Jenufa

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).

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.

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.

Richard studied at the University of Kansas. Operatic engagements include Matteo/Arabella (Opera Australia); Truffaldino/The Love of Three Oranges and Witch/Hansel and Gretel (Staatstheatre Kassell); Rinuccio/Gianni Schicchi, Platon Karataeyev/War and Peace and Goro/Madame Butterfly (ENO); Pinkerton/Madame Butterfly (OHP). Concert appearances include Salome (LSO at the Barbican); Beethoven Choral Symphony (Brighton Dome); Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg (Stadhalle Kassel); Mozart Requiem (RFH); Steuermann/Flying Dutchman (RPO at the Barbican). He recorded the role of Bardolf in Falstaff for Chandos Records and is the voice of the Cockerel on the BBC Films animated version of Janacek’s Cunning Little Vixen. He has recently performed Prince/Rusalka, Rudolfo/La Boheme and Steva/Jenufa with the ETO.

A graduate of RNCM, Michael’s operatic roles during college included Tom Rakewell/The Rake’s Progress, Sandy and First Officer/The Lighthouse and Ruggero/La Rondine. He was the 2006 winner of the Emmy Destinn Award for Young Singers and a prizewinner at the Mezzo Television International Opera Competition and Festival 2008. Operatic roles include Tamino/The Magic Flute (ENO); Boris/Katya Kabanova (SO); First Armed Man/The Magic Flute (ENO and OHP); Lensky/Eugene Onegin, Steva/Jenufa and Cavaradossi/Tosca (ETO); Judge Danforth/The Crucible (Dicapo Opera, New York); Don José/Carmen, Rodolfo/La bohème and Jenik/The Bartered Bride (Mid Wales Opera). In concert and broadcast Michael has performed with RLPO, RPO, English Chamber Orchestra and BBC Concert Orchestra at venues including Barbican Hall and Queen Elizabeth Hall.

Born South Africa
Training Neil Howlett
Awards Represented South Africa in Cardiff Singer of the World 2005, Kathleen Ferrier Competition finalist, winner of Bayreuth Bursary and Great Elm Singing Competition.
Opera Alcina Alcina, Fiordiligi Così fan tutte (both ETO), Barena Jen_fa (GFO), Tosca Tosca (London City Opera, Central Festival Opera, Northampton), First Bridesmaid Le Nozze di Figaro, Flowermaiden Parsifal (both WNO)
Concert Mendelssohn St Paul (Tring Choral Society), Vaughan Williams Sea Symphony (Tring Choral Society), Victorian Parlour Songs with Robert Tear
Future Manon Lescaut Manon Lescaut (OHP)

Born London
Training RAM
Opera Frugola Il Tabarro (WNO), Auntie Peter Grimes, Katisha The Mikado (both ENO), Innkeeper’s Wife The Cunning Little Vixen (City of Birmingham Touring Opera), Filipyevna Eugene Onegin (ON)
Concert Elgar Sea Pictures (City of Southampton Symphony Orchestra), Verdi Requiem (Singapore Symphony Orchestra), Beethoven Symphony no. 9 (Hallé Orchestra)
Recordings Robert Saxton Caritas (Collins Classics), various musicals including The Sound of Music, Carousel, Fiddler on the Roof, South Pacific and a Gershwin album (Carlton Label)

Born Wales
Training TCM
Opera Berta The Barber of Seville, Amaltea Moses in Eqypt, Clorinda La Cenerentola, Marianne Der Rosenkavalier, Widow Babette’s Feast (all ROH), Rosalinde Die Fledermaus (Nurnberg), Hilda Mack Elegy for Young Lovers (Switzerland), Sieglinde The Valkyrie (Covent Garden and Bath International Festivals), Lady Macbeth Macbeth (Oberhausen Maifest), Donna Anna and Donna Elvira Don Giovanni, Konstanze The Escape from the Seraglio, Arminda La Finta Giardiniera, Elettra Idomeneo, Abigaille Nabucco, title role Lucia di Lammermoor, title role Semiramide, Queen of the Night The Magic Flute (for Basel, Scottish Opera, Niedersachsische, Staatstheater Hannover, Garsington Opera), Italian Singer Capriccio (GFO), Olympia, Antonia, Giulietta Les Contes d’Hoffman (Grande Theatre Limoges and Germany), Elizabeth Mary Stuart (ETO, Theater Basel)
Recordings Berta The Barber of Seville, Marianne Der Rosenkavalier (both Chandos), several for Opera Rara including Sabine Orazi e Curazi and One Hundred Years of Italian Opera

Born Lincolnshire
Training Opera Studio, RAM
Opera includes Mary Mary, Queen of Scots (ETO), Fricka Der Ring des
Nibelungen, Sesto La Clemenza di Tito, Adalgisa Norma (all SO), Minsk Woman Flight (GFO), Duchess of York Richard III (Vlaamse
Opera), Marcellina The Marriage of Figaro (ENO, WNO, GTO), Suzuki Madam Butterfly, Annio La Clemenza di Tito, Guinevere Gawain, Emilia Otello (all ROH), Julius Cesar Julius Cesar (Basel Opera), Amneris Aida (Lyric Opera Productions, Dublin), Teresa La Sonnambula (OHP)
Concert includes world premiere of Jonathan Dove’s song cycle All the Future Days
Recordings includes Marcellina The Marriage of Figaro (EMI, cond. Haitink), Candida Emila di Liverpool, Ismene Medea (both Opera Rara, cond. Parry), Azucena Il Trovatore (Chandos cond. Parry), Helen King Priam (on video for Kent Opera, cond. Norrington)
TV Jonathan Dove’s Death of a Princess (Channel 4)

Born Australia
Training Opera Australia Young Artist Programme, The Victorian College of The Arts, Melbourne
Awards Joan Sutherland Operatic Award (2000)
Opera Schoolmaster / Mosquito The Cunning Little Vixen (ETO), Radames Aida (Lyric Opera, Dublin), Rodolfo La Bohème (Bremen), Lenski Eugene Onegin (SO), cover Cavaradossi Tosca (ON), Licinius La Vestale (ENO), Rodolfo La Bohème, Alfredo La Traviata (both Australian Opera)
Concert Puccini Spectacular concerts (UK tour), Howard Blake The Bear (UK première, Barbican and Birmingham)