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RICHARD SUART (baritone) studied at St John's College, Cambridge and at the Royal Academy of Music in London. His repertoire includes Die Fledermaus, La Boheme (ENO), Benedict Mason's Playing Away, Gershwin's Of Thee I Sing (Opera North) and L'Heure Espagnole (Grange Park). He was a founder member of the New D'Oyly Carte in 1988 and roles have included The Lord Chancellor, the Duke of Plaza-Toro, the Major-General and Ko-Ko. His recordings include many of the Savoy Operas as well as The Geisha, Candide, The Fairy Queen, A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Rose of Persia and The Maid of the Mountains.
YVONNE PATRICK (soprano) studied at the Royal Northern College of Music. She began her professional career with D'Oyly Carte Opera and has performed numerous roles including Elsie in The Yeomen of the Guard and Josephine in HMS Pinafore. In 1994, Yvonne joined Glyndebourne Festival Opera and made her Festival debut in Sir Peter Hall's production of Simon Boccanegra. On the 1999 GTO tour, she sang the role of Esmeralda in The Bartered Bride which included training to be a trapeze artist! Other operatic roles include Violetta in La Traviata, Adina in L'Elisir d'Amore, Adele in Die Fledermaus and Musetta in La Boheme.
STEPHEN BROWN (tenor) sings regularly in the standard oratorio repertoire but has also played roles in La Boheme, Don Giovanni, The Magic Flute and Albert Herring. A conductor and arranger too, Stephen's interest in Victorian and Edwardian opera has led to a reconstruction of the orchestration of Edward Solomon's The Nautch Girl for English Opera (Seattle). Recordings include several works by Sullivan, including The Masque at Kenilworth and he recently appeared with D'Oyly Carte in The Pirates of Penzance. He also appeared as a soloist with Cheltenham Bach Choir at the Town Hall in March 2002.
JILL PERT (contralto) began her career in Canada but returned to England in 1979 and, as a member of D'Oyly Carte, played many of the principal contralto roles throughout the UK and on tours of Australia and New Zealand. She has also appeared at the Barbican, Bristol Old Vic and the Covent Garden Festival. Recently, Jill played Dame Carruthers in The Yeomen of the Guard at the Savoy, and other roles have included Little Buttercup (HMS Pinafore), Katisha (The Mikado) and Counsel (Trial by Jury). Away from G&S, she has also appeared in My Fair Lady, Annie and The Sound of Music.
Completing the soloist line-up are JAMES CLEVERTON (bass baritone) and GRAHAM STONE (bass), both of whom have taken principal roles with D'Oyly Carte Opera.
DAVID STEADMAN (conductor). David studied at the Birmingham School of Music and TCM. He was the first music director of the Wolsey Theatre, Ipswich, conducting 15 musicals there prior to joining West End producer Bill Kenwright in 1982 for whom his work has included Wonderful Town, Oliver and Joseph & His Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. He has been musical director for seasons at the Birmingham Rep, Liverpool Playhouse and Sheffield Crucible and has conducted the London Concert Orchestra, Northern Chamber Orchestra and the English National Opera Tribute to Donald Adams. He joined the D'Oyly Carte in 1994 (as chorus master) and for them he has conducted HMS Pinafore, Die Fledermaus, The Mikado, La Vie Parisienne, Iolanthe, The Count of Luxembourg and, most recently, The Yeomen of the Guard. |
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