and to present a new exhibition showcasing work by some of the charity’s hugely talented artists. This is the second in a series of planned exhibitions and events, and includes work created in response to both the unique space of The Grange and to The Festival’s programme for 2024. This year, all of the exhibited artworks can also be purchased, to the benefit of both the exhibiting artists and the charity itself. If one of the original works on show speaks to you, you can make a significant difference by making a purchase and acquiring something completely unique.
Outside In is a national arts charity which provides a platform for artists who encounter significant barriers to the art world due to health, disability, social circumstance or isolation. It is an important and rare example of an organisation with national reach championing the work of artists excluded from the art world and was founded by Marc Steene in 2006 at Pallant House Gallery, winning the Charity Award for Arts and Heritage in 2013. Outside In became an independent charity in 2017 and gained National Portfolio Organisation status with Arts Council England in 2018. Founder Marc Steene was awarded an OBE for services to the arts this year and Sir Grayson Perry also became an Honorary Patron for the charity.
Outside In provides a digital platform for its artists to show their work alongside three core programmes of activity: artist development, exhibitions, and training. These activities, supported by fundraising and communications, all aim to create a fairer art world by supporting artists, creating opportunities and influencing organisations. The charity has developed its regional presence and now has hubs in the South of England, the Midlands and the North West with plans to develop a hub in the South West. To date, Outside In has helped over 4,000 artists to showcase their work on their own online galleries.
“Being a part of Outside In has been life-changing in an emotional aspect and has had a positive impact on my life. It fills me with joy that someone appreciates my work”
Manuel Bonifacio, artist
Funding is vital in helping Outside In to achieve its goal of creating a fairer art world and reaching as many artists as possible who need its support. To find out more about Outside In and how you can play an important part in supporting the charity and its life-changing work as a member, corporate sponsor, collector or supporter, please visit www.outsidein.org.uk
“This year we are delighted to be exhibiting work by a number of artists, all of which is available for sale throughout the duration of the festival. Artist IJE’s large scale, textural worlds we felt were a highly appropriate fit for the large rooms of the eerily beautiful Palladian mansion, whilst Tom Stimpson has been making new work in response to both the space itself and to Monteverdi’s L’Incoronazione Di Poppea, and has had the opportunity for a mini-residency involving sitting in on rehearsals. Jasna Nikolic’s distinctive and vibrant artworks could be described as operatic in the way that they team with life, whilst highly prolific artist David Puttick creates his work at night and whilst in communion with the spirit world, which again seems appropriate to this extraordinarily haunting (and possibly haunted?) building”
Marc Steene OBE, Founder and Director, Outside In
Jasna Nikolic, Richmond Mixed media on water colour paper, 75 x 57cm
Manuel Bonifacio, Untitled 71x90cm, coloured pencil on paper
“The opportunity to attend a rehearsal and to see and experience the music and the hardworking talent and skill of the cast of this opera will be a memory to hold onto. Attending an opera or creating art in a response to it is something I have never done before and it is exciting to be able to utilise my creativity in these responses which has involved immersive research, listening to Monteverdi and reading about the opera. I hope to be able to produce a personal response that relates to several elements and which has an holistic approach to my process”
Tom Stimpson, Artist
“I am a paranoid schizophrenic diagnosed at 20 and I am now 61. Life is very challenging, and I find creativity has been a constant tool to help my diagnosis”
David Puttick, Artist
Letters to Theo – 2023 Oil on canvas, 120cm x 100cm – Tom Stimpson
Manuel Bonifacio, Motorbike and Man 59.5 x 84cm, coloured pencil on paper
“I’m so excited to be asked to exhibit my art at The Grange Festival this year. I think the scale and boldness of my paintings and sculptures will sit very well inside this neo-classical mansion, in the heart of Hampshire”
IJE, Artist
“Without Outside In, I would not be here today. It literally saved my life”
Drew Fox, Artist
Please see our separate supplement for further information about Outside In and this year’s exhibiting artists.
more
IJE, Winter 2: The Sleeper Awakens
Lady Emma Barnard presents Outside In’s Ambassadors with the Queen’s Award For Voluntary Service at Pallant House Gallery
Work from the Outside In Collection at last year’s Festival
Naoibh McNamee, The Realness
A LIFE IN THE DAY sophie daneman
I can honestly say I don’t think I have ever experienced boredom in my life. Except maybe for one unforgettably, endlessly excruciating afternoon in 1978 when I went to see the first Star Wars film – my best friend would say that this shows a serious lack of taste on my part. I arrived in 1965 into an environment that was extremely stimulating, somewhat bohemian and immoderately artistic. My father was a successful theatre actor and my mother who had already had a career as a ballet dancer was a top model and writing her first novel. Our flat in the Cromwell Rd would come alive late in the evening for post-show get-togethers and as a small child I would often be running around in my nightie, serving drinks, chatting away to the adults and performing “Sooty Shows” with my Sooty and Sweep hand puppets – the result of this is that, to this day, I still start to wake up at around 10.30pm and am a hopeless and incurable night owl.
Because of my mother’s background, the first shows I went to see were ballets, often at the Royal Opera House – and one of the very first was Stravinsky’s Firebird and it remains my most powerful early memory. That exquisitely terrifying, exhilarating music coupled with the sight of the long-fingered, evil sorcerer Kashchey leaping about like a fairy-tale come to life – my mother looked at me sitting bolt upright on the edge of my seat, eyes wide open, and thought she had damaged me for life, little knowing that in fact I had been struck with the thunderbolt of love – for the magic, the terror, the thrill and the poetry of theatre.
My connection with sung text showed itself at a very early age with a clear talent (that has served me well throughout my career) for memorising songs. Apparently at one of our parties, aged about 3, I began singing, loudly and word perfectly, the song “Sodomy” from the musical Hair (have a listen on Spotify) from the album they’d recently bought. It brought the house down.
As a teenager I made a decent amount of pocket money performing jazz standards in bars and depping in church choirs but I was blissfully unaware of singing being an actual career option. I spent a lot of time at the local boys school where they needed girls for their theatre productions (and I being at an all girls school was more than happy to oblige). Then somewhere in my very late teens I slowly began to realise that this love of music and theatre had an extraordinarily powerful medium all of its own in classical singing and a new path began to take shape. I look back on that time and am fascinated by the events, encounters, experiences, coincidences etc that led me to decide to apply to music college; Elizabeth Schwarzkopf’s recording of Wolf songs; Ralph Allwood hearing me practicing through the kitchen wall when he was staying with a neighbour and suggesting I enrolled on his superlative choral course; not getting into Cambridge which at the time seemed like the end of my world; a secret pleasure in finding something that my parents didn’t shine in…
Sophie (right) as Eileen in Wonderful Town directed by Antony McDonald, 2004
Sophie aged 4
Sophie aged 18
I enjoyed my time at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, especially the song classes where text was considered equally as important as music. But I didn’t have the size of voice to sing the repertoire that everyone aspired to – and as a light soprano I was often cast as the flirty, soubrette which I never felt really at home in. Then, in my very last term, William Christie came to audition students for a joint production, with the Paris and Hague conservatoires, of Rameau’s Hippolyte et Aricie. I had never heard of Rameau but the moment I set eyes on the score I was lovestruck, bowled over by the theatricality, the extraordinary attention to text, the sensuality and best of all – I had the right voice to play the heroine! Christie is a genius and his ability to communicate with an audience and his desire for theatrical spontaneity is as thrilling an experience as any singer could hope for and I still thank my lucky stars that fate brought us together. The years that followed that production were a whirl-wind of excitement. Christie and consequently others gave me a whole host of work – I moved to Paris, learnt French, fell in and out of love, travelled the world, made numerous recordings and had the extraordinary fortune of having a career in a repertoire that was going through a golden age in a country that was pouring money into the arts. And despite being a “baroque specialist”, I was lucky enough over the years to sing an incredibly wide range of repertoire from Mozart to contemporary music and musical comedy – I don’t think I’ve ever had more fun than playing Eileen, dressed as Marilyn Monroe, in Antony Mcdonald’s brilliant production of Wonderful Town for Grange Park. One of the greatest privileges of my life was singing Melisande at Opera Comique where Debussy’s opera was first performed with the great Georges Pretre. The stage was covered in constantly flowing water and I was soaked through almost all the time – I had lots of dry versions of the same dress waiting for me in the wings. Miraculously I managed not to catch a cold!
“I don’t think I’ve ever had more fun than playing Eileen, dressed as Marilyn Monroe, in Antony Mcdonald’s brilliant production of Wonderful Town”
Singing is a wonderful job if you can cope with the stress, the travelling and the fear of germs – but you do spend a lot of your time being told what to do by Conductors and Directors. The singers who want a bit more autonomy find pleasure in programming and performing song repertoire and I always relished putting together recitals and collaborating with the wonderful pianists I’ve worked alongside. But after a while I began to experience a powerful yearning to explore what was happening on the other side of the lights, to take my driving passion for the text and broaden it to experience the responsibility of painting the bigger picture. It began very informally, inventing semi stagings for pieces we were touring with Les Arts Florissants. I moved on to directing the productions for their Jardin des Voix young singers Academy and then had my big (make or) break in 2014 when I was invited to direct a Rameau double bill at the Theatre de Caen which went on to be revived in such exciting places as Seoul, The Bolshoi and New York.
So I find still no prospect of boredom on the horizon. This year so far I’ve donned a green drag wig to sing Venus in Hannover, I’ve staged four new operas by young composers at the Royal Academy of music, re-imagined Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater for 5 generations of women and directed the fabulous young mezzo Lea Desandre in an evening of Julie Andrews songs – so life is as crazy, stimulating and varied as ever. I run a yearly series of baroque music workshops in primary schools in rural France where there is no access to music and am constantly amazed by how naturally and genuinely interested children are in so-called “specialist“ music and how instinctively and readily they want to participate. I adore and admire so much the young singers I come into contact with for the Jardin des Voix or at the Royal Academy where I teach lieder and audition preparation.
The generations have so much to teach each other in both directions and I have learnt so many things from my two sons – appreciation of Japanese cinema and Bob Dylan to name but two. My marvellous husband is a writer and actor and our boys are apparently already totally hooked on a life of music and theatre. Our household seems to be as hopelessly steeped in the arts as mine was as a child – long may it continue!
Sophie Daneman Associate Director The Rake’s Progress
Sophie directed Finta Giardiniera and Partenope for Les Arts Florissants’ Jardin des Voix
Sophie in Pelléas et Mélisande, 1999
IN CONVERSATION WITH John Graham-h all & Fiona Kimm
Do you two know each other?
JG-H: We certainly do.
Have you worked together?
FK: I think the only time we have worked together was doing La Belle Vivette. How could one ever forget La Belle Vivette
Tell me about La Belle Vivette?
JG-H: Fiona enjoyed it… I remember that.
FK: Actually, it just goes to show what a great actor I am, because in fact I didn’t enjoy it at all. It was the Coliseum doing La Belle Hélène and deciding that because the Great British public would be very unlikely to understand anything about Greek mythology, they’d update it to the second French empire and there were lots of in jokes about the Goncourt brothers and it was ludicrous. The only good thing about it was that we were a gang of really fun people so once we got the first night out of the way we had a ball.
J G-H: My main memory of La Belle Vivette is I had the best corpse I’ve ever had…
“We were a gang of really fun people so once we got the first night out of the way we had a ball”
Did you start singing when you were a child?
FK: I sang before I could speak apparently. And then when I was 14, our school did some little end-of-the-day broadcasts for Southern Television and I sang a little solo and the Director asked me to sing in a programme. So, there I was aged 14 making my professional debut on live television singing the Crimmond Lord’s My Shepherd and they paid me a whole 15 guineas which was a lot of money in 1967. Then I started having singing lessons and got distinction in grade 8 and went in for the Associated Board Scholarship and off I went to the RCM.
And you, Johnny?
JG-H: I was a very good treble. My mother was very, very keen on me singing, but I didn’t know I was going to become a singer till just before I left school when I did some performances of Oh! What a Lovely War and I sang Goodbye (Fiona laughs). The Director of Music, Charles Brett, rather a famous countertenor thought there was a rather promising tenor quality and suggested auditioning for a choral scholarship at King’s College, Cambridge, and I got one. Afterwards I worked in the accounts department at the Royal Opera House, and had some singing lessons and got myself a scholarship to the Royal College, then almost immediately I did Albert Herring at Glyndebourne.
FK: 2017, I played Anna Bonitatibus’s nurse in The Return of Ulysses, and in this production of Poppea, I’m yet again playing Anna’s nurse…
JG-H: I’ve never actually sung at The Grange. I’ve spoken at The Grange because I was in King Lear. And in GPO days, I sat in the audience while somebody else sang Peter Grimes, because she thought he was going to pull out.
Is this your first Selim?
JG-H: I’ve done Selim twice before. In 2001 at ENO, with Vladimir Jurowski who said what Stravinsky wrote was incredibly specific and it’s absolutely crucial that you sing his exact rhythms. Michael Chance agrees. I’ve also sung it at La Monnaie.
And have you sung Nutrice before?
FK: Nutrice is very often cut and I’m glad it isn’t because it’s very different from Ericlea who was Penelope’s nurse who I played at The Grange before. It was very tender and loving rather than manipulative…
What don’t you like about The Grange?
FK: I’ve just done a film there of La traviata and it was perishingly cold, but there’s something about it that is just enchanting. And the theatre has a fantastic acoustic.
JG-H: I used not to be keen on the approach road. You had to be very, very careful of your tyres and your axles. But it’s an enchanting place.
What do you find are the challenges in the opera world at the moment, especially in the UK?
JG-H: If you’re in one of the summer festivals, you feel very nurtured and perhaps more appreciative of all the people giving them money. I sang at Covent Garden last year, and things feel much the same as they did before. But it’s much more difficult to find work.
FK: Absolutely true. But for somebody in my 70s, I’m busy.
JG-H: Brexit has made a huge difference for me. If a European opera house is casting The Marriage of Figaro, they’ll say Johnny can make a good Basilio but we can’t be doing all that Brexit nonsense.
How has the opera world changed over your years?
FK: In many ways it hasn’t changed a lot; singers are just as committed as are Conductors, Directors and opera houses. But how important opera is to the UK in general, that’s problematic looking at what the Arts Council are trying to do to ENO, the BBC Singers…
JG-H: You feel up against it more than you used to. Maybe it’ll change if we get a different government after the next election… The standard of shows meantime is very high and Richard Mantle (now the chairman of The Grange Festival) actually said: in some respects, financial hardship in the arts is a sort of motivator.
What do you feel about the future?
JG-H: I slightly feel I’m clinging on by my fingertips.
FK: I’m not sanguine that any government coming in are going to be particularly in favour of what people still seem to regard as elitist.
What’s the scariest thing that’s ever happened to you on stage?
JG-H: For Bregenz Festival I was told I had to abseil down the face of David which was the size of a ten-story building and I’d been off to Rutland Water for abseiling instruction, but we had a different rig, for which we got 15 minutes tuition then we were taken up to the top of this face and I climbed out of the eye and dangled…
FK: I was doing Nicklausse and the Muse in an Opera North production of Hoffmann and at the end I stepped from a ladder onto a plinth that was then pushed onto the stage and unfortunately at the dress rehearsal somebody started pushing the plinth before I was actually on it. That was only 20 feet up…
Would you recommend your job to a friend?
JG-H: I would have done. I teach a lot of people and I’m afraid my first question is have you got a European passport…
FK: I wouldn’t recommend it but if you still must do it then you’ve got to do it…
JG-H: Just to add we’ve spent our entire lives doing something that we adore and how many people can actually say they’ve worked for fun…
Louise Flind in conversation with John Graham-Hall & Fiona Kimm
Opera is in a tricky spot. You might say it’s been heading in this direction for something over a hundred years. If the human race likes Barbie, then I don’t think you can say that strange stories are the problem: we clearly have a taste for some pretty strange things. Nor, personally, am I troubled by what some think of as the esoteric idioms and conventions of classical music. Just like any other punter with a life-long interest in these things, I practise my musical instruments and organise my calendar around concerts, ballets and the rest. I particularly love opera, but there’s something unique about buying opera tickets that triggers in me a sort of sceptical, curmudgeonly, risk-averse shuffle.
Perhaps the thing is that, from nose to tail, opera is just insanely ambitious. To make it work is overwhelmingly difficult. Why don’t schools and universities put on The Marriage of Figaro? Because it’s too difficult. It’s as if composers, audiences and performers have secretly agreed a pact of Mutually Amplified Difficulty. We are all betting on something close to a miracle.
Opera composers always tended to be maniacally ambitious. They might be quite sensible and set a poem to music one day, but then they go and write an opera the next… it widens the eyes. The skills, the numbers of people and the financial resources they demand are so eye-watering they probably wouldn’t be allowed to write about passing the salt even if they wanted to. But fear not: they take the big questions that mystify
ordinary mortals – love, loss, death, fate – and offer their extended reflections. Normal people need not apply to be opera composers. Most operas pancake. Audiences have never wanted to sit still and in silence. The Greeks didn’t, Shakespeare’s audience didn’t, football crowds don’t. Opera audiences used to divert themselves in all manner of ways, not least with voluble and passionate judgements as the show progressed. In the later 19th century, Wagner proposed the rather modern idea that we should be silent through the performance, and by God do we try that now. In return for total concentration, Wagner wrote ‘music-dramas’ in which musical and theatrical drama were meant to be fully integrated. Perhaps cinema and television have also played a part in this, but either way, seamless coherence has become our central expectation, notwithstanding that music-dramas in the Wagnerian sense are rare amongst the operas most frequently performed now. And what do we do with all that nervous, critical energy we’ve decided to bottle up…?
“But fear not: they take the big questions that mystify ordinary mortals – love, loss, death, fate – and offer their extended reflections. Normal people need not apply to be opera composers”
“It’s remarkable that, even when they are without financial subsidy, some of the most magical evenings are in the smaller opera houses”
The Special Award for Reckless Ambition, however, goes to the Directors and performers, who build livelihoods on the fraught business of trying to solve for the expectations of both the composer and audience. First choose the opera. A good forty thousand rarely if ever see the light of day (some would double that number), but fifty-ish are regularly performed. For me this is a lifetime’s worth of music, but sadly I am in a statistical minority as most of these are not terribly popular. If you want to sell out six or more performances (because short runs are even more expensive to produce), the list is down to just over a dozen. Half of these are by Mozart and Puccini. This list accounts for two-thirds of the performances in the UK in recent years and all of it was written for those restless old-style audiences. None of these composers was forewarned of the manner of scrutiny to which their work is now subjected.
Let me give an example – and it is just an example – of the sort of problems to which this can give rise: the way a production sounds often doesn’t fit the way it looks. Composers write the operas, so there is a sense of primacy about the music. In my mind, at least, great nights at the opera are first and foremost great musical experiences. But in opera, there are typically not one but two autonomous Directors (music and stage). For the Director of the production the first problem is to find a fresh way of looking at a tired, overexposed old warhorse and it is entirely understandable that results should so often be intrusive. Said Director is also trying to create an integrated music-drama out of a work that wasn’t intended as such because we, the audience, now expect it. In film you fit the soundtrack to the cinematography. In opera it’s the other way round and that can be very awkward: the rhythms and temporalities of the music are much slower than those of spoken theatre. Though the music has the upper hand in shaping the performance, it is our visual sense which tends to dominate the way we size things up so if something visually distracting is happening on stage it is almost impossible to ignore it without shutting your eyes. Listening to a waltz while watching a polka doesn’t help with anything.
The same sound-and-sight problem also bites the poor singers. Trained from the year dot as musicians (not actors), caked in make-up and crazy clothes, they are singing a part often written to exhibit jaw-dropping virtuosity, perhaps lying down, through the sound of a full-sized orchestra, projecting to an auditorium that is larger than the composer ever envisaged, and all this while acting out a part that no sane professional actor would ever contemplate: no one can act a da capo aria. With all this striving the music suffers.
The musical consequences of larger venues in classical music more generally came to be well recognised: instruments that had been gradually redesigned to cope with larger performing venues changed the music. Returning to the earlier instruments and the associated performance styles has radically helped us understand music up to at least the mid-nineteenth century. So too in opera: voice types, singing styles, audience engagement… there had to be changes for the big houses. Is this the reason operatic vibrato is now often so wide that we can lose both the pitch and line? It’s remarkable that, even when they are without financial subsidy, some of the most magical evenings are in the smaller opera houses.
All I am trying to say is that the enormous financial and artistic demands on what we expect opera to be nowadays has become limiting. They limit the range of operas we may hope to see, the artists we may hope to hear in them and too often they compromise the essential musical experience. They limit who can go, and how much we want to.
What is to be done? In some cases, I find myself wondering if some middle ground between a concert performance and this full staging would be preferable, but I quite see that for many opera goers this would be to miss the whole point. I have thought about the problem for many years, but in truth I have no solutions.
I do, however, have time left to make two more constructive points before the lights go down. The first is to reiterate that ‘miracles’ do happen. When they do, the results are explosively wonderful – overwhelming, glorious, memorable, it’s like nothing else. Perhaps we should think of an opera ticket as more like a lottery ticket: you can’t expect to win, but fabulous riches fall to those that do.
The second is that while I have been speaking here strictly for myself, these are all problems that have of course long been much better understood by those actually in the business. Composers for the last hundred years have been writing great pieces many of which feel more natural in production. Operas now being written by British composers may yet be seen to constitute one of the richest periods of operatic creativity in our entire history. Some of these recent works are of extraordinary musical quality; they focus on big but less worn themes; they are spared the historical gulf that usually divides a composer from his audience. Some are shorter and engage smaller forces. They have been playing to sold-out houses across the world.
This is all artistically fascinating. For it to be commercially fascinating too… that’s one for the professionals.
Keith Haydon
A regular committed audience member
INTRODUCING
Tyler sToops
Tyler Stoops is our new CEO of The Grange Festival. This is not a new post at The Grange but Tyler brings a new concept to it. When we meet a few weeks ago he was busily juggling his previous job as Director of Audience Development at Glyndebourne, his new role, and house hunting. Having worked in arts and entertainment from the get-go (he is American) his burning desire is to be the ‘leader’ of an arts organisation, mercifully more as a catalyst than a dictator. Indeed, in September he is starting a degree in Performance Science at the Royal College of Music. ‘It’s a passion of mine how you continue to provide the conditions for artists to be able to deliver their best. As a leader I think it’s a really important piece of who I want to be too, which is thinking about how you support everyone in their craft to be able to deliver excellence and focus on excellence and collaboration’.
He views The Grange Festival as an irresistible jewel he can embellish… ‘The Grange job is to really design a business strategy for the organisation as a whole that encompasses who we will be creatively and how we innovate and develop
new productions and really cultivate the existing audience but also invite more people in. The chief thing that we want to do is to grow the overall audience base and really help build a more sustainable model for ourselves, and I think there’s a great artistic legacy to build on top of.’ Furthermore, it’s already different from other opera festival in that it’s multi-art with the dance and jazz elements.
Tyler officially joined The Festival on 3 June. His plans and ideas with his new colleagues are of course yet to take shape. ‘They want to do more and whether that’s different kinds of Festival experiences, and or whether that’s adding a little bit to the Festival or diversifying the programme overall, or finding other outside venues… There is lots of creativity within the organisation about how that might surface. To really celebrate that idea of the Festival, how we have this cohesive thing that we want people to come and experience, which would be appealing to people of all ages, whether you know opera or not, and that you’re welcome and part of what we’re creating’.
“They want to do more and whether that’s different kinds of festival experiences, and or whether that’s adding a little bit to the Festival or diversifying the programme overall, or finding other outside venues…
There’s lots of creativity within the organisation about how that might surface”
Tyler’s trajectory has been sure and steady, and all started back in a rural part of Colorado where he grew up and saw the Colorado Children’s Chorale. ‘I want to do that’ he told his parents and he auditioned, got in and ‘it was amazing. We did 20-some performances every year, including immense Christmas concerts. I was probably 11 when I first joined. They had four different levels of choirs, and the top one was a tour choir that would travel around and do international performances too. That really opened my eyes to singing with orchestra and professional musicians. Then my family moved to Seattle and I started doing a bit more theatre and music theatre and I went to a high school that fortunately did four or five shows a year’.
Meantime when he was 14, he saw an article in the Seattle Times about the Ring cycle at the Seattle Opera. ‘I’d never seen an opera before, and I don’t think my parents had either. I heard there was a massive mechanical dragon and I really wanted to see it. They had one ticket to Die Walküre, and it was at the back of the top balcony. My dad and I both went and waited out front to see if we could get a second ticket. There was a woman who had an extra one in the fifth row, in row E, and my dad had just enough money to buy it from her. I saw this three-hour long opera with my father all the way up in the top balcony and me in row E. And there were all these pyrotechnics, and I remember feeling the heat of the flames on the stage on my face. It was just such an immersive physical experience, and I just loved it’. He was hooked. He continues ‘I have always loved seeing shows. I still see about 50 shows a year. It is just a huge piece of what I do, and whether that’s dance, musical theatre, orchestral concerts or opera, I just really appreciate the physical experience of being there’.
At university Tyler studied theatre and did an apprenticeship with Sante Fe Opera returning each summer until they offered him a full-time role. He was on his way. Next stop the Met from where ‘I stepped away from the artistic bit and wanted to learn about media and engaging audiences digitally. That was a good experience but it helped me understand I wanted a broader business skill set to eventually run an organisation and so I got an MBA and actually went and worked in the corporate world.’
This being Disney and then Amazon mostly in Kindle and books but then to run Amazon Tickets, a theatre ticketing business that was based in the UK. That was in 2017.
Since then, he has hoovered up experience first at the Royal Opera House building a stronger strategy for their national engagement with schools and then at Glyndebourne growing their audience, balancing the prices and developing their autumn season. He is now extremely well-equipped to run the Festival, which likewise suits him perfectly encompassing all forms of classical music, and as he adds ‘it’s a festival and I love festivals first and foremost’.
Louise Flind
“He has hoovered up experience first at The Royal Opera House building a stronger strategy for their national engagement with schools and then at Glyndebourne growing their audience, balancing the prices and developing their autumn season”
When we were staring into the abyss in March and April 2020, all those many who had already bought tickets for the Festival came to our rescue in a timely and deeply moving way. We pledged to record their generosity in the theatre in perpetuity.
NIGHTINGALES
Mrs Julia Abbott
Philippa Abell
Mrs Peter Albertini
Daphne and John Alderson
Charles and Clare Alexander
Mrs Rosemary Alexander
Nick and Sarah Allan
Dr Gerhard Altmann
The Amar-Franses and Foster-Jenkins Trust
Rhian and Tony Amery
David and Jane Anderson
Peter and Rosemary Andreae
Boo and Bill Andrewes
Mark and Sophie Ashburton
Mary and Julian Ashby
Chris and Tony Ashford
M D Austen
Dr Simon Bailey
Niven Baird
Jamie and Carolyn Balfour
Patricia Ball
Caroline Barber
The Hon Mrs Susan Baring, OBE
The Tait Memorial Trust/ Isla Baring OAM
Cara and Oliver Barnes
Geoffrey Barnett
Robin Barton
Paul and Janet Batchelor
Fiona Bateson
Tim Battcock
Richard and Patricia Bayley
Nigel Beale and Anthony Lowrey
Anne Beckwith-Smith
Peter and Valerie Bedford
Michele Beiny-Harkins
Christina Belloc Lowndes
Glynne and Sarah Benge
Elizabeth Benson
Nic and Maureen Bentley
Daniel and Alison Benton
Alice and Paul Beresford
Richard and Rosamund Bernays
Mike and Sarah Bignell
Anthony and Emma Bird
Simon and Julia Boadle
Bob and Elisabeth Boas
Sophie Boden
David Bogle
Sarah and Tony Bolton
Jeremy Bonnett
Robert and Caroline Bordeaux-Groult
Sarah Boswood
Jonathan and Karen Bourne-May
Neville and Rowena Bowen
Michael and Belinda Boyd
Robert and Fiona Boyle
Viscount and Viscountess
Bridgeman
Lord and Lady Bridges
Charles and Patricia Brims
Alison and Michael Brindle KC
Penny and Robin Broadhurst
Adam and Sarah Broke
Consuelo and Anthony Brooke
Nick and Sue Brougham
Hugh and Sue Brown
Mrs Charles H. Brown
Desmond and Jennifer Browne
David Buchler
Mrs Thomas Buckley
Peter and Pamela Bulfield
Anthony Bunker
Geoffrey Burnand
Mark Burrows AO
Martin and Sarah Burton
Tom and Elizabeth Busher
Richard Butler Adams
Peter and Auriol Byrne
Sandra Carlisle and Angus Carlill
Brian Carroll
David and Simone Caukill
Julian and Jenny Cazalet
Bernard and Caroline Cazenove
Belinda and Jason Chaffer
Suzie Chesham
Rex and Sarah Chester
John and June Chichester
Seawall Trust
Julian and Josephine Chisholm
Julia Chute
Jane Clarke
Sir Christopher and the Reverend Lady Clarke
Ian Clarkson and Richard Morris
Henry and Louise Clay
Dr Peter and Mrs Ros Claydon
Tim and Liz Coghlan
John and Suzanne Coke
Dr and Mrs Peter Collins
Gill Collymore
Oliver Colman
Dr Neville Conway
Henrietta Cooke
Miss Serena Cooke
Richard and Sindy Coppin
Corin and Richard Cotton
David and Nikki Cowley
Johnny and Liz Cowper-Coles
Lin and Ken Craig
David and Jane Crawshaw
Peter and Carole Cregeen
Julia and Stephen Crompton
Fergus Cross
Carl Cullingford
Edward and Antonia
Cumming-Bruce
Jill Cundy and Alan Padbury
Geoffrey and Ingrid Dale
Niki and Richard Dale
Josh and Anna Dale-Harris
Peter and Pamela Davidson
Mr and Mrs Jerome Davidson
Dame Nicola Davies
Anthony Davis
Ina De and James Spicer
Pru de Lavison
Baron and Baroness de Styrcea
Sir John and Lady de Trafford
Jan and Caryn de Walden
Elizabeth Dean
Michael and Anthea Del Mar
Linda and Hugo Deschampsneufs
Patrick and Nikki Despard
G and J Devlin
The Viscount Dilhorne and Professor S J Eykyn FRCS, FRCP, FRCPath
The support of our Festival Friends underpins our work on the stage, and allows us to keep ticket prices as low as possible.
Friends enjoy priority booking and are welcomed to exclusive events through the year, from insights to recitals, film screenings to trips abroad.
Starting from as little as £50 a year, our Festival Friends also support The Grange Festival Learning and our Young Artists Fund, helping us to build the next generation of opera lovers.
MAKE HISTORY HAPPEN
English Heritage Guardians are a cohort of like-minded supporters who champion the work of the charity and who benefit from exclusive experiences and bespoke events that take them to the heart of England’s heritage.
Get in touch today by contacting guardians@english-heritage.org.uk
GARDEN DESIGN
1. YOUR DESIGNER
It all starts with a conversation and the right designer for you and your garden. They’ll arrange a visit and start the exciting process of planning the garden you’ve always dreamt of. And so it begins.
2. THE INSPIRATION
We’ll send you a planting scheme full of inspiring suggestions and an invitation to visit our nursery to explore your design and plants in much more detail.
3. THE PLANTING
And now the magic really comes to life. With a date set for the planting, our team whirrs into action creating your idyllic retreat brimming with the most exquisite plants in a design that is uniquely yours.
FROM OUR HOME TO YOURS
Visit The Festival Shop, situated in The House just off The Portico Bar. Here you will find a range of books, clothes and gifts as well as the Festival mug and cases of The Grange English Sparkling wine to take home.
Celebrate the magic of Christmas with The Grange Festival, and the captivating Outcry Ensemble in the beautiful atmosphere of the Winchester College Chapel.
For more information about the event please sign up to our mailing list.
The country. But not as you know it. Try laidback luxury for size at Lime Wood.