Watch this space!!

Following the highly successful run of "Hansel and Gretel" at the end of last year - and our brilliant venture into the "staged recital" with "Americana" earlier this year, Open Door Opera's creative team are now putting the wheels in motion for our next project. Do watch this space for future news of upcoming auditions and future projects! 

What they did next...

Rebecca Dale
Americana - staged recital: King's Head Theatre, Islington - 26th February - www.kingsheadtheatre.com

Rhonda Browne
Thelma, Gudrun: Surrey Opera, Fairfield Halls, Croydon - 9-11 February - www.surreyopera.org/thelma.html

Ian Wilson Pope

Die Walkuere, Wotan: Midsummer Opera, St John's Church Waterloo - 24/26 February
Cox and Box, Cox: Porcupine Opera, Picadilly; Putney - 10 March; 27th April
Falstaff, Ford: St John's Tour, Theatre Royal Winchester; Stroud - 20/21 April; 11 May
Die Walkuere, Wotan: Fulham Opera, St John's Church, Fulham - 22/23/25/27 May - www.fulhamopera.com
Goetterdaemmerung, Gibichung Vassal: Longborough Festival Opera - 17/19/22/24 July

Kelvin Lim
Russian concert, Accompanist: 49 Queens Gate Terrace - 29 February
Holland Park Chorus Master - May-August

Ian Massa-Harris
Carmina Burana, Tenor soloist: St Barnabas, Mitcham; Roundhouse, Camden - 3/4 March
Gianni Schicchi Gherardo: Fulham Opera, St John's Fulham - 20-25 March
Das Rheingold, Mime: Wagner Society
Holland Park May-August

Oliver Gibbs
Madam Butterfly, Sharpless: St Albans Chamber Opera, The Abbey Theatre - 20-25 March - www.stalbanschamberopera.org.uk

Alexandra Stevenson
Dido and Aeneas, Belinda: West Sussex Opera, Chichester - 7/16/17 March - www.wso.kk5.org

Lewis Reynolds
Rappresentatione di anima et di corpo, Director: Trinity College Chapel, Cambridge - 14/15 March 

Reviews from December's "Hansel and Gretel"

Happy New Year! Here are a round up of the reviews of our last production of Hansel and Gretel. If you enjoyed the show and would like to send us some feedback, please don't hesitate to get in touch with us here! 

"The two leads – Laura Kelly's Hansel and Danae Eleni's Gretel – offer assured vocalism, with Kelly's rounded mezzo a particular pleasure... most successfully is in Kelvin Lim's expert pianism and keen musical direction. Realising a richly orchestrated late-Romantic score on a single keyboard is a major challenge, but Lim brings out Humperdinck's folksy charm and glamorous quasi-symphonic textures with aplomb."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2011/dec/27/hansel-gretel-review-kings-head 

"Laura Kelly’s Hansel is a sulky boy, a reluctant dancer at first; Danae Eleni’s domestic Gretel chides and cajoles him. The dance sequence, so often twee and tedious, is full of fun and character here. They both sing their roles beautifully, their two voices, carefully tempered to the tiny venue, blend well. And they act every second of the score – gobbling strawberries, scoffing marshmallows, licking up the cream, sharing a broomstick to fly off home at the end. I enjoyed Ian Massa-Harris’s Little Britain witch, too, creepily menacing in his cardie and specs, greedily eyeing the oven-ready lost children... Janet A N Fischer made a believable mother, scolding one moment, desperately praying the next... The immortals made the most of their brief moments – Rosalind Coad’s Sandman, with her gold dust and nightcap, and especially Alexandra Stevenson’s hungover party-girl Dew Fairy, clutching her golden shoes – a lovely conceit."
http://www.thepublicreviews.com/hansel-and-gretel-kings-head-theatre-london/ 

"Danae Eleni delivered a clear-voiced, bright Gretel... Laura Kelly’s fruity mezzo... Ian Wilson-Pope was particularly clarion"
http://recitative.wordpress.com/2011/12/29/hansel-and-gretel-at-the-kings-head/ 

"Kelvin Lim's handsome account of the fiendish piano reduction... Humperdinck's Wagnerian fairy tale super-straight until the entrance of Ian Massa-Harris's impossibly glamorous, unnervingly lascivious Witch. Camp as Christmas? I'll say."
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/classical/reviews/die-meistersinger-von-nrnberg-royal-opera-house-londonhansel-and-gretel-kings-head-theatre-london-6286444.html

"Reynolds's new translation works well, his direction is constantly inventive and he brings out some splendid acting performances from his young cast. Especially notable were Katie Slater and Rebecca Dale as the children, bringing out a wide range of naughtiness alternating with trying to be good, sibling rivalry alternating with love, and just plain hunger. Dale plays Gretel's dream in Act II in slow motion dumb show as she turns the milk from the restored jug into angels' wings for her mother and father: it was a remarkable piece of theatre which bowled me over...  Oliver Gibbs as the Father, who has a huge voice which will undoubtedly be filling much larger spaces...  Rosalind Coad sang beautifully..."
http://www.bachtrack.com/review-hansel-and-gretel-open-door-opera

"It’s rare to find Opera as fun and accessible as Open Door Opera’s take on Humperdinck’s classic. Ian Massa Harris’s Witch... sinister character comedy that danced dangerously from Better Midler to Myra Hindley reaching a crescendo with  a show stopping spell. Rosalind Coad’s Sandman and Alexandra Stevenson’s boozy Dew Fairy both bringing strong performances and fresh dimensions to the evening"

http://www.g-life.co.uk/#/reviews/4560651396

LAST NIGHT TONIGHT - FRIDAY 30th DECEMBER + Robert Workman's Photographs of the Dress Rehearsals of Hansel and Gretel

Cast
Gretel - Danae Eleni
Hansel - Laura Kelly
Mother - Janet A N Fischer
Father - Ian Wilson-Pope
Sandman - Daisy Brown
Dew Fairy - Alexandra Stevenson
Witch - Ian Massa-Harris


(download)

HAPPY CHRISTMAS FROM OPEN DOOR OPERA!

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A fantastic first six nights at the King's Head Theatre.

Now the Hansel and Gretel cast and crew are off making merry in celebration of Christmas - and six highly successful nights at the King's Head! We will be back on the 27th of December for 4 more nights!! 

Don't miss your chance to catch this sell-out show!!

Book now at www.kingsheadtheatre.com as a lot of tickets are already sold! They make a good Christmas present!!

Merry Christmas Everyone!!

FANTASTIC FIRST FOUR NIGHTS!

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A fantastic first night at the King's Head Theatre!!

Audience feedback was brilliant!

"An astounding show - such brilliant singing!" "The witch was terrifying!" "Hansel's really cool!" "I'm coming again on Wednesday and bringing my god-daughter - an amazing show!" "Such brilliant orchestral playing in the overture"

The first three shows sold out so if you're reading this and want to come... do call the box office ASAP to book for the next couple of weeks!!!

Press enquiries to Danae Pallikaropoulos - 07800900978 - mail@opendooropera.com - for more information and high resolution images. 

Here are the Cast Biographies!

Reviews and photos to follow!

Lewis Reynolds (Director/Translator)

Lewis Reynolds trained as a director at Welsh National Opera, The National Youth Theatre and in the Cambridge Footlights. His first written publications were as schoolboy correspondent for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette; he assisted Nixon in China librettist Alice Goodman for two years and wrote his first libretto under her supervision; in 2008 he won the Charles Grant Tennant Prize for Light Verse.

He wrote the libretto for Alex Campkin’s Stone Heart at the Grimeborn Festival, which he also directed at the Arcola Theatre, and he directed his own adaptation of Euripides and Gluck’s Iphigenia at Aulis at The Scoop at More London. Other directing includes Rappresentatione di anima e di corpo (Venice, with conductor Philip Thorby), The Telephone and The Medium (King’s Head Theatre), L’enfant et les sortilèges (St John’s Smith Square) and Mrs Lazarus by Carol Ann Duffy and Tim Benjamin (Purcell Room), which won Classical Music Magazine “première of the year”. He has guest lectured as Director Mentor at RADA. Future plans include King Lear starring David Ryall.


Kelvin Lim (Musical Director/Piano) 

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Kelvin Lim trained at the RCM, and has worked for: ENO, ROH2, Glyndebourne, Opera Holland Park (Carmen, La Boheme, Tosca, La Traviata, Nabucco), ETO (Eugene Onegin, L’Infedelta delusa), Longborough (Das Rheingold, Die Walkure, Siegfried), Mid-Wales Opera (Madam Butterfly, Falstaff , Il Barbiere di Siviglia), Royal Academy of Music (Magic Flute cond Colin Davis), Mastersingers (The Ring, Parsifal, Die Meistersinger), Bampton Classical (Marriage of Figaro, Don Giovanni, Barber of Seville, Falstaff), Co-Opera-Co (La Boheme, Magic Flute, Carmen), Dorset Opera (Cavelleria Rusticana, I Pagliacci), Tete-a-Tete (Push!).

Kelvin is Co-Director of Postgraduate Opera at Trinity College of Music, where he assisted Stueart Bedford (Albert Herring). He coaches on the Advanced Performers Studio as well Co-Opera-Co where he was Assistant conductor for Albert Herring. Musical Director credits: King’s Head Theatre (I Pagliacci), English Opera Singers (Macbeth), Opera Brava (Carmen, Madama Butterfly), Bampton Classical (L’Infedelta Delusa), and assistant MD at Central School of Speech and Drama, (Company!, Jerry Springer the Opera), Magic Flute and Opera Scenes rehearsals at Royal Academy of Music. Kelvin was repetiteur for Opera Genesis at ROH and is CREAR scholar. He was awarded the Bayreuth Bursary Prize, and is the official accompanist for the Wagner Society. 

He has worked for John Tomlinson, Anne Evans, Joyce DiDonato, Mary Plazas, played in coachings with Magdalena Koczena, Gerald Finlay, and in masterclass with Antonio Pappano, John Tomlinson, Gwyneth Jones, Sally Burgess, Sarah Walker & Malcolm Martineau. He regularly broadcasts on Radio 3, and has performed at The Linbury, Coliseum, Vernon Ellis Foundation, RAM, St James Piccadilly & St John Smiths Sq. Recent engagements include: Exposure for ROH2, Aldeburgh Jerwood Opera Course,  accompanying Sir John Tomlinson in a Wagner recital & on Radio 3. Kelvin also performs as piano soloist recently giving a recital of Liszt’s Wagner transcription. He was member of the contemporary six-piano chamber group Piano Circus.

Future engagements include: Hansel & Gretel (Kings Head), Chorus Master for Opera Holland Park in 2012, and the full Ring Cycle in 2013 for Longborough Festival Opera.

Eleanor Reynolds - Costume Designe

 Eleanor Reynolds has been dressing dancers and opera singers since 2007. She is a self-taught seamstress and has been knitting since the age of 7. In addition to making dresses to order, she designs jewellery, handbags and patchwork quiltshttp://dresstoexpress.wordpress.com/

 

Daisy Brown – Dew Fairy and Sand Man (17, 20, 21, 23, 27, 29, 30)

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After achieving a First Class Honours Degree in Art History from Oxford Brookes University and a Postgraduate Diploma at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, Daisy was awarded a place on the Masters of Music course at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance to study with teacher Ameral Gunson and vocal coach Robert Aldwinkle. Recent roles include Belinda, Dido and Aeneas [Baroque Collective] Almirena, Rinaldo [TL Opera] Cis, Albert Herring [Britten Pears Young Artist Programme, Aldeburgh Festival] Lucy, The Telephone [AIMS] and Iris, Semele [Hamstead Garden Opera]. This year Daisy was a Thelma King Award finalist, she received a ‘Highly Commended’ at the Boise
Foundation Award auditions and was awarded the ‘City Livery Club Music Section Prize.’ Daisy’s studies are  generously supported by the Eva Malpass Scholarship

 

Rhonda Browne – Witch (17, 20, 22, 27, 29)

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Rhonda Browne’s passion for singing began in the choral world, singing with the New Zealand National Youth Choir. In 2004 her focus shifted when she started performing in the Opera New Zealand chorus before moving to London to pursue a solo career. Rhonda has studied concert singing at Birkbeck University and opera on the ENO Opera Works programme where she studied roles including Third Lady The Magic Flute, Lucretia The Rape of Lucretia and Cornelia Giulio Cesare. She has also studied at Morley College of London where she performed scenes from Werther (Charlotte), Eugene Onegin (Filipyevna), Orfeo ed Euridice (Orfeo), Falstaff (Mistress Quickly), Peter Grimes (Mrs Sedley), Merry Wives of Windsor (Mistress Page) and La Gioconda (Laura). She has performed the role of The Duchess of Plaza Toro, Gondoliers; Ludmila Bartered Bride; Orlovsky Die Fledermaus; two staged productions of the Messiah and two seasons in the chorus for Opera Holland Park. Concert engagements include Vivaldi’s Gloria, Mozart’s Missa Brevis and Requiem, Handel’s Messiah, Duruflé’s Requiem, Saint Saëns’ Christmas Oratorio and recitals in New Zealand, Germany and the UK.  She is currently studying with Jacqueline Bremar and coaching with  David Harper and Kelvin Lim.

 

Rosalind Coad – Sandman (19, 20, 22, 23, 28, 29)

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Rosalind Coad studied at the Royal College of Music and on the ENO Opera Works course and is now continuing her studies with Lillian Watson and Ashley Stafford. Operatic roles include Donna Elvira Don Giovanni [OperaUpClose], Helene La Belle Helene [Merry Opera], Mimi La Boheme [OperaUpClose] and in scenes, Contessa di Almaviva Le Nozze di Figaro, Female Chorus The Rape of Lucretia and Fiordiligi Cosi fan Tutte. Other solo performances include Handel Messiah, Beethoven Missa Solemnis, Handel Dixit Dominus, Monteverdi Vespro della Beata Virgine and Christmas Vespers, Rutter Magnificat and Requiem and Faure Requiem.Rosalind is also a vibrant recital singer, specialising in contemporary music. As a member ofRarescale, she has performed Kaija Saariaho's Lohn, Thomas Ades's Life Story, Haris Kittos'sOrthros, Berg's Sieben Fruhe Lieder, Tristram Cary's I Am Here and the world premiere of Michael Oliva's Songs of a Recollected Lover for the Tete a Tete Riverside Festival. Rosalind recently performed Debussy's Proses Lyriques in her St John's Smith Square debut. Rosalind has sung in masterclasses with Sarah Walker, Jane Manning, Stephen Varcoe, Peter Harveym Michael Chance, Kaija Saariaho, Ian Partridge and Graham Johnson. Rosalind will be starting the Royal Academy of Music Opera Programme in September 2012.

Rebecca Dale – Gretel (17, 20, 22, 27, 29)

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Rebecca has studied with Cynthia Jolly and Teresa Cahill and completed a Masters in music at Trinity College of Music in 2008.  She has recently completed the APS Opera Course and currently studies with Patricia Sabin. Operatic Roles include; Ninetta, La Finta Semplice [Opera at Home], Papagena, Die Zauberflöte [Opéra de Baugé], Gianetta, L’elisir d’amore [Hampstead Garden Opera] and Lucy, The Telephone [Open Door Opera]. Future engagements include Berta, The Barber of Seville [Opéra de Baugé] and Zerlina, Don Giovanni [Opera Boheme]. 

 

Danae Eleni – Gretel (19, 21, 23, 28, 30)

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Having just returned from a recital tour of Greece and the Middle East, premiering works by Kelvin Thomson and Roger Redgate, Danae is thrilled to be making her debut at the King’s Head Theatre. Recent operatic roles include the title role of Ravel’s L’enfant et les sortilèges [Open Door Opera]; Lucy The Telephone in a Vodafone store and on tour [Opera Anywhere]; Suor Genovieffa Suor Angelica [OCMC], Micaela Carmen [Opera in Concert]; Zerlina Don Giovanni [CarteBlancheOpera] and Emilia Marco Attilio Regolo [Ensemble Serse]. Danae studies with Ashley Stafford and Paul Farrington. Future plans include Rossini Petite Messe Solennelle [Devizes Choral Society]; Beatbox at Sound Thought, Glasgow and a recital of Greek song in St Mary’s Cathedral, Edinburgh. www.danaeeleni.com

 

Janet A. N. Fischer – Mother (19, 21, 23, 28, 30)

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Canadian soprano Janet A.N. Fischer first explored her passion for music at the age of three. Following in her older brother’s footsteps she studied the violin until at age 18 she decided to embark on a singing career. She graduated from the RNCM under the tutelage of respected senior professor Barbara Robotham. Janet’s previous appearances in opera have included Rhoda The Withered Arm [Tête-a-Tête Opera festival], Fiordiligi Cosi Fan Tutte, Irene Tamerlano, Clara & Olympia The Sandman [ROH2 Development], Roxana King Roger, Female Chorus Rape of Lucretia, Countess Nozze di Figaro, Dog Fox and Cockerel Cunning Little Vixen, Donna Anna Don Giovanni, Dorabella Cosi Fan Tutte, The Witch Rusalk, Susannah Susannah, Magda The Consul, Tatiana Eugene Onegin, Die Gräfin Capriccio and Marianne Tartuffe. In her spare time Janet is an avid Scuba Diver, writes travel articles for the Canadian based City, Style and Living magazine, and holds an MBA!

 

Oliver Gibbs – Father (17, 20, 22, 27, 29) 

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Oliver Gibbs is from London and initially followed a career as an actor. He subsequently concentrated on his singing and has performed principal roles such as Eugene Onegin, The Count and Figaro Le Nozze di Figaro, with Opera South-East, Midsummer Opera, and Aquarian Opera. He has also appeared as Dromio di Efeso in Storace's Gli Equivoci at the Batignano Festival in Tuscany and presented a solo recital at the Edinburgh Festival. Other roles include Mustapha Italian Girl in Algiers, Giorgio Germont La Traviata, Silvio I Pagliacci, Rodrigo Don Carlo, and Enrico Lucia, as well as Captain Corcoran H.M.S.Pinafore for Carl Rosa Opera and Dr Bartolo Barber of Seville for Opera East.  Earlier this year he appeared as Sharpless Madam Butterfly for Opera Up Close and more recently The Manager in the R.O.H. Youth Opera Beginners. He is also a member of the extra chorus at the Royal Opera House and English National Opera.

 

Laura Kelly – Hansel (19, 21, 22, 28, 30)

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Laura recently graduated from the Royal Academy of Music Opera School where she held an Independent Opera Scholarship. Operatic roles at the Academy include Juno, Semele; Nancy, Albert Herring;  Doctor in the world premiere of Peter Maxwell Davies' Kommilitonen!; Jenny, Three Penny Opera. She has covered the roles of Siebel, Faust and Cherubino, The Marriage of Figaro, both with English National Opera; performed the role of Olga in Eugene Onegin [Stanley Hall Opera Company] and the role of Alisa in Lucia di Lammermoor  [Opera Bohemia]. She recently took part in the Britten-Pears Russian song course with Joan Rodgers and Roger Vignoles and will go on tour in 2012 with Diva Opera performing the role of 2nd boy in Mozart’s Magic Flute.

Ian Massa-Harris – Witch (19, 21, 23, 28, 30)

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Trained as a baritone on The Knack at ENO in 2000/01 and at Birkbeck, and now studies with Arwel Treharne Morgan and formerly Mary King.  He has appeared as chorus soloist including La Forza del Destino, Francesca Da Rimini, Pique Dame, Jenufa, La Traviata, Roberto Deveraux, Rigoletto and Macbeth.  TV credits include the première of Children In Need, The Musical and Jonathan Dove's TV Opera Death of a Princess.  Ian has worked as assistant director at the National Opera Studio.  He recently created, performed and recorded the rôle of Operatic Tenor in Benjamin Till’s Pepys Motet and returned to Holland Park.  Future engagements include Sorcerer Dido and Aeneas in Spain, one of 4 tenor soloists in a new composition by Shane Cullinan with narrator Sir Derek Jacobi, Trojan – Idomeneo ­[Midsummer Opera], Witch Hansel and Gretel [Open Door Opera], Gherardo Gianni Schicchi [Fulham Opera] in March 2012 and Mime Siegfried [Fulham Opera] in September 2013. 

 

Miriam Sharrad – Mother (17, 20, 22, 27, 29)

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After completing a Bachelor of Arts, Australian Mezzo Soprano, Miriam Sharrad, graduated with distinction from a Bachelor of Creative Arts, Vocal Performance. Soon after, she made her debut with the Australian Opera Studio in 2004 where she was mentored by Gregory Yurisich, She has performed, amongst other roles, Cornelia Julius Caesar, Bianca  The Rape of Lucretia, Dulcinée Don Quichotte, Mozart’s Dorabella, Cherubino and Second Lady, Niklausse/Muse Tales of Hoffman and Meg Page in Verdi’s Falstaff. A versatile performer, she features heavily on the award winning radio broadcast, Cabaret: from Vienna to Hollywood and Broadway, and the AOS recording, ‘Studio Sings Sondheim’ On the concert platform Miriam has performed as a soloist in works ranging from Buxtehude’s, Membra Jesu Nostri to Handel’s, Messiah. She was invited to perform at the opening of the 2006 Asian Economic Forum in Cambodia, has performed in New Zealand, Japan (for the International Foundation for Arts and Culture) and, in the United Kingdom, has worked with the English Touring Opera, (Marcellina - Marriage of Figaro, Mrs Fox, The Fantastic Mr Fox), Grange Park Opera, (Woodpecker/Frog - The Cunning Little Vixen), and Renard Productions (Dinah -  Trouble in Tahiti). In late 2011, Miriam will be singing Waltraute, Götterdämmerung, conducted by David Syrus, for The Mastersingers, and 2012 sees her taking the role of Filippyevna Eugene Onegin for Grange Park Opera.

 

Katie Slater – Hansel (17, 20, 23, 27, 29)

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Katie read English and French at the University of Nottingham, during which she spent a year in Paris at the Ecole Normale Cortot de Musique.   She is continuing her studies with Ameral Gunson and Alastair Young at Trinity College of Music, generally supported by the Cordelia Moses Scholarship.  Roles include Olga Eugene Onegin [Blackheath Opera], Laura Iolanthe [AIMs];Dorabella Cosi Fan Tutti,  Meg Paige Falstaff [TCM Opera Scenes]; Female Chorus Iphigenia [Open Door Opera], and has sung in the chorus with Opera Holland Park La Forza del Destino, Francesca da Rimini, and Hampstead Garden Opera Semele.  Concert highlights include Beethoven Mass in C, Britten Rejoice in the Lamb, and Duruflé Requiem.  Katie has performed in masterclasses with Susan Bullock, Robert Tear and Donald Maxwell.

 

Alexandra Stevenson – Dew Fairy (19, 21, 22, 27, 28, 30)

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This is Alexandra’s second show at the King’s Head, having appeared as Monica, The Medium with Open Door Opera last summerOther roles include Le Feu, L'enfant et les sortileges and Dew Fairy, Hansel and Gretel [West Sussex Opera]. Alexandra studies with Ashley Stafford and has recently completed the opera course at the Advanced Performers Studio. She is coached by Catherine Bott, Donald Maxwell, Robin Newton, Thomas Blunt and Marco Ozbic. Alexandra has sung recitals at St. Johns, Smith Square and The Chelsea Schubert Festival in London and the Usher Hall in Edinburgh. A regular oratorio soloist, she has recently sung with the Band of HM Royal Marines. A lover of jazz, Alexandra has performed at the Pigalle Club. She has a degree in History of Art from Edinburgh University. www.alexandrastevenson.co.uk.

 

Ian Wilson-Pope – Father (19, 21, 23, 28, 30)

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Ian has performed many roles, recent ones being Wotan Das Rheingold; Title role in Julius Caesar; Basilio The Barber of Seville; Sharpeless/Bonze/Yamadori Madam Butterfly and Alcindoro/Benoit in the Olivier Award winning La Boheme [OperaUpClose]. He is also a regular extra chorister at Opera North and Welsh National Opera. Future plans include: Bass soloist Mozart’s Requiem (Dec 11), Puccini’s Messe di Gloria (Mar 12), Herod in The Christmas Story (Dec 11); Cox in Cox and Box (Mar 12); Ford in Falstaff (Mar 12); Wotan in Die Walküre and Siegfried (2012-13).