Curated by baritone Julien Van Mellaerts and the pianist Dylan Perez, the Opera in Song recital series returns to Opera Holland Park for a fourth year, with three recitals from established and emerging singers and pianists, a public masterclass with Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, and a concert in celebration of Dame Kiri’s 80th birthday with performances by artists who have been supported by the Kiri Te Kanawa Foundation since its creation in 2004.
A Masterclass with Dame Kiri Te Kanawa 3.30pm, 20 June 2024
Celebrated for her luminous portrayals of Mozart, Strauss and Verdi heroines across a nearly fifty year career, the legendary lyric soprano Dame Kiri Te Kanawa shares a lifetime of experience in opera and concert with members of the 2024 cohort of Opera Holland Park Young Artists, working on repertoire of their choice. This public masterclass offers a fascinating insight into the private discipline of preparing to perform in public, addressing technical and interpretive questions and building the resilience needed by those at the start of their careers.
A Gala Concert for Dame Kiri Te Kanawa 7.30pm, 20 June 2024
With anecdotes and reflections on her career from the Dame herself, we celebrate her 80th birthday in a Gala Concert featuring performances by alumni of the Kiri Te Kanawa Foundation who have been so generously supported over the years. Artists include Thomas Atkins (last seen at Opera Holland Park as Lensky in Eugene Onegin, 2022), Eliza Boom, Julieth Lozano, Phillip Rhodes, Madeleine Boreham (Opera Holland Park Young Artist, 2023), and Julien Van Mellaerts, with Gary Matthewman on the piano.
£125 tickets include entrance to a post-show drinks reception with Dame Kiri Te Kanawa.
Ballads and Legends, 7.30pm, 18 July
Mezzo-soprano Helen Charlston, baritone Julien Van Mellaerts and pianist Dylan Perez explore the human relationship with the sea in songs and duets by Charles Stanford, Rebecca Clarke, Carl Loewe, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor and Paolo Tosti, and Haydn’s dramatic scena Arianna a Naxos. The programme includes the world premiere of Oded Zehavi’s Songs of the Sea, a sequence of songs commissioned by Julien Van Mellaerts, with lyrics by the New Zealand poet Bill Manhire, the British poet Laura Attridge, and the French poet Claire Simon.
Frauenliebe und -Leben, 3pm, 20 July
Internationally acclaimed as an art song recitalist, Benjamin Appl makes his Opera in Song debut in concert with soprano Harriet Burns and pianist Ian Tindale. In Robert Schumann’s song cycle Frauenliebe und -Leben, written in 1830, voice and piano capture snapshots from life of an unnamed woman from courtship to marriage, motherhood and widowhood. This programme adds other voices to her journey with duets, songs and folksongs in English and German by Clara Schumann, Johannes Brahms, Liza Lehmann, Rebecca Clarke and others.
Comedy and Cabaret, 6pm, 21 July
Something familiar, something peculiar, something for everyone! Nicky Spence, Dylan Perez and the Opera Holland Park Young Artists invite you to join them at cocktail hour for an evening of words, music and satire by Noel Coward, Stephen Sondheim, Victoria Wood, Tom Lehrer and many more, to toast the close of the fourth series of Opera in Song in style