MEET THE CAST
Bronwen Stephens-Harding
Founder, Director and Scriptwriter
Mezzo-Soprano
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, Bronwen has created, written the English libretto and directed this new production 'A Modern Opera Love Story' for Fuller’s Opera in the Garden.
Guy Murgatroyd
Music Director
Pianist
British pianist Guy enjoys a modest reputation as one of a leading generation of pianists pliable to many musical roles.
Having worked with diverse musicians, including Leslie Howard, Elly Ameling and Andrew Lloyd Webber, along with contemporary composers including Rolf Hind, Edward Rushton and Nikolai Kapustin, Guy is no stranger to most corners of the repertoire. He had a scholarship at Birmingham Conservatoire in 2012 and recently completed postgraduate studies at the Royal Academy of Music in London. Guy is also the founder and director of the London Art Song Collective which aims to further the performance of 20th century art song, an undervalued and untapped repertoire. The collective features over 50 singers, hand-chosen for various projects spanning over 450 composers and 25 languages.
Having assisted with Carmen in 2018, Guy took on full musical direction for Rogue Opera in 2019 and was integral to the company’s 2020/21 pandemic online program. Guy has the superhuman ability to fill in for a whole orchestra in Rogue Opera’s compact productions and is the essential fifth character in Fuller’s Opera in the Garden.
David Powton
Tenor
David Powton gained his MA in Opera Performance from the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, studying with Adrian Thompson and Nicki Rose, generously supported by the Leverhulme Foundation and the Manning Prize for Tenors.
Roles include The Mayor (Albert Herring, Britten), Basilio (Le Nozze di Figaro, Mozart), Caius (Falstaff, Verdi) and Alfred (Die Fledermaus, Strauss).
David has performed as a soloist with Royal Northern Sinfonia. Concert performances include Seven Last Words from the Cross (MacMillan), A Child of Our Time (Tippett) and Verdi Requiem. Recent performances include Nemorino in L’Elisir d’amore (Donizetti) with Opera’r Ddraig, Basilio in Le Nozze di Figaro (Mozart) with Random Opera and Marat/Dupont in Black, el payaso (Sorozàbal) with Cervantes Theatre.
Beatrice Acland
Soprano
Beatrice is an English soprano currently based in London. In July 2017 Beatrice graduated from the MA Opera performance course at The Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama with merit. Recent operatic engagements include Elvira, Don Giovanni. The Oxford Alternative Orchestra, Micaëla Carmen, Rogue Opera, Elvira (cover) Don Giovanni Longborough Festival Opera and British Youth Opera, Iris Semele Mid Wales Opera, Zhou Kommilitonen! The Welsh National Youth Opera conducted by Alice Farnham and Alice Ford Falstaff RWCMD conducted by Carlo Rizzi. Beatrice has performed alongside Sir Bryn Terfel and Rebecca Evans in the Liverpool Philharmonic's production of Falstaff under the baton of Vasily Petrenko. Highlights in opera scenes work include performing the role of Tatyana in Act 3 of Eugene Onegin with the Welsh National Opera orchestra and the role of Cecily in excerpts from Barry The Importance of Being Earnest in a joint project with RWCMD and Music Theatre Wales.
Stuart Orme
Baritone
Stuart is a Samling Artist from Bewdley in Worcestershire. His studies took place in Manchester at the Royal Northern College of Music where he obtained in Bachelor of Music and Master of Music degrees.
Roles on stage include Sharpless Madama Butterfly, Onegin Eugene Onegin (Guildford Opera), Gregorio Romeo et Juliette (Grange Park Opera), Innkeeper/Sergeant/Captain Manon Lescaut (Grange Festival), Eldest Son Judith Weir’s The Vanishing Bridegroom (British Youth Opera), Luther and Crespel Tales of Hoffmann, Figaro The Marriage of Figaro, Schaunard La Boheme, Sciarrone Tosca, and Aeneas Dido and Aeneas. Roles at the RNCM include Guglielmo Così Fan Tutte, Papageno Die Zauberflöte, Harry Easter Street Scene, Barabashkin Paradise Moscow.
Stuart’s contemporary opera performances include the role of the Barrister in Stephen Crowe’s Lady Chatterley’s Trial, and Mr Bronstow in Jonathan Pease’s Concrete Music. Stuart also recently took part in a research and development project for a new opera Tan Tan & Dry Bone by Hannah Kendall. This project was in partnership between Opera North and the Royal Opera House.