SPRING OPERA SHOWCASE

The Company

Cara Blaikie – Mezzo-Soprano

Scottish mezzo-soprano Cara Blaikie graduated from the David Seligman Opera School at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama in the summer of 2023. She trained with Scottish Opera’s Young Company (2015-2019) and Edinburgh Studio Opera (2020- 2021) during her BMus undergraduate degree studies at Edinburgh Napier University. After graduating from the RWCMD Cara has worked professionally in the classical music field. Her recent oratorio engagements include as a soloist in Mozart’s Requiem, Vivaldi’s Gloria, Mozart’s Mass in F major, Haydn’s Nelson Mass and The Armed Man: A Mass for Peace. She has also performed as a soloist with The Lakeland Sinfonia in their 2025 spring opera gala Disguises, Deceptions and Thwarted Love. In 2019 Cara performed in Scottish Opera’s touring production of Amadeus and The Bard singing the role of Jenny. She has worked as a mezzo-soprano chorus member for Opera Holland Park’s 2025 production of The Flying Dutchman. In 2024 and 2025 she performed as part of the chorus with The National Gilbert and Sullivan Opera Company at The International Gilbert & Sullivan Festival. In the 2025 festival, Cara also sang the roles of Chloe in Princess Ida; Fleta in Iolanthe; and Isabel in The Pirates of Penzance. She looks forward to performing this summer as part of the chorus with the Buxton International Festival in their productions of The Merry Widow and La Traviata.

Lucy Breakwell – Soprano

Dorset-born soprano Lucy Breakwell is currently in the final year of the Graduate Diploma of the RNCM programme after gaining a First with the Dean’s Award in Music from The University of Manchester. She studies with Yvonne Howard and Christopher Turner. Solo operatic roles include Frog/Frog’s Grandson (The Cunning Little Vixen, RNCM Opera), First Alms Sister (Suor Angelica, Dorset Opera Festival), Eurydice (Orpheus in the Underworld, MUMS Opera), Bastienne (Bastien et Bastienne, Bread and Bus Stop), and Sifare and Zerlina in scenes from Mitridate, re di Ponto and Don Giovanni (RNCM Opera). As a concert soloist, she has performed Mozart’s Requiem and Haydn’s Little Organ Mass with City of London Sinfonia, and Libby Larsen’s Missa Gaia: Mass for the Earth, and Schubert’s Mass No. 2 in G major with Preston Cecilian Choral Society. She was recently awarded the Proctor-Gregg Prize for Performance for highest third year recital mark from the University of Manchester.

Phoebe Edwards – Soprano

Phoebe is currently completing the Master of Music at the Royal Academy of Music, London, under the vocal instruction of Professor Raymond Connell, with dissertation supervision of Dr Briony Cox-Williams and Dr Emily Kilpatrick. Her studies are funded by the University of Melbourne’s Joyce McKenna Scholarship, the Royal Academy of Music’s Eleanor Margaret Scholarship, and the Tait Memorial Trust. In 2024, Phoebe received First Class Honours for her Honours in Music Performance/Musicology. She holds a double degree in Music and Arts (Philosophy and Creative Writing), which fuel her passion for the intersection of language and music in opera. Over the past year of living in the UK, Phoebe’s full operatic roles have included Venere (L’Incoronazione di Poppea) and Barbarina (Le Nozze di Figaro), as well as appearances in opera scenes as Amore (Orfeo ed Euridice), Baronin (Der Wildschütz), Poppea (L’Incoronazione di Poppea), Susanna (Le Nozze di Figaro) and Zerlina (Don Giovanni). Outside of her studies, Phoebe works as a singing teacher at King’s College London and as a choral scholar at St Ethedreda’s Church, Fulham. In Australia, Phoebe’s musicality has been recognised through the H. Holt and R. Prochazka Award at the National Liederfest (2022) and the Gabrielle Roberts Memorial Scholarship at Eisteddfod by the Bay (2023). Phoebe performed extensively with Opera Scholars Australia (2021–2023) and with the Choir of Trinity College (2018–2020), where she travelled internationally to Europe in 2018 and North America in 2020.

Edward Wenborn – Baritone

Originally from Cambridge, England, Edward is a baritone currently studying at the Royal Northern College of Music under Quentin Hayes. In 2018 he went to Durham University, where he held a choral scholarship at St Chad’s College, and graduated with an undergraduate degree in Classics. During this time he developed a love of opera, joining Durham Opera Ensemble and performing numerous roles including Eugene Onegin (Eugene Onegin) and Pirate King (Pirates of Penzance). His recent roles include Masetto (Don Giovanni) as a young artist with Flat Pack Music, Leandre (L’amour des trois oranges) with the RNCM, Harašta (The Cunning Little Vixen) with the RNCM and cover for Rambaldo (La Rondine) with Atelier Armonico. He is the winner of the 2025 Alexander Young Prize, and currently holds a scholarship with the Diocese of Manchester Choral Scholars. His upcoming projects over the summer include joining the Edvard Grieg Korene and Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra for Mahler’s Second Symphony and performing as Count Robinson (Il Matrimonio Segreto) with Kleine Opera.

Matthew Curtis – Tenor

British tenor Matthew Curtis was recently a semi-finalist in the Premier Opera Foundation Competition in New York, a finalist in the Belvedere Singing Competition, and a semi-finalist in the Paris Opera Competition. He is a Young Artist with Opera Prelude (2025–2026). He has performed with Glyndebourne (Don Giovanni, L’elisir d’amore), Nevill Holt Opera (La Cenerentola), IF Opera (Dido and Aeneas, La Rondine), Opera North (Silent Night), and at the Buxton International Festival (Eugene Onegin). Recent roles include Mirko in La Montagne Noire with The Opera Makers in London, Lensky (Eugene Onegin) at the Reform Club and with Hampstead Garden Opera (Offie Award-winning production), Fintan O’Riordan in Luke Byrne’s Bloody Murder, and Bill (Flight) for the Royal College of Music Opera Studio. He has also appeared as Interpreter, Usher, Mr By-Ends, and Second Shepherd in The Pilgrim’s Progress with British Youth Opera. He trained at the Royal College of Music and the Royal Northern College of Music.

Philip Sunderland – Music Director

Philip was born in Norwich and educated at the Cathedral School. A graduate of the Royal Academy of Music and the National Opera Studio, Philip began his professional like as a repetiteur, working for all the major opera companies in the UK. This led to many conducting opportunities, first with English Touring Opera, for whom he conducted Marriage of Figaro, Cenerentola, Pearl Fishers, Daughter of the Regiment and Cosi fan tutte. In 1999, having worked as an assistant conductor at Opera North, Philip was appointed Chorus Master, a role he performed for five years. Whilst working for Opera North he conducted La traviata and the company’s acclaimed production of Sweeney Todd, as well as numerous concerts including the Brahms’ Requiem in York Minster. Philip has continued to conduct for ETO, winning an Olivier Award for Paul Bunyan in 2015 and returned the following year with Tales of Hoffman. He was music director to Swansea City Opera and W11 Opera for Young People and Chorus Master at the Bregenzer Festspiele. In 2014 he was commissioned by the Saffron Hall to write an opera for over 200 schoolchildren, professional singers and orchestra. The Glass Knight was first performed in the Saffron Hall, Saffron Walden in March 2015. Advent Calendar, a setting of biblical texts and a poem by Ronan Williams, was premiered in St Mary’s church, Saffron Walden in 2018. Philip is delighted to return to Clonter Opera, having conducted Rigoletto in 2009, a particularly exciting time as his son was born prematurely during the final stage and orchestra rehearsals! Philip is currently Head of Preparatory and Vocal Faculty Opera at the Royal Academy of Music, for whom he conducted Cunning Little Vixen in 2019.

Jeanne Pansard Besson – Director

Jeanne Pansard-Besson is an opera director, dramaturge and librettist. She was a finalist in the ninth European Opera-directing Prize and a semi-finalist in the Ring Award. Productions include Don Pasquale (NOF-Neue Oper Freiburg), La Descente d’Orphée aux Enfers (VBF/Buxton International Festival), La Tragédie de Carmen (Royal Academy of Music), Hänsel und Gretel (Hampstead Garden Opera), Die Fledermaus (Berlin Opera Academy), L’Amico Fritz (Gattières/Opéra de Nice) and Penelope’s Web, a new opera written and developed in collaboration with composer Cheryl Frances-Hoad (with support from the National Opera Studio, King’s College London and the University of Oxford). Her book, based on her PhD from the University of Cambridge, The Imagination of Rome’s Foundation Myths, will be published by Routledge this year. Her film, The Shadows of Kok Thlok, was selected for several international festivals.

Alex Norton – Répétiteur/Accompanist

Alex Norton is a British pianist and continuo player, who trained as a Young artist at the National Opera Studio (2023/24). As a repetiteur recent productions include the UK premiere of Salieri’s La fiera di Venzia and the Danish premiere of Mascagni’s Zanetto, and multiple premieres with the Music Troupe. Other highlights include various projects with the Royal Opera House’s Learning and Participation programme, English Touring Opera, Welsh National Youth Opera and Lyric Opera Ireland. As a collaborative pianist Alex has performed at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Wigmore Hall, various European venues, and made his concerto debut with the Leeds Symphony Orchestra.