The Jette Parker Young Artists will return to the Royal Opera House’s main stage for their annual Summer Performance, the Royal Opera has announced.
Taking place on 21 July, the performance consists of a wide variety of opera excerpts, including works by Mozart, Gluck, Debussy, Saint-Saëns, Rossini and Verdi. The production brings together talented young singers, conductors and directors from around the world, providing a unique opportunity to see the potential stars of tomorrow. Music comes from the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House.
The Jette Parker Young Artists Programme supports the artistic development of young professional singers, conductors, directors and répétiteurs. They are an international group of outstanding professionals at the start of their careers.
The Programme’s Artistic Director David Gowland commented: “I am delighted to once again welcome audiences to our annual Jette Parker Young Artists Summer Performance, featuring 10 international singers, four aspiring conductors, a fabulous female director and two guest Link Artists from South Africa.
“The afternoon is a journey through fully staged operatic scenes. In the first half, we move from the fizz of Le nozze di Figaro [The Marriage of Figaro, Mozart, 1786] to the iconic third act of Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice [1762], through to an extract from Debussy’s ethereal Pelléas et Mélisande [1893]. The second half features sections from Saint-Saëns’s hedonistic Samson et Dalila [1877] and Rossini’s exuberant Il barbiere di Siviglia [The Barber of Seville, 1816], before finishing with extracts from Verdi’s Rigoletto [1851] and his masterful comic final opera Falstaff [1893].
“The Summer Performance remains a highlight of the calendar for anyone interested in experiencing the skills of some of the most talented young performers working in opera today. The future for these artists is bright!”
Following on from her success directing Henze’s astonishing final opera Phaedra (2007), Israeli director Noa Naamat, who joined the Jette Artists for the 2017-18 season, directs this special performance. Conductors include British-Russian conductor and répétiteur Edmund Whitehead, British conductor Thomas Payne and British répétiteur and conductor Patrick Milne. British conductor and répétiteur and current Jette Parker Principal James Hendry, himself a former Jette Parker Young Artist, completes the line-up.
The performance features artists who joined the programme in both the 2017-18 and 2018-19 seasons: South Korean soprano Haegee Lee, American soprano Jacquelyn Stucker, Chilean soprano Yaritza Véliz, Russian mezzo-soprano Aigul Akhmetshina, Chinese mezzo-soprano Hongni Wu, American countertenor Patrick Terry, South Korean tenor Konu Kim, Argentinean baritone Germán E Alcántara, British baritone Dominic Sedgwick and Scottish-Iranian bass-baritone Michael Mofidian. Two Link Artists for the 2018-19 season join the Summer Performance line-up: South Africans Thando Mjandana, a tenor, and Chuma Sijeqa, a baritone.
The afternoon is a final chance to see the current Jette Parker Young Artists before several of them leave the programme to embark on international operatic and concert careers.
The Jette Parker Young Artist Summer Performance takes place at the Royal Opera House on Sunday 21 July at 13.30.
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Soprano Haegee Lee starred as Zerbinetta in Adriane auf Naxos in last year’s Summer Performance (ROH; photo by Clive Barda).