Charles Cunliffe made an exciting main role debut at Glyndebourne on 22 July when he jumped in to sing the title role in Le nozze di Figaro. He told us how his time at the Samling Artist Programme earlier this year had prepared him for this.
My approach to learning this role was profoundly shaped by my week in Scotland, particularly in understanding the importance of waiting for a genuine intention before delivering a line, and resisting the urge to ‘demonstrate’ an emotion in an inauthentic way. I ended up having such an incredible experience, helped by the support of everyone at Glyndebourne!
Charles (pictured above, centre) appeared alongside fellow Samling Artists Louise Alder singing Countess for the first time and Madeleine Shaw as Marcellina. The music press have been unanimously praising Louise in her first Countess, with Dominic Lowe for Bachtrack saying that her ‘Dove sono’ was the finest he had ever heard. We will all be able to hear it on BBC Radio 3 on Wednesday 27 August when the production comes to the BBC Proms.
In another Figaro, Charlotte Bowden will make her Opera North debut as Barbarina, alongside Claire Lees (Susanna), James Newby (Count Almaviva), Katherine Broderick (Marcellina) and Jamie Woollard (Antonio).
operanorth.co.uk/whats-on/the-marriage-of-figaro/
Congratulations to James Newby who received an honorary doctorate of Music from the University of Leicester, the city where he grew up:
le.ac.uk/news/2025/july/acclaimed-musical-son-leicester-university-honour-top-list-awards
William Thomas has been selected for Plácido Domingo’s Operalia – one of the biggest opera competitions in the world. Just 32 singers have been chosen from hundreds of applications across the world. This year’s competition takes place in Sofia, Bulgaria from 20–26 October.
operaliacompetition.org/operalia-2025/
Filipe Manu has been signed by Universal Music’s Centre Stage Management
centrestagemanagement.com/en/news/filipe-manu/filipe-manu-willkommen-bei-csam/
Nicky Spence gave an in-depth interview on BBC Radio 3 with Norman Lebrecht about his background and his life as a singer. Nicky appears in Shostakovich’s Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District at the BBC Proms on Monday 1 September.
bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m002ggcd
Samling Artists in the North East
Louise Collett is the soloist in A Northern Requiem in Durham Cathedral on Saturday 20 September. This new work by Jonathan Francis was created in collaboration with the mining community to mark the 40th anniversary of the miners’ strike and combines the traditional Latin requiem mass with contemporary poetry and picket line chants.
rhac.art/a-northern-requiem
New recordings
Ellie Laugharne, Catriona Hewitson and Arthur Bruce are among the cast on Scottish Opera’s recording of Utopia Limited, a late and rarely performed work by Gilbert and Sullivan.
opusarte.com/
Jonathan Ware is the pianist on ‘Lumina’ the latest album by male soprano Samuel Mariño alongside Covent Garden Sinfonia and conductor Ben Palmer.
store.deccaclassics.com/products/lumina-cd
Samuel Boden appears on a new recording by Arcangelo and Jonathan Cohen of Handel’s Chandos Anthems.
arcangelo.org.uk/releases/handel-chandos-anthems/
