Dido and Aeneas

Born
Derbyshire

Education
New College Oxford

Opera
Conductor: Orlando, Amadigi, Alexander’s Feast, Choice of Hercules, Il Trionfo del Tempo, Parnasso in Festo, Acis and Galatea, King Arthur, La Serva Padrona, Apollo and Hyacinth (New Chamber Opera); Venus and Adonis (Amsterdam Bach Festival)
Assistant/Chorus Master: Samson, Peter Grimes, Norma (De Nederlandse Opera); Alcina (Komische Oper, Berlin); Luisa Miller, Peter Grimes (Nationale Reisopera); Calisto, Saul (Bayersiche Staatsoper), L’Incoronazione di Poppea (Megaron, Athens) Dido and Aeneas (Wiener Festwochen); Idomeneo (Lincoln Centre, NY)

Concerts
Directing King’s Consort in Bermuda, Denmark, France and UK.
Guest Director, Portland Baroque Orchestra, USA and Holland Baroque Society.
Concerto appearances: Halle International Handel Festival, Enescu Festival, Bucharest, Ottawa International Chamber Music Festival and Wigmore Hall,

Recordings
Handel Organ Concertos (Avie)
Agrell Concertos (Cavalli)

Other
Associate Director of The King’s Consort
Member of Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra, Sonnerie, King’s Consort and The Sixteen

Michael’s designs for opera include La bohème and Carmen (GFO); Rigoletto (ROH and Olivier Award nomination); Tosca and Alcina (ETO and Olivier Award Nomination); Fidelio (New Zealand International Art’s Festival in Wellington); Idomoneo (Antwerp De Vlaamse and Los Angeles Opera); Sweeny Todd (ON); The Turn of the Screw, Dido and Aeneas, Tosca and Jenufa (ETO). His designs for theatre include Comedy of Errors, Canterbury Tales and Macbeth (RSC); Bent (RNT); The Merchant of Venice (Galaxy Theatre, Tokyo); Cymbeline (Kneehigh Theatre/ RSC); Rapunzel (Kneehigh Theatre/ BAC); Blues in the Night (West Yorkshire Playhouse); Hamlet (English Touring Theatre); Ghosts (Plymouth Theatre Royal); Wind in the Willows (Bristol Old Vic); Blues for Mr. Charlie (Sheffield Crucible). Michael’s dance work includes Faeries (ROH).

Born London
Training Oxford University, LAMDA
Theatre Directing credits include The Cure at Troy (BAC and Tour), Wild Raspberries (Citizens Theatre, Glasgow), Iphigenia at Aulis (Playhouse), The Monument (Finborough Theatre), Wolf Game (Union Theatre), The Baltimore Waltz (The Gatehouse), Foreground/Background (Young Vic Studio, On War Programme) and readings at Old Vic New Voices. Resident Director for The Donkey Show (West End, site specific).
Opera Staff Director Ariodante and The Turn of the Screw (ETO), Revival Director Turn of the Screw (OTC)
Other Helen is co-artistic director of award-winning new writing company, Floodtide

Opera and theatre work: Choreographer: The Cunning Little Vixen (ETO, OTC); Sweeney Todd (RAM); Who Killed Mr Drum (Treatment Theatre), Jenufa, Eugene Onegin, Susannah and Don Giovanni ( ETO); Casanova (Told by an Idiot); Tartuffe and The Hypochondric (Liverpool Playhouse) Director: Hänsel und Gretel (Stowe Opera); Jephtha (ETO). Le nozze di Figaro and Eugene Onegin (Iford Arts)
Bernadette’s career as a dancer and performer includes working for Tanztheater Wuppertal, ARC Dance Company, Siobhan Davies, Aletta Collins, London Contemporary Dance Theatre, Fabulous Beast Dance Theatre, Corp Feasa and many leading choreographers and directors in dance, opera and theatre.

Patricia trained at RCM and the National Opera Studio.  She was the 2006 winner of the Alfred Alexander Prize, finalist in the 2006 Royal Overseas League Competition and a 2008 finalist in the Bruce Millar Competition.  She has received an Independent Opera Voice Fellowship, a Donald Dewar Arts Award, a Madeline Finden Award and Sir Richard Stapley Award. Operatic roles include Laura/Iolanta (OHP); Enfant/L’Enfant et les Sortilèges, Bianca/The Rape of Lucretia, Prince Orlovsky/Die Fledermaus (RCM); Tolomeo/Tolomeo (London Handel Society); Yolande/The Sofa (Independent Opera), in addition to covering Conception/L’Heure Espagnole (RCM); Flora/La Traviata and Tisbe/Cenerentola (SO); Rosina/Il Barbiere di Siviglia (ENO) and Julia/The Departed (Independent Opera). In concert, Patricia has worked with the London Mozart Players, the English Chamber Orchestra, the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and the Edinburgh Quartet. She has recently performed the Sorceress/Dido and Aeneas and Orimeno/Erismene with ETO. Future plans include Varvara/Katya Kabanova (OHP).

Jane graduated from RAM with a distinction and a DipRAM for outstanding performance. Roles at college included Pamina/The Magic Flute. Awards include AESS English Song Prize, Thelma King Award, Dame Eva Turner Scholarship and Finalist in the 2006 Handel singing competition. Operatic engagements include Little Moon/A Night at the Chinese Opera (SO); Virtue/Amore/L’Incoronazione di Poppea (ENO); Marina/School for Fathers (Clonter Opera). She covered title role Savitri and Baroness/Der Wildshutz (Buxton Festival Opera). Other engagements include soprano soloist for Raymond Gubbay’s Viennese Gala (London Barbican, LPO) and Southend Proms in the Park (LSO). Jane has also performed Belinda/Dido and Aeneas, Figlia/Jephte and Jano/Jenufa with ETO.

Recent Lighting Design:

Theatre:
Four Men and a Poker Game (Gridiron) Spangleguts (London Bubble); Deptford Stories (National Theatre); Fair (Trafalgar Studios); The 7 Pomegranate Seeds (Oxford Playhouse); The Cure at Troy (Delphi, Greece); The Handsomest Drowned Man (Circus Space); A Square of Sky (The Kosh); Tales from Ovid, A Streetcar Named Desire (GSMD); Strauss Gala (Raymond Gubbay) The Canterville Ghost, Creditors, Judith Bloom (Southwark Playhouse)

Opera:
Bridgetower (City of London Festival): Dido & Aeneas, Jephthe (English Touring Opera);

Relights:
‘0’ (Michael Clark Dance Company); The Vagina Monologues (The Old Vic Theatre/Mark Goucher Ltd.); Ariodante (ETO)

orn
Rio de Janeiro

Training
GSMD

Awards
Madeline Finden Memorial Trust (2nd prize); Il Concurso Nacional de Canto Voces Jouenes, Spain (2nd prize)

Opera
Rosina The Barber of Seville (Opera East); Nutrice/Bacco Orfeo (St John’s Smith Square); Xerxes Xerxes (Cheltenham Festival); Cherubino Le Nozze di Figaro, Béatrice Béatrice et Bénédict (both GSMD)

Concerts
Recital of Spanish songs (Wigmore Hall); Strauss recital (Purcell Room); concert with the Jorval Orchestra (Palau de la Musíca, Spain)

Recordings
Several recordings for Radio National Española; Spanish Songs by J. Turina (BBC Radio 3)

Martin was born in Oxfordshire and studied at Leeds University and RNCM. His operatic roles include Quince/A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Opera di Roma); Xuthus/Ion (Music Theatre Wales/Opera National du Rhin); Abbot/Azarias Church Parables (Opera National du Rhin); Cover Sarastro/The (Little) Magic Flute (ENO/GTO); Cover Caron and Pluto/Orfeo (ENO). Concert engagements include Verdi Requiem (Chichester/Southwell/Glasgow); Mozart Requiem (QEH/London Mozart Players); Haydn Creation (Aberystwyth); Handel Messiah (Oxford/Milton Keynes). Martin has recorded The Rake’s Progress (Deutsche Grammophon); Threni (Koch International Classics); Curlew River (Dutch radio); The Parole Officer (Universal); and several recordings on BBC Radio 3 and French radio

London

Training
GSMD

Awards
Winner, Patricia Routledge National English Song Competition (2006); Tracy Chadwell Award for Contemporary Song (2005); Britten-Pears Young Artist (2004)

Opera
The Little Green Swallow The Little Green Swallow (GSMD); Max Labouchère Violet (Guildhall Theatre Opera)

Concerts
Orff Carmina Burana (Snape Maltings); Bach Matthew Passion (Christchurch Priory); Handel Judas Maccabeus (QEH/New London Orchestra)

Born in Hertfordshire, Laura studied at the Royal College of Music where she gained a first-class honours degree and postgraduate diploma. She then joined the Benjamin Britten International Opera School, studying with Lillian Watson. In 2007, she won the Song prize at the Kathleen Ferrier Awards and the Lies Askonas Prize. Laura attended the National Opera Studio during the 2007/08 season.

While at the NOS, Laura took part in residencies at WNO, Scottish Opera, Theatre Royal and Opera North, singing Illia/Idomeneo, Helena/A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Donna Elvira/Don Giovanni, Leila/The Pearlfishers. Other operatic roles include Countess Almaviva/Le nozze di Figaro and Elisa/Tolomeo for BBIOS, Aldimira in Cavalli ‘s Erismena, First Witch/Dido and Aeneas, Ninfa and Proserpina/Orfeo (cover), all for English Touring Opera. More recently, she appeared at Scottish Opera in Smetana’s Two Widows, covering the role of Lidka.

Concert work includes Tippett’s Spirituals and Rutter’s Requiem at St.John Smith Square, Mozart’s Exultate Jubilate and Villa-Lobos’ Bachianas Brasileiras no 5 with the Emerald Ensemble at Bristol Cathedral, Bach’s B Minor Mass at St John Smith Square, Haydn’s Nelson Mass with Sir David Willcocks, Handel’s Messiah at Kings College Cambridge with Stephen Cleobury,Mozart’s Exultate Jubilate with the London Pro Arte Orchestra in Denmark and Strauss’ Four Last Songs at the Hatfield Auditorium, conducted by Peter Stark.

In 2007/08, Laura sang Bach’s St. John Passion with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and Mark Padmore at the QEH in London, which was followed by a tour through South Korea and Japan.
As a recitalist she has performed at the Teatro dei Rozzi Siena, the St.Peters Basilica Rome as well as the Purcell Room, Wigmore Hall, St Martin in the Fields, St.James’ Piccadilly, and the Windsor, Chester and Beaumaris Festivals.
She has taken part in master classes with Robin Stapleton (Amici di Verdi) and with Roger Vignoles at the Leeds Lieder Festival.

Her most recent appearances include Bach’s St Matthew Passion at the Royal Festival Hall with Mark Padmore and the OAE, recitals for the Countess of Munster Musical Trust, Ismene/Mitridate for WNO with Sir Charles Mackkeras, Gilda/Rigoletto for the Grange Park Opera ‘Rising Stars’ series and ‘Messiah’ concerts with John Nelson and the Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg.

Future engagments include Helena and Countess Almaviva for ETO, Donna Elvira at Opera Holland Park and Kristina/The Makropoulos Case at ENO.

Laura gratefully receives the support of The Countess of Munster Musical Trust for their Funding and Recital scheme, the Concordia Foundation for the Barthel Prize, the Wingate Scholarship, the Zetland Foundation, and the Worshipful Company of Musicians.