Meet the cast and creative teams behind Opera Holland Park’s 2022 season. Over the coming weeks, we’ll introduce our singers, directors, conductors and crews at the heart of the productions this summer.
We continue our Spotlight series with Young Artist alumna, Charlotte Badham. Last year, Charlotte played Cherubino in the YA production of The Marriage of Figaro, and this year she returns to Opera Holland Park as Jo in Mark Adamo's Little Women.
Could you introduce us to your role?
Jo March in Little Women: Literary heroine, ambitious, spirited and sharp-tongued wordsmith. Jo leads a tempestuous life and loves her sisters and family above everything else.
What aspects of your role are you most excited about?
Jo is such a dear character to many people out there, people who have laughed and cried over the pages of Louisa May Alcott’s novel for the last 150 years. I hope to do her justice for you all! I’m looking forward to bringing Adamo’s interpretation of this great story to life through the medium of opera. I’m most excited about studying the psychology and the journey of a character who struggles with the balance of domesticity, work, and true love, each of them interdependent yet requisite to the achievement of her identity.
Who is your musical role model?
My main mezzos are Anne Sofie von Otter and Kate Lindsey. Non-operatic role models are Sarah Vaughan, Dolly Parton and Freddie Mercury – singers who give me the ‘feels’.
Do you have a favourite OHP memory?
I’m still fairly new to the OHP family but I did rather enjoy crawling under the stage past the orchestra to pop out of a trap door as cheeky Cherubino last summer.
What are you looking forward to this OHP season?
Playing my first major role – I have to keep pinching myself!
If you could perform any role, what would it be?
I really can’t choose. I feel ‘in my element’ when I’m performing trouser roles though. I would love to be able to make my way through the list of mezzo trouser roles throughout my career.
What is the best piece of advice you’ve received, musical or otherwise?
Each day brings a new challenge and our lives are constantly changing, so I like to find or make up my own weekly affirmation that I try to live by, rather than any one set piece of advice. This week it was: ‘Growth is uncomfortable because you’ve never been there before’.
