11 December 2018
Newsdesk
Due to the previously announced illness of Russian mezzo-soprano Ksenia Dudnikova, the title role of Carmen will now be sung by Swiss mezzo-soprano Tanja Ariane Baumgartner on 11, 19 and 22 December. On 14 December the role will be sung by Russian mezzo-soprano Aigul Akhmetshina, and the role of Mercédès will be sung by English mezzo-soprano Angela Simkin.
Tanja Ariane Baumgartner made her Royal Opera debut in the 2012/13 Season singing the role of Clairon in The Royal Opera’s concert performances of Capriccio. She sang the role of Carmen in Barrie Kosky’s production at Frankfurt Opera in 2016.
Tanja Ariane Baumgartner’s recent roles have included Agave/Venus in Henze’s The Bassarids at the 2018 Salzburg Festival, Fricka (Der Ring des Nibelungen) at Bayreuth Festival in 2017 and for Lyric Opera of Chicago, Kundry (Parsifal) for Opera Vlaanderen, Cassandre (Les Troyens) for Hamburg State Opera and Fricka (Das Rheingold), Princesse de Bouillon (Adriana Lecouvreur), Azucena (Il trovatore) and Clairon for Frankfurt Opera, where she is a member of the ensemble.
Aigul Akhmetshina joined the Jette Parker Young Artists Programme at the Royal Opera House in September 2017. In the 2017/18 Season she sang Carmen (La Tragédie de Carmen at Wilton’s Music Hall), Mercédès (Carmen) and Sonyetka (Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk). Later this Season she sings Preziosilla (La forza del destino).
English mezzo-soprano Angela Simkin was a Jette Parker Young Artist for The Royal Opera 2016–18. Her roles for the Company included the title role in Oreste, Annina (Der Rosenkavalier), Flora Bervoix (La traviata), Mlle Dangeville (Adriana Lecouvreur), Tebaldo (Don Carlo) and Second Lady (Die Zauberflote). She returned at the start of the 2018/19 Season to sing Flosshilde (Der Ring des Nibelungen).
The rest of the cast remains the same.
Carmen
11, 14 and 22 December at 7pm, 19 December at 12 noon
