The Turk in Hampshire: Longhope Summer Opera's performances of Rossini's opera feature a cast of early-career singers

Longhope Opera

Rossini's delightful (and surprisingly complex) comedy, Il Turco in Italia is going to pop up in Hampshire in July thanks to Longhope Summer Opera and Scherzo Ensemble. The opera its being performed on the Longhope Estate in Newton Valence, Hampshire on 2 and 3 July 2021. The director is Charlotte McKechnie, who is the is the artistic director of New Voices Theatre, a company dedicated to performing theatrical works by women, and the conductor is Matthew O'Keefe, who is the director of Scherzo Ensemble as well as being the founder of Lunchbreak Opera (which performs short opera at lunchtime in the City of London) and founder of my local ensemble, the Brixton Chamber Orchestra.

Scherzo is a professional development platform for young singers who have recently completed their training. The company offers a year-long programme of performance and training projects as well as classes in business to a cohort of singers selected annually at audition, and the cast features an interesting line-up of talented early-career artists.  

Fiorilla is Russian soprano Galina Benevich as who is a graduate of the Israeli Opera Young Artists Programme. Zaide is mezzo-soprano Clare Ghigo who won the Malta International Singing Competition and was a semi-finalist in the 2016 London Handel Singing Competition. Prince Selim is Indian baritone Oscar Castellino who completed a degree in Physics and pursued a career in software programming before he was scouted for his singing talent in Mumbai in 2010 by a visiting professor from the Royal College of Music [You can hear more about Oscar's journey on Welsh National Opera's podcast, The O Word]. Albazar is tenor William Searle as who covered Lensky in Buxton International Festival's 2019 production of Eugene Onegin. Narciso is tenor Brenton Spiteri as who is currently at Guildhall School where we saw him in Donizetti's Rita [see my review]. Prosdocimo is shared between Canadian tenor James Schouten, who recently graduated from the Royal College of Music, and baritone Geoff Williams, who was recently performing in Marco da Gagliano's La Dafne with BREMF.

Full details from the Longhope Opera website.