25th April 2009
The Stoke Newington
Opera Cabaret
Fabienne Borget
Adey Grummet
James Hodgson
Breiffni Horgan
Lore Lixenberg
Leigh Melrose
Alenka Ponjavic’
Pedro Pozos Melo
John Savournin
Sarah Tynan
Presented by . . . Adey
Grummet
Accompanied by . . .Elizabeth Marcus
and . . . Jonathan Williams
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25th April 2009
Programme Part One
Libiamo, La Traviata, Giuseppe Verdi - 1853
o Adey, James and party goers
Prenderò quel brunettino, Così fan tutte, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - 1790
o Alenka and Fabienne
Prendi, prendi, L’elisir d’amore, Gaetano Donizetti , 1832
o James
Che faro senza Euridice, Orfeo ed Euridice, Christophe W Gluck – 1762
o Alenka
Abscheulicher, Fidelio, Ludwig van Beethoven - 1805/1814
o Lore,
Sous le dôme épais, Lakmé, Leo Délibes- 1882
o Adey and Lore
Salut, demeure, chaste et pure, Faust, Charles Gounod - 1859
o Breiffni
Ya vas lyublu, The Queen of Spades, Pyotr Tchaikovsky – 1890
o Leigh
Mon Coeur est pénétré, Faust, Charles Gounod – 1859
o Fabienne, John, Breiffni
Interval – 40 minutes
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25th April 2009
Programme Part Two
We’re called Gondolieri, The Gondoliers, Gilbert and Sullivan – 1889
o James Hodgson and John Savournin
The moon has raised her lamp, The Lily of Killarny, Sir Julius Benedict – 1867
o Breiffni Horgan and John Savournin
Interlude,
o Pedro
Largo al factorum, The Marriage of Figaro, Wolfgang A Mozart – 1786
o John
Crudel? Perché finora, The Marriage of Figaro, Wolfgang A Mozart – 1786
o Leigh and Sarah
Non piu mestà, La Cenerentola, Giaochino Rossini – 1817
o Adey . . . and Lore!
Un bel dì, Madama Butterfly, Giacomo Puccini – 1904
o Fabienne
Come scoglio, Così fan tutte, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - 1790
o Lore
Au fond du temple saint, Les pecheurs de perles, Georges Bizet – 1863
o Leigh and Breiffni
Va pensiero, Nabucco (Nabucodonosor!), Giuseppe Verdi, 1842
o Tutti
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25th April 2009
Biographies
Fabienne Borget
Following violin studies, Fabienne moved to singing studies in
France, where she won a Gold medal in both singing and chamber music. She attended the
Guildhall School of Music and Drama in 1993 to do a post diploma vocal training course. She
is currently studying with Jennifer Carron. In 1998 she was a finalist in Le Concours
International de Mélodies Françaises de Ville d’Avray.
Her operatic roles include ‘Violetta’ La Traviata, ‘Amelia’ A Masked Ball, ‘Cio Cio San’,
Madam Butterfly, ‘Liu’ Turandot, ‘Musetta’ La Bohème ‘Lauretta’ Gianni Schicchi, ‘Donna
Anna’ Don Giovanni, ‘Tatiana’ Eugene Onegin, ‘Marguerite’ Faust, ‘Micaela’ Carmen, ‘Leila’
The Pearl Fishers, ‘Antonia and Giulietta’ The Tales of Hoffmann, ‘Luisa’ Luisa Miller,
‘Santuzza’ Cavalleria Rusticana, ‘Rowan’ The Little Sweep and ‘Amina’ La Sonnambula.
She has been soloist in several oratorios including Verdi’s Requiem, Brahms’German
Requiem, Bach’s B minor Mass and Magnificat, Mozart’s Requiem and Coronation Mass,
Fauré’s Requiem and Poulenc’s Gloria in France and in tours round the world.
She sang at the Naming Ceremony for P&O International Cruises’ Aurora in front of HRH
Princess Anne and featured in radio broadcasts at the Utrecht International Music Festival and
a charity Concert for the Blind in France. She works regularly with the Basingstoke Male
Choir, the Morlais Male Choir and the Cheddar Male Voice Choir.
With Stefan Hofkes, she has recorded a C.D. of famous soprano arias for the Musaeus
label and has been singing in numerous recitals. She has recorded a CD with Michael Pugh
and they are planning a series of recitals in the UK and in France
She has sung the role of Léïla in Bizet’s The Pearl Fishers for Swansea
City Opera and the role of Rosalinda in Johann Strauss’ Die Fledermaus for Opera
Box.
Adey Grummet
has gone through some trauma about this evening. The strain of
coming up with a new frock every year is tremendous but she thinks she has come through
once more and hopes you agree.
As for her glittering career, it is popping along quite nicely, thank you. She has been
very busy with The Shout since the summer in their critically acclaimed productions of Critical
Mass (with Streetwise Opera) and Fingerprint. In between she has been workshopping
absolutely everyone including large bunches of Glasgow youth, smaller bunches of East End
vicars and tiny, cute little bunches of Year 1 for their Nativity play. Recently she has had great
fun putting together a very silly operatic programme with Lore and Jonathan for the Hexham
Festival. This month she is mostly cooking and bedmaking for the tremendous numbers of
nieces, nephews and in-laws who have arrived from Oz for Christmas. Hurrah! See
www.adeygrummet.co.uk
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25th April 2009
James Hodgson
MA (Hons) Art History St.Andrews University was born in
Lancashire. He began his career as a Jazz singer/pianist appearing at such venues as
Ronnie Scott’s, The Donmar Warehouse and The Purcell Room Summer Cabaret festival. He
also made appearances in Denmark and at Oslo’s premier club: Barock. He subsequently
trained classically with Rita Patane (New York), the late Federico D’Avia, and Gerald Wragg.
James appears regularily in recital and recent venues have included The Purcell Room,
Leighton House and The Conway Hall. Oratorio appearances include Handel’s Jehptha and
Messiah at Newcastle Cathedral.
Opera companies he has worked for include the D’Oyly Carte, European Chamber
Opera, Garden Opera, Opera Box and Holland Park Opera. His Roles include Tamino in The
Magic Flute, Edgardo in Lucia Di Lammermoor, Nemorino in L’Elisir D’Amore Don
Basilio/Don Curzio in Le Nozze di Figaro, Il Podesta La Finta Giardinera, Il Conte Ricardo in I
Quattro Rusteghi, Alfredo in La Traviata, Cavaradossi in Tosca, Don Jose in Carmen,
Riccardo in Verdi’s Masked Ball and Rodolfo in La Boheme for New London Opera.
He is now training as a Music Therapist at the Nordoff Robbins Centre for Music
Therapy.
Breiffni Horgan was born in Cork and started his singing career as a chorister at
St.Finbarre's Cathedral, Cork. He graduated from University College Cork with an honours
degree in electrical engineering before being awarded a scholarship to study opera at the
Guildhall School of Music and Drama, London. He subsequently completed a year's study at
the Flanders Opera Studio in Gent, Belgium.
Equally at home on the concert and the operatic stage, Breiffni has been broadcast
live by the BBC, RTE as well as Dutch, Belgian and Australian radio. As a soloist he has
performed at the Linbury Theatre at the Royal Opera House, the Purcell Room in
London's South Bank centre, St. John's, Smith Square and the National Concert Hall of
Ireland.
In 2006 Breiffni made his solo concert debut at the Sydney Opera House.
Lore Lixenberg is very experienced due to the two years she spent
working at the Spearmint Rhino in Tottenham Court Road. Her hobbies include
Chinese cookery, pot-holing and belly dancing, not necessarily in that order. She
has a garden the size of the window table in The Fox Reformed in which she has
planted fifteen bay trees. World domination is only twelve years away. She sings a
bit.
Elizabeth Marcus was born in Brighton and studied at Guildhall School of Music
and Drama where she now works as a vocal coach, staff accompanist and professor of
harpsichord. She has performed at the Wigmore Hall, Purcell Room, Queen Elizabeth Hall,
the Floral Hall at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden and St. John Smith Square and
appeared in concert with Alastair Miles, Janice Watson, Sally Matthews, Robert Hayward and
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Claire Rutter. She has broadcast on BBC Radio 3 and 4, Classic FM, BBC 2 TV, Channel 4
and French National Radio.
Elizabeth has been official accompanist for the Peter Pears, the Richard Tauber and
the Kathleen Ferrier competitions and for masterclasses with Ileana Cotrubas, Guisseppe di
Stefano and Sherrill Milnes. She is much in demand as a vocal coach and works regularly with
singers such as Sally Matthews, Patricia Bardon and Sir Willard White.
Elizabeth is a member of the Tzigane Piano Trio, which performs regularly
in the UK and has released a disc of the complete music for Piano Trio by Cecile
Chaminade.
Leigh Melrose
His opera engagements have taken him to companies in the UK,
Europe and the USA where he has sung roles including Demetrius A Midsummer Night’s
Dream for La Monnaie, Escamillo Carmen at the Royal Albert Hall and with CBSO/Sakari
Oramo, Figaro Il Barbiere di Siviglia at New York City Opera, Silvio I Pagliacci for Welsh
National Opera, Britten’s Death in Venice, Liceu Barcelona under Sebastian Weigle,
Papageno The Magic Flute and Marcello La bohème for Opera Zuid, Sid Albert Herring,
Salzburger Landestheater under Ivor Bolton, Lubano in The Philosopher’s Stone (by Mozart
and others) with Garsington Opera, the title role in Eugene Onegin, Longborough Festival
Opera and Ned Keene Peter Grimes, Papageno The Magic Flute, The Count Marriage of
Figaro, Rodolfo Leoncavallo’s La Boheme and Junius The Rape of Lucretia for English
National Opera.
Leigh also excels in the contemporary opera repertoire. He has sung Punch in
Birtwistle’s Punch and Judy in Porto and Rambo in the Channel Four film of John Adams’ The
Death of Klinghoffer. He created roles in the world-première of Jonathan Dove’s TV Opera,
Man on the Moon for Channel 4 and in the Kombat Opera series of short films commissioned
and shown by BBC 2. He has recently premiered the role of Evan in James MacMillan’s new
opera The Sacrifice for Welsh National Opera to critical acclaim and performed a new
commission with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra. In June 2008 Leigh sang Peter
Maxwell Davies The Martyrdom of St Magnus at the composer’s St Magnus Festival, Orkney,
in Edinburgh and Inverness.
Future plans include Sid Albert Herring for the Opéra Comique and Opéra
de Rouen, Ned Keane Peter Grimes in a new production for English National
Opera and for the Vlaamse Opera, Aeneas Dido & Aeneas for the Opera Project,
Papageno Die Zauberflöte for Seattle Opera, appearances with the BBC Proms,
the RLPO and roles in Wozzeck with the Philharmonia Orchestra and Esa-Pekka
Salonen.
Alenka Ponjavic’,
Mezzo Soprano, was born in Yugoslavia and studied economics
at Subotica University prior to taking up a scholarship at the Guildhall School of Music and
Drama. After graduation she attended the GSMD postgraduate Opera Course, studying with
David Pollard. A prize winner on several occasions at the GSMD, she was also a finalist in
the Gold Medal competition held at the Barbican Centre.
Alenka’s operatic roles have included Nerone, L’Incoronazione di Poppea with
performances at St. John’s Smith Square, Lel, Snow Maiden,(Rimsky-Korsakov), Mrs.
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25th April 2009
Peachum, The Beggar’s Opera, Jean, Portrait du Manon (Massenet) Caitlin, Going into
Shadows (a world premiere by Schultz), Olga, Eugene Onegin and First Lady, Osud,
(Janacek). For Garsington Opera she has sung , Meg, Falstaff for New Sussex Opera, the
role of Maddalena, Rigoletto for Co-Opera, Ireland,The Mother (cover), Pied Piper Opera
North’s Educational Touring Opera, Azucena, Il Trovatore for Opus Opera.
Alenka made her Scottish Opera debut singing the role of Orfeo in Gluck’s Orfeo ed
Euridice, conducted by Raymond Leppard, and has covered the role of Waltraute,
Gotterdammerung.
Alenka has given recitals in the UK, France, Finland, Norway, Italy, Yugoslavia,
Germany and the Far East. Her oratorio work has included performances of Bach Magnificat,
Haydn, Nelson Mass, Mendelssohn, Elijah, Dvorak, Mass in D minor, Handel, Messiah,
Britten, Rejoice in the Lamb, Rachmaninoff, Alexander Nevsky, Brahms, Alto Rhapsody.
In June 2009 Alenka is singing Olga, Eugene Onegin, in Bergen.
Pedro Pozos Melo began his musical studies in the “Escuela
Municipal de Bellas Artes” in his native city of Veracruz, Mexico. He took part of the
Youth Symphonic Orchestra "Daniel Ayala Pérez" as a concertmaster and a
soloist. In 1995 he became member of the Youth Symphonic Orchestra of the
State of Veracruz where he was as well a concertmaster.
Pedro has been member of Silvestre Revueltas String Quartet and the Mexican
Chamber Orchestra (as concertmaster) with which he did national and international
tours.
In 2002 he created Spirale Piano Trio with Monica Florescu and Makcim
Fernandez Samodaiev . they hav performed at the Palais de Beaux Arts
(Brussels), Flagey (Brussels), De Singel (Antwerp), Centro Nacional de las Artes
(Mexico City) and the State Theater of Villahermosa, Tabasco (Mexico).
Pedro Pozos has collaborated with professors like Arturo Dimeke, Agustin
Leon Ara, Hans Mannes, Thomas Kakuska (Alban Berg Quartett) and the
Florestan Piano trio.
Currently Pedro is benefiting from a FONCA scholarship (National Funds
for the Culture and the Arts, Mexico) and pursues his studies in the Royal
Conservatory of Ghent (Belgium).
John Savournin studied acting with LAMDA, before winning a scholarship to study
singing at Trinity College of Music, where he was awarded the Founder's Prize for Excellence
and the Paul Simms Opera Prize. In 2007, he was awarded the prestigious Serena Neville
Prize by the Concordia Foundation.
He is known for his diverse abilities as a performer. Whilst at Trinity, John performed
the roles of Hasselbacher, Our Man in Havana; Macheath, The Beggar's Opera and the
Narrator, Into the Woods. Since then, John has performed with some of the UK’s major opera
companies, singing Papageno; Shaunard; Dulcamara, for BYO; the title role, Don Giovanni;
Colline (cover) for RAH; Katisha, The Mikado, for Charles Court Opera; Guglielmo, for Opera
UK and roles in The Tales of Hoffmann for Mid Wales Opera. He is a regularly personality at
the International G&S Festival. He performs regularly as a concert soloist, singing at the
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QEH, the Bridgewater Hall, the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, and the Liverpool Philharmonic
Hall, amongst others. Performances include the Messiah; Britten's War Requiem under Jan
Latham Koenig; St. Matthew Passion with the English Chamber Orchestra and most recently
Kagel’s ...den 24.XII.1931 with The Warehouse Ensemble under esteemed composer and
conductor, Edwin Roxburgh.
Future engagements include Don Basilio, The Barber, for Opera UK; a G&S concert at
the National Concert Hall, Dublin and Eight Songs for a Mad King.
John is founder member and director of Charles Court Opera.
Sarah Tynan
Following her acclaimed role debut singing Susanna The Marriage
of Figare at the English National Opera last season, Sarah Tynan has been invited to make
her house debut at Houston Grand Opera singing Sophie Der Rosenkavaler, at Cincinatti
Opera singing Susannah, and has recently finished singing Servilia La Clemenza di Tito in
concert with the Orchestra of the age of Enlightenment in London and New York. Sarah
studied at the Royal Northern College of Music and the Royal Academy of Music where she
was awarded the Queen's Commendation for Excellence. She appeared as Iphis in Handel’s
Jephtha in the acclaimed Welsh National Opera production conducted by Paul McCreesh.
Her operatic roles have included most recently the critically acclaimed role debut as
Sophie Der Rosenkavalier, Susanna The Marriage of Figaro, Tytania A Midsummer Night's
Dream, Woodbird Siegfried, Iphis Jephtha, Atalanta Xerxes, Sister Constance The Carmelites,
Yum-Yum Mikado, Dalinda Ariodante, Gianetta The Gondoliers, Bella Midsummer Marriage,
Pretty Polly Punch and Judy, the Governess Turn of the Screw, Melanto and Fortune Il ritorno
d’Ulisse in patria, Megan in James MacMillan's new opera The Sacrifice for Welsh National
Opera, title role The Cunning Little Vixen under Sir Charles Mackerras, Zerlina Don Giovanni
under Sir Colin Davis, Drusilla L'incoronazione di Poppea and Feu/Rossignol L'Enfant et les
Sortilèges. Sarah has also recorded Elvira The Italian Girl, the Dew Fairy Hansel and Gretel,
Barbarina The Marriage of Figaro, Sister Constance The Carmelites for Chandos Records.
Forthcoming engagements include Dalinda Ariodante Opera de Oviedo, Adina L’elisir
d’amore ENO, Haydn’s Creation with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe in Lisbon, Jephtha at
the London Handel Festival, and Carmina Burana at Royal Albert Hall.
Jonathan Williams studied at Clare College, Cambridge for four years, gaining a
BA (Hons) in music and an MPhil in musicology. He subsequently accepted a place on the
Postgraduate Musical Theatre course at the Royal Academy of Music and graduated with
distinction. He now works as a pianist, musical director and singer.
Musical direction credits include The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby
(Chichester Festival Theatre); Six Pictures of Lee Miller (Minerva Theatre, Chichester);
Calamity Jane (national tour); Bernice Bobs her Hair (RADA) and Kiss of the Spiderwoman
(Guildhall). He was assistant musical director of How to Succeed in Business Without Really
Trying and Carousel (both Chichester Festival Theatre). As a repetiteur, Jonathan has worked
for the Manchester International Festival (The Ground Beneath Her Feet); Scottish Chamber
Orchestra (When the Earth Sings) and Grange Park Opera (Wonderful Town). He also worked
as vocal coach on a production of The Medium by Peter Maxwell Davies (Muziektheater
Transparant, Antwerp).
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Performing credits as a singer include: The Voluptuous Tango (Almeida Opera);
My One and Only (Chichester Festival Theatre); Me and My Girl (Alexandra
Theatre, Birmingham); Jerry Springer: The Opera (Battersea Arts Centre); The
Shout: Tall Stories (Battersea Arts Centre and tour) and Zipp! (Duchess Theatre).
He also works in music education and is a regular member of the ENO Baylis
workshop team.
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