Returning to the Regal due to popular demand! This event is part of our inaugural Regal Opera Festival.
Enjoy a gala evening of beautiful arias, duets and ensembles by composers such as Bizet, Mozart, Puccini, Verdi, Puccini and more!
Featuring professional opera singers soprano Erika Mädi Jones, mezzo soprano Charlotte Wicks, tenor Andrew Henley, baritone Felix Kemp and the incomparable Charlotte Forrest at the piano, joined by the Neen Sollars and Milson Community Choir . Whether you're a long-time opera aficionado or new to the genre, you're in for a treat with this evening of beautiful music and singing.
What the audience said last year:
"One of the best nights ever at the Regal"
"Superb, exceeded all expectations with professional performances, excellent programming, and delightful humour."
"An amazingly talented group, delivering the most exciting and fun aspects of opera, enjoyable for everyone from opera buffs to children."
"The theatre buzzed with anticipation; top-notch performers combined great artistry with evident humour."
Meet the Talented Artists:
Soprano Erika Mädi Jones
Erika debuted to critical acclaim as Elisabeth Tannhäuser at Longborough Festival Opera in summer 2016 working with Anthony Negus. She sang Ellen Orford Peter Grimes in a project curated by Dartington International Music Festival with Sian Edwards at the baton in 2017. Other roles performed include Sieglinde Die Walküre (Edinburgh Opera Players), Micaëla Carmen (Rogue Opera), Donna Anna Don Giovanni, (Moon-Little Theatre & Co Opera Co). Leonore Fidelio (Guildford Opera). Erika was a chorister at Glyndebourne Festival Opera in 2015.
Erika won the 2017 Dvořák Society for Czech and Slovak Music Prize at the Emmy Destinn Young Singers competition and highly commended in the finals of the 2015 UK Wagner Society singing competition. She was a semi-finalist in the 9. Internationale Wagnerstimmen Wettbewerb in Karlsruhe in 2018. She was a Les Azuriales young artist in 2015.
Together with pianist Panaretos Kyriatzidis she won the 2018 British Song Competition awarded by Roger Vignoles in his masterclass as part of the London Song Festival. The duo have been performing together since they met at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance where they won first prize in the Elisabeth Schumann Lieder Duo competition. The duo have performed in masterclasses with Ian Partridge CBE in the 2014 Oxford Lieder Festival, Thomas Quasthoff and Eugene Asti and have performed in venues such as St James’ Piccadilly, The Red House, Aldeburgh, and Blackheath Halls.
A Britten Pears Young Artist, Erika performed in the 2016 Aldeburgh Festival as part of the Thomas Quasthoff Brahms song course. Erika is and extremely passionate recitalist and sings a wide variety of song repertoire including well known works by Mozart, Schubert, Schumann, Brahms, Wolf, Strauss, Wagner, Britten, Debussy, Duparc and lesser known works by Berg, Korngold, Poldowski, Alma Mahler, Frank Bridge, Rebecca Clarke amongst others.
In concert Erika has performed orchestral works such as Wagner’s Wesendonck Lieder with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra and Ravel’s Shéhérazade and worked with conductors including Howard Williams, Diego Masson and Gerry Cornelius. Oratorio works performed include soprano soloist in Mendelssohn’s Elijah and Brahms’s Ein Deutsches Requiem.
Erika graduated from the Cardiff University Music School with honours before pursuing vocal studies at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance. Gaining Distinctions in both Masters of Music and Postgraduate Artist’s Diploma, her studies were supported by the Robinson Hearn Scholarship, Stopford Westminster Bursary, the Kathleen Roberts Scholarship, Trinity Laban
www.erikamadijones.co.uk
Mezzo-Soprano Charlotte Wicks:
Born in Manchester, Mezzo Soprano Charlotte Wicks studied at the Royal Northern College of Music and the Royal Academy Opera course graduating in 2009. She is an Independent Opera Fellow and graduate of the Solti, Te kanawa Academia di Bel Canto.
Roles for RAO include Cherubino/The Marriage of Figaro, Celia/La Fedelta Premiata, Hänsel, Diana /La Calisto, Vava/Cheryomushki . For British Youth Opera charlotte covered Gertrude/Romeo and Juiliette and sang Minsk Woman/Flight.
Charlotte made her debut with Glyndebourne Touring Opera singing Valetto/L’incoronazione di Poppea and has performed Annio / La Clemenza di Tito with English Touring Opera and Kate Pinkerton and Cousin in Mid Wales Opera Production of Madam Butterfly. Other tiles in productions include Nancy/Albert Herring at Opera North, Carmen Garden Opera’s 2013 UK tour and cover Kate Pinkerton for Raymond Gubbays production of Carmen at the Royal Albert Hall and chorus in Opera De Monte Carlo’s production of Peter Grimes. Charlotte returned to Glyndebourne festival opera in 2015-2017 to cover the role of Ramiro in La Finta Giardiniera and sing the role of an apprentice in Wagners’s Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg.
A Samling scholar she has sung as a soloist at the Wigmore Hall, Cadogan Hall, St Martin in the Fields, St John’s Smith Square, The Royal Albert Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Purcell Room and The London Handel Festival. She teaches singing at St. Andrews Prep in Eastbourne and is co founder of Intergenerational Opera.
Tenor Andrew Henley
Hailing from Monmouth, British-Irish tenor Andrew Henley studied at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama and is a graduate of the National Opera Studio, where he was supported by the WNO Sir John Moores Award. He was with winner of the 2019 Dunraven Young Welsh Singer of the Year and is the recipient of the 2023 John Scott Award from Scottish Opera.
Operatic engagements have included The Tenor Trauernacht, Tybalt Romeo and Juliet and Voleur de Lune Der Mond with Opéra de Lyon, Heinrich der Schreiber Tannhäuser with the Stadttheater Klagenfurt, Father Grenville Dead Man Walking and Candide (cover) Candide with Welsh National Opera, Officer and Armand (cover)Thérèse, Tenor Soloist on the Spring 2023 Opera Highlights Tour and Nemorino (cover) L'elisir d'amore with Scottish Opera, Don Ottavio Don Giovanni (cover) with the Glyndebourne Autumn Festival, Barigoule Cendrillon with Buxton International Festival, Don Ottavio Don Giovanni with Clonter Opera, Novice Billy Budd with the St. Endellion Festival, Lechmere Owen Wingrave with British Youth Opera, Major (cover) Patience with English Touring Opera, Ostrogotho La Fiera di Venezia with Bampton Classical Opera, Kekikako Bataclan with West Green House, Adam A+E at the Grimeborn Festival, Christoph Kommilitonen! with Welsh National Youth Opera and chorus with Glyndebourne and Wexford Festival Opera. Roles at RWCMD included Fenton Falstaff, Albert Albert Herring and Schoolmaster The Cunning Little Vixen. Upcoming engagements include Tybalt in Gounod Roméo et Juliette at the Immling Festival in Bavaria, Barbarigo in Verdi I due Foscari with Chelsea Opera Group and The Son in Stanford The Critic and Rodolfo The Passion of Puccini with Wexford Festival Opera.
Concert engagements have included Mendelssohn Elijah at Cadogan Hall with the City of London Sinfonia, an opera highlights concert with the WNO Orchestra conducted by Carlo Rizzi at BBC Hoddinott Hall, Mozart Mass in C Minor at Wells Cathedral, Verdi Requiem at St. Paul's Covent Garden, Vaughan Williams Serenade to Music, broadcast live on BBC Radio 3, and Purcell The Fairy Queen, conducted by Nicholas McGegan, both with the CBSO at Birmingham Symphony Hall.
www.andrewhenleytenor.co.uk
Baritone Felix Kemp
A Britten-Pears Young Artist and Momentum Emerging Artist, Felix Kemp was a finalist in the 2021 International Handel Singing Competition and he made his Royal Opera House debut in Don Carlo in the 2022/23 season. In the current season Felix covers Marcello (Bohème) for English National Opera and joins the National Gilbert & Sullivan Opera Company as Strephon (Iolanthe) and Florian (Princess Ida).
In the previous season, Felix performed the roles of Falke (Fledermaus) for If Opera, Belcore (Elisir) for Celebrate Voice and created Dick Dewy in the world première of Paul Carr’s Under the Greenwood Tree for Dorset Opera. In 2022, Felix sang Papageno (Zauberflöte) for Dorset Opera and made his debut with Welsh National Opera creating the role of Adham in the world première of Will Todd’s Migrations.
On the concert platform, this season Felix performs Britten Curlew River for Britten Pears Arts at the Aldeburgh Festival directed by Deborah Warner and filmed for BBC broadcast, Duruflé Requiem with Sinfonia Viva at Southwell Minster, Handel Messiah at the London Handel Festival and at Winchester Cathedral with Florilegium, Vaughan Williams A Sea Symphony at Hereford Cathedral, Verdi Requiem at York Minster and Zelenka Lamentations on tour with Ensemble Diderot to Opéra de Rouen and Kölner Philharmonie.
In recital, Felix’s performances have included the ROH Crush Room, London Song and Oxford Lieder festivals, collaborating with pianists including Simon Lepper, Huw Watkins and Sholto Kynoch. Felix’s recordings include Joseph Phibbs Juliana and Ethel Smyth Fête Galante. Broadcasts include In Tune for BBC Radio 3. www.felixkemp.com
Pianist Charlotte Forrest: A Senior Vocal Coach for Glyndebourne Festival Opera and currently a regular member of visiting music staff for English National Opera, Grange Festival, Garsington Opera, Longborough Opera and Opera Holland Park, Charlotte spent 10 years as a member of music staff at Opera North and collaborated regularly with Sir Graham Vick for Birmingham Opera Company. Internationally, she has worked at the Bregenzer Festival, Estonian National Opera, Bergen Opera and L’Opera Comique in Paris.
She regularly gives masterclasses as a visiting lecturer and coach at the Royal Academy of Music, London, as well as the Royal Welsh College of Music and Royal Birmingham Conservatoire.
Committed to bridging the divide between higher education and the profession, Charlotte has worked regularly for British Youth Opera, coached the Jerwood Young Artists at Glyndebourne, the Jette Parker Young Artists at the Royal Opera House, the Alvarez Young Artists at Garsington and has worked closely with the ENO Harewood Artists.
As a recitalist Charlotte is heard regularly on BBC Radio 3 and made her Wigmore Hall debut in 2011, going on to perform regularly there as well as at the Pisa Duomo, the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Versailles and Paris Salle Pleyel. For nearly 20 years she has been Associate Keyboardist with the Monteverdi Choir and its orchestras, collaborating in over 30 projects with Sir John Eliot Gardiner.
