Summer 2023 Update

Welcome!

As the world seems to move on from an international pandemic, we all take a big breath and look forward.

The arts across the globe are struggling to make up for lost time, facing losses and massive cut backs, but they continue to fight on!

I’m very grateful to have returned to work as life returns to “normal”

Since my last refresh of this page I’ve been busy, singing at the Proms, performing in Pisa, Austria, Basel, Quebec City and Montreal.  I’ve also managed to record Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas with David Bates, to be released later, record and film Handel’s Messiah in Coventry Cathedral with John Nelson and the English Concert along with superstars Lucy Crowe, Alex Potter and Michael Spyres.  I also had fun filming with the English Concert in their series of the complete works of Handel.

I made my debut with the fabulous Gulbenkian Foundation Orchestra and Choir, singing Beethoven Missa Solemnis with Matthew Halls, followed by Passions in Switzerland and Mahler songs with RPO and Vasily Petrenko.

I had a busy Easter booked in Europe, USA and Canada, but plans had to be changed after a once in a lifetime offer to jump in to sing one of my favourite roles, Il Re de Scozia from Ariodante in the Opera de Paris’ new production by Robert Carsen, conducted by Harry Bicket. We performed in the Palais Garnier, an iconic building, perfect for Baroque opera, grand, and yet intimate. Singing with a new generation of stars was a huge honour and thrill.

Future opera plans include Mozart Magic Flute for the Edinburgh Festival with the SCO and Maxime Emelyanchev, my debut with Opera North in the Purcellian The Masque of Time, directed by David Poutney, conducted by Harry Bicket, then straight into my fourth showing of Errolyn Wallen’s Dido’s Ghost with John Butt at the helm with San Francisco’s Philharmonia Baroque.

I will also be appearing in concerts at Bath Abbey (Elijah), Gloucester Cathedral in the Three Choirs Festival, singing Bach’s John Passion. I’ll then perform two Bach programmes with the Dunedin Consort at the La Chaise Dieu Festival, and more Bach in Vezelay with Gli Angeli.

As December arrives I will be in Messiah season, performing with dear friends Harry Christophers, the Sixteen, Stephen Layton and the Halle, the Dunedin Consort in Scotland, and I’ll finish that period in Prague with three performances with the Czech Philharmonic and Nicholas Kraemer.

Summer 2024 will feature a production of Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi with Grange Park Opera, Sir Bryn Terfel in the title role, I will sing the role of Simone. To say I’m looking forward to that experience is an understatement.

Check in on my agent’s website www.rayfieldallied.com for a more detailed schedule.

Thank you