Eugene Onegin

Michael Rosewell began his career at the Vienna State Opera, assisting Claudio Abbado and working closely with many of the world’s greatest singers including Pavarotti, Domingo, Gruberova, Freni and Cappuccilli. He has conducted extensively throughout Germany, notably in the opera houses of Kassel, Wiesbaden and the Mannheim, where he held the position of Kapellmeister. Michael’s first guest appearances in the UK included some world premiere performances of Stephen Oliver’s Timon of Athens for English National Opera and since then, he has conducted for ENO, Kent Opera, English Touring Opera, and at the Aldeburgh, Bath, Perth, Buxton and Montepulciano Festivals. As Associate Conductor for the London Handel Society, he has introduced many rarely performed Handel operas to the London stage. Michael is also Director of Opera at the Royal College of Music.

In concert, Michael has appeared in Germany, Austria, France, Italy and Croatia and broadcast for Radio France Musique and Süddeutsche Rundfunk. He has conducted concerts at the Mayfield Festival with the London Mozart Players and internationally renowned baritone, Sir Thomas Allen. His recording, with Grammy-award-winning tenor Alfie Boe and the Orchestra of Scottish Opera, was recently released under the Decca record label.

Michael has been noted in the press as one of this country’s leading Mozartians and is also widely acknowledged as one of the foremost interpreters of the music of Benjamin Britten. His performances of Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin, Bellini’s Norma, Janacek’s Katya Kabanova and Jenufa for English Touring Opera have been critically acclaimed for the style and theatricality of his interpretations, and the excellence of the orchestral playing. He was appointed Music Director for ETO, in 2009.

Recent theatre performances include appearances at The London Coliseum in the presence of HRH Prince Andrew, The Hong Kong Arts Festival and a return visit to Barcelona’s Gran Teatre del Liceu.

A devoted advocate of new music, he has collaborated with The Opera Group, Opera W11 and Birmingham Contemporary Music Group on new operas by Edward Rushton, Julian Philips, Stuart Hancock, and Jonathan Dove.

Recent opera engagements have included assisting on The Queen of Spades (Opera North) and Salome (Singapore Lyric Opera).

Previously for ETO, he has conducted The Marriage of Figaro, La Clemenza di Tito, Don Pasquale, Fantastic Mr Fox also assisting on A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

Born in London, Timothy Carey studied the cello with Casals-pupil, Christopher Bunting in addition to the piano from a young age. He went on to study conducting with Prof. Ilya Musin at the St Petersburg Conservatoire.

James is General Director of ETO and has written original libretti for two operas and translations for three others, as well as several works of fiction.

James has directed a range of operas for ETO – including, most recently, the critically-acclaimed Il tabarro (Puccini) and Mozart’s La clemenza di Tito. In 2010, he directed the world premiere of Alexander Goehr’s opera, Promised End. His production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream (performed by ETO in 2004 and revived in 2010) was nominated for an RPS Award.

Other operatic work includes Katya Kabanova, Rusalka, Susannah, Eugene Onegin, Orfeo, Jenufa, Anna Bolena, Maria Stuarda, as well as Teseo and Alcina (ETO); Ariodante, Erismena, Flavio, The Cunning Little Vixen (ETO and OTC); The Marriage of Figaro (RCM and ETO); Tolomeo (London Handel Festival/ ETO); Tamerlano, Amadigi, Rodelinda, L’elisir d’amore, Katya Kabanova and The Rake’s Progress (OTC); Cinderella (De Vlaamse Opera/ Transparant); Don Giovanni (Canadian Opera Company); La Voix humaine (Teatro Nacional São João, Oporto); staging of Kurt Weill songs (Culturgest, Lisbon); La Spinalba (Casa da Musica, Porto), The Cunning Little Vixen (Moravian National Theatre, Brno).

Designs for theatre, opera and dance. Joanna’s opera engagements include The Rape of Lucretia (RCM); Flavio, Eugene Onegin, Falstaff, Alcina, Le nozze di Figaro, A Midsummer Night’s Dream and The Cunning Little Vixen (all ETO). She has also worked with the ROH, SO, and OTC Dublin.

Joanna’s designs for theatre include The Young Vic, Hampstead Theatre, West Yorkshire Playhouse, Salisbury Playhouse and The Lyric Hammersmith. She designed The Noise of Time for Theatre de Complicité at the Lincoln Centre NY, Barbican Centre London and European Festivals.

Dance designs include Cholmondeleys, Shobana Jeyasingh Dance Company and London Contemporary Dance Theatre. She is Senior Lecturer in Scenography at Central School of Speech and Drama.

Opera includes Promised End, The Duenna, The Magic Flute, Katya Kabanova, Don Giovanni, Anna Bolena, Susannah, The Seraglio, Eugene Onegin (all for ETO); The Cunning Little Vixen, (National Theatre Brno); The Ring Cycle, Tosca, Hansel & Gretel (Longborough Festival Opera).

Theatre includes Peter Pan, Be Near Me (NTS); Serenading Louie (Donmar Warehouse); Waste (Almeida); Othello (West End); Elektra (Young Vic); A Christmas Carol (Birmingham Rep); As You Like It, Bollywood Jane, Macbeth (West Yorkshire Playhouse); Kes (Liverpool Playhouse); Amadeus, Fen, Far Away, (Sheffield Theatres); Faith Healer (Bristol Old Vic).

Dance work includes pieces for Mark Bruce, Ben Wright, Rafael Bonachela, Shobana Jeyasingh, and Henri Oguike amongst others. Also Havana Rakatan for Sadlers Wells and Mischief for Theatre Rites. Musicals include The Witches of Eastwick, Aspects of Love (UK tours); Assassins (Sheffield Theatres); My Fair Lady (Singapore); City of Angels (Frankfurt).

Australian born, Nicholas Lester trained at the Elder Conservatorium of Music, on the Young Artists Programme at the State Opera of South Australia. He was awarded the Anne Woods/Johanna Peters Award and Independent Opera Postgraduate Fellowship to attend the National Opera Studio.

Operatic roles include: Starek, Jenůfa, Schaunard, La Bohème (Glyndebourne Touring Opera); Schaunard also with Nationale Reisopera, Netherlands; Kuligin, Katya Kabanova and Doctor/Shepherd, Pelléas et Méllisande (Opera Holland Park); Speaker, The Magic Flute (British Youth Opera); Aeneas, Dido and Aeneas (Adelaide Festival), Justizrat cover Storch, Intermezzo (Scottish Opera).

Concert engagements include: Handel Messiah with Laurence Cummings; Vaughan-Williams Five Mystical Songs and Faure Requiem (St-Martin-in-the-Fields). Recordings include Elgar Fringes of the Fleet and Big Steamers for Somm Records.

Nicholas has previously performed the roles of cover Onegin and Chorus, Eugene Onegin, Kagler, Weiner Blut, Pasha Selim, The Seraglio for ETO. Future plans: Marcello, La Bohème (State Opera of South Australia) and Der Sprecher, Die Zauberflöte for Scottish Opera.

Welsh soprano Sarah-Jane is a graduate of RCM. She was a member of the ENO Young Singers Programme and, following her success in the 2006 Welsh Singer’s Competition, she represented Wales in the 2007 BBC Cardiff Singer of the World Competition.

Opera roles include: Pamina/First Lady, The Magic Flute, Countess, Le Nozze di Figaro, Fiordiligi, Cosi fan Tutte, Servilia, La clemenza di Tito, Michaela, Carmen, High Priestess, Aida, 1st Flowermaiden, Parsifal, title role, Agrippina, Romilda, Xerxes, Angel, Jephtha, The Turn of the Screw; Massenet’s Thaïs; Prokofiev’s War and Peace; Dido and Aeneas; 5th Maid, Elektra.

She has appeared with: ENO, WNO, Garsington Opera, Opera Holland Park, London Handel Festival, Edinburgh International Festival, Les Azuriales Opera Festival (France), Nationale Reisopera (Netherlands).

Including venues: Royal Albert Hall for the BBC Proms, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Barbican, St David’s Hall, (Cardiff), Snape Maltings (Aldeburgh).

Korea-born Australian Jaewoo Kim was a member of Opera Australia’s Young Artists’ Development Programme in 1998 and a principal artist for the company, 2000–03. He obtained the Master’s degree in voice at RCM. Jaewoo’s operatic roles include Edgardo, Lucia di Lammermoor; The Singer, Der Rosenkavalier (both ENO); Rodolfo, La Bohème, Tamino, The Magic Flute, Don Ottavio, Don Giovanni, Ferrando, Cosi fan tutte, Almaviva, Il barbiere di Siviglia, Gerald, Lakmè (Opera Australia, Canterbury Opera, NZ); Arbace, Idomeneo (Italy); Tamino, The Magic Flute (Dublin); Orphee, Orphee aux Enfers (Diva Opera); Faust, Faust (NZO); Alfredo, La Traviata (Longborough Festival, Societa Filarmonia-Italy); Harlequin, Heart of Darkness (ROH2);The Duke, Rigoletto (OHP).

Concerts include Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony (Melbourne, Sydney, Queensland); Messiah (Sydney, Melbourne, Queensland); The Creation (Opera Queensland); Haydn’s ‘Nelson’ Mass; Mendelssohn Symphony No.2 (Tasmania); St John Passion, Spring Symphony, Janáček Glagolitic Mass (Llewellyn Choir); Gerontius (Oriana Choir, Barbican).

Stephen Holloway studied singing at Guildhall School of Music and Drama and the Britten-Pears School where he worked with John Carol Case, Sir Peter Pears and Galina Vishnevskaya.

His operatic roles have included Don Fernando, Fidelio, Oracle, Alceste, Commendatore/Sergeant Willis, Iolanthe and Dr Grenvil, La Traviata for Scottish Opera, Cadmus and Somnus, Semele for Opera Parnassus, Malta, The Speaker at the Covent Garden Festival, A Dead Master, Palestrina for the Royal Opera, Don Basilio, Barber of Seville for Scottish Opera Go Round, and The Chamberlain, Le rossignol and Chub, Cherevichki for Chelsea Opera Group.

Current engagements include Scarpia, Tosca, Don Fernando, Fidelio and Benoit/Alcindoro, La Bohème for New London Opera Players. Recordings include The Unknown Elgar for Pearl and numerous works for Midsummer Opera.

Frances McCafferty studied at Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama. She created the role of Yetta Zimmerman in Sophie’s Choice and also appeared in The Rake’s Progress, Cyrano de Bergerac, Elektra, Queen of Spades, Boris Godunov and Lulu for the Royal Opera House. Roles for ENO include Second Patient, A Dog’s Heart, Katisha, The Mikado and Mistress Quickly, Falstaff.

Other engagements include Mother, Mavra (Greek National Opera), Háta, The Bartered Bride and Mrs Herring, Albert Herring (Glyndebourne Festival), Auntie, Peter Grimes, Katisha, The Mikado, Gertrude, Hänsel und Gretel and the Hostess, Boris Godunov (Nationale Reisopera), Mother Goose, The Rake’s Progress (Opéra de Lille), Mrs Sedley, Peter Grimes (Norwegian National Opera), Kedruta and Fanny Novakova, The Adventures of Mr Broucek (Scottish Opera), Fortune Teller, Julietta (Opera North), Mrs Ott, Susannah and The Medium (Wexford), La Haine, Armide (Buxton Festival) and Mrs Trapes, The Beggar’s Opera in The Linbury Studio for The Royal Opera House.

Romanian baritone Cozmin Sime is a graduate of the Gheorghe Dima Academy of Music. He has attended masterclasses with Ion Buzea, Tom Krause, Susanna Eken, Sally Burgess, John Norris, Margreet Honigh, Barbara Bonney, Nelly Miricioiu and Alfred Brendel.

While a student Cozmin sang the roles of Count Almaviva, Le nozze di Figaro, Guglielmo, Così fan tutte, Dandini, La cenerentola, and Belcore, L’elisir d’amore. In Bucharest he sang the role of Marcello, La bohème at the National Opera of Bucharest and at the National Opera of Cluj-Napoca he performed the role of Nick Shadow in the national première of The Rake’s Progress.

Cozmin made his international debut as Claudio, Emilia di Liverpool (European Opera Centre) following which he was invited to the Mozart Academy at Aix-en Provence Festival. Cozmin has won many major music and vocal competitions, including lied and opera, in Romania as well as La Competition des jeunes solistes at St. Jean Cap Ferrat, France. Future plans include: Guglielmo, Così fan tutte (Dubrovnik Opera Festival).

Andrew was born in New Zealand and graduated the Australian Opera Studio with Honours and the Dux award for excellence.

Recent appearances have included Tinca, Il tabarro, Gherardo, Gianni Schicchi and cover Bunce, Fantastic Mr Fox (all ETO); Bardolfo, Falstaff, Abdallo, Nabucco (both IFAC Tokyo); Tito, La clemenza di Tito, Msr Triquet, Eugene Onegin (both New Zealand Opera); Remendado, Carmen, Un Voce, La Gioconda (both Opera Holland Park); Don Basilio, Le nozze di Figaro (Vignette Productions).

He has appeared in numerous concerts and recitals with ensembles including the Tokyo New Philharmonic Orchestra, the Hungarian Symphony Orchestra, the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, the Christchurch Symphony Orchestra, the Auckland Philharmonic Orchestra, the Perth Orchestra, the Australian Opera Studio, the NBR NZ Opera Company.

Future engagements include Vašek, The Bartered Bride.

Harriet Williams studied at Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Royal Opera début Erster Knappe, Parisfal, English National Opera début Polinesso, Ariodante, début Royal Ballet singing Duparc’s songs for Michael Corder’s L’Invitation au Voyage.

With The Opera Group Harriet sang Mrs Olsen Street Scene which was voted ‘Best Musical’ in Evening Standard Theatre Awards.

Has appeared with Welsh National Opera, ETO, Grange Park Opera, Longborough Festival Opera and Opera Holland Park. Her operatic roles include title roles in Ariodante, Carmen, Rosina, Il barbiere di Siviglia, Angelina, La Cenerentola, Mistress Quickly, Falstaff, Fenena, Nabucco, Suzuki, Madam Butterfly, Dido, Dido and Aeneas, Flora and Annina, La Traviata, Ottavia and Fortuna, L’incoronazione di Poppea, Smeaton, Anna Bolena.

Recent operatic engagements have included Mrs Olsen, Street Scene for Opera de Toulon, Marie, For You by Michael Berkeley and Ian McEwan in Rome, and Waltraute, Die Walküre at Longborough Festival. Forthcoming engagements include Flosshilde, Der Ring des Nibelungen for the Royal Opera.