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Wednesday 1 August 2018

Leonard Ingrams Awards to young singers at Garsington

Robert Forrest, Marlena Devoe, Verity Wingate, Hollie-Anne Bangham, awards winners at Garsington Opera
Robert Forrest, Marlena Devoe, Verity Wingate, Hollie-Anne Bangham
Congratulations to soprano Marlena Devoe and soprano Verity Wingate who were both presented with Leonard Ingrams Awards last week, on the last night of the 2018 Garsington Opera season. These awards honour the memory of Garsington Opera’s founder Leonard Ingrams, to ensure the continuity of his vision and support, encourage and nurture the best young artists involved in the creative process of bringing opera to the stage. Also presented with awards were tenor Robert Forrest, receiving the Helen Clarke Award, and mezzo-soprano Hollie-Anne Bangham, receiving the Simon Sandbach Award.

All four singers were part of Garsington Opera's 2018 Alvarez Young Artists’ Programme, which provides training and performance opportunities with the company, and this year, with singers on the programme taking on small roles and understudying major roles. This year a full performance of Mozart's Die Zauberflöte was sung by the understudies for a schools' audience. Marlena Devoe understudied and sang the role of Alice Ford Falstaff in two performances as well as being in the chorus, Verity Wingate understudied and sang the role of Pamina in Die Zauberflóte in the school’s performance and sang in the chorus, Hollie-Anne Bangham understudied the role of Pilar in The Skating Rink and sang in the chorus, Robert Forrest understudied the role of Flamand and sang 1st Servant in Capriccio as well as singing in the chorus.

Read my reviews of Richard Strauss' Capriccio and David Sawyer's The Skating Rink from this year's festival. The 2019 season runs from 29 May to 21 July and includes Mozart’s Don Giovanni, Smetana’s The Bartered Bride, Britten’s The Turn of the Screw, and the UK stage premiere of Offenbach’s Fantasio.

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