Performance history
Benjamin Britten: Billy Budd
Our two-act concert performance of Billy Budd continues our progress through the work of composer Benjamin Britten
Stravinsky, The Rake’s Progress
Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress tells the tale of a Rake, Tom Rakewell, who abandons his truelove for the bright lights of London in the company of the Devil in disguise.
Wagner and Schoenberg
Richard Wagner: Parsifal Act 2, concert production
Arnold Schoenberg: Verklärte Nacht, arranged for full orchestra by Jonathan Finney
Cast
Parsifal: Alex Haigh
Kundry: Catharine Woodward
Klingsor: Nicholas Morris
Flower Maidens: Ingeborg Børch, Corinne Hart, Kristel Vinter Knudsen, Charlotte Richardson, Wendy Silvester and Grace Wain
The orchestra of New Palace Opera
Conductor: Jonathan Finney
To meet the sun upon the upland
Jonathan Finney returns to St Peter’s in St Albans for another popular lunchtime recital to sing two English song cycles, accompanied by a string quartet.
Ralph Vaughan Williams’ On Wenlock Edge used six poems from AE Housman’s ‘A Shropshire Lad’, while Gerald Finzi looks to the poems of Thomas Hardy for his By Footpath and Stile cycle.
Britten, Albert Herring
New Palace Opera returns to Benjamin Britten for the third of his chamber operas, the comic Albert Herring.
Cast
Lady Billows, an elderly aristocrat, Elaine KcKrill
Florence Pike, her housekeeper, Anna Loveday
Miss Wordsworth, a schoolteacher, Mimi Doulton
Mr Gedge, the vicar, Jonathan Finney
Mr Upfold, the mayor, Robin Whitehouse
Superintendent Budd, Simon Grange
Sid, a butcher’s assistant, Aaron Holmes
Albert Herring, from the greengrocer’s, Alex Haigh
Nancy, from the bakery, Emily Hodkinson
Mrs Herring, Albert’s mother, Zoe South
Emmie, Elizabeth Stock
Cis, Alicia Mallace-Goulbourne
Harry, Elizabeth Moreland
Conductor, Michael Thorne
Jonathan Finney, A Kind Man
Your opera is very fine, a moving and inventive evening of music-theatre. I think you have a great gift of lyricism. David Syrus
I am so proud of what Jonathan has done to transform a novel into something quite new. Dame Susan Hill
Britten, The Rape of Lucretia
The Rape of Lucretia is a chamber opera in two acts by Benjamin Britten, written for Kathleen Ferrier, who performed the title role. Ronald Duncan based his English libretto on André Obey's play Le Viol de Lucrèce. Singers include Rebecca Afonwy-Jones as Lucretia and Matthew Sharp as Tarquinius, conducted by Michael Thorne.
Mahler (arr. Schoenberg), Das Lied von der Erde
Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde is a life-affirming work, even as it says farewell to worldly cares in its concluding movement. With its six songs which range from a celebration of life’s energy to the abandonment of the world, Mahler conjures up a vision of beauty that seeks to traverse the world’s experience of what it means to be alive. Singers, Andrew Friedhoff and Jonathan Finney, conducted by Michael Thorne.
Wagner: Tannhäuser: Overture and Venusberg Scene, Listz: Dante Symphony (2019)
Tannhäuser Edward Hughes
Venus Zoe South
Conductor Jonathan Finney
Britten, The Turn of the Screw (2019)
Prologue Jonathan Finney
Governess Nicola Ihnatowicz
Miles Elizabeth Morland
Flora Chiara Vinci
Mrs. Grose Mae Heydorn
Quint Jonathan Finney
Miss Jessel Zoe South
Conductor Michael Thorne
Repetiteur Jonathan Musgrave
Wagner, Act 1 Complete, The Ride of the Valkyries, Act 3 Finale (2018)
Siegmund Andrew Friedhoff
Sielginde Cara McHardy
Hunding Oliver Hunt
Zoe South Brünnhilde
Wotan Julian Close
Conductor Jonathan Finney
Wagner, Prelude, Act 2, Liebestod (2017)
Isolde Zoe South
Brangaene Mae Heydorn
Tristan Edward Hughes
Kurvenal David Mears
King Marke Julian Close
Melot, Cornish Sailor Peter Relton
Conductor Jonathan Finney
Strauss, Ariadne auf Naxos (2017)
Der Komponist Mae Heydorn
Der Tenor/Bacchus Jonathan Finney
Zerbinetta Alinka Kozári
Prima Donna/Ariadne Zoe South
Conductor Michael Thorne