Can a naive farmhand find love? It’s the day of the autumn fair, and Nemorino can’t take his eyes off Adina, the beautiful owner of the prosecco bar. Enter “Dr” Dulcamara, here to sell his HealthyLife Fermented Detox Brew. Will this miraculous “Elixir” have the magical effect that Nemorino needs to woo Adina, or will Sergeant Belcore sweep her off her feet? Donizetti’s sparkling score combines mischievous humour and beautifully tender moments – including Nemorino’s poignant aria ‘Una furtiva lagrima’.
Featuring a professional cast of singers, this opera will leave you in stitches – and in love.
Performed in Italian, with English subtitles
Director: Richard Tegid Jones
Musical Director: Kelvin Lim
“a highly professional, fizzing account of Donizett’s comic opera” (Malcolm Fawcett, Director)
Cast
Adina – Julieth Lozano Rolong
Julieth is a Colombian soprano, awarded a Masters in Vocal Performance and Artist Diploma in Opera at RCM where she studied with Dinah Harris. An Irene Hanson and Independent Opera at Sadler’s Wells scholar, Julieth was a 2018 President’s prize winner awarded by HRH Prince of Wales. She was a 2019/20 Young Artist at the National Opera Studio UK.
In 2016 she participated in Georg Solti’s Academy and sang Zerlina at the Verbier Festival’s Project Opera; being awarded the Prix Thierry Mermod. She has had masterclasses with Dame Kiri Te Kanawa and Angela Gheorghiu, among others. Among her roles are Vixen in The cunning little Vixen, Susanna in Le nozze di Figaro and Norina in Don Pasquale.
Upcoming engagements include contracts with LFO, WNO, ENO, and The Grand Theatre of Geneva. Julieth is passionate about latinamerican music and after great success with her Duo Uirapuru at the Copenhagen Lied Duo Competition, they have been awarded funding by Ibermusicas foundation for their first CD in 2022. Julieth also returns to Random Opera as Amina in La Sonnambula.
Nemorino – Andrew Henley
Hailing from Monmouth, tenor Andrew Henley studied at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama and is a graduate of the National Opera Studio. He studies with Gary Coward, supported by the WNO Sir John Moores Award. He was with winner of the 2019 Dunraven Young Welsh Singer of the Year.
Operatic engagements have included Tybalt Romeo and Juliet and Voleur de Lune Der Mond with Opéra de Lyon, Heinrich der Schreiber Tannhäuser with the Stadttheater Klagenfurt, Father Grenville Dead Man Walking with Welsh National Opera, Nemorino (cover) L’elisir d’amore with Scottish Opera, Barigoule Cendrillon with Buxton International Festival, Don Ottavio Don Giovanni with Clonter Opera, Novice Billy Budd with the St. Endellion Festival, Lechmere Owen Wingrave with British Youth Opera, Major (cover) Patience with English Touring Opera, Kekikako Bataclan with West Green House, Christoph Kommilitonen! with Welsh National Youth Opera and chorus with Glyndebourne and Wexford Festival Opera. Roles at RWCMD included Fenton Falstaff, Albert Albert Herring and Schoolmaster The Cunning Little Vixen.
Sgt Belcore – Mike Dewis
Michael Dewis studied at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and the National Opera Studio. He studied with Rudolph Piernay, David Pollard and currently studies with David Barrell.
He has sung at the Royal Opera House, English National Opera, Opera North, Welsh National Opera, Opera Holland Park and Longborough Festival Opera in roles including Prince Afron (Le Coq d’Or), Flemish Deputy (Don Carlos), Zurga (The Pearl Fishers), Germont Père (La Traviata), Giacomo (Giovanna d’Arco), Belcore (The Elixir of Love), Renato (Un Ballo in Maschera), Don Giovanni (Don Giovanni), Sid (Albert Herring) Marcello (La Bohème) and Il Conte (Le Nozze di Figaro).
Abroad he has sung widely in Europe, including four years as Principal Baritone in the Stadttheater Bremerhaven. Roles abroad have included Papageno (Die Zauberflöte), Marcello (Bohème), Valentin (Faust), Di Luna (Il Trovatore) Renato (Un Ballo in Maschera) Che (Evita) and many others. For the Wexford Festival he has sung Papageno (Die Zauberflöte) and Jack Rance (La Fanciulla del West).
On the concert platform he has sung all of the main choral works with orchestras such as the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Bournemouth Sinfonietta and Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra and the London Symphony Orchestra in all of the major concert venues in Great Britain (Royal Albert Hall, Royal Festival Hall, The Barbican etc). He is a specialist of German Lieder, is a German speaker and appears regularly for the Schubert Society of Great Britain.
Giannetta – Becca Madden
Becca Madden is a London based soprano currently studying for a Masters in Vocal Performance at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance under Joan Rodgers.
Becca first studied a masters in Aeronautical Engineering at Durham University. While there she continued to sing, studying under Miranda Wright and singing regularly with Durham Opera Ensemble. She was also awarded a place at Samling Academy in both 2013 and 2014 where she studied with Patricia MacMahon, James Baillieu, Jean-Paul Pruna and Caroline Dowdle. She performed as Cis (Albert Herring) and Un pâtre & La chouette (L’enfants et les sortilèges) at Sage, Gateshead with Samling Academy Opera.
Becca graduated in 2016 and continued her studies with Mike Dewis. She performed several roles with Stanley Opera & Knighton Opera, including Sister Genovieffa (Suor Angelica), Innes (Il Trovatore), Tisbe (La Cenerentola), and Susanna (The Marriage of Figaro). In 2019 she took part in the Hinckley Opera Festival and was jointly awarded the Mollie Lane Prize for best singer under 30.
Dr Dulcamara – Richard Tegid Jones
Welsh Bass-Baritone Richard Tegid Jones studied music from an early age. He also gave up his studies at an early age, feeling that Grade 2 violin was sufficient achievement. Since then he has mostly been winging it.
Alongside a career in accountancy, Richard began performing on the amateur stage in 2003, with roles including Pooh-Bah (Mikado), Sir Ruthven Murgatroyd (Ruddigore), Sir Joseph Porter (HMS Pinafore) and Duke of Plaza-Toro (Gondoliers).
After starting Random Opera Company on a whim in 2011, Richard began training privately – first with Alison Roddy, and then with Mike Dewis – and has performed roles including Figaro (The Marriage of Figaro), Leporello (Don Giovanni), Don Pasquale (Don Pasquale) and Zuniga (Carmen).
2022 engagements include Hermit (Der Freischütz) and Rodolfo (La Sonnambula), both for Random Opera Company.
As well as performing, directing & producing opera for Random Opera Company, Richard is also a Volunteer Director of OperaUK, the representative body for the UK opera sector.
Chorus
Olivia Bell, Ian Black, Aimee Daniel, Jessica Edom, Harry Fradley, Clinton Fung, Anna Gregg, Joelene Griffith, Emily Noon, Sian Roberts, Bill Semple, Callum Speed, Thomas Stephenson, Stephanie Waldron
First performed at Temple Speech Room, Rugby on Monday 25 October, 2021