Gemma Bertagnolli
“Gemma Bertagnolli has a bright and clear voice, through which a dramatic edge occasionally shows, but most telling is its vulnerable quality, well suited to the complaints of the injured lovers who populate these imaginative works. An agile technique is also a major boon, enabling her to negotiate Vivaldi's doleful chromaticisms and dazzling wide leaps, high notes and rapid runs, with equal expressiveness.”
— Gramophone
UK and other territories by arrangement with ARTISTICA.
“Gemma Bertagnolli has a bright and clear voice, through which a dramatic edge occasionally shows, but most telling is its vulnerable quality, well suited to the complaints of the injured lovers who populate these imaginative works. An agile technique is also a major boon, enabling her to negotiate Vivaldi's doleful chromaticisms and dazzling wide leaps, high notes and rapid runs, with equal expressiveness.”
— Gramophone
UK and other territories by arrangement with ARTISTICA.
Elizabeth Donovan
"...Donovan stood out both for her acting and for her vocal performance, without allowing the fickle emotions of her character to intrude into her vocal tone."
—Opera
"...Donovan stood out both for her acting and for her vocal performance, without allowing the fickle emotions of her character to intrude into her vocal tone."
—Opera
Katharine Fuge
"...the delectable soprano Katharine Fuge sang with lip-smacking milky white tone...”
— The Times
Photo: Marco Borggreve
"...the delectable soprano Katharine Fuge sang with lip-smacking milky white tone...”
— The Times
Photo: Marco Borggreve
Ruby Hughes
“… each vocal item here was socked out with equal commitment by the gifted young soprano Ruby Hughes, winner of last year’s London Handel Festival Singing Competition. No shrinking violet, this. She squeezed expression from every word. Torment transfigured her face, particularly as Handel’s heroine Agrippina…she’s made for the opera stage because she sings with such ringing belief.”
—The Times
Winner of First Prize and Audience Prize at the 2009 London Handel Festival Singing Competition
“… each vocal item here was socked out with equal commitment by the gifted young soprano Ruby Hughes, winner of last year’s London Handel Festival Singing Competition. No shrinking violet, this. She squeezed expression from every word. Torment transfigured her face, particularly as Handel’s heroine Agrippina…she’s made for the opera stage because she sings with such ringing belief.”
—The Times
Winner of First Prize and Audience Prize at the 2009 London Handel Festival Singing Competition
Hye-Youn Lee
“The young Korean soprano Hye-Youn Lee sings with such beauty, and acts wit such engaging aplomb, as even to evoke memories of Natalie Dessay’s landmark performance as Marie at Covent Garden last year..”
—The Guardian
“The young Korean soprano Hye-Youn Lee sings with such beauty, and acts wit such engaging aplomb, as even to evoke memories of Natalie Dessay’s landmark performance as Marie at Covent Garden last year..”
—The Guardian
Alwyn Mellor
“Alwyn Mellor, oozing repression and torrential top notes is the superlative Chrysothemis….”
—The Guardian
“Alwyn Mellor, oozing repression and torrential top notes is the superlative Chrysothemis….”
—The Guardian
Sarah Redgwick
“Redgwick, singing in a warm lyric soprano, had the poise, good taste and understated humour for her role…the Czardas was agreeably insinuating.”
— Opera
“Redgwick, singing in a warm lyric soprano, had the poise, good taste and understated humour for her role…the Czardas was agreeably insinuating.”
— Opera
Wilke te Brummelstroete
"As Minerva, the excellent Wilke te Brummelstroete lit up the stage most effectively, with her searing mezzo-soprano, crisp enunication and strong presence.”
— Opera Today
"As Minerva, the excellent Wilke te Brummelstroete lit up the stage most effectively, with her searing mezzo-soprano, crisp enunication and strong presence.”
— Opera Today
Clare Wilkinson
“Clare Wilkinson’s personification of Music has a magical quality which leaves no room for doubt that her art does indeed have the power to inspire and reflect all human emotions…”
— Early Music Review
Photo: Stefan Schweiger
“Clare Wilkinson’s personification of Music has a magical quality which leaves no room for doubt that her art does indeed have the power to inspire and reflect all human emotions…”
— Early Music Review
Photo: Stefan Schweiger
James
Laing
“The compelling young countertenor James Laing is becoming quite a master of sinister, ethereally pitched roles: he was outstanding as the Fox in Opera North's recent Pinocchio and is no less compelling here as an androgynously alien Oberon, his voice as sharp and scintillating as the diamante sarong and skull cap he is given to wear.”
— The Guardian
“The compelling young countertenor James Laing is becoming quite a master of sinister, ethereally pitched roles: he was outstanding as the Fox in Opera North's recent Pinocchio and is no less compelling here as an androgynously alien Oberon, his voice as sharp and scintillating as the diamante sarong and skull cap he is given to wear.”
— The Guardian
Michael Bracegirdle
“Michael Bracegirdle was a magnificently imperious Judge Danforth…”
— New York Times
“Michael Bracegirdle was a magnificently imperious Judge Danforth…”
— New York Times
James Edwards
"James Edwards’s Hoffmann was robust of tone, but generally well-controlled and with plenty of expressive phrasing, a good combination of attributes.”
—Opera
Photo: Clive Barda
"James Edwards’s Hoffmann was robust of tone, but generally well-controlled and with plenty of expressive phrasing, a good combination of attributes.”
—Opera
Photo: Clive Barda
Richard Roberts
“There was a particularly engaging Steersman from Richard Roberts, lyrically sung and attractively presented.”
— Opera
Photo: Lisa Kohler
“There was a particularly engaging Steersman from Richard Roberts, lyrically sung and attractively presented.”
— Opera
Photo: Lisa Kohler
Christopher Turner
“Puccini clearly had more interest in the secondary tenor role of the poet Prunier, sung most winningly by Christopher Turner who, as on previous occasions, made it evident that the stage is his natural element.“
— Opera
“Puccini clearly had more interest in the secondary tenor role of the poet Prunier, sung most winningly by Christopher Turner who, as on previous occasions, made it evident that the stage is his natural element.“
— Opera
Simon Lobelson
“…a classy performance, his baritone finessed and honed (like a young Gidon Saks) – and a dab hand as an actor.”
— Opera Now
“…a classy performance, his baritone finessed and honed (like a young Gidon Saks) – and a dab hand as an actor.”
— Opera Now
Njabulo Madlala
“That moment of rapt silence and attention, when an audience is entirely transfixed by a musician’s artistry, is rare at the best of times — let alone in the middle of a competition. But it happened in the finals of this year’s Kathleen Ferrier Awards, when the South African baritone, Njabulo Madlala, riveted every listener in the hall with his musical storytelling in Schumann’s dramatic ballad, Belsazar. The 28-year-old’s imagination created a gripping and growing sense of menace; and when he cried “Ich bin der König von Babylon”, the walls of the Wigmore Hall shook with terror. He would have taken first prize for this alone. But there was more. Madlala was equally at home in Butterworth’s Bredon Hill and in an aria from Bellini’s I Puritani that revealed the rich velvet plush of his fearless voice, its inner warmth and its flexibility.”
— The Times
Winner of First Prize at the 2010 Kathleen Ferrier Competition
“That moment of rapt silence and attention, when an audience is entirely transfixed by a musician’s artistry, is rare at the best of times — let alone in the middle of a competition. But it happened in the finals of this year’s Kathleen Ferrier Awards, when the South African baritone, Njabulo Madlala, riveted every listener in the hall with his musical storytelling in Schumann’s dramatic ballad, Belsazar. The 28-year-old’s imagination created a gripping and growing sense of menace; and when he cried “Ich bin der König von Babylon”, the walls of the Wigmore Hall shook with terror. He would have taken first prize for this alone. But there was more. Madlala was equally at home in Butterworth’s Bredon Hill and in an aria from Bellini’s I Puritani that revealed the rich velvet plush of his fearless voice, its inner warmth and its flexibility.”
— The Times
Winner of First Prize at the 2010 Kathleen Ferrier Competition
Adrian Powter
“Well, if all round talent was anything to go by, I would plump for the Guglielmo of Adrian Powter, perfect in articulation, phrasing and ease of deportment.”
— Opera
“Well, if all round talent was anything to go by, I would plump for the Guglielmo of Adrian Powter, perfect in articulation, phrasing and ease of deportment.”
— Opera
Simon Thorpe
“His Rigoletto showed the full range of his voice, with expressive singing and a fine command of suppressed anger.”
— Opera
“His Rigoletto showed the full range of his voice, with expressive singing and a fine command of suppressed anger.”
— Opera
James Oldfield
“James Oldfield sang the role (of Forester) in a ripe, rounded baritone, as richly shaded as the foest in Autumn, and brought a wealth of feeling to his final soliloquy.”
— Opera
“James Oldfield sang the role (of Forester) in a ripe, rounded baritone, as richly shaded as the foest in Autumn, and brought a wealth of feeling to his final soliloquy.”
— Opera
Nicholas Jenkins
“A lively performance. Nicholas Jenkins conducted with authority. The afternoon passed all too quickly.”
— Musical Pointers
“A lively performance. Nicholas Jenkins conducted with authority. The afternoon passed all too quickly.”
— Musical Pointers
Alexander Walker
“Walker's players enchanted with a cavalcade of controlled, astute brass, refined woodwind and alluring low strings, all beautifully articulated.”
— Opera
“Walker's players enchanted with a cavalcade of controlled, astute brass, refined woodwind and alluring low strings, all beautifully articulated.”
— Opera