Promised End

RYAN WIGGLESWORTH
Conductor Promised End

Ryan Wigglesworth has established himself as one of the foremost composer-conductors of his generation. Recent engagements include the BBCSO at the 2009 Proms and during their Barbican season, recordings with the Halle Orchestra, Eugene Onegin at the St Endellion Festival, London Sinfonietta, and a return to the Philharmonia Orchestra. 2010/11 sees engagements including the Britten Sinfonia at the Proms, and debut concerts with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic – the latter to include the world premiere of his own A First Book of Inventions. Following his recent triptych of works written for the BBCSO, future projects include works for Mark Padmore and the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra’s Scharoun Ensemble, and the NCO as part of his residency with the Chamber Orchestra and Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra.

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).

Adam received his BA with Honours in Theatre Design at the RWCMD. He was a group winner of the Linbury Biennial Prize for Stage Design in 2003. Recent operatic engagements include design for I was Looking at the Ceiling and then I Saw the Sky (Stratford East Royal Theatre); Roméo et Juliette (ON); Le nozze di Figaro (RNCM); As I Crossed the Bridge of Dreams (Almeida Opera). Ballet engagements include Children of Adam and Sensorium (Royal Ballet at the ROH). Additionally, Adam worked with ETO as designer for Country Matters, Katya Kabanova and Teseo.

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).

Roderick Earle, born in Winchester, graduated from St. John’s, Cambridge and then studied at RCM and with Otakar Kraus. He made his debut with the ROH, Covent Garden in 1980 as Antonio/ Le Nozze di Figaro, and went on to sing more than sixty roles with the company, most recently Police Inspector/ Lady Macbeth of Mtensk and Dancaire/ Carmen. Other operatic roles include Nekrotzar/ Le Grand Macabre (Adelaide Festival); Jack Hubbard/ Dr Atomic (ENO); Klinghoffer/ Death of Klinghoffer (Wuppertal); Ford/ Falstaff (New Zealand Opera); Rigoletto (Opera Zuid); Flying Dutchman (Opera de Massy); Rangoni/ Boris Godunov (Turin); Theseus/ Midsummer Night’s Dream (Rome). He has sung with all the major British companies. Future engagements include Le Grand Macabre at the Teatro Colon, Buenos Aires.

Jacqueline, born in London, was awarded an Entrance Scholarship to GSMD where she won prizes in the Liza Lehmann and Schubert competitions. She also received a bursary to study French song at Aldeburg with Suzanne Danco and Hugue Cuenod. Operatic roles include Mimi/ La bohème; Micaëla/ Carmen; title role/ Madame Butterfly; Nedda/ Pagliacci; Gretel/ Hänsel und Gretel. She created the role of L’Apparizione in Federico Bonetti Amedola’s opera Pergolesi: L’Apparizione e Mito (Jesi Festival, Italy) and her appearances with ENO have included New Ofglen/ The Handmaid’s Tale and Adjutant de Murat/ War & Peace. She has a wide concert and oratorio repertoire and has broadcast live on BBC Radio 2’s Friday Night is Music Night. Jacqueline previously sung Goneril with ETO in the world premiere of Alexander Goehr’s Promised End.

Julia Sporsén was born in Gothenburg, Sweden. She studied at RAM and graduated from the Opera Course with a DipRAM. Operatic roles include Arminda/ La finta giardiniera; Armida/ Rinaldo; Iphise/ Dardanus (cond. Laurence Cummings); title role/ Iolanta; Violetta/ La traviata (Clonter Opera); Donna Anna/ Don Giovanni (ETO); Tebaldo/ Don Carlos (ON, recorded for Chandos); cover Musetta/ La bohème (SO; ENO). Last year Julia made her debut at ENO singing Jano and covering the title role in Jenůfa. Recent highlights include Gianetta/cover Adina/ L’elisir d’amore; Micaëla/ Carmen (OHP); Julia in Torsten Rasch’s Duchess of Malfi (ENO). Julia recently made her debut recital at the Wigmore Hall, and later this season she’ll sing First Squire/Flower Maiden/ Parsifal (ENO).

Nigel Robson was born in Argyleshire and studied with Alexander Young and Gustave Sacher. Operatic roles Bajazet/ Tamerlano; title role/ Peter Grimes ; The Witch/ Hansel and Gretel, Laca/ Jenufa, Captain Vere/ Billy Budd (all for WNO); Ulisse/ Il Ritorno d’Ulisse in Patria title role/ Idomeneo The Madwoman/ Curlew River); Septimus/ Theodora UK premiere of Alexander Goehr’s Kantan and Damask Drum. Recordings include Handel’s Tamerlano, Jephtha and Monteverdi Vespers (Gardiner/Phillips Classics). Recently premiered ‘The Tenor Man’s Story’, a self developed theatre peice for Enschede Festival in Holland. At centre is poem written by his father about returning to Campbeltown, Scotland to see the grave of his sister Christine who died there, aged two.

Adrian Dwyer studied at the GSMD and the NOS. Operatic roles include Bénédict/ Béatrice et Bénédict (Opera Comique); Francesco/ Benvenuto Cellini (Orchestre de Paris); Rodolfo/ La Boheme (Baz Luhrmann’s TONY award-winning production, Los Angeles); Count Almaviva/ Barbiere di Siviglia (SO); Arturo/ Lucia di Lammermoor (ENO); Robert/ Skin Deep, Miroslav/ Adventures of Mr Broucek (both ON); Sam Kaplan/ Street Scene (Young Vic); Alfredo/ la Traviata, (Opera Queensland). Recordings include Cherevichki (RPO); Der Fliegende Hollander (Melbourne Symphony Orchestra); Gardener/ Trouble in Tahiti (Bayerischer Rundfunkorchester, Schilmer). Recent and future engagements include Excursions of Mr Broucek (SO); Sam Kaplan/ Street Scene (Toulon); Fenton/ Falstaff (Diva Opera); Grailknight/ Parsifal (ENO); Cherevin/ From the House of the Dead (ON).

Nicholas studied at Trinity College, London and is the recipient of a Wolfson foundation award. His forty stage roles include Escamillo/ Carmen (Opera North); Sourin/ Pique Dame (Scottish Opera); Basilio/ Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Don Giovanni (both OHP); Baron Douphol/ La Traviata, Angelotti/ Tosca, dir. David McVicar (both ENO); Lear/ The Vision of Lear, Wolf/Cinderella’s Prince/ Into the Woods (both ROH2); Fiorello/ Il Barbiere di Siviglia (Opera National de Paris). Recent credits include Carl Magnus/ A Little Night Music (Théâtre du Châtelet); title role/ Don Giovanni (OHP). He made his debut with the ROH Covent Garden in 2001 in Palestrina. He created the roles of Federzoni/Sagredo in the world premiere of Galilėe at the Grand Théatre de Genève. Future plans include Anthony Hope/ Sweeney Todd (Théâtre du Châtelet).

Canadian tenor Adam Tunnicliffe studied at Christ Church, Oxford and at GSMD, and studies singing with David Jones and Cathy Pope. Recent roles include Alfredo/ La Traviata (Garden Opera); Quint/ Turn of the Screw (Oxford Opera Company). Adam performed in the first ever operatic performance at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre in London, playing the Minister of the Admiralty in the world premiere of The Burial at Thebes by Dominique Le Gendre. Other roles include Fracasso/ La Finta Semplice (New Chamber Opera); Froh/ Das Rheinegold; Albert/ Albert Herring; Don Pelagio/ La Canterina. Previous appearances for ETO include Don Basilio/ The Marriage of Figaro; Oberon in Kate Pearson’s children’s opera, The Starry Welkin; Masquerader/ The Duenna; Captain/ Promised End (world premiere).