Opera Double Bill
Programme
Sāvitri
by Gustav Holst
Blond Eckbert
by Judith Weir
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The performance duration is approximately 1 hour and 50 minutes, with one interval.
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Welcome
Despite their common setting of a forest/wilderness, the two operas performed here in double bill present an evening more of contrast than of similarity. Indeed, these two pieces differ so much in their outlook that it could be argued that they provide a fitting counterbalance to each other.
Holst’s Sāvitri, an adaptation of an episode from the Mahābhārata, is a story of love and ultimately life’s triumph over death. The opera’s message of life itself being an act of communion must have been spiritually uplifting to a contemporary audience hearing it for the first time in 1916, during the First World War.
Comparatively, Judith Weir’s Blond Eckbert concentrates on the darker side of human existence. The story is an adaptation of a fairy tale by Ludwig Tieck, one of the leading figures in the German Romantic movement at the turn of the nineteenth century. It has familiar themes which are reminiscent of the tales of the Brothers Grimm and creates a mysterious and unsettling world, intensified in Weir’s retelling. A world which may lead to redemption – or madness. In stark contrast to Sāvitri, Blond Eckbert has a distinctly unhappy ending (just as some of the Grimm’s tales have less than fortunate outcomes) and is one example of what happens when having been lost in the darkness, the way back to the light is impossible to find.
Ashley Dean
director
Sāvitri
by Gustav Holst
Blond Eckbert (Pocket Version)
by Judith Weir
Text by the Composer, after Ludwig Tieck
By arrangement with CHESTER MUSIC LTD
Tim Redmond conductor
Ashley Dean director
Anna Bonomelli designer
Andrew May lighting designer
Aoife Moran assistant conductor (Sāvitri)
Edwin Spark assistant conductor (Blond Eckbert)
Anne Sutton assistant director
Aleksandra Myslek repetiteur (Sāvitri)
Michael Rose repetiteur (Sāvitri)
Alistair Burton repetiteur (Blond Eckbert)
Yongqiu Yuan repetiteur (Blond Eckbert)
Sāvitri
Sāvitri
Lorna McLean
Satyavān
Steven van der Linden
Death
Joe Chalmers (5 & 9 June)
Jacob Harrison (7 & 12 June)
Offstage Female Chorus
Ana Balestra
Holly Brown
Aina Miyagi Magnell
Shana Moron-Caravel
Anna Munoz
Yolisa Ngwexana
Rachel Roper
Louisa Stuart-Smith
Biqing Zhang
Sāvitri is tormented by the voice of Death calling to her. He has come to claim her husband, Satyavān.
Satyavān arrives to find his wife in distress, but assures Sāvitri that her fears are but Māyā (illusion), "All is unreal, all is Māyā." Even so, at the arrival of Death, all strength leaves him and he falls to the ground. Sāvitri, now alone and desolate, welcomes Death.
Moved to compassion by Sāvitri’s greeting, Death offers her a boon of anything but the return of Satyavān. Sāvitri asks for life in all its fullness. After Death grants her request, she informs him that such a life is impossible without Satyavān.
Death, defeated, leaves her and Satyavān awakens. "Even Death is Māyā".
Blond Eckbert
The Bird
Louisa Stirland
Berthe
Alexandra Meier (5 & 9 June)
Rachel Roper (7 & 12 June)
Eckbert
Emyr Lloyd Jones
Walther/Hugo/Old Woman
Jonah Halton
Act 1
A bird appears and begins to tell the story of Blond Eckbert, who lives with his wife Berthe in a secluded wood.
The couple anxiously awaits the arrival of their friend Walther. When he finally arrives he enthusiastically tells them about his explorations in the forest. Eckbert urges Walter to listen to Berthe describe the story of her childhood.
Berthe tells the story of her youth: her parents treated her poorly, prompting her to run away from home. She was taken in by an old woman who lived in a secluded pasture with a dog and a magical bird who laid jewels in place of eggs. She remembers loving the dog dearly, though now she cannot remember its name. She lived contentedly there for many years, but as she grew older, so grew her desire to experience the world beyond their secluded home. She left one day in secrecy, stealing the bird and some jewels. She made a life for herself in a village and married Eckbert, selling some of the gemstones to support their life together.
Walther thanks Berthe for sharing her story and says how he can really imagine the bird and the “friendly little dog, Strohmian”. Both Eckbert and Berthe are amazed that Walther knows the dog's name. They become terribly afraid that Walther might share their secret with others or return to steal their remaining fortune.
Act II
Eckbert finds Walther alone in the woods and kills him.
Feeling herself close to death as well, Berthe writes a letter to Eckbert describing her bewilderment and terror.
Eckbert finds himself alone in urban surroundings. A stranger emerges from the throng and introduces himself as Hugo. With warmth and kindness Hugo befriends Eckbert and calms him down. Eckbert confides in Hugo about Walther’s death in the woods. At first Hugo seems sympathetic but soon Eckbert fears that Hugo is growing suspicious and critical of him. He then looks at Hugo and believes he sees the face of Walther.
Eckbert flees back into the forest and finds himself at the place described by Berthe as where she met the Old Woman. At one point he seems to recognise a passerby – as Walther.
Eventually, he finds himself at the Old Woman’s house. The bird is there, as is the old woman, who reveals that she was both Walther and Hugo. She also tells him that Berthe was his half-sister, the extramarital child of her father. She had been given a life with the old woman and her time of trials was almost over when she stole the bird and gems. Eckbert goes insane and dies.
Production Team
Opera Department Students & Fellows
Assistant Conductor (Sāvitri)
Aoife Moran
Assistant Conductor (Blond Eckbert)
Edwin Spark (The Mortimer Furber Prize Scholar)
Assistant Director
Anne Sutton
Repetiteurs (Sāvitri)
Aleksandra Myslek (Guildhall Scholar)
Michael Rose (The Jack Irons Repetiteur Scholar)
Repetiteurs (Blond Eckbert)
Alistair Burton (Guildhall Scholar)
Yongqiu Yuan (Guildhall Scholar)
Stage Management
Stage Manager
Tom Licence
Deputy Stage Manager
Sammy Lacey (Guildhall Scholar)
Assistant Stage Manager/Book Cover
Charlotte Antingham
Assistant Stage Managers
Molly Hands (Guildhall Scholar)
Alec Schneider
Ida Pontoppidan
Production Management
Production Manager
Finley Wellspring
Technical Manager
Jonny Reeks
Head of Flys
Peter Adams (Guildhall Scholar)
Production Assistants
Peter Adams (Guildhall Scholar)
Justin Anderson (Guildhall Scholar)
Sound and Lighting
Production Electrician
Ros Chase (The Herbert & Theresie Lowit Memorial Scholar)
Lighting Programmers
Lwls Davies
Arthur White (Guildhall Scholar)
Production Sound Engineer
Takiyah Campbell (Guildhall Scholar)
Sound No 2
Artie Cook
Charlotte Munro
Eloise Soester-Gulliver (Guildhall Scholar)
Costume
Costume Supervisor/Wardrobe Manager
Sophie Presswell (Guildhall Scholar)
Costume Assistants
Olivia Fowler
Batoul Ghallab
Eleanor Harper (Guildhall Scholar)
Lottie Henry (Guildhall Scholar)
Florence Lindo
Uju Olisa (Carpenters’ Company Production Arts Scholar & City of London Scholar)
Emily Sayner
Props and Construction
Construction Manager
Fran Johnson
Scenic Carpenter
Kyra Coppini (Guildhall Scholar)
Assistant Carpenters
Emily Cave
Nicholas Dyne
Abbie Hardcastle (Guildhall Scholar)
Benjamin Yeo
Stage Lift Designer
Ben Mills
Scenic Art Coordinator
Issy Jordan
Assistant Scenic Artists
Johan Berendsen
Aleyna Feran
Katie Ranson (Guildhall Scholar)
Jonathan Strutt
Georgie Sunter
Callum Wallace
Prop Maker
Ema Cunha (B&T Scholar)
Assistant Prop Makers
Livia Brewster (Maria Björnson Memorial Fund Scholar)
Eva Gaidoni
Lola King
Additional Staff
Stage Management Supervisor
Caroline Moores
Chantal Hauser
Staff Production Manager
Julia Bermingham
Staff Costume Supervisor
Natalie Pryce
Technical Management Supervisor
Alastair Pullan
Scenic Art Supervisor
Vanessa Cass
Construction Supervisor
Matt Farley
Props Lecturer
Aurelie Clark
Wigs, Hair & Makeup
Lucia Mameli
Debbie Purkiss
Associate Producer
Stuart Calder
Language Coach
Elizabeth Rowe
Movement Director
Victoria Newlyn
Fight Director
Jonathan Waller
Opera Department Manager
Steven Gietzen
Guildhall School Production Arts Department
Vice-Principal & Director of Production Arts
Andy Lavender
Programme Leader, BA Digital Design & Production (formerly BA Video Design for Live Performance); Head of Theatre Technology
Andy Taylor
Programme Leader, MA Collaborative Theatre Production & Design
Emily Orley
Head of Costume
Rachel Young
Head of Design Realisation
Vanessa Cass
Head of Stage Management
Helen Barratt
Associate Producer
Stuart Calder
Outreach Manager (Production Arts)
Jon Hare
A full list of Production Arts teaching staff and technicians can be found on our website.
Guildhall School Opera Course
Head of Opera Studies
Dominic Wheeler
Resident Producer
Martin Lloyd-Evans
Coaches
Lionel Friend
Kate Golla
Alex Ingram
Michael Lloyd
Elizabeth Marcus
Jonathan Papp
Peter Robinson
Elizabeth Rowe
Susanna Stranders
Language Coaches
Emma Abbate
Florence Daguerre de Hureaux
Johanna Mayr
Emanuele Moris
Lada Valešova
Drama
Martin Lloyd-Evans
Victoria Newlyn
Movement & Dance
Victoria Newlyn
Opera Department Manager
Steven Gietzen
Deputy Head of Vocal Studies
Samantha Malk
Vocal Department Manager
Michael Wardell
Orchestra
Sāvitri
String Quartet A:
Violin I
Joana Correia Rodrigues (Guildhall Scholar)
Violin II
Victor Macabies (Guildhall Scholar)
Viola
Yinuo Zhu (Guildhall Scholar)
Cello
James McBeth
String Quartet B:
Violin I
Anastasia Egorova
Violin II
Pak Ho Hong
Viola
Eve Quigley (Brian George Coker Scholar)
Cello
Gabriel Francis-Dehqani (Tobacco Pipe Makers’ Scholar)
Double Bass
Melisande Lochak (Guildhall Scholar)
Flute
Cyrus Lam (Guildhall Scholar)
Jess McNulty
Cor Anglais
Stefani Trendafilova (Guildhall Scholar)
Blond Eckbert
Violin I
Joana Correia Rodrigues (Guildhall Scholar)
Violin II
Victor Macabies (Guildhall Scholar)
Cello
James McBeth
Kosta Popovic (5 & 12 June) (Guildhall Scholar)
Jane Lindsay (7 & 9 June)
Oboe
Stefani Trendafilova (Guildhall Scholar)
Clarinet
Kosuke Shirai (The Gillian and Freddie Martin Award Scholar)
Sofia Mekhonoshina (bass clarinet)
Horn
Cath Nuta (Chartered Surveyors’ Scholar)
Henry Ward (Guildhall Scholar)
Harp
Beth Caswell
Ensembles, Programming & Instrument Manager
Phil Sizer
Orchestra Librarian
Anthony Wilson
Music Stage, Logistics & Instrument Manager
Kevin Elwick
Music Stage Supervisors
Shakeel Mohammed
Louis Baily
Biographies
Tim Redmond
conductor
Guildhall School Productions
Phaedra, Ein Landartz, The Consul, Ariane, Alexandre Bis, Opera Makers.
Operatic credits include
Powder Her Face (ENO, INO, Mariinsky, RO, Bolzano);
Dionysos Rising (Trento, Vienna); The Cricket Recovers (Bregenz); The Golden Ticket (St Louis, American Lyric Theater, Wexford); Madama Butterfly (INO); Carmen, Gianni Schicchi & The Miserly Knight (Tenerife); The Original Chinese Conjuror (Almeida, Aldeburgh Festival); Thérèse Raquin (ROH Linbury); The Silver Lake (Wexford); West Side Story (Bath); The Medium (Buxton); Daughter of the Regiment, Carmen (ETO); Orfeo e Eurydice (Oxford, London, Malta); Biedermann and the Arsonists, Simplicius Simpliccisimus (Independent Opera at Sadler’s Wells); La Bohème, La Traviata, The Adventures of Pinocchio, Die Zauberflöte, Peter Grimes, Candide, Aida, Wonderful Town, Die Fledermaus (Cambridge); A Hand of Bridge (Los Angeles). Music staff for The Tempest (RO, Strasbourg, The Met) and for productions at Garsington, Glyndebourne, De Vlaamse Opera and Montepulciano.
Orchestral credits include BBCCO, BBCPO, BBCSO, BBCSSO, BCMG, Britten Sinfonia, CBSO, ECO, Hallé, LPO, LSO, Manchester Camerata, Philharmonia, RLPO, RPO, RSNO and UO; and overseas with orchestras in Austria, Bosnia, Canada, Croatia, Czechia, Estonia, France, Finland, Georgia, Holland, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Macedonia, Romania, Slovenia, Serbia, Switzerland, Turkey and the US. Recordings for EMI, Warner Classics, Harmonia Mundi and Orchid Classics. Principal Conductor Know The Score® (RPO), co-founder and conductor My Great Orchestral Adventure™ (RAH).
Future plans Peter Pan
(Innsbruck); La Bohème (Italy);
The Tempest (Vienna) and concerts with LSO, RPO, CBSO, Royal Northern Sinfonia, Manchester Camerata, Gävle Symphony (Sweden), Fondazione Haydn (Italy), Crash Ensemble (Dublin), Recordings: BBCSSO, FAMES (Skopje).
Ashley Dean
director
Guildhall School Productions Cendrillon Pauline Viardot, Docteur Miracle Bizet, Phaedra and Ein Landarzt Hans Werner Henze, The Long Christmas Dinner, A Dinner Engagement.
Other Credits include The Cunning Little Vixen (Royal Academy of Music); Iolanta (Operosa Opera Festival, Montenegro); Carmen (Scottish Opera); Le Nozze di Figaro, Cosi Fan Tutte, La Clemenza di Tito, Ariadne auf Naxos, Benjamin Britten's Phaedra (Royal Conservatoire of Scotland); Lucia di Lammermoor (Clonter Opera); L'incoronazione di Poppea, Trouble in Tahiti (Royal Danish Opera Academy); Albert Herring (Co.Opera Co.); Night Pieces - Jerwood Project (Glyndebourne/LPO).
Theatrical Credits include Twist and Shout (Il Palchetto - tour of Italy); The House of Bernarda Alba, The Dog Beneath the Skin (Cockpit Theatre, London); Hell and High Water, The Last Resort (Winner of Artistic Excellence Award - Mobarak Festival, Tehran); A Christmas Carol (Strangeface Theatre, UK and International tours).
Anna Bonomelli
designer
Training studied design before completing a Masters in Theatre Studies in Venice; trained with set and costume designer Paul Brown.
Design credits include
Pagliacci (Sferisterio Macerata); Dialogues des Carmelites (RNCM Manchester); Don Giovanni (Opera di Roma); La Traviata (HGO); Almost an Evening (Teatro Leonardo, Milano); Le Nozze in Villa (Teatro Donizetti, Bergamo); La Tragédie de Carmen (Pop Up Opera, London); Don Giovanni
(HeadFirst Production), West Side Story (NYMT, Manchester); Tallis and the Tides of Love (Ora Singers, London); Love on the Dole (Arts Space, London) and The Lift Key (Teatro Sociale Como).
Other credits include international productions in the major opera theatres of the world such us Teatro La Scala, Royal Opera House, Opera di Roma, Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Zurich Opernhaus, Teatro Regio di Parma, Lithuanian National Opera, Opera Zuid and Goteborg Opera.
Anna was first prize recipient designer of Donizetti Theatre 2019 contest with “Don Gaetano - a speed date with” a site-specific immersive performance about the life of the composer Gaetano Donizetti.
Andrew May
lighting designer
Training Fdeg in Technical Theatre, specialising in lighting design and production management.
Operatic credits include Macbeth (Opéra de Dijon); Così fan tutte (Perth Opera); Semiramide (Opéra de Saint-Étienne); Orféo (L'Opéra National de Bordeaux and Théâtre de Caen); The Marriage of Figaro (Houston Grand Opera); Don Pasquale (Glyndebourne and Glyndebourne on Tour); Ullas Odyssey (North wall Theatre Oxford and UK Tour); The Marriage of Figaro (Belgrade Theatre and UK tour); La Traviata (Soho Theatre and UK tour); The Marriage of Figaro (Glyndebourne on Tour); Yellow Sofa (The Lindbury and Glyndebourne on Tour); Of Water and Tears, Night Pieces, Yellow Sofa, Renard & Mavra, La Descente d’Orphée aux Enfers and Wakening Shadows (Glyndebourne); L’heure espagnole and L’enfant et les sortilèges(Teatro dell'Opera di Roma); Così fan tutte (LA Opera).
Theatrical credits include Curtains (ArtsEd); In the Bar of a Tokyo Hotel (Charing Cross Theatre).
Future plans Brontë (Grimeborn Festival).
Aoife Moran
assistant conductor (Sāvitri)
Guildhall School Junior Fellow.
Operatic credits include chief music coach for Dead Man Walking; repetiteur for Der Zar lässt sich Photografieren, Miss Fortune, The Telephone (Guildhall School); Sir John in Love (British Youth Opera); and Acis and Galatea (TU Dublin Operatic Society).
Future plans La Cenerentola with Scherzo Ensemble at Longhope Opera, Wexford Festival Opera Young Artist Programme 2023.
Edwin Spark
assistant conductor (Blond Eckbert)
Guildhall School Repetiteur Course.
Scholarships The Mortimer Furber Prize, Ryall Family Trust grant.
Operatic credits include assistant conductor/chorus master for Le Portrait de Manon, Fête Galante, I due timidi and Dead Man Walking (Guildhall School); repetiteur for Le docteur Miracle, Cendrillon and Il combattimento (Guildhall School); conductor for The Consul, Sāvitrī, Orfeo ed Euridice and Iphigénie en Tauride (The CoOPERAtive); and assistant conductor/repetiteur for Patience, The Pirates of Penzance, Ruddigore and The Mikado (G&S Opera Sydney); The Medium, Dido and Aeneas and Teseo (Miami Music Festival).
Anne Sutton
assistant director
Guildhall Assistant Director Junior Fellow.
Directing credits include A Copper Complication and the Opera by American Women Workshop (Royal Academy of Music); The Elixir of Love (Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge); Patience (University of Maryland) and The Tomb of Beauty (Peabody Conservatory New Work Festival, Covid-19). She has worked as an assistant director at the Berlin Opera Academy, the Halifax Summer Opera Festival, the Maryland Opera Studio, and the Royal Academy of Music.
Alistair Burton
repetiteur (Blond Eckbert)
Guildhall School Repetiteur Course.
Scholarships Guildhall Scholar
Repetiteur experience includes Autumn Opera Scenes, Dead Man Walking (Guildhall School); Così fan tutte, St. John Passion (Cumbria Opera Group); various student productions including Le nozze di Figaro, Acis and Galatea; and the second UK performance of Denis and Katya by Philip Venables (Cambridge University Opera Society).
Future plans Don Giovanni (Cumbria Opera Group); Opera Makers Summer 2023 (Guildhall School).
Joe Chalmers
Death (5 & 9 June)
Guildhall School Opera Course (first year) studying with John Evans.
Scholarships Elizabeth Sweeting Award; Help Musicians Sybil Tutton Opera Award; The Caird Trust Travelling Scholarship; Mario Lanza Foundation; John Clemence Charitable Trust.
Previous roles include Captain Corcoran (cover and performed) HMS Pinafore (English National Opera); Narratore I due timidi (Guildhall School); Nettuno la liberazione di ruggiero dall'isola d'alcina (Longborough Festival Opera); Bass Shepherd and Plutone (cover) and Caronte (cover) L’Orfeo (Garsington Opera); Martino L’occasione fa il Ladro (British Youth Opera); and scenes from A Rake’s Progress, Maria Stuarda, Capriccio, I Capuleti e Montecchi, Le Nozze di Figaro, Albert Herring, Carmen, and L’elisir d’amore (Guildhall School).
Future plans Opera Makers Summer 2023 (Guildhall School).
Jonah Halton
Walther/Hugo/Old Woman
Guildhall School Opera Course (first year) studying with Amanda Roocroft.
Scholarships Carpenters’ Company Henry Osborne Award Scholar; Valerie White Memorial Trust.
Previous roles and experience include Peter Quint The Turn of the Screw, Leicester Maria Stuarda, Der Tenor Capriccio, Don Ottavio Don Giovanni, Števa Jenůfa (Guildhall School Opera Scenes); Head Peasant/Lensky (cover) Evgeny Onegin (West Green House Opera); Solo in Stravinsky’s Pulcinella; Pasek The Cunning Little Vixen with Sir Simon Rattle and Peter Sellars (Barbican Centre and Philharmonie de Paris); BBC Symphony Total Immersion: Chamber Music & Songs by Detlav Ganert, broadcast on BBC Radio 3.
Jacob Harrison
Death (7 & 12 June)
Guildhall School Opera Course (first year) studying with Robert Dean.
Scholarships The Behrens Foundation; Help Musicians Sybil Tutton Opera Award.
Competitions The Wyburd Prize for German Lieder 2021; Keith Bonnington Prize 2022; Weston Award 2022.
Previous roles include
Figaro Le Nozze di Figaro
(University of Exeter Opera Society); Scenes from Così fan tutte, La Sonnambula
(Staircase Opera Company); Scenes from Don Giovanni, Il Barbiere di Sivilgia, Le Docteur Miracle, Die Zauberflöte, Pelléas et Mélisande (Guildhall School); Le Baron de Pictordu (cover)
Cendrillon, Lord Fortune Miss Fortune, Der Begleiter des Zaren Der Zar läßt sich photographieren (Guildhall School).
Future plans Opera Makers Summer 2023 (Guildhall School); Encuentro de Santander 2023.
Emyr Lloyd Jones
Eckbert
Guildhall School Opera Course (first year) studying with Susan Waters.
Scholarships Horners’ Becker Scholarship; Tobacco Pipe Makers’ Scholar.
Previous roles include Hugh Evans Sir John in Love (BYO); Il Conte di Almaviva Le Nozze di Figaro, Musiklehrer Ariadne auf Naxos, Forester The Cunning Little Vixen, Edmund Bertram Mansfield Park (RNCM).
Future plans St John Passion (Sheffield Oratorio Chorus and Buxton Musical Society)
Lorna McLean
Sāvitri
Guildhall School Opera Course (second year) studying with Janice Chapman and Marcus van den Akker.
Scholarships Girdlers' Scholar; Help Musicians Sybil Tutton Opera Award.
Competitions Finalist, Guildhall Gold Medal Award
Previous roles include Sister Rose Dead Man Walking, Mariuccia I due timidi, Angélè Der Zar lässt sich photographieren (Guildhall School); Mother Hänsel und Gretel (British Youth Opera & Silent Opera at Opera Holland Park); and scenes from Anna Bolena, Der Rosenkavalier, Arabella, Owen Wingrave, Albert Herring, Don Giovanni, Idomeneo, Die Tote Stadt, La Gioconda, Der Freischütz and Cavalleria rusticana (Guildhall School). Other roles include Erste Dame Der Zauberflöte and Mimí La Bohème.
Future plans Emerging Artist (American Wagner Project – Institute for Young Dramatic Voices).
Alexandra Meier
Berthe (5 & 9 June)
Guildhall School Opera Course (second year) studying with John Evans.
Scholarships The Herbert and Theresie Lowit Memorial Scholarship.
Previous roles include Sister Helen Prejean Dead Man Walking, Jean de Moncerf Le Portrait de Manon, La Madre di Mariucca I due timidi, Der falsche Boy Der Zar lässt sich photographieren, Third Apple Little Green Swallow, Second Witch Dido and Aeneas (Guildhall School); Der Trommler Der Kaiser von Atlantis, Anneli Der Goldkäfer
(Theater Basel); Hänsel Hänsel und Gretel (semi-staged concert, Südwestdeutsche Philharmonie Konstanz). Aleksandra was Alvarez Young Artist for Garsington Opera 2021 and is a 2022/23 Britten Pears Young Artist.
Future plans Britten Song Trail: Cabaret recital at Aldeburgh Festival, Cenerentola La Cenerentola (Longhope Opera), Dinah Trouble in Tahiti (Grimeborn Opera Festival).
Aleksandra Myslek
repetiteur (Sāvitri)
Guildhall School Repetiteur Course.
Scholarships Guildhall Scholar; Opera Awards Foundation; Help Musicians Sybil Tutton Opera Awards; the Kathleen Trust.
Repetiteur/music director experience includes music director for Carmen and Tosca (Opera Loki); repetiteur for Syllable , a new opera by Ed Jessen; music director for Cav/Pag (Opera on Location); music director for Die Zauberflöte (Cardiff Opera); repetiteur for abridged performances of Ariadne auf Naxos and Der Rosenkavalier (Opera Uncovered); repetiteur for Hänsel and Gretel (OperaEd, educational project), music director for Hänsel and Gretel (St Paul’s Opera); All Aboard Opera projects - assistant music director for L’elisir d’amore (Longhope Opera); assistant repetiteur for Cosí fan tutte (Gap Festival); Gilbert and Sullivan Society performances; repetiteur work on Götterdämmerung with Gidon Saks in preparation for his Hagen role in the Deutsche Oper.
Future plans music director for the Waterperry Opera Festival, Britten Pears Young Artist 2023.
Rachel Roper
Berthe (7 & 12 June)
Guildhall School Opera Course (first year) studying with John Evans.
Scholarships Marianne Falk Award Scholar.
Competitions MOCSA Young Welsh Singer of the Year 2022; Kathleen Ferrier Bursary for Young Singers Joyce Budd Second Prize 2018.
Previous roles include Jewish Child A Child in Striped Pyjamas (Echo Ensemble); Mistress Ford Sir John in Love (British Youth Opera); Dritte Knabe Die Zauberflöte (Bloomsbury Opera); Chorus La Bohème (Nevill Holt Opera); Chorus Fairy A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Ottavia
L’incoronazione di Poppea and scenes from Il Barbiere di Siviglia, La Calisto, Alcina, Così fan tutte, Madama Butterfly,
Jenůfa, Chérubin and Albert Herring (Guildhall School).
Michael Rose
repetiteur (Sāvitri)
Guildhall School Repetiteur Course (first year) studying with Bretton Brown.
Scholarships The Jack Irons Repetiteur Scholar.
Repetiteur experience includes Trouble in Tahiti, A Hand of Bridge (Cumbria Opera Group); Banished, Coraline, Les Art Florissants (Royal Birmingham Conservatoire);
The Decision (Birmingham Opera Company).
Future Plans Opera Makers Summer 2023 (Guildhall School).
Louisa Stirland
The Bird
Guildhall School Opera Course (second year) studying with Yvonne Kenny.
Scholarships The Gita de la Fuente Prize Scholar; The Dow Clewer Foundation Scholar.
Previous roles include Aurore Le Portrait de Manon, Columbine Fête Galante, Kitty Hart & Sister Catherine Dead Man Walking, Lucia I due timidi and Clorinda il combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda (Guildhall School); Lisette La Rondine, Sophie Werther, Sophie Der Rosenkavalier, Aspasia Mitridate, Armida Rinaldo, Despina Così fan tutte, Ilia Idomeneo, Puck A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Guildhall School Opera Scenes); created the role of Lucia in Lucid, a new opera for Guildhall Schools’s Opera Makers.
Future plans: Queen of the Night The Magic Flute (Clonter Opera, July 2023).
Steven van der Linden
Satyavān
Guildhall School Opera Course (first year) studying with John Evans
Scholarships Grocers’ Scholar; Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds; VandenEnde foundation; Help Musician Sybil Tutton Opera Awards; Countess of Munster Musical Trust.
Previous roles include Varo (cover) Arminio (Jette Parker Opera); Fenton Sir John in Love (British Youth Opera); Aeneas Dido and Aeneas, Septimius Theodora, Norman Opera Papoea (World premiere) (IJsalon in Amsterdam); Aeneas Dido and Aeneas, Septimius Theodora (International Bachfestival Gran Canaria); Der Gehilfe (cover) Der Zar lässt sich fotografieren, scenes from Die Zauberflöte, Albert Herring, Dialogues des Carmelites, L’elisir d’amore, The Rakes Progress, Capriccio (Guildhall School).
Yongqiu Yuan
repetiteur (Blond Eckbert)
Guildhall School Repetiteur Course studying with Bretton Brown.
Scholarships Guildhall Scholar.
Repetiteur experience includes The Monk and The Lotus (Tête à Tête, Grimeborn) and scenes from Die Zauberflöte (Guildhall School).
Our Supporters
The staff and students of Guildhall School are grateful for the generous support received from the following individuals, trusts and foundations, City livery companies and businesses, as well as those who wish to remain anonymous.
Exceptional Giving (£100,000+)
Leverhulme Trust
Jane Ades Ingenuity Scholarship
Leadership Giving (£25,000+)
Amar-Franses & Foster-Jenkins Trust
City of London Education Board
Fishmongers' Company
Norman Gee Foundation
Goldsmiths' Company Charity
Leathersellers' Foundation
Herbert and Theresie Lowit Memorial Scholarship
Wolfson Foundation
Henry Wood Accommodation Trust
P Young HonFGS & C Young
Major Benefactors (£10,000+)
Behrens Foundation
Maria Björnson Memorial Fund
Estate of Sally Cohen
Cosman Keller Art and Music Trust
Ms Elmira Darvarova
David Family Foundation
Mark Dixon & Giulia Nobili
D'Oyly Carte Charitable Trust
Drapers' Company
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Guildhall questions: Timothy Redmond answers
Timothy Redmond is Professor of Conducting at Guildhall School, a regular guest conductor with the London Symphony Orchestra and Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, and conductor and co-creator of the Royal Albert Hall’s My Great Orchestral Adventure™ concert series.
We caught up with Timothy in between rehearsals to hear more about the two works featuring in this double bill, what it's been like to work on the production and his special family connection with one of the pieces.
Could you give a brief introduction to the chamber operas being performed in this double bill?
At the very end of the 19th century, when Holst was in his mid-twenties, he became absolutely fascinated by the ancient Hindu text, the Rigveda. Such was his interest, that he taught himself Sanskrit in order to make his own translations of the stories he was reading and subsequently set those words to music.
The legend of Sāvitri and Satyavān is found in the Sanskrit epic poem, the Mahābhārata. It tells the tale of a woman, Sāvitri, who confronts Death and entreats him to spare her husband Satyavān. Her heartfelt declaration of love for her husband moves Death and he allows Satyavan to return to the land of the living.
In his operatic setting of 1909, Holst alternates a spare folk-like simplicity with an opulent and lush sound world that wouldn’t be out of place in the music of Strauss or Wagner. He writes in a strikingly original manner, foreshadowing what we might expect to hear from Benjamin Britten several decades later. For example, Sāvitri and Death sing in unaccompanied counterpoint for the entire first page of the opera and later a wordless choir of female voices represents Māyā – illusion – creating an otherworldly sound that Holst would go on to use in Neptune, the final movement of The Planets.
Sāvitri is an extraordinary work, ahead of its time in many respects, but which was received with great enthusiasm when it was first performed and which has found a justified place in the repertoire.
Judith Weir, one of Britain’s most respected and prolific operatic composers, wrote Blond Eckbert for the English National Opera in 1993. That original score, for large orchestra and chorus as well as solo voices, was reworked into a chamber version in 2006 and it’s this that we’ll be performing in June. The story concerns a man and his wife, a mysterious friend, and a bird, who both observes and narrates and goes on to philosophise about the loneliness one can feel in the forest: ‘Alone in a wood, I don't feel so good’. Based on Ludwig Tieck’s Der blonde Eckbert of 1796, it has its literary roots in German Romantic fairy tales. But unlike the happy-ever-afters of Disney’s fairytale endings, this narrative unfolds in unexpected ways and the relationship between the characters becomes both supernatural and alarming.
Weir’s music is punchy and pungent, jazz-flecked and constantly shifting underfoot. It does what all great operatic scores do, offering a subconscious to the drama and leaving space between the sung words for the listener to interpret the story as they perceive it.
What can audiences expect from this production?
One-act operas, like short stories, have to introduce their characters and develop their narratives very efficiently. Sāvitri (30 minutes) and Blond Eckbert (60 minutes) are satisfyingly succinct and offer the audience a compelling pair of musical stories in the vein of Roald Dahl’s Tales of the Unexpected. Shared archetypal themes of love and death, nature and fate and the complexities of human relationships underpin the evening’s drama and the designs of the two operas share elements which underline their common threads.
You have a family connection with one of the pieces – could you tell us more?
I was doing some research into early performances of Sāvitri and by chance discovered that exactly 100 years ago my grandfather sang the role of Death! I knew he had sung in the premiere of another opera of Holst’s (The Perfect Fool) but I hadn’t realised the two operas were sung as a double bill in a tour by the British National Opera Company in 1923. That autumn the company toured Scotland for five weeks, presenting eight shows a week of a total of 18 different operas (quite an extraordinary thought) amongst them several new works by British composers which were a great success, with The Scotsman commenting "There has been nothing more gratifying in connection with the present brilliant little season of opera at the King's Theatre than the success which has attended the performance of the four works by British composers included in the season's repertory”. As a conductor of new music, it gives me great pleasure to know that the audiences of 100 years ago were so welcoming to new opera!
What’s it been like to work with Guildhall artists on this project?
The extraordinary thing about working at Guildhall is being surrounded by so many fabulously talented young people in such a broad range of disciplines. The opera school itself is a thing of wonder, comprising singers on the cusp of their careers. If you don’t catch them today, they’ll be on the international stage before you can blink. But opera being opera, every theatrical element is represented, and so one gets to witness the invention, dedication and artistry of stage managers and crew, lighting and sound teams, set and costume designers and make-up artists, not to mention the impressive virtuosity of the orchestral musicians in the pit. Overseen by the most supportive of staff, it is both inspiring and humbling to see so many young people working together in such a professional way.
Who or what have been some of the biggest inspirations in your career?
To be in music is to spend your whole life learning. We spend our every moment aspiring to do something that can never be fully mastered in performances that by their very nature can never be repeated. And so, to witness people who have dedicated their lives to this art and who have an ability to tell a story through music is the biggest inspiration. Recording with Alison Balsom and working with Simon Keenlyside, assisting Thomas Adès and conducting concerts with the LSO are all things that have influenced me profoundly. But so too was playing in my youth orchestra when I was a teenager. And I wouldn’t be where I am today without that experience then.
What is your top tip for aspiring young opera singers?
Keep learning, keep listening, keep asking. And always aim to be the kind of colleague you’d like to work with.
Forthcoming events at Guildhall School
Antigone
5–12 July, Silk Street Theatre
Orla O’Loughlin directs the world stage premiere of Stef Smith's epic and lyrical reimagining of the classic story of Antigone, her siblings and her city.
Opera Makers
6–11 July, Milton Court Studio Theatre
Three new works written by composers and librettists on Guildhall’s MA in Opera Making & Writing are performed alongside a selection of opera scenes from classic repertoire.
Chamber Music Festival
7–9 July
Three days of performances from some of the School’s most accomplished chamber groups and student-professor collaborations in celebration of some of the greatest chamber music ever written.
Guildhall School of Music & Drama
Founded in 1880 by the City of London Corporation
Chairman of the Board of Governors
Graham Packham
Principal
Professor Jonathan Vaughan
Vice-Principal & Director of Music
Armin Zanner
Vice-Principal & Director of Production Arts
Andy Lavender
Head of Opera Studies
Dominic Wheeler
Please visit our website at gsmd.ac.uk
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