Category Archives: NEWS

Acis and Galatea: A masque

This evening as part of the Beaune International Baroque Opera Festival I will be singing the role of Acis in one of Handel’s masterpieces(!) “Acis and Galatea”.  A fabulously compact, varied and rich piece, combined with a very simple story makes for a thoroughly enjoyable listening experience.

The wonderful Damien Guillon is at the helm – directing the equally capable Le Banquet Céleste. It will be broadcast live on France Musique at 8pm uk time (9pm French time), for French speakers/sympathisers I will be interviewed at 7pm uk time.

Please see www.francemusique.fr/emission/le-concert-du-soir/2016-ete/festival-de-beaune-2016-acis-et-galatee-de-g-f-haendel-en-direct-07-30-2016-20-00 for more details.

Battle of the Somme Centenary Commemoration Events

I am tremendously honoured to have been asked to sing at the commemorative events to mark the centenary of the Battle of the Somme, at the Thiepval Memorial in France.  There will be a military vigil starting at 21:15 on 30th June 2016 where I will be singing ‘The Lads in their Hundreds’ (Butterworth) unaccompanied, and on 1st July 2016 I will sing ‘Abide With Me’ (Monk) for the main National Commemorative Event.

There will be worldwide coverage provided by the BBC and both events will be broadcast live on BBC Two.

For more details please see this article on The Guardian’s website.

Ensemble Marsyas and Friends | Wigmore Hall: Sunday 24th April 2016

This Sunday I will be performing in a concert dedicated to HM Queen Elizabeth II in the week of her 90th birthday with Ensemble Marsyas at the Wigmore Hall in London, in a programme about Irish culture in Britain.

More information can be found on the Wigmore Hall’s website here including a link to buy tickets online.  There is a pre-concert talk at 3pm before the performance which starts at 4pm.

There is also an interesting article about one of the pieces here.

Berlioz Roméo et Juliette – BBC R3 Broadcast

Sir Andrew Davis conducts the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Chorus in Berlioz’s large-scale setting of Shakespeare’s tragedy, Romeo and Juliet. Performed and recorded at the Barbican on 22nd January 2016.

Berlioz: Roméo et Juliette

Michèle Losier (mezzo-soprano)
Samuel Boden (tenor)
David Soar (bass)
BBC Symphony Orchestra
BBC Symphony Chorus
Sir Andrew Davis (conductor)

Available online until 25th February 2016: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b06xy9w4

Dutch Opera of the Year 2015: Orphée et Eurydice

Orphée et Eurydice has been voted Opera of the Year 2015 by the readers of Dutch magazine Place de l’Opera.  The production received more than half of the hundreds of votes that were released last week.

There were five productions nominated for Opera of the Year 2015, compiled on the basis of the “top 3” lists of 16 opera critics.  Four of them had Orphée et Eurydice as their number one choice.  Here are the final results:

1. Orphée et Eurydice (Dutch Touring Opera)
2. Lohengrin (Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra)
3. Dialogues des Carmelites (National Opera)
4. Benvenuto Cellini (National Opera)
5. Der Rosenkavalier (The National Opera)

“The editors of Place de l’Opera congratulate the Dutch Touring Opera, the Symphony Orchestra, Consensus Vocalis, Floris Visser, his artistic team, conductor Roger Hamilton, the soloists Samuel Boden, Kristina Bitenc, Hanna Herfurtner and Bernadeta Astari and all others involved with the success of this production and the impressive way in which the presentation demonstrated the power of opera.”

At a later date the editors will hand over the award of Opera of the Year 2015 in person.

The full article can be found on Place de l’Opera‘s website here.