MEET THE CAST - 2026
Bronwen Stephens-Harding
Founder, Director and Scriptwriter
Mezzo-Soprano - Carmen
At the age of eight, Bronwen declared her wish to be an opera singer. After a varied career, combining corporate marketing with busking, choral singing, opera performance and singing studies, she is now pursuing her dream full-time. After achieving a Diploma in Opera & Performance from Associated Studios in London and working in the UK and Europe, Bronwen founded Rogue Opera in 2018 with a vision of bringing opera to new audiences and unconventional spaces. As well as singing the title role in Rogue Opera’s inaugural season of Bizet’s Carmen, Bronwen directed the production and saw it performed in a variety of venues.
Working with a dedicated troupe of musicians and seeing her concepts come to life on the stage have been a high point in her musical career, which continued with the company’s second season, presenting a vibrant, contemporary reimagining of Mozart’s Don Giovanni in 2019, which Bronwen directed. In the second revival tour she also performed the role of Donna Elvira. The challenges presented by Covid-19 in 2020 have taken Bronwen and Rogue Opera into new ventures, broadcasting over 45 livestream performances and building an archive over 100 video performances of arias and ensembles, providing creative work for Rogue Opera artists and introducing new audiences to opera.
Delighted to be back to in-person events in 2021, Bronwen created, wrote the English libretto and directed a new production 'A Modern Opera Love Story' for Fuller’s Opera in the Garden. The association with Fuller's has continued with two further very successful summer tours, presenting an exciting and engaging gala program in a wide variety of pub gardens.
For the 2024 summer tour of Carmen Re-imagined, Bronwen wrote the English dialogue, directed and sang the title role of Carmen.
Aeron Preston
Music Director
Pianist
Welsh pianist and organist Aeron Preston read Music at St John’s College, Cambridge, and worked as a secondary Music teacher for a number of years. He also accompanied a number of choirs in Mid Wales, including Cantorion Llandrindod, Montgomery County Music Festival Choir, Kington Choral Society, and Brecon Singers. In 2019, he attended the Wales International Academy of Voice in Cardiff to train as a répétiteur, gaining a PGDip with Distinction. He continued his training the following year at the National Opera Studio in London. He now works as a freelance accompanist and répétiteur, working with choral societies, opera companies, and schools. Recently, he has worked with Harlow Chorus, Beckenham Chorale, Kingston Choral Society, Mid Wales Opera, Garsington Opera, Grange Park Opera, and New London Opera Group. He is one of a team of organists at St George’s Church in Beckenham, and is an Associate of the Royal College of Organists.
Nick Dwyer
Baritone
Captain Moralès, Dancaïre and Escamillo
Nick is returning for his second Rogue Opera Fuller’s tour. Last year he played the title role in Sweeney Todd, a Victorian Melodrama for Opera Della Luna at Wilton’s, a show reviving this summer in Bath and Manchester. Prior to this he performed as the Pirate King in The Pirates of Penzance for Celebrate Voice Festival, where he previously sang the title role in Le Nozze di Figaro.
Nick is a graduate of Guildhall School of Music and Drama, and has since performed over 300 performances as Marcello in Opera Up Close's Olivier Award winning La Bohème. Elsewhere, roles include Flemish Deputy in Don Carlo at Grange Park Opera, where he previously performed as Zaretsky in Eugene Onegin whilst understudying the title role. Nick has ventured into music theatre as Javert in Les Misérables for Pimlico Opera Prisons Project, featuring the inmates of HMP Erlestoke. Nick has also worked in the film industry, where he performed a role in Holby City (drunk Santa Claus) and as a body double for Batman.
Roberta Philip
Soprano
Micaëla, Frasquita
Soprano Roberta Philip has recently finalised her Master of Performance at Guildhall School of Music and Drama under the tutelage of John Evans, supported by the Help Musicians Postgraduate Award and The Behrens Foundation. She was a 2024 British Youth Opera Serena Fenwick artist and 2023-24 Pegasus Opera Company mentee. In summer 2025, Roberta made her Buxton International Festival debut in the Festival’s inaugural commissioning project that showcased four brand new 20-min operas, rewriting the rules for contemporary opera. She was cast as lead role ‘Nomvula’ in Thanda Gumede’s Tears are not meant to stay inside, as well as Soprano chorus in the Festival’s headline production of Hamlet by Ambroise Thomas. A versatile opera and jazz singer, Roberta has been praised for her “powerfully expressive” (The Opera Critic, Jul ‘25) and “outstanding voice” (The Stage, Jul ‘25). She won first place in the 2024 Edith Poulsen Singing Prize Competition. Prior to her masters, she read Music and English Literature at the University of Birmingham. Previous roles include ‘Barbarina’ Cover (The Marriage of Figaro, English National Opera), ‘Una Novizia’ (Suor Angelica, West Green House Opera), ‘Orpah’ (Ruth, Pegasus Opera Company). In scenes, ‘Atalanta’ (Serse), ‘Frasquita’ (Carmen), ‘Héro’ (Béatrice et Bénédict), ‘Phénice’ (Armide) and ‘Amy’ (Little Women) at Guildhall School. ‘Miss Jessel’ (Turn of the Screw), ‘Mathilde’ (Guillame Tell) and ‘Fiordilligi’ (Cosi Fan Tutte) with Morley Opera. Other highlights in Roberta’s singing portfolio are performing (and walking) in London Fashion Week, at the National Gallery, the Biennale di Venezia, and in choruses at the Royal Albert Hall, Philharmonie de Paris and Lucerne Festival, Switzerland. In masterclasses, she has worked with leading industry professionals such as Danielle de Niese, David Gowland, Miah Persson and Nelly Miricioiu. Roberta undertook her second contract with the English National Opera in the 2025/26 season, covering ‘Frasquita’ in the company’s production of Carmen.
Philip Clieve
Tenor
Don Josė
British tenor Philip Clieve was born in Lancashire. He is a graduate of London's prestigious National Opera Studio after gaining both his MMus and Bachelor’s degree from the Royal Northern College of Music.
Operatic roles include Max Der Freischütz, Alfred Die Fledermaus, Prince Philippe A Dinner Engagement, Gherardo Gianni Schicchi, Zorn Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, Ralph H.M.S. Pinafore, The Defendant Trial by Jury, Mr Box Cox and Box and Colonel Fairfax Yeoman of the Guard. He has also performed many Oratorios, including Handel’s Messiah, the Mozart Requiem, Elijah Mendelssohn, Gloria Puccini, Petite messe solennelle Rossini, Magnificat J.S. Bach and The Crucifixion Stainer. Philip enjoys a varied concert portfolio, having sung Strauss, Schubert and Schumann lieder, English song of the 19th and 20th century and the songs of Paolo Tosti.
Philip performs in many of Rogue Opera’s corporate and private events and took part in the A Night at the Opera and A Rogue Opera Christmas Spectacular tours for Fuller’s in 2023, and Carmen Re-imagined and our Christmas tour in 2024. In 2025, Philip took on the role of Ferrando in Rogue Opera’s summer tour of Così Re-imagined. He is delighted to return to Jose in this production
William Byram
Revival Director - 2026
Originally from Mississippi, William Byram (he/they) is a director & choreographer currently based in London, UK. William’s work seeks to celebrate yet challenge the classical canon through telling stories of queer resilience.
He has most recently directed Hänsel und Gretel, Portrait of a Prima Donna and Die Fledermaus for Salon Opera and the first UK revival since its premiere in 1898 of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s Dream Lovers, funded by Arts Council England, The British Library and Stanley Arts. His production of Dido & Aeneas (choreographer) won 2nd place for Best Production from the USA National Opera Association. He has been featured in One Dance UK and Dance Arts Journal, with reviews in The Dance Enthusiast, Opera Magazine, The Reviews Hub, The Stage and others.
He has worked as an assistant director & movement director for English Touring Opera, Opera Holland Park, The Grange Festival, Dorset Opera, Purchase Opera, Trinity Laban Opera, Instant Opera, Opéra de Baugé, St Pauls Opera and the Guildhall School of Music & Drama. He has worked with directors such as Cecilia Stinton, Robin Norton - Hale, Martin Constantine, Paul Curran, Oliver Platt, John Ramster, Martin Lloyd Evans and others. William’s choreography has been commissioned by Battery Dance Festival (NYC), JCE Jazz Dance Project, Trinity Laban, Dancers Responding to AIDS, and the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts. As a dancer, he has performed the works of George Balanchine, Merce Cunningham and Wayne McGregor and has worked with Ohad Naharin, Maxine Doyle, Kinsun Chan, and Maya Taylor.
After studying at the Conservatory of Dance at Purchase College, SUNY, he received the Bert Terborgh Award for creativity, leadership & vision. Later in 2021-2022, he was the US-UK Fulbright Postgraduate Scholar in Dance at Trinity Laban and completed a fellowship in opera direction at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama.
William also teaches dance and movement for singers at the Royal Academy of Music and Trinity Laban and will be published in the upcoming Oxford Handbook of Ballet Pedagogy.
Bobbie-Jean Henning
Assistant Director - 2024
Bobbie-Jean Henning is a performer, writer and director who works across theatre and screen. After graduating from WAAPA in Australia, she created two solo shows, Tales of a Time Travelling Songstress and All Hail Me: King Henry VIII which she performed nationally. With Alex Keddie she co-created the Screen Australia funded comedy, The Power of the Dream, for which they were nominated for an AWGIE. They were also recipients of ABC’s Fresh Start Fund to develop Spread Your Wings, a heart-warming comedy about a community musical theatre society. Currently, she is developing a queer, Australian gothic play with support from the City of Melbourne.
Bobbie-Jean has directed and dramaturged new works Udderly Fabulous for the Adelaide Fringe Festival, winning Best Newcomer Award, and MidLife for the Sydney Fringe, nominated for Best in Cabaret Award. She was the 2022 recipient of WAAPA’s Professional Mentorship for Directing and assistant directed Assassins at WAAPA. She was then invited to assistant direct Watch This, an all-female reimagining of A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum. She script edited and directed the short film, You, Me & Him which is set to debut in Poland at the LGBT+ Film Festival. She directed Beyond the Break in Belvoir Theatre’s 25a Season in 2023.
She is a founding member of Edgeware Forum Theatre Company and has been involved in a variety of developments for new works with Melbourne Theatre Company, Bondi Feast’s 24 Hour Play Party, Kings Cross Theatre, Griffin Theatre’s Scratch Night and The Lysicrates Prize.
Bobbie-Jean loves to collaborate and her work features a sense of theatricality, charm, feminism and hope.
bobbiejeanhenning.com
With thanks to:
Lauren Carr — Set Design and Construction
François-Xavier Lafleur — Audio Crew
Lola Varez — Stage Crew
Erika Wooding — the Regal, Tenbury Wells