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.
Beatrice Floyer-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.
Maximillian Lawrie
Tenor
A recent graduate of the University of Oxford, Max is an experienced choral and ensemble singer, with an increasingly wide experience and growing reputation for operatic and soloist work and is in his final year of the Postgraduate Opera Course at the Royal Academy of Music. Max portrayed a thrilling Jose in Rogue Opera’s production of Bizet’s Carmen, switching convincingly from innocent and honourable to desperate and violent note to note. Most recently, Maximilian reprised the role of Sempronio in Lo Speziale for New Chamber Opera, at the British Ambassador’s residence at the Hôtel de Charost in Paris. Other highlights included a tour with Eton College Choir to Hong Kong, where he performed the tenor solos in Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms under the baton of Leonard Slatkin and the Hong Kong Philharmonic, also broadcast live on radio. In his spare time, Max likes to engage with lots of other aspects of music, including as a jazz double bassist playing in local bars and pubs; a jazz pianist, featuring on Evening Light; as a composer; and as a tutor. He is currently studying for a postgraduate degree (MA in Vocal Performance) at the Royal Academy of Music. Max takes on the role of Rodolfo for Fuller’s Opera in the Garden.
Thomas Nießer
Baritone
Welsh-German baritone Thomas Nießer graduated in Music and German from the University of Bristol and is in his first year at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama where he studies under Janice Chapman. As part of his degree, he spent a year in Heidelberg, Germany, where he had the privilege of working with the studio at the Stuttgart Opera. A native of Porthmadog, Wales, he started singing in the Welsh Eisteddfod at the age of 7, before starting lessons with Jenny Pearson (WNO).
He has given recitals in Austria, Czechia, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy and Spain. In the UK he has performed with a large number of ensembles, including the bass solos from Mozart’s and Fauré's Requiems with the Bristol Chamber Choir, lead roles in The Magic Flute, The Marriage of Figaro and Gondoliers with the University Opera Society and Le Nozze de Figaro with Opera Presto whilst in 2014 he conducted his first Opera with Bops, Ravel’s The Child and the Spells.In 2015 he founded the Victoria Singers together with Douglas Watts. Recent roles include Alfio, Mephistopholes, Don Pizarro, Marcello, Malatesta, Guglielmo and Don Giovanni. He looks forward to creating the role of Father with Queen’s Park Opera and covering Mahler 8 with the Wrexham Symphony Orchestra. Thomas is much in demand also much in demand for oratorio and regularly performs Handel's Messiah.
MEET THE TEAM
Stephanie Weaver
Tour Manager
Introducing Rogue Opera's newest recruit! Steph first fell in love with opera when she performed in The Pirates of Penzance with Edinburgh University Savoy Opera Group in 2016, and she is delighted to be stage managing Opera in the Garden this summer.
While studying her degree in Chinese and Spanish at The University of Edinburgh, Steph worked backstage on over 30 shows with The Edinburgh University Theatre Company and The Edinburgh Revue. Since graduating she has worked as the Technical Manager of Number, Please with Paprichoo Theatre Company, which toured to Sheffield, London, and The Edinburgh Fringe, and the Stage Manager of their production of La Voisin as part of London Horror Festival. She has since made her professional debut with KD Theatre Productions as the Stage Manager of their Christmas pantomime and touring production of The Wizard of Oz.
Steph's goal for this year is to continue building her professional portfolio. She's returning to Scotland's capital this August to stage manage several productions at The Edinburgh Fringe, and she can't wait to find out where she ends up next!
Patricia Okenwa
Movement Director and Dramaturge
Patrica is an alumni of Sadler’s Wells Summer University 2015-18, a choreographer and dance artist and a founding member of New Movement Collective. She choreographed the opera short film Ariadne by Elena Langer and Glyn Maxwell for English Touring Opera in 2021; Stabat Mater for B-Motion Festival, in Italy in 2017 and TheaterFestival Boulevard, in the Netherlands in 2018; Glitch for Renaud Wiser Company 2018; Becoming for Northern School of Contemporary Dance, touch each feel other for Edge Dance Company 2017; Scenes from Daphnis and Chloe for MusicArt London 2017; Hydrargyrum for Rambert 2016 and Ride for BBC Young Dancer winner, Connor Scott’s, grand final performance in 2015.
Patricia has also collaborated on VR experiences Camouflage 2018 and Dust 2017 and movement directed Marty and the Party by Leo Skilbeck at Derby Theatre 2021, Torn by Nathaniel Pierre-White at the Royal Court Theatre 2016 as well as a livestream AR performance by Liam Payne for the EE Baftas in 2021. This is her first collaboration with Rogue Opera.
Thank you for coming with us on this Rogue Opera journey through some of opera's best arias, duets and ensembles. If you haven't had a chance to see the fantastic stories these pieces are borrowed from, we hope your interest is piqued to explore further!