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REBECCA RUDGE SOPRANO On graduating with a degree in Italian and German, Rebecca was a Director of a Headhunting Company until 2003. She subsequently had coaching at The National Opera Studio and is currently training with English National Opera Works. Rebecca has performed as a soloist in many of the UK's most prestigious venues; The Symphony Hall, The Royal Festival Hall, The Queen Elizabeth Hall and The Bridgewater Hall, with orchestras including The Orchestra of the Age of The Enlightenment, and in recital with Malcolm Martineau and Donald Maxwell. Highlights of her operatic career include: For the Buxton Festival - Heloise in Offenbach's Bluebeard, Vespetta Pimpinone by Telemann, Coryphee Armide, Gluck, and cover Mrs Ford Nicolai's Merry Wives of Windsor. Lady Ella Patience, Aline Sorceror, Mabel Pirates and Josephine HMS Pinafore for the London Operetta Company, Carl Rosa and the International G&S Festival, numerous roles for English Bach Festival at the Linbury Theatre, St. John's Smith Square and The Banqueting House, including leads in Acis and Galatea, Alceste and Belinda Dido and Aeneas. Other roles include: Polly Peachum and Lucy Lockit The Beggar’s Opera by Gay/Britten with The Opera Project, Giulietta Hoffmann, Zerlina Don Giovanni, 1st Niece Peter Grimes, Annchen Der Freischutz, Alexis L’Ile de Tulipatan by Offenbach, and Maria West Side Story. Rebecca recorded Coralie in Balfe’s Maid of Artois. She has broadcast regularly on BBC radio 4. Rebecca has an extensive oratorio repertoire, highlights include Handel’s Messiah at the QEH and with The OAE, Handel's Samson, Mozart C Minor Mass and Requiem and Bach B Minor Mass at St John’s Smith Square, Rossini Petite Messe Solennelle with Thames Philharmonic Choir, Monteverdi Vespers with The Wayneflete Singers in Winchester Cathedral, Exultate Jubilate and Faure and Brahms Requiems with Manchester Bach Choir, Bizet Te Deum, Biber Requiem with Bath Bach Festival in Bath Abbey and Orff's Carmina Burana with Perth Choral Society, Mendelssohn Elijah with Bath Philharmonia. Future engagements include Carmina Burana with The CBSO under Simon Halsey at The Symphony Hall, Messiah at The Cadogan Hall and Cheltenham Town Hall, Verdi Requiem Perth Concert Hall and St George's Cathedral, Mahler 4th Symphony and Debussy Mallarme settings with Bath Philharmonia, Adina Elisir D’amore, Vespetta Pimpinone, Josephine HMS Pinafore, Mabel Pirates, music society recitals with Donald Maxwell from Thurso to Crediton. |
DONALD MAXWELL BARITONE Donald Maxwell was born in Perth, graduated in Geography from Edinburgh University and studied singing with Joseph Hislop. He made his debut with Scottish Opera thirty years ago and has since sung with all the major British Opera companies, at the BBC Proms and abroad at La Scala Milan, Vienna Staatsoper, Teatro Colon, Buenos Aires and Théâtre Musical de Paris. He has a repertoire of over 100 roles ranging from Eisenstein in Die Fledermaus to Bottom in A Midsummer Night’s Dream and including Balstrode, Iago, Wozzeck, Flying Dutchman, Rigoletto, Nick Shadow, Golaud, Faninal and Don Alfonso. He is particularly noted for his portrayal of Falstaff, which he has sung at the Edinburgh International Festival and in London, Paris, New York, Tokyo, Milan and Vienna and he has also created several world premieres in works by Holt, Manoury, Harle, Berio and Eotvos. Donald Maxwell’s recordings include Bottom A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Falstaff in Vaughan Williams’ Sir John in Love, Carmina Burana, Kismet, and several Gilbert and Sullivan operas including a video of The Mikado. He has had a long association with the Buxton Festival since its inception, including directing The Beautiful Galathea and Pimpinone . He has also directed The Bear and Die Fledermaus for Clonter Opera. He is Director of the National Opera Studio and Head of Opera Studies at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama. In 2004 he sang Swallow in Peter Grimes in Amsterdam, a role he repeated in 2005 at the Salzburg Easter Festival. He returns to the Royal Opera House in January 2007 for La Fille du Regiment and for Magic Flute in 2008, and ENO for Kismet and The Gondoliers. He makes his debut in Houston and at The Met in 2008. |
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