Tim Mead, Anna Dennis, Mary Bevan, Hilary Summers, Early Opera Company & Christian Curnyn
Biography Tim Mead, Anna Dennis, Mary Bevan, Hilary Summers, Early Opera Company & Christian Curnyn
Tim Mead
is praised for his “alluring” and “consistently excellent” interpretations (New York Times). With his “rich, mellifluous sound” (Guardian), he is recognised as one of the finest across the generations of counter-tenors.
Highlights of the 2017/18 season include his debut at the Opéra National de Paris as Hamor in Handel Jephtha, a return to English National Opera as Bertarido in Handel Rodelinda, and to the Bayerische Staatsoper as Endimione in Cavalli La Calisto. In concert Mead will sing a Vivaldi programme with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl, Bach cantatas with the Netherlands Bach Society, Pergolesi Stabat Mater with the Academy of Ancient Music, and Bach St John Passion at the BBC Proms.
Recent operatic highlights include Oberon in Britten A Midsummer Night’s Dream at Glyndebourne Festival Opera and Bergen National Opera, the title role in Philip Glass’s Akhnaten and Ottone in Handel Agrippina at Opera Vlaanderen, a reprisal of the role of Boy/Angel in George Benjamin’s Written on Skin at the Bolshoi; the leading role in Theater Basel’s ‘Melancholia’ both in Basel and at the Holland Festival, and the title role Riccardo Primo at Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, and Arsamene in Cavalli Xerse with Le Concert d’Astrée at Opéra de Lille, Theater an der Wien, and Theatre de Caen. Previous highlights include Goffredo and Eustazio Rinaldo at Glyndebourne, Endimione La Calisto at Bayerische Staatsoper, Voice of Apollo in Deborah Warner’s production of Death in Venice at English National Opera and De Nederlandse Opera, Angel/Boy in George Benjamin’s Written on Skin at Théâtre du Capitole Toulouse, Gulbenkian, on tour with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, and in the U.S. premiere at Lincoln Center, and Tolomeo Julius Caesar at English National Opera and Deutsche Oper am Rhein. Other operatic highlights include Ottone L’incoronazione di Poppea at ENO, Opéra de Lyon, Opéra de Lille; title role Giulio Cesare at Glyndebourne, title role Orlando at Scottish Opera and Chicago Opera Theater, Clearte Niobe and the world premiere of Harrison Birtwistle’s The Minotaur for the Royal Opera House, title role Admeto at International Händel Festspiele Göttingen and the Edinburgh International Festival, Ottone Agrippina in Lille and Dijon, and in concert the title role in Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice with the Akademie für Alte Musik.
On the concert platform Tim Mead has sung Messiah with the New York Philharmonic, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Academy of Ancient Music, Le Concert d’Astree, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della Rai, Accademia Bizantina and Concerto Köln, Bach Christmas Oratorio with Les Arts Florissants, Bach Magnificat with Le Concert d’Astree, Bach St Matthew Passion with London Handel Festival and De Nederlandse Bachvereniging, Bach B Minor Mass with Arcangelo, Bach cantatas with Ensemble Pygmalion, Handel Theodora with the English Concert, Handel Solomon with Akademie für Alte Musik, Handel Judas Maccabaeus with the OAE, Handel Saul with the Dresdner Barockorchester, Handel Joseph and his Brethren at the International Händel Festspiele Göttingen, Handel Semele with the Handel and Haydn Society, Boston and the CBSO, Handel Susanna with the Early Opera Company, Handel Esther with the Dunedin Consort and Dusapin La Melancholia with the SWR Sinfonieorchester. He has worked with such leading conductors as Ivor Bolton, John Butt, William Christie, Harry Christophers, Laurence Cummings, Christian Curnyn, Alan Curtis, Ottavio Dantone, Gustavo Dudamel, Richard Egarr, Jane Glover, Paul Goodwin, Emmanuelle Haïm, Jakub Hrusa, Vladimir Jurowski, Raymond Leppard, Paul McCreesh, Nicholas McGegan, Marc Minkowski, Antonio Pappano, Raphaël Pichon and Masaaki Suzuki. He has also given song recitals at the Wigmore Hall alongside pianist James Baillieu, for Les Grandes Voix in Paris with L'Arpeggiata and Christina Pluhar and at the Teatro Argentina, Rome.
Mead’s already substantial discography includes Bach St Matthew Passion and B Minor Mass, the Handel oratorios Messiah, Saul, Solomon, Israel in Egypt, and The Triumph of Time and Truth, the Handel operas Admeto, Flavio, Riccardo Primo and Rinaldo, and Monteverdi L’incoronazione di Poppea and an album featuring Bach cantatas for solo alto and Pergolesi Stabat Mater. He has recorded for EMI Classics, Erato, Harmonia Mundi, Hyperion, Opus Arte, Chandos, Linn Records amongst others.
Mead read Music as a choral scholar at King’s College, Cambridge, before winning a number of scholarships to continue his vocal studies at the Royal College of Music.
Mary Bevan
Praised by Opera for her “dramatic wit and vocal control”, British soprano Mary Bevan is internationally renowned in baroque, classical and contemporary repertoire, and appears regularly with leading conductors, orchestras and ensembles around the world. She is a winner of the Royal Philharmonic Society’s Young Artist award and UK Critics’ Circle Award for Exceptional Young Talent in music and was awarded a MBE in the Queen’s birthday honours list in 2019.
Bevan’s engagements for the 2022/23 season include a return to the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden as Morgana in a new Richard Jones production of Alcina that will be conducted by Christian Curnyn, LIGHT: Bach Dances with the Hofesh Shechter Company at the Philharmonie de Paris, a return to the Garsington Opera and her debut at La Fenice, Venice as Eurydice in Gluck Orfeo and Eurydice.
Last season, Bevan’s many concert appearances included Haydn The Creation at the Barbican Hall with the Academy of Ancient Music, Belinda and First Witch Dido & Aeneas with the Early Opera Company at St John’s Smith Square, a European tour of Handel Messiah with the Kammerorchester Basel, Handel Theresienmesse with the Handel and Haydn Society and Bach Mass in B minor with the Philhamonia Baroque Orchestra. Further highlights include recitals at Wigmore Hall and the Lammermuir, Osafestivalen and Oxford Lieder festivals. During the 2020/21 season she returned to Royal Danish Opera for her role debut as Marzelline Fidelio and for the production LIGHT: Bach Dances with director John Fuljames and conductor Lars Ulrik Mortensen and made her debut at the Bolshoi Theatre in David Alden’s production of Ariodante as Dalinda; in concert she sang the world premiere of Sir James MacMillan Christmas Oratorio at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw and A.Bliss Rout with the London Philharmonic Orchestra.
Opera highlights of previous seasons include Rose Maurrant in Weill’s Street Scene for Opera de Monte Carlo and Eurydice in Offenbach’s Orpheus in the Underworld for English National Opera, her debut with the Danish Opera debut as Bellezza in Il Trionfo del tempo e del desinganno, the title role in Turnage’s new opera Coraline for the Royal Opera at the Barbican, her return to the English National Opera as Zerlina Don Giovanni, and her debut as Merab Saul for the Adelaide Festival. For the Royal Opera House she created the role of Lila in David Bruce The Firework-Maker’s Daughter, performed the title role in Rossi’s Orpheus at the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, and sang Barbarina Le nozze di Figaro on the main stage. In concert she performed with Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla and the CBSO in the world premiere of Roxanna Panufnik’s Faithful Journey, Mary in Sally Beamish The Judas Passion with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Bach Christmas Oratorio on tour in Australia with the Choir of London and Australian Chamber Orchestra, and Messiah with the Academy of Ancient Music. With The English Concert, she appeared in their tour of Asia (Harry Bicket) and made her Carnegie Hall debut as Dalinda in Ariodante, and she has also performed with the BBC Concert (BBC Proms) and BBC Symphony orchestras.
Bevan’s discography includes her art song album Voyages with pianist Joseph Middleton and Handel's Queens with London Early Opera, both released by Signum Records, Mendelssohn songs for Champs Hill Records, Handel: The Triumph of Time and Truth and Handel: Ode for St Cecilia’s Day with Ludus Baroque, and Vaughan Williams Symphony No.3 and Schubert Rosamunde with the BBC Philharmonic. In autumn 2019 Signum released her second disc with Joseph Middleton including Lieder by Schubert, Haydn and Wolf.
Christian Curnyn
is widely recognised as one of the UK’s leading conductors specialising in the Baroque and Classical repertoire. In 1994, Christian founded the Early Opera Company, with whom he set out to reinvigorate the Baroque repertoire. Christian and the EOC appear regularly at Wigmore Hall and St John’s Smith Square for the London Festival of Baroque Music. They have also performed at the BBC Proms as well as at the Cheltenham, Spitalfields, York Early Music and Kilkenny Arts Festivals. The EOC made their debut at Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw with a double bill of Dido and Aeneas and Blow’s Venus and Adonis in 2018.
Highly regarded for his energetic conducting and creative vision, Christian has conducted Handel’s Saul and Giulio Cesare for Opera North, Die Zauberflöte and Handel’s Amadigi for Garsington Opera, Handel’s Semele for Scottish Opera and Grange Park Opera, for whom he has also conducted Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro, and Cavalli’s Eliogabalo. He is a regular at English National Opera where successes have included Olivier Award-winning productions of Handel’s Partenope and Rameau’s Castor et Pollux (dir. Barrie Kosky), After Dido (Katie Mitchell’s realisation of Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas), Handel’s Giulio Cesare, Charpentier’s Medée, and Handel's Rodelinda. For The Royal Opera, Covent Garden he has conducted Britten’s The Beggar’s Opera Monteverdi's Il ritorno d'Ulisse at The Roundhouse, Cavalli's L'Ormindo to inaugurate their series at the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse at Shakespeare’s The Globe, where he returned for Luigi Rossi’s Orfeo, which was nominated for an Olivier Award. Most recently he conducted Apollo e Dafne and a concert production of Handel’s Ariodante at the Royal Opera House.
Christian’s work in Europe and beyond includes Partenope with Opera Australia, Vivaldi’s Farnace and Handel’s Ariodante for Landestheater Salzburg, Cavalli’s La Calisto and Gluck’s Ezio for Frankfurt Opera, Castor et Pollux and Zoroastre by Rameau at Komische Oper Berlin, Rameau’s Platée, Purcell’s The Fairy Queen and Handel’s Alcina at Stuttgart Opera, Mozart Idomeneo for Teatro Nacional de Sao Carlos and Le nozze di Figaro at Theater Basel. In the USA Christian has conducted Partenope and Cosi fan Tutte for New York City Opera, Handel's Tolomeo for Glimmerglass Opera, and Cavalli's Giasone and Charpentier’s Medée for Chicago Opera Theater.
Specialist early music ensembles among Christian’s regular collaborators include Academy of Ancient Music, AKAMUS, English Concert, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, and the Irish and Wroclaw Baroque orchestras. Alongside this work he takes a particular interest in performing Baroque and Classical repertoire with modern forces, including collaborations with Bournemouth Symphony, Ulster, Hallé, Scottish Chamber Orchestra (including a recording on the Decca label with Nicola Benedetti), Swedish Chamber Orchestra, Stavanger Symphony, Ensemble Resonanz and Essen Philharmoniker. He has also conducted a Messiah tour in Australia with the Tasmanian, West Australian and Adelaide Symphony Orchestras.
Recent and forthcoming highlights include concerts with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Budapest Festival Orchestra, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, SWR Symphonieorchester, BBC NOW, and Komische Oper Berlin, Acis and Galatea with his Early Opera Company for the Buxton Festival, a new production of Handel’s Orlando for Oper Halle which will also celebrate the 100th year of the Halle Festival, Semele with AKAMUS and Opera Collective Ireland and a return to the Royal Opera House Covent Garden for a new production of Handel’s Alcina. With the Early Opera Company he will conduct concerts at the Wigmore Hall, Bruges and Amsterdam Concertgebouw and St John Smith Square as well as releasing their recording of Handel’s Amadigi on Chandos Records.
His extensive discography with the Early Opera Company for the Chandos label includes their 2005 recording of Partenope which won widespread critical acclaim, and their recording of Semele was chosen as a Best Recording of 2008 by The Sunday Times, Editor’s Choice in Gramophone Magazine and awarded the 2008 Stanley Sadie Handel Prize. Further releases include Il Trionfo del Tempo for Wigmore Live, Eccles’ The Judgement of Paris, (awarded a Diapason D’or), Britten’s The Beggar’s Opera, Handel’s Flavio, Alceste (winner of the Opera award in the BBC Music Magazine Awards 2013), Serse, and most recently Acis & Galetea (winner of the Opera category of the 2019 BBC Music Magazine Awards).
