Next year will mark Clonter’s 50th Anniversary, and we want to make sure it is the best year yet, but in order to make it to 50 we need your help. Any funding raised will help us be able to celebrate Clonter’s 50th Anniversary and continue to provide a nurturing and supportive place for emerging talent to flourish and entertain our audiences for generations to come.
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The World Through French Mélodie
Thurs 7 Sept, 3pm
There are some tickets left for tomorrow’s recital, and you are not too late to book tickets.
Clonter is delighted to welcome Camilla Seale, last year’s winner of the Betty Bannerman Award for French Song, established for students at the Royal Northern College of Music. The recital will take place in the Music Room at Clonterbrook (1 minute drive from Clonter Opera Theatre).
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Programme
Duparc – L’invitation au voyage
Bizet – Adieux de l’hôtesse arabe
Ravel – Vocalise-étude en forme de habanera
Delibes – Les filles de Cadix
Debussy – La flûte de Pan
Ravel – Cinq mélodies populaires grecques
Poulenc – Hyde Park
Poulenc – ‘C’
Poulenc – Fêtes galantes
Saint-Saëns – Tournoiement (Songe d’opium)
Ravel – Asie
Debussy – Noël des enfants qui n’ont plus de maisons
Jake Heggie – We’re Through (Winged Victory)
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Camilla Seale – Mezzo Soprano
Praised for her ‘unaffected simplicity’ (Classical Source) and ‘velvety mezzo’ timbres (The Telegraph), Camilla made her stage debut at Buxton International Festival as Prince Charming in Viardot’s Cendrillon before spending the following season as a member of the Glyndebourne Festival Opera Chorus. She joins the National Opera Studio as a Young Artist for 2023-24.
She graduated with Distinction from both her Masters and Artist Diploma at RNCM in 2022 and 2023, studying under Jane Irwin and Michael Harper, with the support of Help Musicians. There, she was the First Prize recipient of the Betty Bannerman Award for French Song (2022), the Brigitte Fassbaender Award for Lieder (2021) and the Creative Innovator Award (2021). Most recently, she was awarded First Prize at the Sir John Maddison Opera Award (2022), and competed as a semi-finalist at the Kathleen Ferrier Awards (2023).
As a collaborative performer, she founded the devising ensemble, the New Renaissance Collective (2018-2020) and co-created and performed in productions including Beaten Gold and an adaptation of Shakespeare’s Venus & Adonis.
Her other operatic roles include creating Bella in Smail’s new work, Blue Electric (Tête à Tête; Playground Theatre); Cherubino in Le nozze di Figaro (RNCM); Mrs. Nolan in Menotti’s The Medium (RNCM); Mary in Tavener’s Mary of Egypt (King’s College Chapel, Cambridge), Madam Bubble and Madam By-Ends in Vaughan Williams’ A Pilgrim’s Progress (BYO, cover) and scenes as Fox in Janáček’s The Cunning Little Vixen (Morley Opera); Dorabella in Mozart’s Così fan tutte (RNCM); Jemmy in Rossini’s Guillame Tell (Morley Opera); Tisbe in Rossini’s La Cenerentola (Morley Opera); Don Ettore in Haydn’s La Canterina (RNCM); Hänsel in Humperdinck’s Hänsel und Gretel (NOS Short Course).
In concert, she has performed recitals for Manchester Song Festival, Clonter Opera as well oratorio repertoire such as Händel’s Messiah (Leeds Minster) and Mozart’s Requiem (King’s College Chapel). She also performs early music with HM’s Sagbutts and Cornetts, Polyphony, the European Union Baroque Orchestra and Musica Antica Rotherhithe.
Camilla came to music at an early age, signing with the cross-over group, Angelis, under Sony BMG. She studied English at Girton College, Cambridge and then Social Inequality at LSE where she published articles for Classical Music magazine on freelance music making (here and here). She is also a keen aerial artist and was a member of the Salon Collective, where she trained in Meisner’s acting method.
She recently reprised the role of Prince Charming (Cendrillon) in a UK tour in February after a return to Bergen National Opera for chorus in Parsifal (Edward Gardner). In September, she will record a programme titled ‘The World Through French Song’ with duo partner, Craig White for Clonter Opera. She also looks forward to reprising Händel’s duo cantata Aminta e Fillide with soprano, Georgie Malcolm, after making her debut at the Wigmore Hall as soloist for new work, Threnos (Howard – Made in Manchester).
Craig White – Accompanist
Craig White is a versatile and highly acclaimed chamber musician with a focus on both instrumental and vocal repertoire. After his studies at St Catherine’s College, Oxford he completed a Postgraduate Diploma at the Royal Academy of Music in London, studying with Michael Dussek and Diana Ketler. Craig has since been based as Fellow in Piano Accompaniment at the Royal College of Music and now works with the string department at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.
His debut at the prestigious Wigmore Hall with Oboist James Turnbull was in October 2010 and Craig has gone on to perform at all the major concert venues around London. Internationally he has toured South Korea, and Japan. In 2012, Craig won the accompanist prize at the Centenary Kathleen Ferrier Awards, following top accompanist prizes at the Thelma King Awards, Great Elm Vocal Awards and AESS Finals. In 2014, he was made an “Associate of the Royal Academy of Music”. His conducting debut was in 2012 with London Youth Opera’s The Magic Flute.
Craig has worked as an official accompanist at a number of International Music Academies including the Schiermonnikoog masterclasses in Holland, Rencontres Musicales Internationales D’Enghien in Belgium and the Kronberg Akademie in Germany. In 2017, he adjudicated the Con Brio Piano Competition in Mumbai, India. He has also worked at the Aix-en-Provence Académie, collaborating with artists such as Dame Kiri te Kanawa and Waltraud Meier.
Much in demand as a chamber musician and accompanist for singers and instrumentalists, Craig spent 2015 living in Germany, working for the Hochschule für Musik und Tanz in Cologne. He also toured the UK with Russian violinist Adelia Myslov and appeared with Soprano Eleanor Dennis performing for the BBC programme “The Joy of Mozart”. In 2018, he performed on BBC Radio 3 in a live soundtrack performance of Daniel Elms’ ‘Bethia’ as part of the Hull New Music Biennial. Craig is a member of the “Philomel Project”, set up by Pavel Timofeyevsky, bringing an eclectic series of concerts to audiences at the Crick Institute in London.
Craig also works as an arranger. His new “5 Preludes for Violin and Piano” (Debussy/Arr White) are published by DB Edition and have been performed all over Europe. They will be released on a disc in 2020 with Daniel Rowland on Violin and Natacha Kudritskaya on Piano. His arrangement of Debussy’s “Serenade Interrompue” has also been released on Daniel Rowland and Maja Bogdanovic’s debut CD, “Pas de deux”.
About Betty Bannerman
Betty Bannerman was a distinguished mezzo soprano who enjoyed a career spanning some seven decades, latterly as a teacher.
Shespecialised in French song and was a pupil and friend of the great French mezzo Claire Croiza. Bannerman’s own voice ranged from low G to the high A flat. She had a rich, warm tone and exemplary diction in whatever language she was singing. A regular soloist at the Three Choirs Festivals before and after the Second World War, she sang in the Elgar oratorios and in choral works by Kodáy, Lambert, Mendelssohn and Bliss. She gave more than 200 solo recitals for the BBC; she was a soloist in Bach Passions conducted by Vaughan Williams at the Leith Hill Festivals and worked often with such conductors as Ansermet, Beecham, Goossens and Boult. Besides French song, she excelled in German Lieder, Old Italian songs and the English repertoire from Purcell to Britten. Bannerman spent six months in Berlin with Lilli Lehmann and made a special study of lieder with von Zur Mühlen. Her first important London recital was at the Aeolian Hall in 1927. The next year she attended a Croiza recital, which made such an impression that she immediately asked to become her pupil, and for the next 10 years studied with her for a month every year.
(Extracts from piece written by Michael Kennedy, 2 March 1992, Daily Telegraph)
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Ticket Pricing & Booking Information
Tickets £20, FREE for Patrons – Click here for details on how to become a Patron
Doors Open 2.30pm
Performance 3pm
Duration Approx. 1 hour
Ticket price includes post-performance tea, coffee and cake.
BOOK THROUGH BOX OFFICE ONLY – 01260 224514
