Le nozze di Figaro
‘The best opera ever written by a human being’*
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‘The best opera ever written by a human being’*
Our Festival Friends ensure the success of each festival and are essential to sustaining the high quality of opera at The Grange.
Egarr was appointed Music Director of the Academy of Ancient Music in 2006, and shortly thereafter he established the Choir of the AAM. Together they have brought semi-staged productions of Mozart’s La Finta Giardinera, Monteverdi and Purcell cycles to the Barbican (performing Dido and Aeneas earlier this season). Egarr made his Glyndebourne debut in 2007 with a staged St Matthew Passion, and has conducted La clemenza di Tito, Le nozze di Figaro and Rossini’s Il Signor Bruschino (Netherlands Opera Academy). He conducts leading symphony orchestras such as London Symphony, Royal Concertgebouw and Philadelphia, as well as period ensembles such as Handel and Haydn Society Boston. He was Associate Artist with the Scottish Chamber 2011-2017, and was recently appointed Principal Guest of the Residentie Orkest The Hague from 2019. A sought-after keyboard player, he regularly plays at Wigmore and Carnegie Hall, and has recorded many discs for Harmonia Mundi and latterly for Linn Records. He trained as a choirboy at York Minster, was organ scholar at Clare College Cambridge, and later studied with Gustav and Marie Leonhardt. He teaches at the Amsterdam Conservatoire and is Visiting Artist at the Juilliard School in New York.
Training: Physics at Manchester University and Theatre Arts at Bretton Hall College. Martin worked for three years with Cheek by Jowl theatre company.
Opera Credits: recent productions include A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Barbican, Feeks for Opera Holland in the Netherlands. Romeo et Juliette for Operosa in Bulgaria and Mitridate, Re di Ponto for Classical Opera Company at Sadler’s Wells and Buxton Festival. For OHP Martin has directed La Wally, Francesca da Rimini, Un Ballo in Maschera, La Gioconda, l’Amore dei Tre Re, The Queen of Spades, Andrea Chenier, Le Nozze di Figaro, Stiffelio and Don Giovanni. For Mid Wales Opera Falstaff, Le Nozze di Figaro, La Bohème, Rigoletto and La Traviata. For GSMD productions include Rita/Iolanta, Cherubin, The King Goes Forth to France, La Vie Parisienne, Capriccio, the British premiere of Dove’s The Little Green Swallow, the UK premiere of The Aspern Papers (RPS Award nominee); BYO includes The Rape of Lucretia, Flight, Cosi fan tutte; Garden Opera La Bohème, Cosi fan tutte, Cenerentola, Don Giovanni, Carmen, The Barber of Seville amongst many others; Essential Scottish Opera; the premiere of Spirit Child for Lontano; Carmen, The Mikado Penang State Festival; RPS award-winning premiere of On London Fields with HMDT.
Other Credits: theatre work includes The Articulate Hand at The Wellcome Trust and TEDMED, Wallace and Gromit: Alive on Stage on tour and the West End.
Tim Reed has an international reputation as an opera and theatre designer. Opera includes the Paris Opera premiere of Docteur Faustus, L’Ormindo for Netherlands Opera, Verdi Macbeth in Madrid, La traviata, The Turn of the Screw and Hänsel und Gretel in Israel, and in Dublin, Cosi fan tutte, Der Rosenkavalier, Die Fledermaus and La traviata. He has worked extensively in Sweden designing L’elisir d’amore for Gothenburg Opera and The Coronation of Poppea and The Marriage of Figaro for Norrlands Opera in Umeå. Theatre work includes The York Mystery Cycle with Steven Pimlott, The Beaux’ Stratagem and The Field for the Abbey, Exit, Entrance and The Shadow of a Gunman for the Peacock, and Happy Days and The House of Bernarda Alba for the Gate Theatre, Dublin.
Opera lighting designs include: Manon Lescaut, Werther, Butterfly, Faust, Carmen, Peter Grimes (New York Met); The Damnation of Faust, Faust, Lucrezia Borgia, Madame Butterfly (ENO); Pélleas et Mélisande (Mariinsky); The Soldier’s Tale & Pierrot Lunaire (Chicago Symphony); Werther, Butterfly, Faust, Carmen, Peter Grimes (New York Met); Eugene Onegin (LA Opera/ROH); The Return of Ulysses, Luisa Miller, Tannhäuser, Falstaff, Eugene Onegin, Katya Kabanova, Fidelio, Andrea Chénier (Opera North); Passion (Minnesota Opera); La traviata, La Cenerentola (Glyndebourne); Il Trovatore (Paris); Fidelio, Two Widows, Don Giovanni, The Ring (Scottish Opera); The Midsummer Marriage (Chicago Lyric Opera); The Bartered Bride, Eugine Onegin (ROH). Peter has directed and designed concert stagings of The Ring Cycle and The Flying Dutchman for Opera North. In November, he will direct and design a concert staging of FIDELIO for Orchestre de Chambre de Paris.
Recent Ballet lighting designs: Carmen (Royal Ballet and Texas Ballet Theater/choreographed by Carlos Acosta); The King Dances, Faster, E=mc2, Take Five (Birmingham Royal Ballet); Carmen (also set design, Miami City Ballet/choreographed by Richard Alston); Ein Reigen (Vienna State Ballet).
Recent Theatre lighting designs: A Christmas Carol, Mr. Foote’s Other Leg, Top Hat (West End); Stepping Out (Bath, UK Tour; Long Day’s Journey into Night (Bristol Old Vic); Little Eyolf, Bakkhai (Almeida), High Society (Old Vic); The Merchant of Venice (RSC); King Kong (Global Creatures/Australia); Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, Donkey Heart, Top Hat (West End); Ghosts (Almeida/BAM); Bull (Young Vic/Sheffield/59E59 Theater, New York); Dying City ( also set design) Love and Information, Escaped Alone, The Wolf at the Door (Royal Court); Scenes from an Execution (National Theatre); Wild, Wonderland (Hampstead theatre); The BFG (Birmingham Rep);
Awards include: Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement in Dance for The Glass Blew In and Fearful Symmetries (Royal Ballet), Olivier Award for Best Lighting for The Bacchai (National Theatre); Knight of Illumination Award for Sucker Punch (Royal Court); and the Helpmann and Green Room Awards for King Kong the musical in Melbourne.
Mitchell trained at Laine Theatre Arts.
Performance credits include; Ensemble u/s Hook in Peter Pan (Theatre Royal, Newcastle) Ensemble u/s Jack in Jack and the Beanstalk (Kings Theatre, Edinburgh) Toy Soldier in Nutcracker (MAC, UK & Ireland) Playlist Performer (Carnival Cruise Line) FT Ensemble in Snow White (Bristol Hippodrome) Ensemble u/s Prince Charming in Cinderella (New Theatre Cardiff) Ensemble u/s Robin in Robin Hood (Theatre Royal Plymouth).
Television includes; Handsome Bell Boy in Dr. Who (BBC) Dave in Being Human (BBC). Mitchell has also modelled for Spa Experience, Rhys Giles, Burton, Bound To You, Chisel Cheeks, Barry M, Ynad Javier and L’Oreal.
Creative credits include; Choreographer Dick Whittington (Lighthouse Poole) Choreographer Around the World in 80 days (The Union Theatre) Choreographer Il barbiere di Siviglia (The Grange Festival) Offie Nomination; Best Choreographer Twang!! (The Union Theatre) Choreographer HMS Pinafore (UK Tour) Choreographer The Mikado (UK Tour) Associate Director Fabulous 50 (Yvonne Arnaud Theatre) Choreographer Goldilocks (Ivy Arts Centre) Choreographer Loserville (Ivy Arts Centre and Electric Theatre) and Choreographer Jack and the Beanstalk (Freshwater Entertainment).
Mitchell is delighted to be back at The Grange Festival this year.
Toby Girling’s current and future engagements include Nicomedes Der König Kandaules and Pallante Agrippina (De Vlaamse Opera), Belcore l’elisir d’amore (Scottish Opera), Angelo Das Liebesverbot (Chelsea Opera Group at Cadogan Hall), Sam Trouble in Tahiti (Oper Leipzig on tour in Bolzano, Wexford Festival and Teatro Pérez Galdós in Gran Canaria).
Recent engagements include Evangelist/Watchful/First Shepherd Pilgrim’s Progress (ENO), Masetto Don Giovanni, Ruggero La Juive (Peter Konwitschny), Mozart’s Mass in C minor, a staged version of Winterreise and Junkman/Hermann Augustus Candide (Vlaamse Opera Antwerp), Top in Copeland’s The Tenderland (Opéra de Lyon), Marcello La Bohème and Morales Carmen (Neville Holt), Guglielmo Così fan tutte (English Touring Opera), and Il Chirurgo/Alcade La Forza del Destino (Théâtres de la Ville de Luxembourg). For the Glyndebourne Opera Festival Chorus, he sang Arthur Jones and covered Donald Billy Budd in the Michael Grandage production.
Toby is a graduate of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.
A 2010 graduate of the Jette Parker Young Artists Programme at the Royal Opera House, Romanian-British Soprano Simona Mihai began her studies in the UK, attending the Royal College of Music as a Queen Mother Scholar.
Major operatic roles have included Nedda I Pagliacci, Musetta and Mimi La bohème, Poussette Manon and Frasquita Carmen (ROH), Mimi La Boheme (Frankfurt and Perm), Adina L’Elisir d’Amore (Salzburg), 2nd Niece Peter Grimes and Pousette (La Scala, Milan), Governess The Turn of the Screw (Santiago, Chile), Roksana Krol Roger (Palermo) and Despina Così fan Tutte (Glyndebourne on Tour).
Most recently, in 2018 she sang Nedda at the ROH, before making her debut at La Monnaie, Brussels in the same role. At the end of 2017, Simona sang Musetta in the premiere of Richard Jones’ new La bohème at the Royal Opera House, also singing Mimi later in the run. She returned to Covent Garden this summer for further performances as Mimi.
Ellie Laugharne studied on the Guildhall School of Music & Drama Opera course after graduating from Birmingham University and Birmingham Conservatoire. While at the Guildhall she won the Musicians Benevolent Fund Maggie Teyte Prize and Miriam Licette Scholarship. She was a Jerwood Young Artist for the Glyndebourne Festival and more recently an Associate Artist for Opera North. She is also a Samling Artist and an Associate Artist of the Classical Opera Company.
Recent operatic roles include Cupid Orpheus in the Underworld and Frasquita Carmen both at English National Opera, Susanna Le nozze di Figaro in her company debut at The Grange Festival, Pamina The Magic Flute for Opera North, the title role in Blackheath Halls’ production of Offenbach’s La Belle Hélenè, Polissena in Handel’s Radamisto and a semi-staged performance of the St Matthew Passion for English Touring Opera.
Further operatic appearances have included: Susanna Le nozze di Figaro and Lucia The Rape of Lucretia (in a new production by Fiona Shaw) for Glyndebourne on Tour; Phyllis in a new production of Iolanthe and Barbarina Le nozze di Figaro for English National Opera; Adina L’elisir d’amore, Frasquita Carmen and Mabel The Pirates of Penzance for Scottish Opera; Governess The Turn of the Screw (in a new production by Annilese Miskimmon), Tina Flight and Zerlina Don Giovanni for Opera Holland Park; Despina Cosi fan tutte, Gretel Hänsel und Gretel and Susanna Le nozze di Figaro for Opera North; Sandrina La Finta Giardiniera and Edna Tobias and the Angel (by Jonathan Dove) for the Buxton Festival; Valencienne The Merry Widow for the International Gilbert and Sullivan Festival and Yum Yum The Mikado for Raymond Gubbay Productions in London, Birmingham and Manchester.
Among her concert engagements Ellie has sung Mozart’s Requiem with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra; St John Passion with the Ulster and Bournemouth Symphony Orchestras; Beethoven’s Choral Fantasy at the Edinburgh International Festival; a programme of music commemorating the Battle of the Somme for Brighton Festival; Auretta in Mozart’s unfinished opera L’oca del Cairo, completed by Stephen Oliver for the London Mozart Players, and recitals for Glyndebourne, Opera North, the Ryedale Festival and with the Myrthen Ensemble. With Classical Opera and Ian Page, Ellie has performed Haydn’s cantata Applausus and Zerlina Don Giovanni at Cadogan Hall and made her debut at Wigmore Hall singing Bastienne in Mozart’s Bastien und Bastienne. Future engagements include Eliza Doolittle My Fair Lady at the Barcelona Liceu and her American debut with Richard Egarr and the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra in San Francisco.
Roberto Lorenzi is a graduate of the “Luigi Boccherini” Institute of Musical Studies in Lucca, Italy. He won the First Prize in the AsLiCo’s Competition and took part at Young Singers Project at the Salzburg Festival and the Opernhaus Zürich International Opera Studio graduating in 2015. In these years he performed: I Capuleti e i Montecchi (F. Luisi conducting; DVD for Accentus), Médée by Charpentier (W. Christie conducting), Otello, Orlando Paladino, Il matrimonio segreto, La Straniera, La Cenerentola, Il Viaggio a Reims, Le Comte Ory, Carmen and La Clemenza di Tito (O. Dantone conducting).
Lorenzi made his La Scala debut in Franco Zeffirelli’s production of La Bohème, under the baton of Daniele Rustioni. Elsewhere he appeared in Tosca, Le nozze di Figaro, Don Giovanni (title role) in Lucca; Alidoro in La Cenerentola in Tuscany and Lille; Ferrando in Il Trovatore for AsLiCo circuit; Der fliegende Holländer in Rome, Bologna, Turin; Don Giovanni in Tel Aviv; Rossini’s Petite Messe Solennelle in Pesaro; La Straniera in Amsterdam; I Puritani in Palermo; La Cenerentola (Alidoro) in Martigny, Lecce and on tour; Il Viaggio a Reims at the Musikverein in Vienna; Carmen in Rome; Don Giovanni in Bologna; Il Trovatore in Fermo and Jesi; Figaro in Le Nozze di Figaro at the Grange Festival in London; Verdi’s Requiem in Pisa; Mozart’s Requiem in Lucca and Händel’s Messiah in Madrid, Gdansk and Sevilla with Fabio Biondi and Europa Galante; Rossini’s Stabat Mater with the Verdi Orchestra in Milan. Future plans: Guglielmo in Così fan tutte in Nice and Antibes; Leporello at the Guangzhou Opera House; Figaro in Le Nozze di Figaro at the Norske Opera in Oslo.
Mezzo-soprano Wallis Giunta was the winner of the “Young Singer” category at the 2018 International Opera Awards and “Breakthrough Artist in UK Opera” in the 2017 WhatsOnStage Awards. Highlights in the 2018/19 season include role debuts as the title role Carmen, Rosina The Barber of Seville, and Octavian Der Rosenkavalier (Oper Leipzig), Idamante Idomeneo (Opera Atelier, Toronto), Flora La traviata with Placido Domingo (ROH, Muscat). Giunta will also appear at the BBC Proms, the Concertgebouw Amsterdam and the Edinburgh Festival. Recent highlights include the title role in Ravel L’enfant et les sortilèges and as Dinah in Bernstein Trouble in Tahiti (Opera North), and Gymnasiast in a new production of Berg Lulu, and Angelina La Cenerentola and Cherubino Le nozze di Figaro (Oper Leipzig).
Louise Winter studied at the RNCM, winning the Esso Glyndebourne and John Christie Awards. Since her debut as Dorabella with Glyndebourne Touring Opera, she has sung with major companies including the Royal Opera, ENO, Glyndebourne, Canadian Opera Company, Opera Frankfurt, Berlin Staatsoper and La Monnaie. Her most recent roles include Marcellina Le Nozze di Figaro (ROH), Gertrude in Brett Dean’s Hamlet (Glyndebourne on Tour), Madame Larina Eugene Onegin and Pilar in David Sawer’s The Skating Rink (Garsington), Kabanicha Kat’a Kabanova (Longborough) and Wife in Turnage’s Greek (Music Theatre Wales/Linbury/Korea). Performances on DVD include the Goddess Diana (La Calisto) conducted by René Jacobs. She has performed with many leading orchestras and conductors, including the CBSO with Sir Simon Rattle, the BBC Symphony Orchestra with Sir Andrew Davis, the Hallé Orchestra with Sir Mark Elder, and the Philharmonia Orchestra under Sir Charles Mackerras. 2018/19 includes Governess The Queen of Spades (ROH) and Maya in Howard Moody’s Agreed for Glyndebourne.
Acclaimed tenor Ben Johnson represented England in BBC Cardiff Singer of the World 2013 and won the Audience Prize. A former BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artist and 2008 winner of the Kathleen Ferrier Award, Johnson trained as an English National Opera Harewood Artist and was also a Wigmore Hall Emerging Talent.
His 2017/18 season included a return to English National Opera as Earl Tolloller in Gilbert and Sullivan’s Iolanthe as well as performances of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne and Britten Canticles with Fundacion Juan March in Madrid.
Recent highlights include Eisenstein Die Fledermaus and Don Ottavio Don Giovanni for Opera Holland Park as well as Alfredo La Traviata, Tamino Die Zauberflöte, and Nemorino L’elisir d’amore, for English National Opera. He has also performed Don Ottavio Don Giovanni for Glyndebourne Festival Opera as well as Novice in their production of Billy Budd directed by Michael Grandage, Lysander A Midsummer Night's Dream for Bergen National Opera, Bénédict Béatrice et Bénédict for Chelsea Opera Group, Copland's performances ofThe Tender Land at Opéra de Lyon and Britten’s War Requiem at De Doelen and the Concertgebouw Brugge.
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).
Richard Suart studied at Cambridge University‚ and the Royal Academy of Music‚ where he was elected a Fellow in 2004. Recent and future engagements include Pangloss (Toronto Symphony, Vancouver Symphony, LA Philharmonic‚ Hollywood Bowl and Opera di Firenze,)‚ Lord Chancellor Iolanthe (San Francisco Symphony), Baron Zeta The Merry Widow (Michigan Opera Theatre)‚ Judge Trial by Jury (ENO)‚ Ko-Ko The Mikado (ENO and Scottish Opera)‚ Major-General The Pirates of Penzance (Scottish Opera)‚ title role Gianni Schicchi (Diva Opera)‚ Bartolo The Barber of Seville (Charles Court Opera)‚ Judge Turpin Sweeney Todd (Reisopera)‚ Jack Point The Yeomen of the Guard and Major-General (RTE Concert Orchestra).
Further engagements include Ligeti’s Le Grand Macabre (Salzburg Festival and Châtelet)‚ Koko (New York City Opera‚ Vancouver and Penang), Major-General‚ Frank Die Fledermaus, Baron Zeta‚ Lesbo Agrippina and Benoit/Alcindoro La Bohème (ENO); Jack Point (Welsh National Opera and ROH)‚ Barabashkin Paradise Moscow (Opera North and Bregenz)‚ Stan Stock in the premiere of Benedict Mason’s Playing Away (ON‚ Bregenz and St Pölten)‚ Magnifico La Cenerentola‚ Lord Chancellor‚ Don Inigo Gomez L’Heure Espagnole (Grange Park Opera) and Antonio Le Nozze di Figaro (Garsington).
Yorkshire born soprano Rowan Pierce was awarded the President's Award by HRH Prince of Wales at the Royal College of Music in 2017. She won both the Song Prize and First Prize at the inaugural Grange Festival International Singing Competition, the Van Someren Godfery Prize at the RCM and the first Schubert Society Singer Prize in 2014. She has recently been made a Rising Star of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and is a Harewood artist at English National Opera.
Rowan has appeared on the concert platform throughout Europe and in South America and appears regularly with ensembles including the Academy of Ancient Music, Gabrieli Consort, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Florilegium and Royal Northern Sinfonia. In 2017 Rowan made her BBC Proms debut at the Royal Albert Hall with the OAE and her Wigmore Hall debut with the London Handel Players. Future highlights include performances with the Rotterdam Philharmonic, the Academy of Ancient Music, Gabrieli Consort, BBC Scottish Symphony, La Nuova Musica, Early Opera Company and Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra.
Rowan was made a Harewood Artist at English National Opera in 2018. Operatic roles have included Drusilla L’incoronazione di Poppea, Galatea in Acis & Galatea, Iris Semele, Susanna The Marriage of Figaro, Miss Wordsworth, Emmie and Cis Albert Herring and Princess L'enfant et les sortilèges. Future operatic roles include Tiny Paul Bunyan and Papagena The Magic Flute (ENO), Barbarina Le Nozze di Figaro (Nevill Holt Opera) various roles in performances and recordings of both Purcell’s King Arthur and the Fairy Queen (Gabrieli Consort). Festival performances include collaborations with Sir Thomas Allen and Christopher Glynn in the Ryedale Festival, Dame Ann Murray and Malcolm Martineau in the Oxford Lieder Festival and Roger Vignoles in Leeds Lieder. Recording plans include sessions with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, the Gabrieli Consort and the Academy of Ancient Music.
Rowan is a Samling Artist and was generously supported by the Countess of Munster Award and Midori Nishiura at the RCM.