Simon Boccanegra

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.

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).

Born Bolton
Training Manchester University, RNCM
Awards Ricordi Prize for Opera
Opera Ford Falstaff (ETO), Michele/Tonio Tabarro/Pagliacci (ON), Nabucco (ENO & Bucharest), Rigoletto (Tokyo), Les Dialogues des Carmelites (Theater an der Wien & Covent Garden), Germont La Traviata (ENO & St. Margarethen Festival)
Concert Handel Messiah (Liverpool Philharmonic), Cilea Adriana Lecouvreur (Queen Elizabeth Hall), Tchaikovsky Maid of Orleans (BBC Philharmonic)
Recordings Martin In Terra Pax (Swiss Radio), Les Dialogues des Carmelites (Oehms Classics)

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)

Brendan Collins trained at the Cork School of Music under Robert Beare, the D.I.T. Conservatory, and in 2007 was granted a scholarship to study at the opera studio of Theatre de la Monnaie in Brussels under renowned bass-baritone José van Dam. In 2005 he was one of only 12 Irish singers to take part in the first Wexford Festival Young Artists programme under tenor Dennis O’Neill.

As a soloist he has performed with many of Ireland and the UK’s leading companies including Opera Ireland, OTC, ETO, NI Opera, Scottish Opera, Anna Livia Festival, Lyric Opera and Glasthule Opera. His roles include Count Almaviva/ Le Nozze di Figaro, Marcello/ La Boheme, Escamillo/ Carmen, Giorgio Germont/ La Traviata, Masetto/ Don Giovanni, cover Demetrius/ Midsummer’s Night’s Dream, Notare/ Don Pasquale, Marullo/ Rigoletto, Elviro/ Xerxes, Fiorello/ The Barber of Seville, Baron Duphol/ La Traviata, Sacristan/ Tosca, Yamadori/ Madama Butterfly and Count Gil/ Il segreto di Susanna amongst others.

Charne trained at RAM, where he was the recipient of the MBF Sybil Tutton Award. Operatic roles include Don Jose/ Carmen (Mananan Festival, Isle of Mann); 1st Armed Man/Priest/ The Magic Flute (GTO, GFO and ON); Pablo/ Betrothal in a Monastery (GTO); Don Jose cover/ Carmen (GTO); Prince/ Love for Three Oranges (English Pocket Opera Company); MacDuff/ Macbeth (Warwick Arts); Rodolfo/ La Boheme (Dartington); Lensky/ Eugene Onegin (St. John’s Smith Square). Charne made his cinematic debut as Priest/Officer in The Magic Flute directed by Kenneth Branagh and conducted by James Conlon, premiered at the Venice Film Festival. Recently, he sang Eisenstein/ Die Fledermaus for London Lyric Opera at the Cadogan Hall with the RPO and Cavaradossi/ Tosca at Neuminster Abbey, Luxembourg with Opera a la Carte. Future projects include Cavardossi/ Tosca for Queens College, Cambridge and Bermuda Festival, Max/ Der Freishutz in Cambridge and Duke/ Rigoletto in Luxembourg.

PIOTR LEMPA (bass), a native of Poland. Graduate of Royal Academy of Music in London, Cardiff International Academy of Voice and the Vocal and Acting Faculty at the Music Academy in Gdansk, Poland, where he made his concert debut during his first year of study, in Mozart’s Requiem. During his third year in Gdansk he appeared with the Baltic Opera House in Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro and has since appeared in many productions with several opera companies in Poland, Italy, Germany, Switzerland (Verbier Festival), UK (WNO, ETO) and Ireland also with the Musical Theatre in Gdynia, Poland.
He made his opera debut singing the role of Oroveso in Bellini’s Norma for English Touring Opera in London, in their spring season 2009. Since then Piotr has appeared in the productions of La Boheme, Die Zauberflote, Ariadne auf Naxos, Katja Kabanova, Halka, Don Giovanni, Rigoletto, Le nozze di Figaro, Bastien und Bastienne, Salome, and Traviata in Wales, England, Germany and Poland.
Future plans include: Halka with Polish National Opera, Esther at the Handel Festival in Karlsruhe (Germany) as well as The Coronation of Poppea and Jason with English Touring Opera. More information: www.piotrlempa.com