Here is a little taste of our production of Verdi’s opera Macbeth which opens at The Grange in just over a week. It’s visceral Verdi, up close and very personal. Don’t miss it. As you can see it’s going to be amazing.
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British mezzo-soprano Claire Barnett-Jones was a Finalist and Winner of the Dame Joan Sutherland Audience Prize at the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World 2021. Recent highlights include her role and house debut as Madame Flora The Medium for Oper Frankfurt, singing the role of Dryad in concert performances of Ariadne auf Naxos at the Edinburgh International Festival, and her European concert debut at The Concertgebouw in Amsterdam in Schumann’s Szenen aus Goethe’s Faust, conducted by Sir John Eliot Gardiner.
Claire opens her 2021-22 season singing the role of Sosostris in Tippett’s The Midsummer Marriage with the London Philharmonic Orchestra under the Baton of Edward Gardner at the Royal Festival Hall, London. She also sings Fricka Die Walküre at the Tiroler Festspiele Erl, Austria, Rossweisse/cover Fricka in The Valkyrie at English National Opera; the beginning of a new Ring Cycle at ENO, directed by Richard Jones, and Lapák Cunning Little Vixen. On the concert platform she will sing Beethoven Symphony No. 9 at St John’s Smith Square, Mahler Symphony no. 8 at the Cheltenham Music Festival, Handel’s Messiah at the Royal Albert Hall, and will give recitals at Snape Maltings in Aldeburgh and the Ludlow English Song Festival.
In 2017, Claire was presented with the Wessex Glyndebourne Association Award for a young singer of much promise, and in 2018 made her Glyndebourne Festival Debut as 2nd Noble Orphan in Der Rosenkavalier, and performed Annina La Traviata for Glyndebourne Touring Opera later that year. Following this, she made her company debut with English National Opera as Eurydice Myth/Persephone in Birtwistle’s The Mask of Orpheus, and was subsequently awarded the Lilian Baylis Award for Outstanding Potential in the Field of Opera in recognition of her exceptional stage debut. Claire is currently a member of the English National Opera Harewood Artist Programme.
Further recent highlights include creating the role of ‘Alto 1’ in Stockhausen’s Mittwoch Aus Licht with Birmingham Opera Company and the BBC Proms, directed by Sir Graham Vick, as well as Fricka and Wellgunde in Das Rheingold for Grimeborn Festival. Cover roles for English National Opera have included Frederica Luisa Miller, Jezibaba Rusalka and Suzuki Madame Butterfly. In concert, Claire has performed as part of ‘Precipice’, a series of specially curated concerts for The Grange Festival, and a recital at the Wigmore Hall with Iain Burnside. Claire performed the role of Maurya Riders of the Sea for British Youth Opera, where she was awarded the Basil A Turner Prize for outstanding performance. For Buxton Festival Opera she has performed Gertrude and cover Mother in Charpentier’s Louise conducted by Stephen Barlow.
Claire was recently selected to compete in the Final Rounds of Operalia, The World Opera Competition. She was also awarded the Wagner Prize of the Netherlands, the Junior Jury Prize at the 52nd International Vocal Competition s’Hertogenbosch, as well as the 2nd Prize, Villa Medici Recital Prize and Waynflete Singers Concert Prize all at The Grange Festival International Singing Competition. She has also been the recipient of the Elly Ameling Masterclass Prize (Lieder) at the 51st IVC Competition with pianist Somi Kim, the Dame Patricia Routledge English Song Prize, the Birmingham Town Hall/Symphony Hall Recital Prize, and the Mario Lanza Opera Prize.
Claire studied at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, Royal Academy Opera and Guildhall School of Music and Drama, and is a recipient of the Sir John Tomlinson Fellowship, Independent Opera Fellow and Samling Artist. Her studies were sponsored by the D’Oyly Carte Memorial Fund Scholarship, The George Drexler Foundation, The May Gibson Charitable Trust, The Josephine Baker Trust, The Countess of Munster Trust, The Winship Foundation, Sir Ian Fleming Award from Help Musicians and The William Gibbs Foundation.
The Grange Festival 2022 | Macbeth
