19 June 2013  

Born in Birmingham, UK. He received an Olivier Award in 1998 for outstanding achievement in opera and was awarded a CBE in New Year's Honours list 2000

The Times: ‘he exudes that mixture of passion, puppyish energy and quick intelligence which makes his conducting so exciting.’

with the Britten-Pears Orchestra securing an unlimited range of shimmering colour and dynamic intensity - shows a composer, far from frail and written-out, at the top of his game, in music that is intense, extraordinary, magical.’
The Observer: ‘With the meticulous Paul Daniel wringing mature playing from the Britten-Pears Orchestra, this was as fine an account of this fascinating work as I have seen.’
The Times: ‘the beauty and cunning of Britten’s music continues to inspire admiration and wonder – certainly as played here by the Britten-Pears Orchestra, most perceptively conducted by Paul Daniel.’
The Daily Telegraph: ‘The chorus and members of the Tanztheater Nürnberg are excellent, firmly guided by Paul Daniel, who conducts the Britten-Pears Orchestra with a restraint that is unfailingly sensitive to the colours and subtleties of this hauntingly troubled and ambiguous score.’

Opera Now: Poulenc’s The Carmelites
‘… the recording gains much from the focused, committed conducting of Paul Daniel.’

The Times Literary Supplement: Berlioz’s The Trojans at Carthage
‘Daniel's phrases are often beautifully turned, with excellent transitions of rhythm and mood, and a strong clear beat. He can also masterfully expose the complexities of a score, and especially its part playing.'

Britten’s Death in Venice
The Independent: ’Britten's score - thrillingly and sensitively interpreted by Paul Daniel,

Paul Daniel CBE

Conductor currently principal conductor designate the West Australian Symphony Orchestra. He will become principal conductor and artistic adviser in 2009. He was Music Director of English National Opera from 1997 - 2005.

Berg's Lulu , Wozzeck
Mussorgsky's Boris Gudonov
Poulenc's The Carmelites
Verdi's Falstaff
Recitals: Andrew Shore
John Tomlinson 1
Jane Eaglen
Bruce Ford
Puccini's Tosca
+ highlight disc
Turandot
Verdi's Aida

Soprano PMF Scholar 1982 - 1984

Born in Lincoln, UK

Wagner's Tristan und Isolde
The New York Times: 'the voice remains a natural wonder. Without any sense of exertion, she filled Wagner’s phrases with a gleaming sound that shimmered throughout the house. Yet, for all its power her voice has a tenderly feminine quality.'

Wagner's Gotterdammerung
The New York Times: 'Ms. Eaglen's voice sliced through the thick Wagner orchestra... for the final Immolation Scene... she brought a disarming blend of lyrical poignancy and fearless power.'

Strauss’s Salome
The Times: ‘she made her demand for Iokanaan’s head with a creepy coquetry that became a growling tantrum… the variation of tone from adolescent sulk to radiant fulfilment was masterful… when she opens her throat in increasingly voluptuous paeans to Iokanaan’s body and mouth, arching over the 105-strong orchestra, you know what opera is all about.

Mayr's Medea in Corinto
+ highlight disc

Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte
Opera: ‘The beautifully-shaped account of [Ach, ich fühl's] delivered by Rebecca Evans' Pamina in what was the most lucidly and luminously sung interpretation of the role heard at this address in a long time.’
The Sunday Times: ‘... Holding the ears in thrall with her (new-found) big, juicy tone, sculpted phrasing and spellbinding floated pianissimi.’
The Times: ‘Rebecca Evans’ beautifully sculpted phrases and womanly warmth as Pamina were breathtaking…’

Rebecca Evans
Beethoven's Fidelio
Humperdinck's Hansel & Gretel
Mozart's Idomeneo ,
The Magic Flute
The Marriage of Figaro
Recitals: Yvonne Kenny 2

Soprano

Born in South Wales, UK

Mozart’s Così fan tutte
Evening Standard: ‘Rebecca Evans’ sharply detailed Despina was a delight.’
The Financial Times: ‘All risk being upstaged by the worldly wisdom dispensed by Rebecca Evans’ sharp-eyed Despina, one with a more substantial voice than most.’
The Stage: ‘Rebecca Evans moulds a perfectly formed Despina, scintillating, streetwise and savvy.’
The Guardian: ‘Rebecca Evans’ Despina – self assured, less embittered than most and very, very funny.’ 

Tenor

Born in Lubbock, Texas

Patric Schmid, Artistic Director, Opera Rara 1972 -2005
'Andrea Nozzari was one of Rossini's favourite tenors, and music written for him is recognisable by its intricacy and extraordinary compass. Rossini wrote nine operas for this exceptional singer. We have had the good fortune to record four of these... with the Nozzari roles sung by the remarkable Bruce Ford.'

Mozart’s Idomeneo

Rossini's Barber of Seville
Mozart's Idomeneo
Verdi Celebration
Recitals: Bruce Ford 1 , Bruce Ford 2 , Barry Banks
Viennese Operetta , Yvonne Kenny 2 ,
Diana Montague 1 , Diana Montague 2 ,
Dennis O'Neill 2 , Baroque Celebration
Elizabeth Futral

The Sunday Times: ‘Bruce Ford’s Idomeneo is probably the best around today in any language. His English diction is immaculate.’

Rossini’s Zelmira
The Guardian: ‘Bruce Ford is still the only tenor capable of negotiating Antenore's treacherously wide-ranging music’
The Daily Telegraph: ‘Bruce Ford sang with elegant polish as the villainous Antenore.’
The Sunday Times: 'the tenor Bruce Ford confirmed his credentials as a pre-eminent Rossinian, matching clear, virile tone to deep musicianship.’

Mozart’s La Clemenza di Tito
The Guardian: ‘the amply humane Titus of Bruce Ford, to whom the musical manners of this opera seria are second nature, the technical presentation of every number is exemplary.’
The Daily Telegraph: ‘Bruce Ford was on fine vocal form as Tito and made the character less of a stuffed shirt than usual.’
The Sunday Times: ‘Bruce Ford, the Titus, was, as ever, a good artist, an arresting musician.’

Soprano

Born in North Carolina, USA

The New York Times: Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor ‘Let no one underestimate Ms. Futral's achievement in singing the role with such command, vigor and accuracy. In a bright, focused and sizable voice, she spins out streams of florid coloratura roulades and makes embellishments seem natural elaborations of long melodic lines.’

San Francisco Chronicle: Previn's A Streetcar Named Desire

Verdi's Don Carlos
The Independent: 'Eaglen made wonderfully effective use of her resources and range to bring the queen to unhappy and vivid life. She played up the dramatic contrasts, shaping each flickering phrase and responding to each swelling climax with infallible musical instinct.'

Mozart The Supreme Decorator
Pacini's Carlo di Borgogna
Rossini's Otello , Zelmira
Bruce Ford Serious Rossini
Donizetti's Lucia of Lammermoor
Recitals: Elizabeth Futral
Della Jones

Mezzo-soprano A Kathleen Ferrier Award winner

Born in Neath

Gounod's Faust
The Independent: ’And speaking of seizing the moment, Della Jones' randy widow-in-waiting, Marthe Schwertlein, can still teach us all a thing or two.’
The Times Literary Supplement: ‘Della Jones gave a feisty performance in the cameo role of Marthe Schwertlein.’

Culturekiosque: Handel’s Agrippina
‘Della Jones storms her way through the title role.’

Gilbert & Sullivan's HMS Pinafore
Evening Standard: ‘As Buttercup, Della Jones uses every part of her characterful voice, acting as a pantomimic fairy godmother with Welsh accent and rampant libido.’
The Daily Telegraph: ‘Della Jones is a delight as Buttercup.’

Handel's Julius Caesar + highlight disc
Rossini's Barber of Seville
Verdi's La Traviata
Recitals: Della Jones , Yvonne Kenny 1 ,
Andrew Shore
Baroque Celebration
Donizetti's Gabriella di Vergy ,
L'Assedio di Calais , Maria Padilla ,
Ugo Conte di Parigi
Meyerbeer's Dinorah , Il Crociato in Egitto
Rossini's Ricciardo e Zoraide ,
Bruce Ford Serious Rossini
Yvonne Kenny

Soprano - A Kathleen Ferrier Award winner

Born in Australia.

American Record Guide: 'highly prized not only in her own country but in much of Europe. She has made numerous recordings and has been one of the mainstays of Opera Rara's excursions into the forgotten bel canto repertory.... Her voice is a bright silvery soprano, cleanly focussed and absolutely steady and even.'

The Australian: Poulenc’s La Voix Humaine
'In Yvonne Kenny, it has found a perfect match for the extended recitative challenges of this role. There are occasionally serendipitous times in performers' lives when they take on a role that is absolutely

R Strauss's Der Rosenkavalier (Highlights)
Verdi's Falstaff
Mozart's Marriage of Figaro
Baroque Celebration
Recitals: Yvonne Kenny 1 ,
Yvonne Kenny 2 , Andrew Shore
Donizetti's Emilia di Liverpool ,
Ugo Conte di Parigi
Mayr's Medea in Corinto + highlight disc
Meyerbeer's Il Crociato in Egitto
Offenbach's Robinson Crusoe
Artist's Collections:
Yvonne Kenny 19th Century Heroines

right for their voice, that draws deeply on their understanding and experience of life and that offers the promise of raising their performance skills to another plane. La voix Humaine does this for Kenny.’

R Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier
The Sydney Morning Herald: ’Yvonne Kenny... ages so gracefully as the Marschallin, her stature so superb, her voice so grained with experience, that one could imagine she had an army of 17-year-old lovers. Kenny knows the nuances of this part intimately and ushered and directed its moments of autumnal glow, fierce beauty and regal self-abnegation with lightness and understanding.'
The Times: ’Yvonne Kenny’s Marschallin remains the biggest favourite of all, an interpretation to rank with the best of our time, sung with infinite subtlety and grace, acted with the right mix of earthiness and dignity.’

The Guardian: Viennese operetta arias - BBC Prom
'It took the arrival of Yvonne Kenny, too little heard in London these days, to bring a touch of real class to the proceedings. The Australian's warm and touching soprano has rarely sounded better and Kenny delivered a masterclass in how to carry off a selection of light Viennese arias by Kálmán, Zeller, Stolz and Lehár, with Wordsworth and his players at their most responsive. The capacity audience took her to their hearts...'

The London Philharmonic Orchestra was founded in 1932 by Sir Thomas Beecham.

Principal Conductors have included Sir Adrian Boult, Sir John Pritchard, Bernard Haitink, Sir Georg Solti, Klaus Tennstedt, Franz Welser-Möst and Kurt Masur.

Vladimir Jurowski is now 

Donizetti's Don Pasquale
Janáček's Jenůfa
Leoncavallo's Pagliacci , Cav & Pag
Mascagni's Cavalliera Rusticana
Mozart's The Magic Flute
Puccini Puccini passions
R. Strauss Der Rosenkavalier highlights
Verdi's A Masked Ball , Il trovatore
Wagner's The Flying Dutchman
Recitals: Sir Thomas Allen , Barry Banks ,
Bruce Ford 2 , Della Jones ,
Diana Montague 2 , Dennis O'Neill 2 ,
Alan Opie , Andrew Shore ,
John Tomlinson 2
London Philharmonic Orchestra
Donizetti's Elvida , Francesca di Foix ,
Il diluvio universale , Pia De' Tolomei
Mercadante's Emma d'Antiochia
Meyerbeer's Margherita d'Anjou
Rossini's Bianca e Falliero ,
Elisabetta regina d'Inghilterra

the Orchestra's Principal Conductor.

It is the Resident Symphony Orchestra at Glyndebourne Festival Opera.

The Guardian: 'The LPO's playing for Vladimir Jurowski was the chief virtue of the new production of La Cenerentola down at Glyndebourne last week (2005), and this concert confirmed the rapport in their partnership. On this kind of form the orchestra is as good as any in the country, wonderfully detailed and refined, with supple, subtle ensemble - there were barely any notes out of place all evening - and perfectly graded textures and colours.'
‘One false move in Stravinsky’s Pulcinella and the whole fragile edifice can crumble. However, Jurowski and the LPO achieved near perfection with it: the solo strings weaved filigree patterns over the rest of the players, the woodwind slithered through unctuous gavottes and the brass spun out graceful if portly minuets.'

Meyerbeer’s Margherita d’Anjou
The Times: 'With some sumptuous casting and the London Philharmonic on rip-roaring form this was really an irresistible concert.'

Scottish Opera   Almeida Opera   Accademia Rossiniana   Opera North   Wexford Festival    Rossini in Wildbad   English National Opera   Buxton Festival   Welsh National Opera   Chandos Opera in English   Royal Opera Covent Garden   Musica Nel Chiostro   Royal Northern College of Music   Glyndebourne on Tour    Opera Factory   Garsington Opera   The Guildhall School of Music & Drama

Handel’s Ariodante
Opera: ‘Rebecca Evans is a Handelian second to none [with] gleaming tone and brilliant coloratura. She is heartrending in the scenes where she is tormented by the King’s guards… she sang radiantly throughout.’
The Observer: ‘Rebecca Evans brings supreme grace and eloquence to the wronged bride-to-be, Ginevra, maintaining her purity of tone even while being trussed up for execution.’

Donizetti's Elvida , Francesca di Foix ,
La Romanzesca e l'uomo nero , Maria de Rudenz ,
Pia de' Tolomei , Rosmonda d'Inghilterra ,
Renée Fleming sings Rosmonda d'Inghilterra ,
Zoraida di Granata
Mayr's Medea in Corinto ,
Jane Eaglen sings Medea in Corinto
Mercadante's Emma d'Antiochia
Meyerbeer's Il Crociato in Egitto , Margherita d'Anjou
Pacini's Carlo di Borgogna , Maria Regina d'Inghilterra
Rossini's Adelaide di Borgogna
Elisabetta regina d'Inghilterra , Otello ,
Ricciardo e Zoraide , Zelmira , Rossini Gala ,
Rossini Three Tenors , Bruce Ford Serious Rossini
Artist's Collections: Ferme tes Yeux
Essential Opera Rara: Mercadante's Zaira

'Elizabeth Futral as Stella is a singer who has it all - a bright, superbly beautiful tone, flawless technical control, dramatic intelligence and sheer sex appeal.'

Washington Post: Donizetti’s L’elisir d’amore
‘Not surprisingly, the strongest singing came from Elizabeth Futral, in the role of Adina. She is a charming artist, one of the few coloratura sopranos who don't sound as though they would rather have been born birds. Instead of fluty twittering, she gave us spunk and spirit and a warmly engaging, fully human personality, all the while hitting the notes right in their center.’ 

International Record Review: 'Her field is of the widest, including Dido in Les Troyens, Brangaene in Tristan & Isolde, but she is best known as an interpreter of Handel and the Italian bel canto repertoire, especially Rossini. Opera goers at the London Coliseum will recall her as a spirited Rosina... a feisty Cenerentola... an Isabella for whom the role might have been created.'

Marilyn Hill Smith, quoted in Divas In Their Own Words by Andrew Palmer: ‘Della Jones is a classic example of a mezzo for whom coloratura appears to be no effort. It sounds disgusting to say this, but it's like she's being sick: she just opens her mouth, and wallop out it comes.’

The Guardian
'David Parry’s conducting is immaculate and the London Philharmonic is on blistering form.'

Jennifer Larmore
Humperdinck's Hansel & Gretel
Recitals: Jennifer Larmore
Donizetti's Elvida ,
Francesca di Foix ,
Rosmonda d'Inghilterra
Pacini's Carlo di Borgogna
Rossini's Adelaide di Borgogna ,
Bianca e Falliero ,
Elisabetta regina d'Inghilterra
Essential Opera Rara: Mercadante's Maria Stuarda regina di Scozia

Mezzo-soprano

 

Born in Atlanta, USA

The New York Times: Rossini’s La Cenerentola
‘Jennifer Larmore, who sang the title role in ''La Cenerentola'' at the Metropolitan Opera, is the real thing: a strong, true mezzo-soprano. What categorizes a voice is not just its range, but its color. Ms. Larmore's sound has the natural, dusky, deep coloration of a mezzo-soprano, even when she dispatches Rossinian roulades and trills, which she does with ease, and lets fly gleaming radiant top notes that many a soprano would covet… Ms. Larmore brings special qualities to the role, notably warmth and vulnerability… Ms. Larmore caught the resiliency and decency of her character without making Cinderella an implausible goody-goody.'

Vivaldi’s Orlando Furioso
The Guardian:
‘Forget the convoluted plot; savour the passionate vocal writing and vivid orchestral colours, as the wonderful American mezzo Jennifer Larmore makes a passionate Alcina.’
The Sunday Times: ‘The cast is headed by the charismatic Jennifer Larmore as the manipulative, explosive sorceress Alcina.’

The Guardian: City of London Festival Recital
‘Her voice is beautiful, if slightly unusual. Unlike most mezzos, there's a whiff of cool in the tone. Debussy's Bourget settings and the Habanera from Carmen radiated with a telling combination of tanginess and lyricism, and her breath control is remarkable: the great lament from Handel's Julius Caesar ebbs and flows with an almost unnatural ease. Her coloratura is similarly tireless, shown perhaps at its best in Juno's big number from Handel's Semele… her spectacular vocalism knocks you sideways - and all you want to do, is revel in the brilliance of it all.’