the marriage of figaro - meet the cast
the cast
Richard Belshaw |
Kenneth Boyd |
Fleur Bray |
John Dempsy |
Thomas Eaglen |
Janet Fischer
Diane Hatfield
| Carolina Krogius
| Adam Marsden |
Emma Morwood |
Philip Smith
the characters
Il Conte di Almaviva
| La Contessa di
Almaviva | Susanna
| Figaro |
Cherubino
Marcellina |
Bartolo | Basilio
| Don Curzio |
Barbarina |
Antonio
Richard Belshaw
sings Basilio
Richard Belshaw is currently in his second year of the undergraduate course at the RNCM and studies with Peter Wilson. He was awarded the Marjorie Squires Scholarship upon entering the college, and is also a Leverhulme Scholar. Richard’s recent oratorio experience includes Handel’s Messiah and Haydn’s Nelson Mass. In the RNCM’s future productions of Ravel’s L’enfant et les Sortilèges and L’heure Espagnole he will sing the role of the La Théière and is covering the role of Torquemada, respectively. Richard would like to thank the Leverhulme Trust for their financial support this year, enabling him to continue with his studies at the college.
sings Don Curzio
Born in Paisley, Kenneth has graduated from the University of Wales, Bangor. Kenneth is currently in his first year of post graduate studies at the Royal Northern College of Music where he studies with Jeffrey Lawton. He has performed in a number of oratorio performances to date including Mozart’s Requiem, Mendelssohn’s Elijah, Vaughan Williams Mass in G minor, and Stainer’s Crucifixion. He is a member of the National Youth Choir of Scotland with whom he has toured to Chicago performing Britten’s War Requiem and Walton’s Belshazzars Feast and has sung the tenor solo in Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms. He also sings with the Glasgow Cathedral Choir under John Turner.
Fleur Bray
sings Barbarina
Fleur Bray is in her second year of a Post-Graduate Diploma in Performance at the RNCM, and studies with Sandra Dugdale. Following a BMus at Cardiff University, where she was awarded the David Lloyd Vocal Scholarship and the Sir Geraint Evans Prize, Fleur completed a Masters in Composition and was awarded a distinction for her contemporary opera. In June, Fleur performed Walton’s song-cycle A Song for the Lord Mayor’s Table at the renowned Walton Estate in Ischia, Italy. She looks forward to the role of Le Feu in Ravel’s L’enfant et Les Sortilèges, at the RNCM next March. Fleur was recently awarded a Drapers De Turckheim Vocal Scholarship, and is highly grateful to this support during her studies at the RNCM.
John Dempsey
sings Bartolo
John Dempsey comes from County Wexford in Ireland, where he began lessons in violin, piano and voice. He has a BMus degree from the Cork School of Music where he studied with Romanian-born violinist Cornelia Zanidache. He then switched to voice and studied with Mary Brennan at the Dublin Conservatory of Music and Drama, attaining a Postgraduate Diploma in vocal performance in 2004. Now a postgraduate student at the RNCM, his vocal tutor is Robert Alderson. Since coming to the RNCM his roles have included the cover of Crebillon and Il Maggiordormo in Puccini's La Rondine, the role of Tiger Brown in Weill's Threepenny Opera, Haraschta in Janáček’s The Cunning Little Vixen and Gremin in Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin.
Thomas Eaglen
sings Il Conte di
Almaviva
Thomas Eaglen is a graduate of the RNCM. Thomas has appeared in excerpt productions of Mozart’s Don Giovanni in the title role, Rossini’s The Barber of Seville as Figaro and in Britten’s Gloriana as Lord Cecil. Principal operatic roles include that of Manoah in a period production of Handel’s Samson. In July 2005 Thomas created the role of the Airman in The Airman’s Tale, a new opera by Gerard McBurney, which premièred at the Imperial War Museum, London. In October 2006 Thomas sang the title role in Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin for Heritage Opera. Thomas is a regular soloist with the Northern Sinfonia performing works including Haydn’s Nelson Mass and Mozart’s Requiem. Thomas is a recipient of the Amanda Roocroft Prize and the Elsie Sykes Scholarship from the RNCM. He is also a Major Scholar of the Sir Peter Moores Foundation and is very grateful for their ongoing support.
Janet Fischer
sings
La Contessa di Almaviva
Janet Fischer is currently undertaking her Postgraduate Diploma at the RNCM where she studies with Barbara Robotham. Roles and excerpts include Dog, Fox and Cockerel in Janáček’s The Cunning Little Vixen Leonora da Vargas in Verdi’s La forza del Destino, Magda in Menotti’s The Consul, Blanche in Poulenc’s Dialogue des Carmelites, The Witch in Dvořák’s Rusalka, Dorabella in Mozart’s Cosi fan Tutte, Donna Anna in Don Giovanni and Countess Almaviva in The Marriage of Figaro, Tatiana in Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin and Marianne in Mechem’s Tartuffe. Janet made her UK debut at the Wigmore Hall in HK Gruber's Frankenstein and her international debut singing Beethoven's Missa Solemnis with the orchestra of Macao under the baton of Tibor Boganyi. Other concert engagements include Handel's Messiah, Berlioz's Les Nuits D'ete, Bach's Cantata BWV80 and Magnificat, Nunes’ A Winter's Night (world premiere), Mozart's C minor Mass and the Verdi Requiem. She has appeared in the semi finals of both the Third China (Ningbo) International Vocal Competition and the Wilhelm Stenhammar International Music Competition in Sweden.
Diane Hatfield
sings
Marcellina
Diane Hatfield is currently in her final year of postgraduate studies at the RNCM, where she is studying with David Maxwell Anderson. During her time at the RNCM, Diane has performed the roles of Filipyevna in Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin and Forester’s Wife/ Owl in Janáček’s The Cunning Little Vixen. In addition she has taken part in opera excerpts including; Orfeo in Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice, Florence in Britten’s Albert Herring and Mrs Goose in Turn of the Screw, Mme Haltiere in Massenet’s Cendrillion, Bradamante in Handel’s Alcina, the Prioress in Poulenc’s Dialogue of the Carmelites and La Cieca in Ponchielli’s La Gioconda.
Carolina Krogius
sings
Cherubino
Carolina Krogius was born in Finland and commenced her singing studies at Turku Conservatory, where she graduated as a singing teacher in 2006. She is currently a second year postgraduate student at the RNCM, studying with Susan Roper. Before undertaking her music studies Carolina studied psychology at Åbo Akademi University. Operatic roles that Carolina has performed include a Hen in the RNCM production of Janáček’s The Cunning Little Vixen, Fortune and Venus in Monteverdi’s L'incoronazione di Poppea. In the RNCM Opera Excerpts she has also performed the title role of Ariodante and Dorothee in Massenet’s Cendrillon. In the summers of 2005 and 2006 Carolina sung in the opera chorus of Savonlinna Opera Festival. On the concert platform Carolina has performed Bach's Christmas Oratorio, Handel's Dixit Dominus, Mozart's Requiem, Mozart's Coronation Mass, Ravel's Trois Poemes de Mollorme, Rossini's Petite Messe Solennelle and Vivaldi's Gloria. In November she sang Sibelius's Rakastava with the Hallé Youth Choir in the Hallé Orchestra's concert series The Origin of Fire. Carolina is the winner of the Alfred Alexander and the Caj Ehrstedt Awards and received the Brigitte Fassbaender Prize for 2007 at the RNCM. She is looking forward to singing with Ensemble 10/10 the new music ensemble of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra in January 2008.
Adam Marsden
sings
Antonio
Adam Marsden is currently a fourth year student at the RNCM studying with Robert Alderson. Before college Adam studied voice and piano with David Goulden. Adam has performed as Ned in Kurt Weill’s The Threepenny Opera, Captain Petrovich in Eugene Onegin and the cover of Badger/Parson in The Cunning Little Vixen. Whilst at college Adam has been awarded the William Mcleod Johnstone Award for Male Singing, the Doherty Cup for Singing, the Frecklton Award and in his second year represented the College at the Kathleen Ferrier Bursary Award for Young Singers where he won 3rd prize. Outside of college Adam took part in a concert performance of Der Rosenkavalier at the Bridgewater Hall with Mark Elder CBE and the Hallé Orchestra.
Emma Morwood
sings
Susanna
Emma Morwood is currently in her second year of postgraduate studies in the School of Opera and Vocal Studies at the Royal Northern College of Music, studying with Peter Alexander Wilson. In June 2007, she was awarded the Dame Eva Turner Award. This year she is also a recipient of the Fraser Bucher Scholarship from the University of Edinburgh, from where she graduated in 2002 with an Honours degree in Music. Emma would also like to thank the D'Oyly Carte Charitable Trust for sponsoring her this year. In September 2007, Emma was the soprano soloist with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, singing excerpts from Grieg's Peer Gynt Suite. Other recent performances include James Macmillan's Busquéda with Liverpool Philharmonic's Ensemble 10/10, Poulenc's Gloria; Elgar’s For the Fallen, Rossini’s Petite Messe Solennelle, Haydn’s Salve Regina in Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Vivaldi's Gloria with Manchester Camerata, Haydn’s Nelson Mass and The Creation, Monteverdi’s Vespers, Handel’s Dixit Dominus and Utrecht Te Deum, Orff’s Carmina Burana, Bach’s St Matthew Passion, Magnificat and the Christmas Oratorio. In March 2006, Emma sang the role of Carmela in the Scottish premier of Gian Carlo Menotti's opera The Saint of Bleecker Street in Edinburgh's famous Festival Theatre. Other opera roles include Head Hen in Janáček’s The Cunning Little Vixen at the RNCM, Adina in Donizetti’s L'Elisir d'amore, Pamina in Mozart’s The Magic Flute and Rose in Delibes’ Lakmé. In fully staged opera excerpts at the RNCM, Emma has sung the roles of Marzelline in Beethoven’s Fidelio, Atalanta in Handel's Serse and Helena in Britten’s A Midsummer Night's Dream. In March 2008, Emma will take the title role in Ravel's L'Enfant et les Sortilèges, also at the RNCM.
Philip Smith
sings
Figaro
Philip Smith studied Zoology as an undergraduate and completed a Masters in Conservation. However, his secret passion was to become a professional singer and he gave up the great outdoors to start serious singing studies in 2004. He completed a postgraduate certificate at the Birmingham Conservatoire, where he won the Postgraduate Certificate Prize before starting at the RNCM. There Philip studies with Barbara Robotham and is now in year two of a postgraduate diploma having won the RNCM Schubert prize in 2006 and more recently the Chris Petty English Song Prize. Philip's concert repertoire already spans a wide range of works from early baroque to works written last year. Most recently he has performed in Purcell’s The Fairy Queen (Purcell), Handel’s Acis and Galatea, Bach’s St Matthew Passion, Mozart’s Requiem, Haydn’s Creation and Nelson Mass, Durufle’s Requiem, a programme of songs by Noel Coward, the premier performance of Graham Coatman’s Les Vols Des Anges and the premier performance of The Lucy Poems – a series of five Wordsworth poems set to music by Peter Cowdrey. He performs regularly throughout the UK and mainland Europe and plans for 2007 include three appearances in France and a tour of Hungary, Austria and Slovakia as soloist with the Leeds Philharmonic Society. Philip has sung lead roles for the RNCM including The Forester in Janacek’s The Cunnng Little Vixen and Macheath in Kurt Weill's The Threepenny Opera. Philip would like to thank the Fenton Arts Trust for sponsoring him this year.
