Sophie Bevan
![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/8b/Sophie_Bevan_rehearsing_at_Gresham_College%2C_April_2012.jpg/220px-Sophie_Bevan_rehearsing_at_Gresham_College%2C_April_2012.jpg)
Sophie Anna Magdalena Bevan (born 1983 in Somerset ) is a British opera singer with a soprano voice .
life and work
Sophie Bevan is the oldest of eight siblings and comes from a musical family. Her grandfather, a music teacher at a Somerset school, had fourteen children and founded the Bevan Family Choir , which recorded and toured. She herself began performing as a soloist in the Berkshire Youth Choir at the age of 13 and studied with Lillian Watson at the Benjamin Britten International Opera School of the Royal College of Music . As part of her studies, she was awarded the Queen Mother Rose Bowl .
The singer's career started early with leading roles. At the English National Opera she sang her first Sophie, a series of baroque operas, Despina, Yum-Yum and Léïla. At the Welsh National Opera in Cardiff, she took on the title role in Janáček's The Cunning Little Vixen , known in German as The Cunning Little Vixen .
In September 2012 Bevan made his debut as Waldvogel in Richard Wagner's Siegfried at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden in London and has since sang the Mozart roles Pamina, Ilia and Susanna, as well as Antigone in George Enescu's rarely performed opera Oedipe . At the Teatro Real in Madrid she appeared as Pamina, at the Frankfurt Opera as Ninetta in Rossini's La gazza ladra .
Sophie Bevan has been hired by three major European festivals so far:
- At the Garsington Festival she sang Susanna in 2010 (with her sister Mary as Barbarina), Pamina in 2011 and Donna Elvira in 2012.
- The Glyndebourne Festival engaged her in 2015 as Michal for a staged version of Handel's oratorio Saul .
- At the Salzburg Festival in 2016 she took on the role of Beatrice in the world premiere of Thomas Adès ' The Exterminating Angel .
In the 2016/17 season she will return to Covent Garden as Sophie in Rosenkavalier and as Beatriz in Adès' The Exterminating Angel (in the world premiere of the Salzburg Festival in 2016).
Her concert repertoire ranges from Georg Friedrich Händel to James MacMillan and includes both songs and orchestral works with folk solos. She has worked with a number of well-known conductors - including Edward Gardner , Daniel Harding , Philippe Herreweghe , Harry Bicket , Sir Charles Mackerras and Sir Neville Marriner . On August 9, 2012 she made her debut at the BBC Proms , together with tenor Toby Spence and conductor Mark Elder . The concert was dedicated to a selection of popular melodies by Ivor Novello and was later broadcast on the BBC. She has made guest appearances - in concert operas and oratorios - at the Handel Festival in Halle an der Saale, at the Festival International d'Opera Baroque in Beaune and at the Edinburgh International Festival , at the Lucerne Festival , also in Birmingham, in Tanglewood , at the Handel and Haydn Society in Boston and the Barbican Center in London.
In the field of song she sings selected works from baroque and classical to Debussy and Reger to the present day and works mostly with the pianist Sebastian Wybrew low, sometimes even with Malcolm Martineau , with whom she a recital in the Concertgebouw denied in Amsterdam and Max Reger - CD recorded. Her debut program at London's Wigmore Hall in January 2011 included songs by Schubert , Strauss , Mendelssohn Bartholdy , Debussy and Poulenc . Another recital at Wigmore Hall in 2014 was thematically dedicated to songs from the First World War .
Opera roles
- Bizet : Les pêcheurs de perles (Leïla)
- Gilbert and Sullivan : The Mikado (Yum-Yum)
- Janáček : The Cunning Little Vixen (title role)
- Monteverdi : L'Incoronazione di Poppea (Poppea, Amor)
-
Mozart
- So fan tutte (Despina)
- Don Giovanni (Donna Elvira, Zerlina)
- Idomeneo (Ilia)
- Le nozze di Figaro (Susanna, Barbarina)
- The Duty of the First Commandment (Worldly Spirit)
- The Magic Flute (Pamina)
- Strauss : Der Rosenkavalier (Sophie)
The singer also took on roles in rarely performed baroque works - for example the Publio in Gluck's La clemenza di Tito , the Polissena in Handel's Radamisto and the Constanza in his Riccardo Primo , the Télaïre in Rameau's Castor et Pollux and the Alinda in Vivaldi's L'incoronazione di Dario .
Discography
- Paul Carr : Requiem For An Angel , with Mark Stone (baritone), the Chorus Angelorum and the Bath Philharmonia , conductor: Gavin Carr ( Stone Records 2010)
- Gaetano Donizetti : Caterina Cornaro , with Carmen Giannattasio , Colin Lee, Troy Cook, Graeme Broadbent, Vuyani Mlinde, Loïc Félix and Sophie Bevan; BBC Symphony Orchestra , conductor: David Parry ( Opera Rara 2013)
- Max Reger : Songs , with Malcolm Martineau , piano ( Hyperion Records , [1] CDA68057, 2016)
Awards
- 2011: Critics' Circle Music Award as Exceptional Young Talent
- 2012: South Bank Sky Arts Awards , The Times Breakthrough Award
- 2013: International Opera Award for Best Young Singer
Individual evidence
- ↑ Ivan Hewett: Proms 2012: Prom 36 Ivor Novello, Royal Albert Hall, review , The Telegraph , August 10, 2012. Retrieved July 25, 2016.
- ^ Gresham College : Debussy Text and Ideas . Recorded on YouTube. Retrieved July 25, 2016.
- ^ The Critics 'Circle: Critics' Circle Music Awards . Retrieved July 25, 2016.
Other sources
- English National Opera
- Garsington Opera
- Royal Opera House Covent Garden , short biography of the singer
- Salzburg Festival , short biography of the singer
- Askonas Holt , short biography of the singer
- Hyperion Records , short biography of the singer
- Jessica Duchen: Sophie Bevan: Born to sing . In: The Independent . January 7, 2011. Retrieved July 25, 2016.
- Rupert Christiansen: Sophie Bevan: Soprano with the genes for greatness . In: The Telegraph . October 19, 2011. Retrieved July 25, 2016.
- Alison Feeney-Hart: Sophie Bevan's top 10 tips for becoming an opera star . In: BBC . December 21, 2013. Retrieved July 25, 2016.
Web links
- Sophie Bevan at Operabase (engagements and dates)
- Vignette Arts , Handel's Messiah in Hampstead
personal data | |
---|---|
SURNAME | Bevan, Sophie |
ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Bevan, Sophie Anna Magdalena (full name) |
BRIEF DESCRIPTION | British opera singer (soprano) |
DATE OF BIRTH | 1983 |
PLACE OF BIRTH | Somerset , England |