Agrippina
Sister to Caligula, wife of Claudius and mother of Nero
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Sister to Caligula, wife of Claudius and mother of Nero
Join the Grange Festival community and stay connected to a world of enchanting performances and exclusive events.
Robert Howarth read music at the University of York and is establishing a reputation an gifted director and conductor of early and classical repertoire.
Howarth’s opera engagements include Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria for Opernhaus Zürich; Giulio Cesare and The Magid Flute for Opera North; Agrippina at The Grange Festival, The Fairy Queen in St Gallen, Haydn’s L’Isola Disabitata for the Norwegian Opera, L’Incoronazione di Poppea with the Academy of Ancient Music at The Barbican, London and in Venice and Dido and Aeneas with The English Concert at the Buxton Festival and Birmingham Opera Company. He has directed Il Ritorno d’Ulisse in Patria for Welsh National Opera, Birmingham Opera Company and English Touring Opera; Alcina for the Hamburg State Opera, Theater St Gallen and English Touring Opera, Monteverdi Ballo del Ingrate with Il Combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda for the Birmingham Opera Company, Acis and Galatea with The Early Opera Company and Tolomeo for English Touring Opera as well as Charpentier La déscente d’Orphée aux enfers for Glyndebourne’s Jerwood Programme, Charpentier Actéon and Purcell King Arthur for the Dartington International Summer School.
Howarth was Music Director for Claire van Kampen’s play Farinelli and the King staring Mark Rylance and Iestyn Davies at the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, Duke of York’s Theatre, London and Belasco Theater, New York.
He regulary directs programmes with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and Academy of Ancient Music and has conducted Messiah with The Hallé Orchestra, Danish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Bilbao Symphony Orchestra, the Irish Baroque Orchestra and the Royal Seville Symphony Orchestra; the St Matthew Passion with the RTE National Symphony Orchestra; Mozart, Haydn and Rameau with The English Concert and has also appeared with the Early Opera Company, the English Chamber Orchestra,The St James Baroque Players, Salzburg Mozarteum Orchestra and at the Ambronay Festival. He regularly co-directs the Italian baroque ensembleLa Serenissima.
His recent and future engagements include Il Ritorno d’Ulisse for Longborough Festival Opera and projects with the BBC Singers and His Majesty’s Sackbutts & Cornetts; Real Filharmonia de Galicia, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra and The Grange Festival.
Michael Chance is Artistic Director of The Grange Festival. He has established a worldwide reputation as one of the foremost exponents of the male alto voice in all areas of the classical repertoire. His oratorio and recital performances have included Carnegie Hall, Concertgebouw, Musikverein, and Wigmore Hall with programmes ranging from Elizabethan lute songs to world premieres commissioned including works by Richard Rodney Bennett, Alexander Goehr, Tan Dun, Anthony Powers, John Tavener, and Elvis Costello .
In opera he has worked at La Scala Milan, Sydney Opera House, New York, Lisbon, Oviedo, Leipzig, Paris, Brussels, Amsterdam , ROH, Glyndebourne, and ENO. His appearances include the title roles of Orfeo (Gluck), Rinaldo , Ascanio in Albai, and Solomon, Ottone/ Poppea, Oberon/Midsummer Night’s Dream, Tolomeo/Giulio Cesare. He premiered Birtwistle The Second Mrs Kong (Orpheus) and Weir A night at the Chinese Opera ( Military Governor).
He has an extensive discography, including many Bach and Monteverdi recordings with John Eliot Gardiner and Handel’s Semele for Deutsche Grammophon for which he received a Grammy Award. He was awarded the CBE in 2009.
Walter Sutcliffe has been artistic director of Halle Opera in Germany since September 2021, winning the German Theatre Prize ‘Der Faust’ in 2022. Previously he was Artistic Director and CEO of the Northern Ireland Opera, where he quadrupled audience attendances in his first two seasons.
He has directed opera in more than 10 countries, including prize winning and award nominated productions in Germany, France, Ireland and Estonia. His work spans the operatic repertory and includes (for Halle) La bohème, Tales of Hoffmann, Der Rosenkavalier, Faust, Handel’s Orlando, Britten’s A Midsummer Nights Dream and Handel’s Brockes Passion. Further productions include Kiss me, Kate, Die Fledermaus, Sweeney Todd, Rigoletto, and The Threepenny Opera for Northern Ireland Opera, Gounods Faust for Badischen Staatstheater Karlsruhe, Händel’s Rodrigo for the International Händel-Festspiele Göttingen, Agrippina at The Grange Festival, d’Alberts Tiefland as well as Brittens The Turn of the Screw and Owen Wingrave in Toulouse, Cesti’s L’Orontea, Reimanns Ghost Sonata and Britten’s Owen Wingrave for Oper Frankfurt, Verdi's Otello in Turin, Rigoletto in Santiago de Chile, Die Brüder Löwenherz world premiere at the Semperoper Dresden, Così fan tutte and Carmen in Tallinn, Puccini’s Manon Lescaut Offenbach’s Orpheus in the Underworld and Mozart’s Don Giovanni in Osnabrück, Massenet’s Werther and Porter’s Kiss me, Kate in Magdeburg, Die Fledermaus in Halberstadt, Ligeti’s Le Grand Macabre and Zemlinsky’s Zwerg in Chemnitz, Verdi’s La Traviata and Luisa Miller in Braunschweig, Britten’s Albert Herring in Linz, Lortzing’s Zar und Zimmermann in Bremerhaven, Janacek’s Šárka at Dicapo Opera, New York, Stephen Fry’s The Lady’s not for Burning at the Finborough Theatre London, Strindberg’s Great Highway at the Gate Theatre London and Tippett’s The Knot Garden for Klangbogen Festival Wien.
Jon is a multi award winning international stage designer and creative director.
He designed the opening ceremony of the 2012 Paralympic Games in London and the kinetic sculpture in Stoke Mandeville to light the flame for the 2014 Paralympic Winter Games in Sochi.
He studied Music as a singer and cellist before retraining on the Motley Theatre Design Course in 2000. Since then he has designed extensively in dance, opera and theatre for companies worldwide including the Royal Opera House, the Royal National Theatre, National Theatres of Scotland and Wales, Abbey Theatre, Dublin, Toho Stage, Japan, both Finnish and Norwegian National Ballets and for many Broadway and West End stages. He is an associate artist of the Royal Shakespeare Company.
Theatre design includes: BAT OUT OF HELL (London/ Germany/ New York/ Toronto- nominated Best Design Whats on Stage awards); TREE (Manchester International Festival/ Young Vic); TRUE WEST (West End); KNIGHTS’ TALE (Imperial Theatre/Toho Stage, Tokyo); FATHERLAND (Underworld and Frantic Assembly for Manchester International Festival); THE BAND- Take That musical (UK Tour); THE GRINNING MAN (Bristol Old Vic/Trafalgar Studios- WINNER Best Design UK Theatre awards); THE JAMES PLAYS (National Theatre/ National Theatre of Scotland/ World tour); KURSK (Sound and Fury/Young Vic- nominated Best Design Evening Standard awards); GHOST STORIES (West End/ Toronto/ Moscow); LORD OF THE FLIES (Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre-Evening Standard nomination for Best Design); MAMETZ (National Theatre of Wales- WINNER Best Design UK Theatre awards, WINNER Welsh Theatre awards); YOU FOR ME FOR YOU (Royal Court- nominated Best Design Evening Standard awards); I AM YUSUF (Shebbahurr, Palestine/ Young Vic, London). As an associate artist of the RSC he has designed numerous productions including HAMLET, KING LEAR and the entire 2012 season.
Dance includes: THE NUTCRACKER (also co director) and FIREBIRD (Norwegian National Ballet); HANSEL AND GRETEL (Royal Opera House); SCRIBBLINGS (Rambert); IN MEDIA RES (Nederlands Dans Theater); LEST WE FORGET (English National Ballet).
Opera includes: WALKÜRIE (Bordeaux National Opera); CENDRILLON (Glyndebourne); THE KNOT GARDEN (Theatre an der Wien); AGRIPPINA (Grange Park Opera); THE LIGHTHOUSE (Teatro Poliziano, Montepulciano) and THE SOLDIER’S TALE (Old Vic, London/ Iraq).
He proudly serves on the committee for the Linbury Prize for Stage Design (www.linburyprize.org.uk), is a designer advocate sustainability for SiPA (www.sipa.org.uk) and a founder member of SceneChange (www.scene-change.com).
The German lighting designer Wolfgang Goebbel works for international opera houses and theatres. He lit shows at the Schaubühne in Berlin, Burgtheater Vienna, Playhouse Zürich, Theater Basel, Maxim Gorki Theater, Kölner Schauspiel, Royal Shakespeare Company, Landestheater Salzburg, Gate Theatre London, Almeida Theatre London, National Theatre London, Lyceum Edinburgh, Nottingham Playhouse, Théâtre de la Ville Paris, Théâtre du Chaillot Paris, Théâtre du Rond point Paris, Salzburger Festspiele, het Toneelhuis Antwerpen, Wiener Festwochen as well as Operahouses in Hamburg, Leipzig, Düsseldorf, Duisburg, Essen, Mannheim, Aachen, Stuttgart, München, Frankfurt as well as Deutsche Oper in Berlin, Staatsoper Berlin, Komische Oper Berlin, Wiener Staatsoper, Volksoper Wien, De Nederlandse Opera Amsterdam, La Monnaie Brüssel, Vlaamse Opera Antwerpen and Gent, English National Opera, Royal Opera Covent Garden, Opera North, Scottish Opera, Welsh National Opera, Grand Théâtre de Genève, Grand Teatro del Liceo Barcelona, Metropolitan Opera New York, San Francisco War Memorial Opera, National Theatre Tokyo, Houston Grand Opera, Teatro Regio Torino, Théâtre du Chatelêt, Teatro alla Scala Milano. He is guest at the following international festivals: Aldeburgh Festival, Festival d’automne, Bregenzer Festspiele, Salzburger Festspiele, Edinburgh International Festival, Glyndebourne Festival Opera, Holland Festival, Spoleto Festival dei due mondi, Styriarte Graz, Wiener Festwochen, Theatrefestival Moscow.
Among his most important productions are The Second Mrs. Kong and Katja Kabanowa as well as Jenufa in Glyndebourne, Time and the Room and Happy End in Nottingham, Un ballo in maschera on the floating stage at the Bregenz Festival , A Masked Ball and Ariodante at the English National Opera, King Arthur at Pariser Chatelêt, La wally and Mazeppa in the opera house of the Bregenz Festival, Rheingold in Tokyo, Three Sisters, Triumph der Liebe and Hamlet at the Berliner Schaubühne, Carmen and Ariadne auf Naxos in Bruxelles, Dreigroschenoper and Titus Andronicus at Playhouse Cologne, Intimate Exchanges in Berlin, Samson und Dalila and Rheingold in Glasgow, Elektra in Essen, Blaubarts Burg in Mannheim, Love of the three Oranges in Stuttgart, The Cherry Orchard and Libussa at the Salzburg Festival, Der Ring des Nibelungen in Amsterdam.
In 1997 Wolfgang Göbbel was nominated for the Lawrence Olivier Award for “Outstanding Achievement in Opera” (Best lighting design Tristan und Isolde at the English National Opera and Midsummer Marriage at the Royal Opera Covent Garden). His production of Schnitzler`s Le chemin solitaire won the french award named Molière for “Best Production”. Paul Bunyan and Tristan und Isolde won the Olivier Award for “Best Production” and King Arthur and Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg the Evening Standard Award.
Wolfgang Göbbel creates set and light design, for example the production of Happy End at the Nottingham Playhouse and at the Opera North, Endgame at the Nottingham Playhouse and in Weimar (Kulturhauptstadt 1999), Time and the Room at the Edinburgh Festival and at the Nottingham Playhouse, Krapp’s Last Tape in Nottingham, Titus Andronicus in Cologne, Faust at the Volksoper in Vienna, Intimate Exchanges in Berlin and Hamburg.
In 1999, 2000 and 2001 Wolfgang Göbbel taught light design at the Theaterakademie August Everding in Munich.
British bass-baritone Ashley Riches read English at the University of Cambridge where he was a member of the King’s College Choir. He studied at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and subsequently joined the Jette Parker Young Artist Programme at the Royal Opera House. This season he joins the BBC New Generation Artist scheme.
His operatic roles include Morales Carmen, Mandarin Turandot, Baron Douphol La Traviata and Officer Les Dialogues des Carmelites for the Royal Opera, Schaunard La Bohème and the Pirate King The Pirates of Penzance for ENO, The Fairy Queen with the Academy of Ancient Music, Apollo e Dafne with the Pannon Philharmonic, Israel in Egypt with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and Christmas Oratorio on tour with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment.
In concert, he has appeared with the Philharmonia Orchestra, Arcangelo, Gabrieli Consort, Berlin Philharmonic and Monteverdi Orchestra under some of the world’s finest conductors including Esa- Pekka Salonen, Robin Ticciati, Sir John Eliot Gardiner and Sir Roger Norrington.
Engagements this season include his first Count Almaviva Le nozze di Figaro at English National Opera, Purcell’s King Arthur with the Academy of Ancient Music and concerts with Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Bremen Philharmonic, BBC NOW and recitals at Wigmore Hall and Oxford Lieder.
Winner of The International Opera Awards (2015), for Semiramide – La Signora regale, and Best Female Voice Finalist IOA (2016), the anti-Diva, as she likes to describe herself, Anna Bonitatibus is renowned for the noble passion with which she interprets titles between the most famous of ‘teatro musicale’, as well as the tireless commitment with which she promotes the divulgation of a rarer repertoire. She includes in her performed titles, seventy operas, from Claudio Monteverdi’s masterpieces to titles back to proscenium by Francesco Cavalli (Didone, Ercole amante, Calisto), crossing Händel’s operatic production (Agrippina, Deidamia, Giulio Cesare, Orlando, Tamerlano, Tolomeo, Ottone, Il Trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno) and composers from the Neapolitan school, from Pergolesi to Cimarosa, until her beloved Gioachino Rossini: La Cenerentola, Il Barbiere di Siviglia, L’Italiana in Algeri, Le Comte Ory, Il Viaggio à Reims, Tancredi and furthermore Cantate, Masses and the rare and preciouses Péchés de Vieillesse by the ‘pesarese’.
As the embodiment of Cherubino from the Daponteian Le Nozze di Figaro, she has become one of the most acclaimed performers of Mozart. Then follows Don Giovanni, Così fan tutte, Mitridate Re di Ponto, La Clemenza di Tito, as well as sacred and profane repertoire by the Salzburgian composer. The Mezzo-soprano’s wide repertoire includes also Messa da Requiem by Giuseppe Verdi, Ginevra di Scozia by Simon Mayr and Enrico di Borgogna by Donizetti interpreted with great success at the Donizetti Opera di Bergamo (2018). The French repertoire includes Carmen, a role brilliantly debuted in Madrid (2018) and L’Enfant et les sortilèges by Ravel, Roméo et Juliette by Berlioz and Gounod as well as Les contes d’Hoffmann by Offenbach, Werther and Don Quichotte by Massenet.
From first steps at the Teatro alla Scala, to Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich, to the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in Paris, to the Teatro Real in Madrid, La Monnaie in Bruxelles, Staatsoper in Vienna, to Royal Opera House in London, Festivals (Salzburg, Florence, Munich, Bologna, Grange) and to the most renowned international concert halls (from Russia to United States), Anna Bonitatibus has collaborated with the most acclaimed conductors and directors: Sir Charles Mackerras, Riccardo Muti, Sir Antonio Pappano, René Jacobs, William Christie, Ivor Bolton, Myung Whun Chung, Alan Curtis, Roberto Abbado, Ottavio Dantone, Marc Minkowski and Luca Ronconi, Jerome Savary, Pier Luigi Pizzi, Dario Fo, David McVicar, David Alden, Sir Jonathan Miller, Kasper Holten, Emilio Sagi, Sven-Eric Bechtolf, David Pountney.
The Convegno Internazionale Rossini 2017 opened their recent celebrations dedicated to Rossini150 and Anna Bonitatibus has been invited as interpreter for the special concert ‘Rossini e gli altri. La Gran scena’ produced by Fondazione Rossini di Pesaro. For the same celebrations, she participated at the Rossini Opera Festival 2018 and in September of the same year, she has been Rossini’s ambassador at the Seoul National University (South Korea) and at St. John College, Cambridge, with Recitals and Master Classes dedicated to Gioachino Rossini.
Alongside her artistic activity, Anna Bonitatibus is engaged in the research and promotion of Lirica italiana da camera (Italian Art Songs) through the music publishing house Consonarte – Vox in Musica, founded by her and that counts on a collaboration with experts, musicians and scholars from renown European universities. The project seeks to renew appreciation of this immense musical patrimony for which valuable initiatives are undertaken, including the recent performances by the Mezzo-soprano at the Wigmore Hall in London.
Among her most successful recordings: L’Infedeltà costante dedicated to Haydn; Un Rendez-vous, a portrait of Gioachino Rossini’s chamber music repertoire; Semiramide - La Signora regale, a musical itinerary from Porpora to García consecrated to the first Queen of Mesopotamia; La Tempesta, chamber Cantatas by the composer Marianna Martines, released for DHM/RCA/SONY. In DVD Il Barbiere di Siviglia for Hardy-RaiTrade, La Didone and Ercole amante by Cavalli (OpusArte) and Così fan tutte by Mozart (Arthaus), L’incoronazione di Poppea for Virgin Classic. In streaming, Anna Bonitatibus recently appeared in La Clemenza di Tito and Lucio Silla (La Monnaie, Bruxelles) and in L’Italiana in Algeri (Wiener Staatsoper, Vienna). Her latest recording (2018, BR Klassis) is the album ‘en travesti’: the recital, warmly acclaimed by audiences and press, crosses the parable of trouser roles composed for female voices and of which Anna Bonitatibus has always been an interpreter of reference.
Born in Italy, Raffaele Pe started his vocal and organ studies at the Lodi Cathedral where he was a chorister, working under Pietro Panzetti. He continued his training in London with Colin Baldy and became a member of the Monteverdi Choir’s Young Artists’ programme collaborating closely with Sir John Eliot Gardiner. He then perfected his skills with Fernando Cordeiro Opa in Bologna.
A leading artist in the baroque scene of the new generation, Raffaele Pe’s unique voice embraces a vast musical repertoire that extends from recitar cantando to contemporary works.
Recently, he has been awarded the “Premio Lirico Internazionale Tiberini d’Oro 2021” on the occasion of a gala concert streamed live at the Teatro Rossini di Pesaro.
Raffaele made his US debut at the Spoleto Festival USA, interpreting the leading male role of Delio in the world premiere in modern times of Cavalli’s Veremonda alongside Vivica Genaux. He debuted at La Fenice with Vivaldi’s Orlando furioso and at the Florence Opera with Vinci’s Didone abbandonata.
He is the first countertenor ever to be invited by the Verona Opera Festival where he performed Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana in the Arena di Verona.
One of today’s finest Handel interpreters, Raffaele has played some iconic roles from most of his works including the title role in Rinaldo in a Pier Luigi Pizzi/Federico Maria Sardelli production for the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, the title role in Giulio Cesare for the Theater St. Gallen, Medoro (Orlando) in a Giovanni Antonini/Claus Guth production at the Theater an der Wien, Arsace (Berenice) at the Göttingen International Handel Festival, Nerone (Agrippina) at the Grange Festival, the title role in Arbace at the Halle Handel Festival, Disinganno (Il Trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno) in Innsbruck, Versailles, Rouen, as well as Goffredo (Rinaldo) for Opera Lombardia. He performed Handel’s Messiah with Erwin Ortner at the Vienna Musikverein.
Among his most important past engagements are Nerone in Monteverdi’s Incoronazione di Poppea with Jean-Christophe Spinosi at the Buenos Aires Teatro Colón, the title role in the world premiere of the contemporary opera Hémon by Zad Moultaka for the Strasbourg Opéra du Rhin, Linceo in L’Ipermestra by Cavalli at the Glyndebourne Festival directed by Graham Vick; Oberon in A Midsummer Night’s Dream by Britten for Opera Lombardia; Ermione in Scarlatti’s Trionfo dell’onore at the Tokyo Fujiwara Opera and Festival della Valle d’Itria in Martina Franca, where he also embodied the role of Gualtiero in A. Scarlatti’s Griselda under George Petrou.
Under the direction of Jordi Savall, Raffaele Pe sang Bach’s Christmas Oratorio, his St. Matthew and St. Mark Passions as well as his Mass in B Minor at Versailles Royal Chapel, Paris Philharmonie, in Graz and Barcelona.
A prestigious recitalist, Raffaele has given a concert dedicated to Vivaldi alongside I Barocchisti and its founder Diego Fasolis at the Opéra de Lausanne.
He frequently collaborates with some of today’s leading conductors, including Jordi Savall, William Christie, Diego Fasolis, Alessandro De Marchi, Giovanni Antonini, Ottavio Dantone, Leonardo García Alarcón, David Bates, Paul McCreesh, René Jacobs, Nicholas McGegan, Václav Luks, Antonio Florio, Jean-Christophe Spinosi and George Petrou.
For the label Glossa, Raffaele released the solo album “The Medici Castrato”, which he presented at the Bologna and MITO Festivals and in major European venues including the Berlin Philharmonie. His second solo album, “Giulio Cesare - A Baroque Hero” he recorded, also for Glossa, with his own Ensemble La Lira di Orfeo was Sunday Times’ “Album of the Week” and awarded the most prestigious Abbiati Prize.
Recent and future projects include the first modern representation of Orpheus (title role) by Nicola Porpora for the Theater an der Wien, Handel’s Tamerlano (title role) for the Grange Festival and Vivaldi’s Giustino (Anastasio) under George Petrou for the Drottningholm Opera Festival. Raffaele reunites with Jordi Savall for Bach’s Christmas Oratorio at the Graz Styriarte Festival and gives a recital at London Wigmore Hall.
Some of the most recent engagements for Canadian soprano Stefanie True include Celia in Händel’s Lucio Silla at the Internationale Händel-Festspiele Göttingen, Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater in San Francisco with Voices of Music, the title role in Händel’s Esther with La Risonanza led by Fabio Bonizzoni, Belinda in Dido and Aeneas at the Händel-Festspielle Halle, Clomiri in Händel’s Imeneo at the Internationale Händel-Festspiele Göttingen, the title role in Händel’s Theodora with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Second Woman in Dido and Aeneas at Carnegie Hall with Les Violons du Roy and Amor Profano and Michal in Händel’s Saul with the Freiburger Bachchor.
Stefanie placed first in the London Handel Singing Competition. She studied voice with Catherine Robbin at York University (Toronto). She then went on to study at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague (Netherlands) with Barbara Pearson, Diane Forlano, Jill Feldman, and Michael Chance, where she completed her Masters in Early Music .
Christopher Ainslie started his singing career as a chorister in Cape Town and moved to London in 2005 to study at the Royal College of Music.
Ainslie has rapidly established himself as a leading interpreter of the countertenor repertoire, and is also active in exploring repertoire not usually associated with the voice-type. He has appeared at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, at Glyndebourne, English National Opera, Opéra de Lyon, and Central City Opera.
He previously sang Ottone Agrippina for the Göttingen Handel Festival. Other recent engagements include Unulfo Rodelinda for the Teatro Real, Athamas Semele at Garsington, Orfeo Orfeo ed Euridice for Opéra de Lyon and for Opéra National de Lorraine, and David Saul for Glyndebourne.
In 2017/18, he sings Giulio Cesare for English Touring Opera, Oberon at English National Opera, and appears with Les Musiciens du Louvre and Mark Minkowski, and with Philharmonie Zuidnederland.
Described as “ruling the stage” (Opera Magazine) in his debut as Pluto last season in English National Opera’s new production of Orpheus in the Underworld, British baritone Alex Otterburn delights audiences and critics alike with his bright tone and commanding stage presence. As an ENO Harewood Artist, Alex has appeared as Morales in Calixto Bieito’s production of Carmen conducted by Valentina Peleggi, and Squibby in the world premiere of Iain Bell’s Jack the Ripper: The Women of Whitehall, conducted by Martyn Brabbins. He returns this season in his debut as Ned Keene in David Alden’s production of Peter Grimes, conducted by Nicholas Collon.
Alex’s critically acclaimed debut as Eddy in Mark-Anthony Turnage’s Greek at the Edinburgh International Festival defined him as an exciting and important artist of the new generation, with further performances given in Glasgow for Scottish Opera and on tour to the Brooklyn Academy of Arts, marking his US operatic debut. Further successes have included Chip in Antony McDonald’s new production of On the Town at the Hyogo Performing Arts Centre and on tour in Tokyo, Harlequin in Ariadne auf Naxos for both Scottish Opera and Opera Holland Park, Pallante in Agrippina for The Grange Festival, and his company debut at Opera North as Cascada in The Merry Widow under Martin André.
Current and future projects include FARINELLI (Singing voice) Belasco Theatre (on Broadway), GUILDENSTERN Brett Dean’s Hamlet Glyndebourne on Tour, PALLADE L’Incoronazione di Poppea Opéra de Lyon Monteverdi’s L’orfeo Opera Royal de Versailles with Monteverdi Choir, ADALBERTO Ottone Festival de Beaune, ZEPHYRUS Apollo et Hyacinthus Classical Opera, Coronation Anthems, Fairy Queen, Handel’s Jephtha Academy of Ancient Music, First ANGEL/BOY (cover) Written on Skin Royal Opera House, Messiah Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, as well as a number of recitals throughout the U.K. and further afield.
Operatic highlights include PASTORE III L’Orfeo Bayerische Staatsoper, Monteverdi Choir and BBC Proms, ORONTE in Riccardo Primo London Handel Festival, SPIRITI and SECOND WITCH Dido & Aeneas Vignette Productions, OperaUpClose, Purcell’s The Fairy Queen Temple Ensemble, CUPID and HUNTSMAN Venus & Adonis Dunedin Consort and Opera Lyrica, OSMIDA La Didone Ensemble Serse, EDYMION La Calisto Hampstead Garden Opera, BERTARIDO Rodelinda Amade Players and OBERON (cover) in Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream at Glyndebourne Festival Opera.
Jonathan Best studied at St John’s College‚ Cambridge and at the Guildhall School of Music. He made his operatic debut in 1983 with Welsh National Opera‚ and has since sung with all the major British Opera companies and beyond.
Most recent engagements include Father Traurnacht (Festival d’Aix en Provence), Sarastro The Magic Flute‚ Alcindoro La Boheme and Le Bailli Werther (Scottish Opera)‚ Judge Turpin Sweeney Todd (Théâtre du Châtelet‚ Paris and Münchner Rundfunkorchester)‚ Drunken Poet The Fairy Queen ( Handel and Haydn Society‚ Boston)‚ title role Saul (The Sixteen)‚ Capellio I Capuleti e i Montecchi‚ Don Fernando Leonore‚ Zebul Jephtha (Buxton Festival)‚ Don Alfonso Cosi fan tutte and Lord Henry The Picture of Dorian Gray (Den Jyske Opera)‚ Quince A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Speaker The Magic Flute (Garsington)‚ Achilla Giulio Cesare (Opera North)‚ Pastor Oberlin Jakob Lenz and Bartolo The Marriage of Figaro (English National Opera)‚ The Adventures of Mr Broucek (Opera North/Scottish Opera and the world première of Sally Beamish’s The Sins (Psappha).