in the

Monday 27 September | 6pm & 9pm Tuesday 28 September | 3.30pm & 6pm

MAST Mayflower Studios, Southampton

ABOUT CONCERTS IN THE CAFÉ: SHAKESPEARE RE-SHAPEDOperaUpClose celebrates the beginning of its residency at MAST with Concerts in the Café: Shakespeare Re-Shaped, a lively programme of spoken-word, music and opera, bringing a fresh, contemporary resonance to the Bard’s work.

Inspired by the success of OperaUpClose’s Coffee Break Concerts, an acclaimed series of online concerts delivered and made available over the periods of lockdown in 2020/21, Concerts in the Café is OperaUpClose’s first live performance since March 2020, and the inaugural performance at its new home at MAST Mayflower Studios.

PROGRAMMESongs of Ariel (The Tempest) – Guy Woolfenden Come unto these yellow sands Full Fathom FiveWhere the Bee SucksSonnet 138: ‘When my love swears that she is made of truth’ – ShakespeareO Mistress Mine – QuilterJuliet’s Waltz (Romeo & Juliet) – GounodNanetta/Fenton Duet (Falstaff) – VerdiFord’s Aria (Falstaff) – VerdiCould great men thunder (Measure for Measure) – ShakespeareWillow Song (Othello) – Coleridge TaylorBallad of the Voiceless – Kat Rose-MartinBeatrice’s Aria (Much Ado About Nothing) – BerliozIt Was a Lover and His Lass (As You Like It) – Finzi

CASTActor Kat Rose-Martin Soprano Claire WildMezzo Soprano Flora McIntoshTenor Joseph DoodyBaritone Pauls Putnins Piano Nicholas O’Neill

CREATIVEDirector Robin Norton-HaleProgramme Robin Norton-Hale & Flora McIntosh

With special thanks to University of Southampton Music Department for the loan of the piano and Big Yellow Self-Storage Company, our corporate sponsors, for their ongoing support.

ABOUT OPERAUPCLOSEOperaUpClose, founded in 2009, is an ambitious, inclusive touring opera company. We seek to refresh the operatic canon for audiences nationwide, diversifying both those who make opera and those who watch it by producing newly orchestrated, innovatively staged, unintimidating and affordable English re-imaginings of well-known classics as well as premieres of new work, including work for children and young people.During the restrictions of 2020 and spring 2021, OUC provided high quality online content with our acclaimed At Home series of Coffee Break Concerts, scenes from our opera for 2-5 year olds Peace At Last, and a newly commissioned online opera for 7-10 year olds Sammy and the Beanstalk. operaupclose.com

SUPPORT USEvery ticket you buy to an OperaUpClose production helps us bring innovative, unintimidating and high-quality opera to over 50 venues around the UK each year. Even when our shows sell out (as, thanks to our wonderful audiences, they often do) we still need to raise £250,000 every year to cover the costs of our productions and participation work. OperaUpClose’s generous supporters are vital to helping us achieve this. Supporters have the chance to become more involved with the work we do and enjoy special benefits. As well as priority booking, supporters receive invitations to events including pre-show talks with composers, librettists, directors and musical directors; post-show receptions with the singers; and sneak previews of set designs and production plans.If you would like to get closer to our work, and support us as we return to live performances and connect with the next generation of opera performers and audiences, please visit operaupclose.com/supporters, or email Jane Ryan at jane@operaupclose.com.

OperaUpClose is a registered charity, no 1153307.

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BIOGRAPHIES

JOSEPH DOODYJoseph Doody studied at Edinburgh University, the Royal College of Music, and the National Opera Studio. Operatic roles include Ramiro LA CENERENTOLA, Jupiter SEMELE, Pylade in Gluck’s IPHIGÉNIE EN TAURIDE, Leicester MARIA STUARDA and Count Almaviva IL BARBIERE DI SIVIGLIA. In concert he has performed Bach’s St John Passion with the Academy of St Martin-in-the-Fields, Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis with Southbank Sinfonia, Rossini’s Stabat Mater for Leamington Bach Choir, Britten’s song cycles SERENADE FOR TENOR HORN AND STRINGS and LES ILLUMINATIONS with Skipton Camerata, and Monteverdi’s Vespers at St John’s Smith Square. Currently covering the role of Count Almaviva for Welsh National Opera, his upcoming concerts include Handel’s MESSIAH at Cadogan Hall, CARMINA BURANA with Brighton Festival Chorus, and Bach’s St John Passion with the Hanover Band and Royal Choral Society. As well as music, his interests include cinema, cooking, and fitness. For more, visit josephdoody.co.uk

FLORA MCINTOSHLondon born mezzo soprano Flora McIntosh is a highly experienced and respected performer, teacher and facilitator. Flora joined the board of OperaUpClose in 2017 and has been Artistic Associate since 2019.During the periods of lockdown in 2020/21 Flora recorded DIDO’S LAMENT for English National Ballet’s LAID IN EARTH as part of Ballet on Demand (available to stream). She also performed and recorded Wagner’s WESENDONCK LIEDER with Kelvin Lim and premiered Nicholas O’Neill’s new cycle THREE SONGS TO POEMS BY EMILY DICKINSON for the critically acclaimed OperaUpClose Coffee Break Concerts series. Most recently Flora sang Waltraute in Longborough Festival Opera’s new production of Wagner’s DIE WALKURE.Previously for OperaUpClose: title role MARIA STUARDA (2019), Fililpyevna (Evie) EUGENE ONEGIN (2017), Judith BLUEBEARD’S CASTLE (2016), Goddess of the Sea ULLA’S ODYSSEY (world premiere, 2015), title role CARMEN (2015), and Flora LA TRAVIATA (2014). Other notable performances include: Romeo in I CAPULETI E I MONTECCHI (Grimeborn), Wellgunde in DAS RHEINGOLD (Birmingham Symphony Hall), DAS LIED VON DER ERDE (English National Ballet), Pauline in Gounod’s

POLYEUCTE (UCOpera), Dryad in ARIADNE AUF NAXOS (Longborough Festival Opera), Donna Elvira in DON GIOVANNI and Suzuki in MADAM BUTTERFLY (Regents Opera), The Drummer in THE EMPEROR OF ATLANTIS (Halle for Imperial War Museum North), 2nd/3rd Lady in THE MAGIC FLUTE (Grange Park Opera/ETO) and Fanny Nelson/Emma Hamilton in the world premiere of Bawden’s A SAILOR’S TALE later recorded for NMC.Flora is a keen cook and sports fan. She lives in London with her partner, 2 children and ex-racing greyhound Audrey.

NICHOLAS O’NEILLNicholas O’Neill was born in Cheltenham in 1970, and is an award-winning composer and musician. His competition wins include the 2020 Mayfield Cantata Commission Competition, the Saint Fin Barre Cathedral 150th Anniversary Composition Competition, the 2012 American Guild of Organists Marilyn Mason Award for Organ Composition, the 1995 Barbara Johnstone Composition Prize, the 1993 Gregynog Young Composers’ Award and the 1992 Norwich Festival Composition Competition.In 2011 Nick was appointed Composer in Residence to the Parliament Choir in addition to his ongoing role as Chorus Master, and is the first composer to be associated officially with Parliament for nearly 500 years. He is President of Cantores Salicium and Associate Director of Music at St. Mary Abbots, Kensington, has held posts as Organist of Brighton College and St. George’s Cathedral, Southwark and was Chorus Master of the Malcolm Sargent Festival Choir for over a decade.By night Nick is keyboardist with rock band JEBO, who released their ‘genuinely ingenious...undeniably brilliant’ second album Settle Up or Settle Down in 2012, with funk band RetroChic and with soul singer Clyve Aguarde. He is also a board game reviewer and blogger, writing for various websites and magazines worldwide.

PAULS PUTNINSLatvian born Pauls Putnins’s appearances in opera include LA BOHÈME (ENO, Opéra de Nancy), LUCIA DI LAMMERMOOR (Opera Colorado, Denver and Russian National Orchestra, Moscow), CARMEN (New Zealand Opera, Blackheath Opera), DON GIOVANNI, LE NOZZE DI FIGARO, COSÌ FAN TUTTE (Latvian National Opera, Teatru Manoel, Valletta, Malta), BOULEVARD SOLITUDE (Teatro Carlo Felice,

Genoa and Gran Teatre del Liceu, Barcelona), THE RAPE OF LUCRETIA (St Petersburg and Riga), TANNHÄUSER (Barcelona), and I CAPULETI E I MONTECCHI (Moscow Philharmonic). Opera appearances in UK include IDOMENEO and DIE ZAUBERFLÖTE (Glyndebourne Festival Opera), IDOMENEO and TOSCA (ENO), FIDELIO (Garsington), MADAMA BUTTERFLY and AIDA (Royal Albert Hall), FLAVIO (Early Opera Company), ARIADNE and LA TRAVIATA (Birmingham Opera Company), DAS RHEINGOLD (Longborough).Pauls also has an international concert career and has sung with orchestras including the Philharmonia, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Israel, Moscow and Bucharest Philharmonics and Russian National Orchestra ranging in a wide repertoire including all Bach Passions, Mendelssohn’s Elijah, and Beethoven’s 9th Symphony. His audio recordings include Ferrondo in Mercadante’s MARIA STUARDA REGINA DI SCOZIA, Ricardo in Meyerbeer’s MARGHERITA D’ANJOU (Opera Rara), Everyman in Walford Davies’ EVERYMAN (Duton), as well as DVDs of Jonathan Miller’s production of LA BOHÈME at ENO (Warner Classics) and Lehnhoff’s production of Henze’s BOULEVARD SOLITUDE at the Liceu, Barcelona (Euroarts).

KAT ROSE-MARTINKat started as an actor working for Northern Broadsides, Shakespeare’s Globe, Hull Truck, York Theatre Royal. She has worked in Audio Production in partnership with Audible and has also written and directed large scale immersive experiences nationally.Born and based in Bradford, Kat has worked on a slate of projects and ideas across film, theatre and television. She made it to the final 4% of 2019 BBC Writers Room for Drama and has been Shortlisted for the BAFTA Rocliffe TV Drama. Kat was a part of BBC Northern Voices in 2020 and the inaugural winner of the 2020 Kay Mellor Fellowship.Writing credits include: NOTES TO THE FORGOTTEN SHE-WOLVES (Shakespeare’s Globe), JANE HAIR (Bronte Society), SHIT BUT MINE (Paines Plough), CHILDREN OF WAR (Sheffield Theatres), NOT 19 NOW (Burn Bright), and development of £1 THURSDAYS (Out of Joint) and PICK N MIX (Freedom Studios).Acting credits include: TWO NOBLE KINSMAN, NOTES TO THE FORGOTTEN SHE-WOLVES (Shakespeare’s Globe), FOR LOVE OR MONEY,

WHEN WE ARE MARRIED (Northern Broadsides), MIGHTY ATOMS (Hull Truck), JANE HAIR (The Bronte Society), MY DG – DUMPING GROUND (BBC Children’s), THE CLOSE (BBC Sounds), plus numerous TV projects in development.

CLAIRE WILDClaire Wild was born in Birmingham and studied at The Royal Northern College of Music where she won numerous prizes and awards including a major Peter Moores scholarship and the Webster Booth Prize.Claire made her debut while still a student with Opera North as the Sandman and Dew Fairy. She continued to work with Opera North and sang around a dozen major roles for them including l’enfant, Gretel, Zerlina, Despina, Frasquita. For the last 20 years Claire has sung at least 50 roles with opera companies in the UK and abroad including Glyndebourne, The Royal Opera, Scottish Opera, Welsh National Opera, Opera Holland Park, The Komische Oper Berlin, Theater Bielefeld, Staatsoper Stuttgart and Bregenz Festival to name a few.Recent roles include the title role in KISS ME KATE, Emma in KHOVANCHINA, LA VOIX HUMAINE, ANON (Errolyn Wallen), also covering Gilda, all for Welsh National Opera. Other recent roles include the title role in a film version of CENDRILLON (Viardot) for Northern Opera Group, Fiordiligi and Rosalinde for Baseless Fabric Theatre, Caridad in the world premiere of THE SKATING RINK for Garsington Opera. Claire has also sung Mimi in OperaUpClose’s award-winning LA BOHÈME.