Nadine Benjamin, soprano & Jan Karl Rautio, piano

Saturday 22 June, 7.30pm

Image © Teresa Elwes

Songs and arias by Puccini and Verdi. Acclaimed as ‘one of the greatest vocal talents around today’ by Scene and Heard International, we welcome leading soprano Nadine Benjamin MBE to Thaxted.

Celebrating the 100th year since Puccini’s death, Nadine will bring her powerful emotional interpretation to a selection of his much-loved arias and songs, together with those of Verdi, of whose work she is a leading exponent. She is accompanied by Jan Karl Rautio, Associate of the Royal Academy of Music, who has appeared across a range of platforms in the UK and abroad, as well as in numerous BBC Radio 3 broadcasts.

Nadine made her Royal Opera House debut in 2020 and her Glyndebourne debut in 2021 in the title role of Luisa Miller. She performed the leading role in the UK première of the opera Blue for English National Opera, for which she won the Best Opera Performer Award at the Black British Theatre Awards in 2023.

She has performed in numerous operatic roles and recitals to wide critical acclaim, and made her BBC Proms debut in 2019 as the soprano soloist in Vaughan Williams’ Serenade to Music. In addition, she founded her opera and mentorship programme Everybody Can! In 2015 to encourage and support others in recognising and achieving their own visions.

After this concert from approximately 9.30pm there will be Morris and country dancing outside as part of the Church’s Patronal Festival celebrations, with the Abbots Bromley Horn Dance at approximately 10.15.

‘Benjamin sang exquisitely; her voice has the texture and balance for later Verdi and she uses it with style and expertise.’ Opera Magazine

Venue: Thaxted Parish Church
Tickets: £38*, £34, £30, £22, £14. Age 30 and under: £10
*Premium seating in centre front rows.

Repertoire

Franz Liszt

Enfant Si J’etais dieux
Oh quand je dors

Francesco Tosti

L’ora e tarda
O falce di Luna calante
Van li effluvi de Le rose da i verzieri

Piano Solo

Verdi Waltz in F major

Guiseppe Verdi

In solitaria stanza
Chi I bei di
Stornello

INTERVAL

Giacomo Puccini

Si chiamano mimi, La Boheme
Donde liet, La Boheme
Un bel di, Madama Butterfly
Tu tu tu, Madama Butterfly

Piano Solo

Tosca: opening of 3rd Act Intermezzo
Vissi d’arte, Tosca

Piano Solo

Intermezzo, Manon Lescaut
In Quelle trine morbide, Manon Lescaut
O mio babbino caro, Gianni Schicchi

PREVIOUS EVENT

NEXT EVENT

“[The Tippett Quartet] concert as part of the 2023 Thaxted Festival revealed a group of musicians of profound interpretative depth, and capable of traversing a wide range of repertoire.”
Colin Clarke, Classical Explorer

“A positively life-enhancing performance of Donizetti’s The Elixir of Love in English with reduced ensemble by Wild Arts…”
Colin Clarke, Classical Explorer

“The performance was a joy … and the quartet brought out its sense of both structural and linear perfection.” Holst’s Phantasy Quartet Op 36 performed by the Tippett Quartet.
Colin Clarke, Classical Explorer

“The Tippett Quartet and Emma Abbate have performed Schumann’s Piano Quintet together many times. On this occasion they combined flawless execution with instinctive – and utterly engaging – musicianship.”
Claire Seymour, in Seen and Heard International.

“…this was a wonderfully enjoyable and engaging performance that really punched above its weight. The audience in Thaxted clearly loved it and were fully engaged, whilst this experienced reviewer was carried away as well.”
Wild Art’s production of The Elixir of Love, reviewed by Robert Hugill in Planet Hugill

“2 terrific concerts I heard with London Mozart Players.”
Thaxted Festival concertgoer

“I think Gustav is smiling down to see how his memory and that of his best friend and colleague Ralph Vaughan Williams are honoured by the expertly played pieces they both composed.”
Thaxted Festival concertgoer

“It's always the variety and quality which keeps me coming back.”
Thaxted Festival concertgoer