Friday 5 October 2018

Introducing the National Opera Studio's 2018/19 Young Artists

National Opera Studio Young Artists 2018/19
The National Opera Studio's 2018/19 intake of Young Artists have just started their nine-months of intensive work. Last night (4 October 2018), just three weeks into the course we heard them in recital at 22 Mansfield Street. Two were absent (Charlie Drummond and Nicholas Mogg), so we heard Ana-Maria Bacanu, Frances du Plessis, Margo Arsen, Marvic Monreal, Beth Moxon, JungKwon Jang, Robert Barbaro, Ben Smith, Adam Temple-Smith and Jake Muffett accompanied at the piano by Emily Hooker, William Green, Benedict Kearns and Michael Papadopoulos.

Each singer gave two arias, and it was quite a striking collection of composers. Yes, there was Mozart, Verdi, Rossini, Weber, Donizetti, Bizet, Tchaikovsky and Handel but we also heard two arias from Massenet's Werther and two arias from Herodiade, and arias from Meyerbeer's Les Huguenots, Menotti's The Medium, Barber's Vanessa, and counter-tenor JungKwon Jang sang 'Di tanti palpiti' from Rossini's Tancredi.

Looking ahead, the Young Artists will be performing Last Days at the Bridewell Theatre with members of the Orchestra of Opera North on 10 December 2018, and will be performing at Cadogan Hall on 18 January 2019 with the orchestra of English National Opera. Full details from the National Opera Studio website.

This year's National Opera Studio Young Artists are:
  • Sopranos Ana-Maria Bacanu, Charlie Drummond [who featured on last year's recording of Erik Chisholm's Simoon, see my review], and Frances du Plessis
  • Mezzo-sopranos Margo Arsane [whom we caught in Stravinsky's Mavra at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in 2016, see my review], Marvic Monreal, and Beth Moxon [whom we caught in Handel's Faramondo at the 2017 London Handel Festival, see my review]
  • Counter-tenor JungKwon Jang [who won the Audience Prize in the 2017 Handel Singing Competition]
  • Tenors Robert Barbaro, Ben Smith and Adam Temple-Smith [whom we caught in Gounod's La Colombe at West Green Opera in 2016, see my review]
  • Baritones Nicholas Mogg and Jake Muffett [whom we caught in Poulenc's Carmelites at the Guildhall School in 2018, see my review]
  • Repetiteurs Emily Hooker, William Green, Benedict Kearns and Michael Papadopoulos [who we caught playing continuo for Solomon's Knot this year, see our review]

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