Fiona Kimm

Fiona Kimm, a British mezzo soprano, is known for a wide ranging operatic and concert repertoire.

Education and early career

She studied at the Royal College of Music with Meriel St Clair, and at the National Opera Studio in its inaugural year.

She made her operatic debut as Irene in "Tamerlano" for Musica Nel Chiostro at the Riverside Studios. Her Glyndebourne debut in 1978 was as 3rd Lady in Die Zauberflöte (in Southern Television's broadcast) and she was given the John Christie Award that year. She joined English National Opera North in 1979, making her debut as Hansel. She appeared with ENO as Fyodor in Boris Godunov in 1980, a role she repeated with the Royal Opera House in 1983.

Operatic roles

UK

For Glyndebourne Festival and Touring Companies, she has sung 3rd Lady (debut), Celia (La Fedeltà Premiata), Sméraldine (L'Amour des Trois Oranges), Maman/Chatte (L'Enfant et les Sortilèges), Baba the Turk (The Rake's Progress), Sesto (La Clemenza di Tito) and Mme Larina (Eugene Onegin).

L'enfant et les sortilèges

L'enfant et les sortilèges: Fantaisie lyrique en deux parties (The Child and the Spells: A Lyric Fantasy in Two Parts) is an opera in one act, with music by Maurice Ravel to a libretto by Colette. It is Ravel's second opera, his first being L'heure espagnole. Written from 1917 to 1925, L'enfant et les sortilèges was first performed in Monte Carlo in 1925 under the baton of Victor de Sabata.

After being offered the opportunity to write a musical work, Colette wrote the text in eight days. Several composers were proposed to Colette to write the music, but she was only enthused with the prospect of Ravel.

Composition history

During World War I, the Opéra de Paris director Jacques Rouché asked Colette to provide the text for a fairy ballet. Colette originally wrote the story under the title Divertissements pour ma fille. After Colette chose Ravel to set the text to music, a copy was sent to him in 1916 while he was still serving in the war; however, the mailed script was lost. In 1917, Ravel finally received a copy and agreed to complete the score, humorously replying to Colette, "I would like to compose this, but I have no daughter."

Sea Pictures

Sea Pictures, Op. 37 is a song cycle by Sir Edward Elgar consisting of five songs written by various poets. It was set for contralto and orchestra, though a distinct version for piano was often performed by Elgar. Many mezzo-sopranos have sung the piece.

The songs are:

Much of the vocal line of the first song, "Sea Slumber Song," is heard again in other parts of the cycle; most notably, the second stanza is heard again almost in its entirety as part of the finale.

History

Elgar composed the piece on his 1844 Broadwood Square piano while residing at Birchwood Lodge, Great Storridge in Herefordshire. The songs were originally written in high keys for a soprano voice, but transposed to lower keys for the orchestral version, largely at the request of the contralto Clara Butt. The songs were composed in July 1899 (apart from "In Haven (Capri)", which was a reworking of his 1897 "Love alone will stay").

Malcolm Walker

Malcolm Walker may refer to:

Opera North

Opera North is an English opera company based in Leeds. The company's home theatre is the Leeds Grand Theatre, but it also presents regular seasons in several other cities, at the Theatre Royal, Nottingham, the Lowry Centre, Salford Quays and the Theatre Royal, Newcastle. It has also visited Sadler's Wells Theatre and the Barbican Centre in London and, less regularly, the Bradford Alhambra, the Lyceum Theatre in Sheffield, and other venues, including theatres in Belfast and Dublin and the Edinburgh Festival Theatre. The Company's orchestra, the Orchestra of Opera North, regularly performs and records in its own right. Operas are performed either in English or in the original language of the libretto, in the latter case usually with surtitles.

The major funders of Opera North includeArts Council England and, in Yorkshire, Leeds City Council, West Yorkshire Grants, North Yorkshire County Council, and East Riding of Yorkshire Council.

History

Establishment as English National Opera North