Rusalka
Dvořák - Autumn 08
Dvorak’s dark fairy tale opera
- Director
- James Conway
- Conductor
- Alexander Ingram
- Designer
- Paul Wills
She is the mermaid forbidden to mix with mortals. He is the handsome prince for whom she risks everything. Together they embark on a love affair that sees her sacrifice her home and her immortality. Dvorak’s rapturous score, presented here in an acclaimed chamber version, is crowned by the poignant ‘Song to the Moon’.
A new production by James Conway and associate director Tom Daley, conducted by Alex Ingram, with designs by Paul Wills. Donna Bateman (Susannah, ETO Spring 2008) sings the title role, with Richard Roberts as the Prince, Fiona Kimm as Ježibaba, Camilla Roberts as the Foreign Princess.
“Donna Bateman tugs our heartstrings in the title role”
— The Observer
Showing At
- Hackney Empire
10th Oct 2008 - 7:30 pm
- Malvern Theatres
15th Oct 2008 - 7:30 pm
- Malvern Theatres
18th Oct 2008 - 7:30 pm
- Exeter Northcott
22nd Oct 2008 - 7:30 pm
- Exeter Northcott
25th Oct 2008 - 7:30 pm
- Theatre Royal, Lincoln
31st Oct 2008 - 7:30 pm
- Theatre Royal Bath
3rd Nov 2008 - 7:30 pm
- Kendal Leisure Centre
8th Nov 2008 - 7:30 pm
- Snape Maltings Concert Hall
14th Nov 2008 - 7:30 pm
- Buxton Opera House
18th Nov 2008 - 7:30 pm
- Assembly Hall Theatre
22nd Nov 2008 - 7:30 pm
- Cambridge Arts Theatre
26th Nov 2008 - 7:30 pm
- Cambridge Arts Theatre
29th Nov 2008 - 7:30 pm
-
Hackney Empire
— 10th Oct 2008 - 7:30 pm
291 Mare Street, Hackney, E8 1EJ
-
Malvern Theatres
— 15th Oct 2008 - 7:30 pm
Malvern Theatres, Grange Road, Malvern, Worcestershire, WR14 3HB
-
Malvern Theatres
— 18th Oct 2008 - 7:30 pm
Malvern Theatres, Grange Road, Malvern, Worcestershire, WR14 3HB
-
Exeter Northcott
— 22nd Oct 2008 - 7:30 pm
Exeter Northcott, Stocker Road, Exeter, EX4 4QB
-
Exeter Northcott
— 25th Oct 2008 - 7:30 pm
Exeter Northcott, Stocker Road, Exeter, EX4 4QB
-
Theatre Royal, Lincoln
— 31st Oct 2008 - 7:30 pm
-
Theatre Royal Bath
— 3rd Nov 2008 - 7:30 pm
Theatre Royal Bath, Sawclose, Bath, BA1 1ET
-
Kendal Leisure Centre
— 8th Nov 2008 - 7:30 pm
-
Snape Maltings Concert Hall
— 14th Nov 2008 - 7:30 pm
Aldeburgh Music, Snape Maltings Concert Hall, Snape, Suffolk, IP17 1SP
-
Buxton Opera House
— 18th Nov 2008 - 7:30 pm
Water Street, SK17 6XN
-
Assembly Hall Theatre
— 22nd Nov 2008 - 7:30 pm
-
Cambridge Arts Theatre
— 26th Nov 2008 - 7:30 pm
6 St Edward's Passage, Cambridge, CB2 3PJ
-
Cambridge Arts Theatre
— 29th Nov 2008 - 7:30 pm
6 St Edward's Passage, Cambridge, CB2 3PJ
Featured Crew
James Conway
Director
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.
Operatic work includes Katya Kabanova, Rusalka, Susannah, Eugene Onegin, Orfeo, Jenufa, Anna Bolena, Maria Stuarda, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, 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).
Alexander Ingram
Conductor
Born
London
Training
Cambridge; GSMD; NOS
Opera
Tosca; La Boheme; Madam Butterfly; Don Pasquale; Les pêcheurs de perles (All ENO); Il Trovatore; Tosca (Opera Queensland); Tosca (ONZ)
Ballet
Swan Lake (Covent Garden, Bolshoi and Mariinsky Theatres); Sleeping Beauty; Romeo and Juliet; Nutcracker (ENB); Cinderella (Göteborg Ballet); and ballets for Sylvie Guillem (Japan)
Recordings
Radio (with Adelaide SO); Turandot excerpts for the film Life of David Gale (Alan Parker)
Paul Wills
Designer
Cast
Maciek O'Shea
Game keeper
Born in London, Maciek studied History at UCL and went on to study voice at GSMD, where he was the winner of the 2006 English Song Competition. Operatic engagements include Gamekeeper/Rusalka (ETO); covering Death/Savitri (Buxton Festival Opera); Daedalus/Voithia (ETO); Pinellino/Gianni Schicchi (GSMD); Fiorello/Il barbiere di Siviglia (Hand Made Opera); Adonis/Venus and Adonis (New Chamber Opera); Roger/Ciboulette (University College Opera). Concert work includes Ein deutschs Requiem with members of the BBC Symphony Orchestra; Bass soloist and Pilate in the St. John Passion at St. James’ Piccadilly; B Minor Mass with the London Mozart Players at St. John’s Smith Square. Recital performances include songs from Finzi Before and After Summer for the Third English Song Weekend in Ludlow and Beethoven An die ferne Geliebte (Burford).
Richard Roberts
The Prince
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.
Camilla Roberts
Foreign Princes
Soprano
Camilla was born in Wrexham and studied at Guildhall School of Music and Drama and at the Naional Opera Studio. Operatic engagements include: Micäela/Carmen, Diane/Iphigenie en Tauride, Blumenmädchen/Parsifal, title role/Iolanta; Laura/Iolanta (all Welsh National Opera); First Lady/Die Zauberflöte and Anna/Nabucco (Opera North); Tatyana/Eugene Onegin (Holland Park), Marenka/The Bartered Bride and Mimi/La Boheme (Mid Wales Opera) and Anna/Le Villi (Chelsea Opera). Camilla has perfomed in concert and recital programmes both here in the UK and abroad. Highlights include: Beethoven’s 9th Symphony (Barbican); Rossini Stabat Mater (St Endellion Festival) and Mendelssohn’s Elijah (Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool). Camilla is a regular guest on BBC Radio 2 “Friday night is Music Night”. In June 2004 Camilla won the Welsh Singers Competition and went on to represent Wales in the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World 2005 Competition. Future plans include Adina L’elisir d’amore (WNO).
Fiona Kimm
Jezibaba
Mezzo
Fiona trained at the RCM and National Opera Studio and was a recipient of the John Christie Award at Glyndebourne. Recent operatic engagement include: Mrs Chin and Old Crone/A Night at the Chinese Opera (SO); Jane’s Mother/Snow White (Nationale Reisopera); Ma/House of the Gods (Music Theatre Wales); Ulrica/Un Ballo in Maschera (Canadian Opera Company) Fricka /Das Rheingold and Die Walküre (Longborough), Mistress Quickly/Falstaff (Garsington) Azucena/Il Trovatore (Stowe Opera) and Rosa Mamai/L’Arlesiana (Opera Holland Park). Concert performances include work at the Concertgebouw, South Bank and Wigmore Hall. Recording and broadcast work include: In Flanders Fields (Quartz Music Label); Greek (Decca and BBC); L’Enfance Du Christ (Thames); Canciones (NMC); Rusalka (BBC).
Jessica Summers
Born Exeter
Training ENO Baylis, Birmingham Conservatoire, King’s College, London
Opera Mustardseed A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Bridesmaid The Marriage of Figaro (both ETO), La Sirena La Liberazione di Ruggiero (St.John’s Smith Square), Ines Die Drei Pintos (Opera Omnibus), education performances and projects for ETO, Opera North and ROH
Concert Young Artists Series (Blackheath Halls), new music at Brighton, Kings Lynn, Hoxton and York Late Music Festivals & Britten-Pears School, Berio Laborintus II / Soloist I (Composers Ensemble, Dartington Hall)
Recordings Scelsi Intégrale des oeuvres chorales (New London Chamber Choir, Percussive Rotterdam), Dove Death of a Princess (Channel 4)
Futre Birtwistle Ring A Dumb Carillon (The Warehouse, London)
Abigail Kelly
Born
Birmingham
Training
RSAMD; PGDip Opera Studies; Birmingham Conservatoire; B Mus Hons
Awards
Council of Black Led Churches, Black Achievement Showcase awards; Winner of Educational Achievement Category, 2006; The Worship Company of Musicians winner of the Silver Medal, 2006; Birmingham Conservatoire BMus (Hons) prize, 2006
Opera
Chorus Don Giovanni, Eugene Onegin; La Boheme (all BYO); Helena and Juno The Fairy Queen (Birmingham Conservatoire Opera); Belinda Dido and Aeneas (SAMPAD)
Concerts
Felix Cross Mass Carib (Nitro part of the Greenwich and Docklands); Mozart Mass in C Minor (Proteus Chamber Orchestra); Haydn Creation Beauchamp (Choral Society Oadby)
Angela Caesar
Nymph/Naiad-2 plus cabaret
Soprano
Angela was born in Manchester and studied voice at Trinity College of Music, London and at the Peabody Conservatory of Music in Baltimore, Maryland. In Opera, Angela has worked with the Royal Opera House, ENO and many of the regional opera companies performing roles such as Alice Ford/Falstaff, Gianetta/L’Elisir d’Amore and Suor Angelica. Television and radio credits include Carmina Burana, Porgy and Bess, The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny and the Pergolesi Stabat Mater. She has recently appeared as Moon, in the Olivier Award winning production, Caroline, or Change at the National Theatre and in productions of Mass Carib and An African Cargo with the Nitro Theatre Company as part of the Greenwich Festival.
Alison Crookendale
Nymph/Naiad-3 plus cabaret
Alison studied at the GSMD and then won a Peter Moores Foundation scholarship to study at the RNCM. Alison has appeared with ON, BOC, OHP and recently the ROH in Fidelio and in the premiere of Dominique le Gendre’s Bird of Night at the Lindbury, Covent Garden. Most recent operatic work includes creating the role of Jennifer in Silent Twins (Almeida Opera) and Porgy and Bess (Opera de Lyon). Alison’s solo concert performances include: Berlioz’s Les Nuit D’été with Salisbury Sinfonia, Beethoven’s Choral Symphony, Handel’s Messiah, Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater, Bach’s B Minor Mass, Haydn’s St Nicholai and Nelson Masses, Vivaldi’s Gloria, Mendelssohn’s St Paul, Durufle’s Requiem and Mother Earth in Anthony Biggin’s Cry of the Earth with the Liverpool Philharmonic.
Donna Bateman
Born
Lincolnshire
Training
RAM; GSMD
Awards
G Embley Memorial Prize Winner; National Federation of Music Societies Award Winner; Kathleen Ferrier Memorial Prize Finalist; Royal Overseas League Finalist; Associated Board Scholarship Winner
Opera
Cunegonde,Candide, Zerbinetta,Prologue Ariadne Auf Naxos (Birmingham Opera Company);Susanna,The Marriage Of Figaro (English Touring Opera );Miranda The Gentle Giant (ROH 2); Ms Pescado Armida (Channel 4 Television)
Concert
Stravinsky Le Rossignol (CBSO Symphony Hall Birmingham); Mahler Symphony no.8 (Symphony Hall Birmingham); Bernstein Mass (LSO Barbican Hall London) Openning Ceremony, World Athletics Championships.
Recordings
Ms Pescado Judith Weirs Armida (Channel 4 Television); Valkyrie Flashmob (BBC Television)
Keel Watson
Born London
Training Trinity College of Music
Awards 1998 American Express Prize for Outstanding Performance
Opera Caronte L’Orfeo (ENO), Papageno The Magic Flute (Mid-Wales Opera), The Elder The Country of the Blind (Aldeburgh Festival/ENO Contemporary Opera Studio), Bosun Billy Budd (ROH), Tonio I Pagliacci (Opera Holland Park)
Concerts Bernstein Whitehouse Cantata (London Symphony Orchestra), Orff Carmina Burana (RFH), Puccini Tosca (St John’s, Smith Square).
Recordings Harasta The Cunning Little Vixen (BBC cartoon, cond. Nagano), Bernstein Whitehouse Cantata (Deutsche Grammaphone), guest soloist Friday Night is Music Night (BBC Radio 2)
Future Abbot Curlew River (BOC/BBC Proms 2004), Leporello Don Giovanni (Garden Opera)
Crew
Adam Mackenzie
Bassonist/Carmen workshops
Adam Mackenzie studied at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama (GSMD) with Robin O’Neill and Meyrick Alexander and also at the Accademia del Teatro alla Scala, Milan. Whilst at GSMD he became the first bassoonist to reach the final of the prestigious Gold Medal competition and was awarded the runner up prize. Adam also won the Principal’s Prize for the highest mark in a final recital and was awarded a first in his undergraduate degree. During his Postgraduate year at GSMD he won the Friends of the Philharmonia Woodwind Prize through the Martin Music Scholarship Scheme and performed a bassoon and strings recital with the Soloists of the Philharmonia Orchestra. As a member of the Bozza Trio, Adam also won the Martin Music Scholarship Access and Outreach Award for community education and now regularly works as a workshop leader with the London Symphony Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Philharmonia and most of the other major London orchestras. Other awards include the NYOS Staffa Prize, GSMD Woodwind Prize and the Park Lane Group. Recently, Adam has recorded two solo CDs for the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music, given a solo performance on Radio 3, and played a role in the Soldiers Tale play at the Old Vic. He is a freelance musician and regularly works with the Philharmonia and many of the other London orchestras. Adam is currently Director of Education at English Sinfonia.
Andrew Gourlay
Asst conductor/Trombone(Carmen)
Andrew conducted the London Symphony Orchestra in June 2008 in a public masterclass with Valery Gergiev. As a Scholar at the RCM Music in London, he prepared the RCM orchestras for conductors such as Bernard Haitink, Sir Roger Norrington, Marin Alsop and Andrew Litton. He conducted the St Petersburg State Symphony Orchestra whilst studying with Alexander Polianichko in Russia. Andrew was an Assistant Conductor for all operas of the Grange Park Opera 2008 season. He has performed as concerto soloist on both the trombone and the piano. As a trombonist, he has freelanced with orchestras such as the BBC Philharmonic, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Philharmonia, Hallé, London Sinfonietta and Opera North. Andrew has pesented The Early Music Show on BBC Radio 3. He is the Principal Conductor of the Orpheus Sinfonia and the Assistant Conductor of the Ernest Read Symphony Orchestra. Future plans include working at the Royal Ballet as Cover Conductor for Barry Wordsworth.
Tom Daley
Assoc. Director
David Holmes
Lighting Designer
Lighting Designer
David trained at the Theatre Royal, Glasgow and the GSMD. Credits include: Days of Significance (RSC at the Tricycle Theatre, Swan Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon and Davidson College, North Carolina); Ma Vie En Rose (Young Vic, Maria Theatre); Alaska (Royal Court, Theatre Upstairs); Cyrano de Bergerac, A Taste of Honey, See How They Run (Manchester Royal Exchange); The Rise and Fall of Little Voice and Rope (Watermill Theatre, Newbury); Things of Dry Hours (The Gate, London and Studio, Manchester Royal Exchange); Sweetness and Badness (Welsh National Opera MAX); Othello, Woman In Mind (Salisbury Playhouse); TILT Triple Bill (Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh); Cruising (The Bush Theatre, London); Fijis (South Bank Centre and The Place, London); Trestle at Pope Lick Creek (Manchester Royal Exchange and Southwark Playhouse); Dov and Ali, The Water Engine, The Water Harvest (Theatre 503, Battersea), A Taste of Honey (Manchester Royal Exchange).
“James Conway’s sensitive production for ETO works because the culture in which it is set believes in magic and water spirits.” The Evening Standard
“Donna Bateman tugs our heartstrings in the title role” The Observer
Showing At
- Hackney Empire
10th Oct 2008 - 7:30 pm
- Malvern Theatres
15th Oct 2008 - 7:30 pm
- Malvern Theatres
18th Oct 2008 - 7:30 pm
- Exeter Northcott
22nd Oct 2008 - 7:30 pm
- Exeter Northcott
25th Oct 2008 - 7:30 pm
- Theatre Royal, Lincoln
31st Oct 2008 - 7:30 pm
- Theatre Royal Bath
3rd Nov 2008 - 7:30 pm
- Kendal Leisure Centre
8th Nov 2008 - 7:30 pm
- Snape Maltings Concert Hall
14th Nov 2008 - 7:30 pm
- Buxton Opera House
18th Nov 2008 - 7:30 pm
- Assembly Hall Theatre
22nd Nov 2008 - 7:30 pm
- Cambridge Arts Theatre
26th Nov 2008 - 7:30 pm
- Cambridge Arts Theatre
29th Nov 2008 - 7:30 pm

