Masque of Vengeance

Adapted from The Revenger's Tragedy (Middleton 1606) a fine cast of 9 singers brought to life this sleazy, bloodthirsty farce of an opera.
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The Cockpit, London
Tue 7 to Thu 9 November 2023

The Stoller Hall, Manchester
Sun 12 November

Music: Edward Lambert
Words: Thomas Middleton (1606) 
Director: David Edwards
​Design: Tabitha Benton-Evans
Movement: Jenny Weston

Laure Meloy (soprano) Duchess
Madeline Robinson (soprano) Virginia
Leila Zanette (mezzo-soprano) Vindicio, often disguised as Caria
Mae Heydorn (contralto) Gratiana
Francis Gush (counter-tenor) Prince
Lawrence Thackeray (tenor) Spurio
Will Diggle (tenor) Vacuo
Charles Johnston (baritone) King
Christopher Foster (bass) Antonio
Piano duet: Alex Norton, Adrian Salinero

"If a revenger's wish might stand in force,
Would all those there were turned into a corpse!" 

We’re in a dystopian underworld of criminality, lust and murder. Vindicio is a young man played by a woman who, for much of the play, disguises himself as a woman. And that’s just the start. He has with him the death mask of his fiancée whom the King raped and murdered; he seeks revenge, but is intercepted by the King’s son, the Prince, who wants to bed Vindicio’s sister. So begins this deadly battle of wits which is over 400 years old - but which is a timeless indictment of corruption and evil in the corridors of power. 

production images: Claire Shovelton

Vindicio - Leila Zanette (mezzo-soprano) has just spent her third season with Garsington Opera as an Alvarez Young Artist, where she covered the roles of Rosina Il Barbiere di Siviglia, 2nd Nymph Rusalka, Aisha Dalia and Mezzo Corypheè Le Comte Ory. She has sung Irene Tamerlano (Cambridge Handel Opera Company) and Romeo I Capuleti e i Montecchi (Wexford Festival Opera Young Artists). With Royal Academy Opera, Leila performed the roles of Marta Iolanta, Juno Semele, Véronique Le Docteur Miracle, Older Woman Flight and Medea Teseo at the London Handel Festival. For Grange Festival she covered the title role of Carmen.

'Duchess' - Laure Meloy (soprano) specialises in contemporary opera. She has performed at the Royal Opera House, English National Opera, Welsh National Opera, and English Touring Opera during their Olivier winning season. Recently she made debuts as Brünnhilde Die Walküre at the Grimeborn Festival, Zaïde in Freiburg, Germany, Gutrune Götterdämmerung with Longborough Festival Opera, Ariel The Tempest at Hungarian State Opera, and joined the roster of the Metropolitan Opera. Her album One Art won Hawai'i Public Radio’s International Art Song Contest, and a monodrama of the same title premiered in London at the Tête à Tête Opera Festival.

Virginia - Madeline Robinson (soprano) is a graduate of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire. Since training she has performed roles with Opera South (Gontran in Chabrier's Une Educations Manquee, Hurn Court Opera (Cover Norina in Donizetti's Don Pasquale), Cumbria Opera Group (Zerlina in Mozart's Don Giovanni), Opera della Luna (Johanna in a revival of the original melodrama of Sweeney Todd) and in March of this year was nominated for an Off West End Award for her performance of Rose Maybud in Gilbert and Sullivan's Ruddigore at Wilton's Music Hall. 

Gratiana - Mae Heydorn (contralto) was a GSMD Anglo-Swedish Society scholar and made her professional debut at Glyndebourne Festival Opera as Woodpecker in The Cunning Little Vixen. She is the Winner of the Swedish Wagner Prize 2019 and has since sung her critically acclaimed role debut as Erda at Longborough Festival Opera. Contemporary performances include the TV documentary Opera Mums for BBC Four (Kerry) and Birtwistle’s The Mask of Orpheus at ENO. In 2021 the UK premier of Gounod’s La Nonne Sanglante earned her an Offie nomination for the title role.

'Prince' - Francis Gush (countertenor) is a graduate of the Royal College of Music. In 2023 performances included the title role in Giulio Cesare English Touring Opera, Arbante in La Forze dell’amor paterno (Stradella) The Barber Oper, and Daryl in the contemporary opera A&E (Muelas/Ward). Francis made his debut with the Orchestra of the Age of the Enlightenment in a programme of Purcell and Blow. Previous operatic engagements include Athamas (cover), Semele Opera de Lille and Arsace, Partenope with Hampstead Garden Opera. He covered Spirit Dido and Aeneas at the BBC Proms with La Nuova Musica.

Spurio - Lawrence Thackeray (tenor) has performed Rodolfo La Boheme, Alfredo La Traviata, Tamino Magic Flute, Peter Quint Turn of the Screw, Ruggero La Rondine, Don Jose Carmen, Rinuccio Gianni Schicchi, Nemorino L'elisir d'amore, Fox Cunning Little Vixen and Eisenstein Die Fledermaus. He has worked for Glyndebourne Festival, Opera North, Grange Park, Garsington, West Green House and Waterperry Festival and abroad for Wexford Festival, Opera Ireland, Bergen National Opera and Silent Opera at the Bejing International Music Festival.

Vacuo - Will Diggle (tenor) studied as a baritone at the Royal Academy of Music and Royal College of Music. He has since transitioned to tenor and recently covered Aeneas Dido and Aeneas for Grange Festival. Notable engagements include: Germano La Scala di Seta (Teatro Signorelli, Italy); recitals (Tsaritsyno Palace, Moscow); Dulcamara, cover L'elisir d'amore (New Generation Festival, Florence); Long John Silver The Hive (Hoxton Hall); and trio member Trouble in Tahiti (RCM). As a chorister, Will has performed at Sydney Opera House with Opera Australia in Don Giovanni, Aida, La traviata and Lohengrin.

'King' - Charles Johnston (baritone) has worked for many companies in the UK and abroad in repertoire ranging from the great operas of Verdi and Puccini to contemporary pieces via Wagner and Strauss. He has appeared with English National Opera, Welsh National Opera and Opera North. He has sung Rossini in Spain, Mozart and Debussy in France and Maxwell-Davies, Hindemith and Walton in Switzerland. He has sung Macbeth in Singapore and toured the US with Die Fledermaus and Opera Theatre Company’s acclaimed production of Handel’s Rodelinda. Recently he has established himself as an audiobook narrator.

Antonio - Christopher Foster (bass) was a winner of the N.F.M.S. Young Concert Artists' Award, a finalist in the Richard Tauber Competition and an inaugural Samling Scholar. 
Concert highlights have included the world premiere of Łukaszewski’s Requiem (Presteigne Festival), Mozart’s Requiem (RFH), and Handel’s Messiah (Forbidden City, Beijing). Operatic roles have included Mozart’s Sarastro & Leporello; Puccini's Traveller & Sacristan; Kawabata, Philip Glass Hotel of Dreams; Arkel Impressions de Pélleas; Britten Curlew River for Opera Nova; Arthur, Maxwell Davies The Lighthouse and 2 operas by Edward Lambert at the Tête à Tête Festival.

Alex Norton (piano) trained as a Young Artist at the National Opera Studio (2023/24). Recent productions include the UK premiere of Salieri’s La fiera di Venzia and the Danish premiere of Mascagni’s Zanetto. Other highlights include various projects with the Royal Opera House’s Learning and Participation programme and Welsh National Opera’s Cherry Town by Shostakovich in which he was a repetiteur and orchestral pianist. Alex has performed at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Wigmore Hall, various European venues, and made his concerto debut with the Leeds Symphony Orchestra performing Gershwin’s Piano Concerto.

Adrian Salinero (piano) is from Basque Spain and based in London. A 22/23 Young Artist at the National Opera Studio, he has worked with Welsh National Opera, Opera North, Scottish Opera and English National Opera. He has worked alongside David Parry and Christian Curnyn and performed in the Wigmore Hall and BBC's Hoddinott Hall. He was recently keyboard player and ensemble member in OVO's production of Weill's The Threepenny Opera at The Cockpit and other venues.

Tabitha Benton-Evans (design) is a Cornish-Scottish artist whose work includes directing, costume and scenic design, writing and drag performance. After graduating from St Andrew's University, they completed an MA in Opera Directing at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama. Directing credits include 'Gaṅgā' for Wandsworth Arts Fringe 2023, Edward Lambert's 'The Burning Question' for Tête-a-Tête: The Opera Festival 2022 and 'A Dinner Engagement' for RWCMD. They have assisted at Welsh National Opera, the National Opera Studio and RWCMD. They are a founding member of Transgress Opera and will be directing their upcoming production of Glück's 'Orphée et Eurydice'.

David Edwards has directed opera in San Francisco, San Diego, Los Angeles, Portland, Houston, Minneapolis, Chicago, Philadelphia, Washington, London (where he staged ten revivals for The Royal Opera), Milan, Vienna, France, Italy, Singapore, and regularly in Tokyo at the New National Theatre where he directed for the Opera Studio for over a decade. In 2023 he returned to the NNT Tokyo to stage a scenes program with the Young Artists.

Jenny Weston (choreographer) had a busy career as a dancer before choreographing operas and working as a movement director for Glyndebourne, Opera Holland Park, ENO and Diva Opera, among others. Projects abroad include Vienna, Syria and Long Beach, California. Contemporary projects include Nixon in China and The Passenger. 

Thomas Middleton (1580 – 1627) was among the most successful and prolific of playwrights at work in the Jacobean period, and among the few to gain equal success in comedy and tragedy. He was also a prolific writer of masques and pageants. His early work was informed by the flourishing of satire in the late Elizabethan period, while his maturity was influenced by the ascendancy of Fletcherian tragicomedy. (Wikipedia)

Edward Lambert (composer) has composed music for a wide variety of performers. He has written the operas Caedmon (Royal Opera/Donmar Warehouse), The Button Moulder (Royal Opera Education), All in the Mind, (W11 Opera) and Six Characters in Search of a Stage (2014 Brighton and London venues). The Catfish Conundrum in 2014 kicked off regular appearances in Tete-à-Tête: The Opera Festival since when he has created 15 more operas.

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