The FAIRY Queen
biografier | Biographies
Samuel Boden tenor Theseus
British tenor Samuel Boden enjoys an international opera and concert career with particular success in the fields of early and contemporary music. He is an interpreter of Monteverdi, Bach, Handel and the French Baroque. Recent highlights include creating the roles of Boy and Young King in George Benjamin’s Lessons in love and violence at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden followed by performances at the Dutch National Opera, Hamburg State Opera and Opéra de Lyon. He sang Idamante in Idoménée for Opera de Lille and at the Staatsoper Berlin and has appeared at Bergen National Opera, the Karlsruhe Handel Festival, Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, Aldeburgh Festival and on tour with the Nederlandse Reisopera. Samuel regularly appears with period ensembles such as Collegium Vocale Gent, Le Concert d’Astrée, Les Arts Florissants, Les Musiciens du Louvre, Freiburg Baroque Orchestra and the Wiener Akademie. He has also worked with the Bavarian Radio Symphony, BBC Symphony, and Frankfurt Radio Orchestras plus the Salzburg Camerata and the Rotterdam Philharmonic.
Luciana Mancini mezzo soprano Hermia
Chilean-Swedish mezzo soprano Luciana Mancini’s repertoire spans from the Renaissance and Baroque to Berio and Piazzolla. Most recently, she performed Ottavia/Virtu in Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea with Iván Fischer and the Budapest Festival Orchestra in Budapest, Geneva and Vicenza, in the title role of La Cenerentola at Theater Bonn, performed La Musica and Euridice in Monteverdi’s Orfeo at Opéra Comique in Paris, conducted by Jordi Savall, Ravel’s Sheherazade with the Budapest Festival Orchestra in Budapest and at the Spoleto Festival in Italy, the title role in Handel’s Serse at Theater Bonn, and La Messagiera in Monteverdi’s Orfeo with the Budapest Festival Orchestra and Iván Fischer in Vicenza, Budapest and Geneva. Luciana Mancini first appeared at Drottningholms Slottsteater 2013 as Annio in Mozart’s La Clemenza di Tito.
Alex Rosen bass Demetrius
After completing his studies at the Juilliard School, American bass Alex Rosen made his international debut with Les Arts Florissants, under the direction of William Christie, in two tours of Haydn’s Creation and Handel’s Acis and Galatea. Since then, he has guarded his passion for historical performance, in projects both in Europe and back in the United States. Recently he appeared as Seneca in L’incoronazione di Poppea with Cincinnati Opera, as Cadmus and Somnus in Handel’s Semele with Opera Philadelphia, and as Jesus in Bach’s St. John Passion with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and Les Arts Florissants, again under the direction of William Christie. Last season, Alex made a number of debuts including Commendatore/Masetto at the Liceu, Barcelona, and at the Bordeaux Opera, before then appearing at the Aix-en-Provence Festival as Seneca L’incoronazione di Poppea. He also appeared with the Basel Opera in Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria, and appeared in concert in Poland with Capella Cracoviensis.
Zachary Wilder tenor Lysander
American tenor Zachary Wilder is recognized for his work in repertoires covering the 17th and 18th centuries. In 2011, he was invited by the Festival d'Aix-en-Provence, to play Corydon in Handel’s Acis and Galatea. During this period, William Christie selected him to join the ranks of the Jardin des Voix, the prestigious academy for young singers with the Arts Florissants. Zachary subsequently relocated to France which he now calls home.
Highlights from past seasons include a seven month tour celebrating the 450th anniversary of Monteverdi’s birth with Sir John Eliot Gardiner and the English Baroque Soloists, where he performed the roles of Eurimaco in Il Ritorno d’Ulisse in patria and Lucano in L’Incoronazione di Poppea; Tiridate in Handel’s Radamisto in a European tour with Il Pomo d’Oro; Vaughn-Williams’ On Wenlock Edge and Britten’s Nocturne with the Charlottesville Symphony Orchestra; Frank Zappa’s 200 Motels as Mark with the Philharmonie de Strasbourg, The Tale of Genji as the Spirit of Light at Kabukiza led by Ebizo Ichikawa, the Rolex Concert led by Rolando Villazon at the Opera de Paris, and numerous tours with Bach Collegium Japan in Europe, the United States, and Japan.
Emmanuelle de Negri soprano Helena
Soprano Emmanuelle de Negri has established an enduring performing relationship with William Christie and Les Arts Florissants, for whom performances have included Purcell’s The Fairy Queen, The Indian Queen, and Dido and Aeneas; Handel’s Susanna and Silete venti; Monteverdi’s Selva morale e spirituale, and numerous roles in French Baroque operas including Rameau’s Hippolyte et Aricie at Aix-en-Provence and Glyndebourne and Platée at Theater an der Wien, Opéra Comique and in New York; Lully’s Atys, Campra’s Les Fêtes vénitiennes at Opéra Comique, Caen and Toulouse; Palès in Mondonville’s Titon et l’Aurore staged by Basil Twist at Opéra Comique.
Emmanuelle has made regular performances with other prominent French ensembles such as Pulcinella, Les Folies Françoises, Les Enfants d‘Apollo, Raphaël Pichon’s Pygmalion, Vincent Dumestre’s Le Poème Harmonique, Le Banquet Céleste, Les Paladins, and Les Accents. For Emmanuelle Haïm and her Concert d’Astrée, she also sung in Rameau’s Castor et Pollux, and recently in a new production of Rameau’s Les Boréades staged by Barrie Kosky at Opéra de Dijon.
Anna Dennis soprano Titania
English soprano Anna Dennis studied at the Royal Academy of Music with Noelle Barker. She sings Baroque and early classical opera as well as modern works. Her operatic roles includes Romilda in Handel's Serse at the Göttingen Händel Festspiele, Ilia in Mozart's Idomeneo at the Birmingham Opera Company, and the Strawberry Seller in Britten's Death in Venice at La Scala in Milan. She has appeared in all three Monteverdi operas under John Eliot Gardiner; in Orff's Carmina Burana with the Orquestra Gulbenkian in Lisbon, Bach's Christmas Oratorio with the Australian Chamber Orchestra at the Sydney Opera House, and Britten's War Requiem at the Philharmonie in Berlin, among many others. Her operatic world premieres include roles in Francisco Coll’s Café Kafka; Will Tuckett’s Pleasure's Progress at the Royal Opera House, and Jonathan Dove’s The Walk from the Garden at the Salisbury Festival. She has appeared at the BBC Proms with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the Britten Sinfonia, and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment.
Thomas Walker tenor Oberon
Born in Glasgow, tenor Thomas Walker studied brass at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama and singing with Ryland Davies at the Royal College of Music. Over the last two decades he has performed a vast range of repertoire from JS, JC and CPE Bach, through Handel, Gluck and Mozart, to Beethoven, Janáček, Honegger and Britten.
Thomas recently made his debut at both Opéra national de Paris and the Staatsoper Berlin as Adam in Scarlatti Il Primo Omicidio. Other recent roles include Admeto in Gluck Alceste at the Ruhr Triennale and Rinaldo in Haydn Armida on tour with the Basel Chamber Orchestra, both with René Jacobs; the title role in Rameau Zoroastre at the Komische Oper Berlin; Purcell The Fairy Queen and title role in Rameau Platée for Staatsoper Stuttgart, and Sospiro in Gassmann L’opera seria at La Monnaie, Brussels. He has recorded a wide variety of repertoire including Janáček choral works and Beethoven Missa Solemnis with Cappella Amsterdam conducted by Daniel Reuss; Bach Magnificats with Arcangelo and Jonathan Cohen; and Honegger Le Roi David with Ensemble Vocal de Lausanne and Daniel Reuss. Thomas Walker first appeared at Drottningholms Slottsteater 2009 as Lucano and Tribuno in L’incoronazione di Poppea by Claudio Monteverdi.
Kayo Shekoni skådespelare | actor Puck
Kayo Shekoni är skådespelare och sångerska, med en lång och framgångsrik karriär som popartist, programledare, filmskådespelare och dj. Hon har haft en rad låtar på topplistorna och medverkat i Melodifestivalen ett flertal gånger, både under eget namn och med gruppen Afro-Dite. På senare år har hon mer och mer ägnat sig åt teater, och har gjort uppmärksammade roller i uppsättningar som En druva i solen på Riksteatern och Cabaret på Norrbottensteatern.
Kayo Shekoni is an actress and singer with a long and successful career as a pop artist, host, film actor and DJ. She has had a number of chart-topping tunes and has competed in the Eurovision Song Contest several times, both on her own, and as part of the group Afro-Dite. In recent years, she has devoted herself to theatre, making acclaimed roles in productions such as En druva i solen at Riksteatern and Cabaret at Norrbottensteatern.
Jeremy Carpenter baritone Bottom/Pyramus
Born in Bournemouth, England, baritone Jeremy Carpenter began singing as a chorister at St Paul’s Cathedral. He gained a music scholarship to Canford School and finished his formal studies at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Since 2003 his home has been in Sweden, and in 2018 he became a member of the ensemble at The Royal Opera in Stockholm. His repertoire includes The Protector in Written on Skin, Cecil in Maria Stuarda, Sid in Albert Herring, Don Giovanni, Il Conte in Le nozze di Figaro, Gianni Schicchi, Lescaut in Manon Lescaut, Pangloss in Candide, Chou Enlai in Nixon in China at opera houses such as The Royal Opera, Covent Garden, The Royal Opera Stockholm, Opéra national de Paris, Glyndebourne Festival and Touring Opera, Folkoperan Stockholm, Malmö Opera, Theater St. Gallen, The Bolshoi Theatre and Grand Théâtre de Genève. Recently he has performed Giorgio Germont in Ellen Lamm's production of La Traviata, Judge Turpin in Michael Cavanagh's new production of Sweeney Todd and the World Première of Sven David Sandström’s last work The Book of Life with Norrköping Symphony Orchestra.
Rebecca Drammeh skådespelare, teckentolk | actor, sign language interpreter
Rebecca Drammeh är utbildad skådespelare på Dramatiska Högskolan i Stockholm, skådespeleri på svenskt teckenspråk, 2011-2014. Hon har turnerat runt om i Norden och Europa med Riksteatern Creas Alice i underlandet och medverkat i Riksteatern Tyst Teaters Bernardas hus, Den magiska fjädern, Apkungen och Solapan. Hon har medverkat i UR-produktioner som Bokstavshissen, Handformhissen och jobbat på Orionteatern, Riksteatern, Opera Estrad, National Black Theatre of Sweden och Teater Turkos. Rebecca har även medverkat i olika kulturfestivaler i Norden, Europa och nu senast sommaren 2023 i Sydafrika med sin egen pjäs Jainaba som inte slutade drömma. Berättelsen Turkoslandet har hon skrivit och på bl a Dövas dag och Kungsholmens bibliotek i Stockholm. Rebecca Drammeh fick Stockholms Stads Kulturstipendium 2023.
Francesco Corti dirigent | conductor
Francesco Corti är musikchef på Drottningholms Slottsteater. Som cembalist, organist och dirigent är han väletablerad på tidig-musikscenen. Han arbetar regelbundet med orkestrar som Les Musiciens du Louvre och Pomo d’Oro, och har gjort många inspelningar som dirigent, solist och kammarmusiker. Både hans cd Little Books, en musikalisk resa genom Bach-familjens manuskript, och Winged Hands, Händels sviter och ouvertyrer, har tilldelats Diapason d’Or som premierar enastående klassiska musikinspelningar. Han leder master classes över hela Europa, i Latinamerika och i Asien. Sedan 2016 undervisar han i cembalo vid Schola Cantorum Basiliensis i Basel, Schweiz, ett av världens främsta musikinstitut för tidig musik.
Musical director Francesco Corti is very well rooted in early music. He is harpsichordist, organist and conductor with a repertoire focused on Baroque music and the classical period. He regularly leads orchestras such as Les Musiciens du Louvre and Pomo d'Oro and has made many recordings as a conductor, soloist and chamber musician. His latest cd Handel: Winged Hands. The Eight Great Suites & Overtures was recently awarded the Diapason d'Or, an award for outstanding classical music recordings. Since 2016 he teaches harpsichord and basso continuo at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis in Basel, Switzerland, one of the world's leading music institutes for early music.
Josette Bushell-Mingo OBE regissör | director
Josette Bushell-Mingo är prisbelönt skådespelare och regissör med roller på Royal Shakespeare Company, National Theatre och Manchester Royal Exchange i Storbritannien. Hon nominerades till en Olivier Award för sin roll som Rafiki i West End-musikalen Lejonkungen och gjorde den internationellt hyllade produktionen Nina: A Story about Me and Nina Simone. Hon har varit lektor och prefekt vid Institutionen för skådespeleri, Stockholms konstnärliga högskola och är idag rektor för Royal Central School of Speech and Drama i London. 2001 grundade hon konstfestivalen PUSH på Young Vic, i syfte att möjliggöra för fler svarta skådespelare att spela på Londons scener. Genom sitt arbete med PUSH tilldelades hon en Order of the British Empire (OBE) - for Services to the Arts. I 13 år var hon konstnärlig ledare för Riksteaterns Tyst Teater (nu Riksteaterns Crea).
Josette Bushell-Mingo is a Sweden-based English theatre actress and director. She was nominated for a Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Musical for her role as Rafiki in the London production of The Lion King and she wrote and performed the internationally acclaimed production Nina: A Story about Me and Nina Simone. She has been head of the theatre department at the Stockholm University of the Arts and is currently appointed Principal of the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama in London. In 2001, she founded the Push Arts Festival with the Young Vic Theatre, an event that aims both to empower Black creators as well as to normalize their presence and leadership within major institutions within the theatre community and beyond. For her efforts with Push she was awarded an OBE in 2006. She was Artistic Director for the National Touring Swedish Deaf Theatre ensemble: Tyst Teater, now Riksteaterns Crea, for 13 years.
Anna Kjellsdotter kostymdesign | costume design
Anna Kjellsdotter är skräddare, tillskärare och forskare i historisk kostym och textil. Hon har arbetat som tillskärare på Kungliga Operan och som kostymchef för Hong Kong Ballet och har även många uppdrag från teaterhus som Confidencen, Opera på Skäret, Läckö slott och har gjort ett antal tv-produktioner. Hon producerar historiska dräkter för privatbruk, museer och event. På senare år har hon även arbetat med att dokumentera, katalogisera och datera föremål i Kungliga Operans historiska teaterkostymsamling och avslutat sina studier i Textilvetenskap vid Uppsala universitet. Anna Kjellsdotter är fr o m april 2023 Kostymchef på Drottningholms Slottsteater.
Anna Kjellsdotter is costume designer and cutter specialized in historical costumes and active in research all over the world. After a few years at Hong Kong Ballet as head of costume department she worked at the Royal Swedish Opera as cutter. Anna has made costume design for several productions on stages as Confidencen, Opera på Skäret and Läckö slott, and many productions with Sveriges Television. In recent years, she has also worked to document, catalogue and date objects in the Royal Swedish Opera’s historical theatre costume collection and completed her studies in textile science at Uppsala University. As of April 2023, Anna Kjellsdotter is Head of the costume department at Drottningholms Slottsteater.
Max Mitle ljusdesign | lighting designer
Max Mitle har designat ljus till scenkonstföreställningar sedan början av 2000. Han arbetar för att ljuset skall lyfta fram och fokusera på berättelsens dramaturgi. Talande för hans design är skapandet av rum där aktörernas gestaltning framhävs. Max har designat på de flesta av Sveriges större scener, för att nämna några: Dramaten, Stockholms Stadsteater, Norrlandsoperan och Göteborgs Stadsteater.
Max Mitle has been designing lighting for theatre performances since 2000. He wants to ensure that the light highlights and focuses on the dramaturgy of the story. His design is characterised by the creation of spaces where the actors' performances are highlighted. Max has designed on several Swedish stages stages, as Dramaten, Stockholms Stadsteater, Norrlandsoperan and Göteborgs Stadsteater.
Mike Gamble rörelseintruktion | movement coach
Mike Gamble är svenskbaserad amerikansk koreograf, scenkonstnär, pedagog och föreläsare. Han har en bred utbildning och erfarenhet av olika stilar, genrer och föreställningsformat med influenser från västafrikansk dans, hiphop, modern dans, vernacular jazz, modern jazz, house, latin och breaking. Hans karriär sträcker sig över 25 år i olika delar av branschen (TV, film, musikvideo, reklam, teater, musikteater, danskompani) i både produktions- och föreställningssammanhang. 2009 flyttade han till Göteborg och har sedan dess undervisat vid scenkonstinstitutioner som Balettakademien Göteborg och Stockholm, DOCH (Dans- och Cirkus Högskolan) och vid Stockholms Konstnärliga Högskola, vid Göteborgs Universitet, Danscenter Fryshuset och Diambra, samtidigt som han fortsätter att arbeta som koreograf och artist på scener som GöteborgsOperan, Det Ny Teater, Det Kongelige och TIvoli i Köpenhamn och Malmö Opera. Mike arbetar även som ordförande i Danscentrum Väst och är ledamot i Danscentrum Sverige.
Mike Gamble is a Swedish-based American choreographer, performing artist, educator and lecturer. He has a varied education and experience in different styles, genres and performance formats using his diverse dance experiences with influences from West African, Hip Hop, Modern, Vernacular Jazz, Modern Jazz, House, Latin and Breaking. His career spans 25 years in various departments of the industry (TV, film, music video, commercials, theatre, musical theatre, dance company) in many roles in both production and performance modes. In 2009 he moved to Gothenburg and has since taught at performing arts institutions including. Balettakademien Göteborg and Stockholm, DOCH (Dans- och Cirkus Högskolan) and Stockholms Konstnärliga Högskola, at Göteborgs Universitet, Danscenter Fryshuset and Diambra, while continuing to work as a choreographer and performer at venues such as GöteborgsOperan, Malmö Opera, Det Ny Teater, The Royal Theatre and Tivoli in Copenhagen. Mike also works as Chairman of Danscentrum Väst and Member of Danscentrum Sverige - the regional and national non-profit associations.
Rebecka Andersson mask och peruk | wigs and make-up
Rebecka Andersson tog examen Dramatiska Institutets mask- och perukdesignlinje 2008 och har sedan dess arbetat som maskör och gjort egen design till en mängd produktioner. Sedan 2005 har hon sommartid arbetat på Drottningholms Slottsteater.
Rebecka Andersson graduated from the mask and wig design programme at the University College of Film, Radio, Television and Theatre in 2008 and has since worked as a mask and wig artist. She has also made designs for a number of productions. Beginning in 2005, she has been working at Drottningholms Slottsteater in the summer.