An Operatic Australia Day Celebration

Happy Australia Day! Oz is doing the international opera world proud.

A couple of nights ago I posted a request on Twitter for names of “rising young/youngish Australian opera singers” currently enjoying overseas success. Not to diminish the magnificence of our many Australia-based artists, of course, whom I love to distraction; but I was curious to take stock of the many up-and-coming singers making their mark overseas – especially as, although I knew some of their names, I was sure there would be plenty I’d missed.

The response was fantastic, from both Australian and international Twitterers alike, and I soon had a pile of names. So in honour of the day, I thought it would be nice to highlight some of these fabulous young Australian singers taking the operatic world by storm – from those making their first international forays, to those very much on the rise, to those who have in fact now risen. It’s not a comprehensive guide by any means, but it should be enough to warm your heart!

At the beginning of the alphabet is Rachel Bate, who, as winner of Opera Foundation Australia’s 2011 German Opera Grant, received a yearlong contract at Oper Köln. Last year she performed there in the children’s opera Die feuerrote Friederike; in 2012 she’s a deer and a dwarf in Schneewittchen, the Countess Ceprano in Rigoletto, and the Kleine Stiefschwester in Wolf-Ferrari’s Aschenputtel. The cast for Schneewittchen also includes another winner of the grant, Charlie Kedmenec, who went to Cologne in 2009 and has been performing there regularly ever since.

Joshua Bloom, currently in rehearsals for Opera Australia’s The Marriage of Figaro, sings the role of Algernon Moncrieff in Gerald Barry’s operatic take on The Importance of Being Earnest (the work’s European premiere) and then goes to Garsington Opera as Leporello in Don Giovanni.

Brett Carter is being kept mightily busy in Wiesbaden, where he’s been since winning the German-Australian Opera Grant in 2007. In 2012 he’ll sing Ping in Turandot, Freddy in My Fair Lady, Malatesta in Don Pasquale, and Dr Falke in Die Fledermaus, before heading to Melbourne to sing Count Almaviva in Victorian Opera’s Figaro. No rest for the baritonal!

Andrew Finden, tweeter, blogger, and baritone par excellence, continues his Fest contract at the Baadische Staatstheater Karlsruhe (once home to a certain other Australian singer of note) with performances as a Schiffer in Delius’s A Village Romeo and Juliet, Clito in Handel’s Alessandro, Masetto in Don Giovanni and American Soldier/3rd Guest in the contemporary opera Wallenberg by Erkki-Sven Tüür.

James Homann has recently joined the ensemble in Heidelberg and has upcoming performances as the Musiklehrer in Ariadne auf Naxos and Escamillo in Carmen, where one of his Don Josés will be another very familiar Australian name: Angus Wood, who has also joined the Heidelberg roster, having previously been in Wiesbaden and Dessau.

Caitlin Hulcup, one of Australia’s most successful operatic exports of the past decade, and recently seen in Sydney in the title role of Vivaldi’s Griselda, continues her campaign of world conquest with performances as Donna Elvira at Valencia’s Palau de les Arts Reina Sofia, and as Octavian in a starry Rosenkavalier (Angela Denoke as the Marschallin, Kristin Sigmundsson as Ochs) at the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino.

Alexandra Hutton is in Berlin as we speak, singing Papagena with the Deutsche Oper, having won the company’s Sonderpreis at last year’s prestigious Belvedere Singing Competition. Later this year she’ll sing Blondchen in Entführung at the Iford Arts Festival and Marzelline in Fidelio for Opera Minima.

Miranda Keys gives a recital at the Musashino Cultural Foundation in Tokyo in February, and while that’s all her website calendar currently lists, a look at her 2011 engagements – which included Leonore/Fidelio at the Teatro Regio di Torino, Gerhilde in Die Walküre with the Halle under Sir Mark Elder, and some fairly high-powered cover gigs at Glyndebourne – suggests there’s plenty more to be announced.

Emma Pearson continues to shine at the Hessisches Staatstheater Wiesbaden, where she began in 2005 as the winner of the German-Australian Opera Grant and was subsequently engaged as a permanent ensemble member. In their upcoming season, she sings Sophie in Der Rosenkavalier, Norina in Don Pasquale and Adele in Die Fledermaus. She’s also in Sydney as we speak, singing the Queen of the Night, and returns to Melbourne later in the year for the same role and later this year sings Gilda for New Zealand Opera.

Jessica Pratt, who, among other successes, made her Royal Opera début last year as the Queen of the Night in Die Zauberflöte, this year sings Cunégonde with Rome Opera (where she’s joined by fellow Australian Derek Welton as Pangloss), Lucia in both Naples and Tel Aviv, and Amina at La Fenice, before heading to Sydney for Opera Australia’s Les pêcheurs de perles.

Duncan Rock, a former Glyndebourne Young Artist, sings Donald in Billy Budd at the English National Opera and Masetto in Don Giovanni for Welsh National Opera, where he’ll also cover the title role.

Katharine Tier, Australia’s representative at the 2009 Cardiff Singer of the World, is another Antipodean in Karlsruhe, having joined the ensemble there after a season at the Deutsche Oper in Berlin. Her upcoming roles include Didon in Les Troyens, Flora in La traviata, Queen Clementine in Offenbach’s Barbe-Bleu and Octavian in Der Rosenkavalier.

Christopher Tonkin joined the ensemble of the Staatsoper Hannover in their 2010-2011 season. This year his roles include Fiorello in Il barbiere di Siviglia, Valentin in Faust, and Prinz Henri de Condé in Die Teufel von Loudon.

I mentioned Derek Welton‘s appearances in the Rome Opera Candide already, but he has plenty of other plans as well, including a wealth of concert and oratorio performances in the UK, Austria and Denmark, and appearances as the Bonze in Grange Park Opera’s Madama Butterfly.

Valda Wilson continues as a Young Artist at the Semperoper Dresden, where I managed to see her last year, strutting her stuff in Hartmann’s Simplicius Simplicissimus. This year she sings both Pamina and Papagena in Die Zauberflöte, Inez in Il Trovatore, Judith (who encompasses a witch, a spirit and a sailor) in Dido and Aeneas, Jenny Hildebrandt in Street Scene and the Prinzessin in Der Gestiefelte Kater. She’s also a participant in the Young Singers Project at the 2012 Salzburg Festival.

Elena Xanthoudakis, one of Australia’s loveliest soprano stars, has concerts with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra in early 2012, flits over to Australia for various performances, including a recital with her new chamber ensemble, TrioKROMA, then she’s back in the UK, singing Clorinda in La Cenerentola at Glyndebourne and Leïla in Les pêcheurs de perles at the English National Opera.

It’s already quite a list, isn’t it? And they’re merely the tip of the Antipodean iceberg. Think of all the long-established Australian singers out there. Think of all the fabulous students who’ll soon be unleashed on the scene to start their own brilliant careers. Think of all the people I’ve so unforgiveably failed to include! In fact, I do owe honourable mentions to a number of singers whose careers so far suggest many wonderful things to come, but for whom I didn’t manage to find any specific 2012 engagements. Wonderful people like Anita Watson, Dwayne Jones, Helen Sherman, Alexander Lewis, Helena Dix, Eleanor Greenwood, Laura Wolk-Lewanowicz, and the list goes on and on and…

Inevitably I’ve still missed some important people, and some important future engagements – my mad Internet skillz are far from infallible – so please use the comments to fill in the gaps. If it turns out there are a lot of them, I’ll post a follow-up to this guide to highlight all those I’ve overlooked. In the meantime, just bask in warm, fuzzy pride, Australia – you’re doing the opera world more than proud.