English National Opera announces cast for ENO Studio Live 2018 and three new Harewood Artists

10th March 2018 in Press

English National Opera (ENO) is delighted to announce the casts for Acis and Galatea and Paul Bunyan, 2018’s two ENO Studio Live productions. ENO Studio Live forms part of ENO Outside which takes ENO’s work to arts-engaged audiences that may not have considered opera before, presenting the immense power of opera in more intimate studio and theatre environments.

Acis and Galatea will take place at ENO’s historic rehearsal studios, Lilian Baylis House. Paul Bunyan will be ENO’s first collaboration with Wilton’s Music Hall. Both pieces are being performed by ENO for the very first time and celebrate the integral roles that Handel and Britten have played in the company’s history.

We are also thrilled to share that exceptional young singers Rowan Pierce, Alex Otterburn and William Morgan will become ENO Harewood Artists with immediate effect. The ENO Harewood Artist programme was established in 1998 as a means of providing a full-time training and performance scheme for exceptionally talented singers at the beginning of their careers. They will join current ENO Harewood Artists Andri Björn Róbertsson, Katie Coventry, Eleanor Dennis, Matthew Durkan, David Ireland, Rhian Lois, Elgan Llyr Thomas, Soraya Mafi, Samantha Price, Božidar Smiljanić, Katie Stevenson and David Webb.

Acis and Galatea (six performances, 9-16 June 2018, Lilian Baylis House)

George Frideric Handel
John Gay

Directed by Sarah Tipple, designed by Justin Nardella and conducted by Nicholas Ansdell Evans, Acis and Galatea features four exciting young British singers. Tenor Alexander Sprague and soprano Lucy Hall sing the title roles. ENO Harewood Artist Matthew Durkan sings the role of Polyphemus and Bradley Smith makes his ENO debut as Damon.

Acis                                          Alexander Sprague

Galatea                                   Lucy Hall

Polyphemus                             Matthew Durkan

Damon                                    Bradley Smith

Paul Bunyan (six performances, 3-8 September, Wilton’s Music Hall)
Benjamin Britten
W. H. Auden

Directed by Jamie Manton, designed by Camilla Clarke and conducted by Matthew Kofi Waldren, Paul Bunyan will be a celebration of ENO’s exceptional emerging and in-house talent. Roles will be sung by ENO Harewood Artists (Elgan Llyr Thomas, Rowan Pierce, William Morgan) and members of ENO’s award-winning Chorus.

Johnny Inkslinger                     Elgan Llyr Thomas

Tiny                                          Rowan Pierce

Hot Biscuit Slim                       William Morgan

Fido                                          Claire Pendleton

Moppett                                   Ella Kirkpatrick

Poppett                                   Lydia Marchione

Sam Sharkey                            Graeme Lauren

Ben Benny                                Trevor Bowes

Andy Anderson / Cronie           Adam Sullivan

Pete Peterson / Cronie             Geraint Hylton

Jen Jenson / Cronie                  Paul Sheehan

Cross Crosshaulson / Cronie    Andrew Tinkler

John Shears                             Robert Winslade Anderson

Western Union Boy                  David Newman

Quartet of the Defeated          Michael Burke, Morag Boyle, David Newman, Paul Sheehan

Solo Lumberjacks                     Paul Sheehan, Ronald Nairne and Pablo Strong

Wild Geese                               Claire Mitcher, Rebecca Stockland, Susanna Tudor-Thomas

Young Trees                             Joanne Appleby, Amy Sedgwick, Pablo Strong

-ENDS-

Notes to editors:

The ENO Harewood Artist programme was established in 1998 as a means of providing a full-time training and performance scheme for talented singers at the beginning of their careers. This allowed them to continue their technical development within the professional environment of a repertory opera company.

The name honours the long-standing support and leadership of the company by Lord Harewood, whose work at ENO spanned over 40 years. He made a huge contribution to ENO, and opera in general, during his remarkable life as Managing Director, Chairman and latterly President of ENO, and in overseeing the creation of Opera North.

William Morgan’s future engagements include Tom Rakewell (The Rake’s Progress) with Barbara Hannigan conducting the Gothenburg Symphony and Peter Quint (The Turn of the Screw) for ENO at Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre. He was a National Opera Studio young artist (2015-16) sponsored by ENO, graduated from the Royal College of Music, and continues to study with Tim Evans-Jones.  William made his solo debut for English National Opera in 2015 in the principal role of Younger Man in Tansy Davies’ Between Worlds at the Barbican, and he recently returned as Phaeton for Jonathan Dove’s The Day After (ENO’s inaugural Studio Live performance). Other recent opera work includes Pastore/Spirito and cover Apollo for Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo (Bayerische Staatsoper), Anthony in Sweeney Todd (Longborough Festival) and Spoletta in Tosca (Nevill Holt Opera).

Alex Otterburn marks his first professional season with the role of Eddy in Scottish Opera’s new production of Mark Anthony Turnage’s Greek at the Edinburgh International Festivaland joins the company as a 2017/18 Emerging Artist. His upcoming roles include Harlequin (Ariadne auf Naxos) in a new co-production with Opera Holland Park, Marchese (La traviata); and Pallante (Agrippina) at the Grange Festival. Highlights last season included Alex’s critically acclaimed debuts as Guglielmo in Daisy Evans’ production of Così fan tutte for Bury Court Opera and John Styx in the Royal Academy’s production of Orphée aux enfers. Elsewhere, Alex made his European concert debut as Curio (Giulio Cesare) at the Concertgebouw with the Symphonie Atlantique, in addition to making his debut as Schaunard (La bohème) with the Lyric Opera and RTÉ Concert Orchestra conducted by David Heusel. Alex is the proud recipient of an Independent Opera Fellowship award.

Rowan Pierce is a Samling Artist who has appeared on the concert platform throughout the UK, Europe and in South America. Festival performances include collaborations with Sir Thomas Allen, Dame Ann Murray and Malcolm Martineau in the Oxford Lieder Festival, Florilegium in les Nuits Musicales du Suquet and recitals with Christopher Glynn in Ryedale Festival.

As a Britten Pears Young Artist, she performed Drusilla in Monteverdi’s  Lincoronazione di Poppea under the direction of Richard Egarr. Other roles include Galatea in Handel’s Acis & Galatea with the Academy of Ancient Music, Susanna in Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro, Miss Wordsworth, Emmie and Cis in Britten’s Albert Herring and Princess in Ravel’s L’enfant et les sortilèges. Most recently she performed at The Barbican in the Academy of Ancient Music’s production of Purcell’s The Fairy Queen.

Rowan has performed live on BBC Radio 3’s In Tune from the V&A and Wigmore Hall, at the Royal Albert Hall, Sage Gateshead and the Queen’s Gallery, Buckingham Palace. She was the winner of the Van Someren Godfery Prize, the first Schubert Society Singer Prize, the inaugural Grange Festival International Singing Competition and is a Rising Star of the OAE and a Young Artist for Iain Burnside in his Ludlow Festival. Other festival appearances include Leeds Lieder, Poznan International and London Handel Festival.

English National Opera (ENO) is delighted to announce the casts for Acis and Galatea and Paul Bunyan, 2018’s two ENO Studio Live productions. ENO Studio Live forms part of ENO Outside which takes ENO’s work to arts-engaged audiences that may not have considered opera before, presenting the immense power of opera in more intimate studio and theatre environments.

Acis and Galatea will take place at ENO’s historic rehearsal studios, Lilian Baylis House. Paul Bunyan will be ENO’s first collaboration with Wilton’s Music Hall. Both pieces are being performed by ENO for the very first time and celebrate the integral roles that Handel and Britten have played in the company’s history.

We are also thrilled to share that exceptional young singers Rowan Pierce, Alex Otterburn and William Morgan will become ENO Harewood Artists with immediate effect. The ENO Harewood Artist programme was established in 1998 as a means of providing a full-time training and performance scheme for exceptionally talented singers at the beginning of their careers. They will join current ENO Harewood Artists Andri Björn Róbertsson, Katie Coventry, Eleanor Dennis, Matthew Durkan, David Ireland, Rhian Lois, Elgan Llyr Thomas, Soraya Mafi, Samantha Price, Božidar Smiljanić, Katie Stevenson and David Webb.

Acis and Galatea (six performances, 9-16 June 2018, Lilian Baylis House)

George Frideric Handel
John Gay

Directed by Sarah Tipple, designed by Justin Nardella and conducted by Nicholas Ansdell Evans, Acis and Galatea features four exciting young British singers. Tenor Alexander Sprague and soprano Lucy Hall sing the title roles. ENO Harewood Artist Matthew Durkan sings the role of Polyphemus and Bradley Smith makes his ENO debut as Damon.

Acis                                          Alexander Sprague

Galatea                                   Lucy Hall

Polyphemus                             Matthew Durkan

Damon                                    Bradley Smith

Paul Bunyan (six performances, 3-8 September, Wilton’s Music Hall)
Benjamin Britten
W. H. Auden

Directed by Jamie Manton, designed by Camilla Clarke and conducted by Matthew Kofi Waldren, Paul Bunyan will be a celebration of ENO’s exceptional emerging and in-house talent. Roles will be sung by ENO Harewood Artists (Elgan Llyr Thomas, Rowan Pierce, William Morgan) and members of ENO’s award-winning Chorus.

Johnny Inkslinger                     Elgan Llyr Thomas

Tiny                                          Rowan Pierce

Hot Biscuit Slim                       William Morgan

Fido                                          Claire Pendleton

Moppett                                   Ella Kirkpatrick

Poppett                                   Lydia Marchione

Sam Sharkey                            Graeme Lauren

Ben Benny                                Trevor Bowes

Andy Anderson / Cronie           Adam Sullivan

Pete Peterson / Cronie             Geraint Hylton

Jen Jenson / Cronie                  Paul Sheehan

Cross Crosshaulson / Cronie    Andrew Tinkler

John Shears                             Robert Winslade Anderson

Western Union Boy                  David Newman

Quartet of the Defeated          Michael Burke, Morag Boyle, David Newman, Paul Sheehan

Solo Lumberjacks                     Paul Sheehan, Ronald Nairne and Pablo Strong

Wild Geese                               Claire Mitcher, Rebecca Stockland, Susanna Tudor-Thomas

Young Trees                             Joanne Appleby, Amy Sedgwick, Pablo Strong

-ENDS-

Notes to editors:

The ENO Harewood Artist programme was established in 1998 as a means of providing a full-time training and performance scheme for talented singers at the beginning of their careers. This allowed them to continue their technical development within the professional environment of a repertory opera company.

The name honours the long-standing support and leadership of the company by Lord Harewood, whose work at ENO spanned over 40 years. He made a huge contribution to ENO, and opera in general, during his remarkable life as Managing Director, Chairman and latterly President of ENO, and in overseeing the creation of Opera North.

 William Morgan’s future engagements include Tom Rakewell (The Rake’s Progress) with Barbara Hannigan conducting the Gothenburg Symphony and Peter Quint (The Turn of the Screw) for ENO at Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre. He was a National Opera Studio young artist (2015-16) sponsored by ENO, graduated from the Royal College of Music, and continues to study with Tim Evans-Jones.  William made his solo debut for English National Opera in 2015 in the principal role of Younger Man in Tansy Davies’ Between Worlds at the Barbican, and he recently returned as Phaeton for Jonathan Dove’s The Day After (ENO’s inaugural Studio Live performance). Other recent opera work includes Pastore/Spirito and cover Apollo for Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo (Bayerische Staatsoper), Anthony in Sweeney Todd (Longborough Festival) and Spoletta in Tosca (Nevill Holt Opera).

Alex Otterburn marks his first professional season with the role of Eddy in Scottish Opera’s new production of Mark Anthony Turnage’s Greek at the Edinburgh International Festivaland joins the company as a 2017/18 Emerging Artist. His upcoming roles include Harlequin (Ariadne auf Naxos) in a new co-production with Opera Holland Park, Marchese (La traviata); and Pallante (Agrippina) at the Grange Festival. Highlights last season included Alex’s critically acclaimed debuts as Guglielmo in Daisy Evans’ production of Così fan tutte for Bury Court Opera and John Styx in the Royal Academy’s production of Orphée aux enfers. Elsewhere, Alex made his European concert debut as Curio (Giulio Cesare) at the Concertgebouw with the Symphonie Atlantique, in addition to making his debut as Schaunard (La bohème) with the Lyric Opera and RTÉ Concert Orchestra conducted by David Heusel. Alex is the proud recipient of an Independent Opera Fellowship award.

Rowan Pierce is a Samling Artist who has appeared on the concert platform throughout the UK, Europe and in South America. Festival performances include collaborations with Sir Thomas Allen, Dame Ann Murray and Malcolm Martineau in the Oxford Lieder Festival, Florilegium in les Nuits Musicales du Suquet and recitals with Christopher Glynn in Ryedale Festival.

As a Britten Pears Young Artist, she performed Drusilla in Monteverdi’s  Lincoronazione di Poppea under the direction of Richard Egarr. Other roles include Galatea in Handel’s Acis & Galatea with the Academy of Ancient Music, Susanna in Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro, Miss Wordsworth, Emmie and Cis in Britten’s Albert Herring and Princess in Ravel’s L’enfant et les sortilèges. Most recently she performed at The Barbican in the Academy of Ancient Music’s production of Purcell’s The Fairy Queen.

Rowan has performed live on BBC Radio 3’s In Tune from the V&A and Wigmore Hall, at the Royal Albert Hall, Sage Gateshead and the Queen’s Gallery, Buckingham Palace. She was the winner of the Van Someren Godfery Prize, the first Schubert Society Singer Prize, the inaugural Grange Festival International Singing Competition and is a Rising Star of the OAE and a Young Artist for Iain Burnside in his Ludlow Festival. Other festival appearances include Leeds Lieder, Poznan International and London Handel Festival.