Clare McCaldin

Double Taken

Clare — Sun, 06 May 2012 12:43:04 +0000

Double Take - Deddington

Last night’s concert in Deddington Parish Church was a triumph, though I do say so myself. Many things to negotiate, including meeting and working with our viola player for the first time on the afternoon of the concert, in repertoire that was mostly new to us all. However Chris Windass is not a man to be put off by such things and played beautifully, as did my magnificent accompanist, Paul Turner. Watch this space for news of sound and videoclips of the concert.

My BBC Proms solo debut has arrived

Clare — Tue, 01 May 2012 18:35:48 +0000

Some fantastic news in the form of a booking to make my solo debut at the Proms in Debussy’s Le Martyre de Saint Sebastien. Fortuitously, the librettist for this piece was Gabriele d’Annunzio, whose eleven poems entitled Madrigali dell’Estate form the lyrics of a song cycle written for me a few years ago by Stephen McNeff. Debussy’s incidental music for D’Annunzio’s mystery play appears complete for the first time in Proms history. The original production featured costume designs by Leon Bakst of the Ballet Russes and so scandalised the Archbishop of Paris (St Sebastian portrayed by a woman AND a Jew) that he forbade all Catholics from attending. The show closed shortly afterwards.

The performance is part of Prom 56 on Saturday 25 August, 2012.

Click here to see the full programme and casting.

Thank you RVW

Clare — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 20:05:52 +0000

Brilliant news just in from the RVW Trust, which has pledged £1,500 towards the costs of the artists who will appear with me on the recording of Stephen McNeff’s music that we are making this October. Champs Hill Records, on whose label the CD will be released, has generously underwritten the production and marketing costs, so the only remaining funds to find are those for the instrumentalists themselves. We are still £1,500 short, so all suggestions and donations are gratefully received.

Psst Psst…

Clare — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 19:56:11 +0000

Cautionary Tales is a very busy show, with a large number of props hidden within desks, inside cloaks, hanging above our heads and lurking in baskets backstage in the dim half-light. Masks are also to be worn, helping us to bump into the furniture, fall off the edge of the stage and not see when the arms of our gowns are tangled on the evil child’s tricyle (WinkieTM). However, a duplicate set of practice masks has not been forthcoming and so, ever creative, we have paid a trip to Poundland. Not that we look silly, or anything…

Meg Page in Falstaff with Iford Arts

Clare — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 22:52:00 +0000

I’m thrilled to be playing the role of Meg Page in Verdi’s Falstaff this summer with Iford Arts. Bruno Ravella directs and Oliver Gooch conducts the orchestra in Jonathan Dove’s orchestration. We’ll sing in English, in a translation by Andrew Porter. More details soon. Performance dates are: July 7, 10, 13, 14, 17, 20 and 21.

More Cautionary Tales

Clare — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 22:43:40 +0000

Opera North’s witty adaptation of Belloc’s deliciously macabre Cautionary Tales for Children was a big hit with audiences and critics when it first premiered in March 2011. I’m back in Leeds covering the mezzo role, which includes two fantastically-badly behaved children, lying Matilda and daredevil George, both of whom meet messy ends. Composed by Errollyn Wallen, in whose YES I also sang at the Linbury Studio last year, and adapted and directed by Pia Furtado.

Click here for tour dates

The Last Journey of the Princess Elizabeth

Clare — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 17:24:50 +0000

I will be premiering a new commission from Rachel Stott alongside Façade, by Edith Sitwell and William Walton, on February 4th. The new work celebrates the Diamond Jubilee of HM Queen Elizabeth.

In her programme note, Rachel writes: “Researching this piece led me to explore the background to the death of King George VI in February 1952 and the dramatic nature of Elizabeth’s final hours as a princess; it also led me to the discovery that another ‘Princess Elizabeth’, a steam train of the Great Western Railway’s ‘castle class’, was withdrawn in February 1952, after a 40 year working life, and came to its final resting place in Swindon (where the first performance is taking place).

The instrumentation of the piece is the same as for Walton’s Façade, flute, clarinet, saxophone, trumpet, cello, percussion and voices. I have taken a few lines from Edith Sitwell’s poem ‘Mariner Man’ (set by Walton in Façade) for the central section of the piece. The text of the opening and closing sections is a line written in the register at Tree Tops Hotel, Nyeri, Kenja by Jim Corbett, the famous hunter and adventurer who accompanied the Princess and Duke on that memorable occasion: For the first time in the history of the world, a young girl climbed into a tree one day a Princess, and after having what she described as her most thrilling experience, she climbed down the next day a Queen”.

YES – Bonnie Greer and Errollyn Wallen

Clare — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 05:41:24 +0000

YES received mixed reviews from the national press but was one of those projects that was so much fun to work on that I didn’t mind quite so much when our efforts didn’t meet with universal approval. Needless to say, my prediction that I would be upstaged by my best career prop to date – Ambrose, the battery-powered cat – was proven right, as evidenced by our appearance in the adjacent review from The Times.

Mr Benn at WNO

Clare — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 08:22:43 +0000

A workshop presentation of Mr Benn by Stephen McNeff, with libretto by Andy Morton, for WNO’s MAX department, directed by Rhian Hutchings. Seen here are Laura Pooley as the Princess, Jonathan Gunthorpe as the King and me as the Dragon.

Royal Opera House lunchtime recital – Monday 24 October 1pm

Clare — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 11:13:06 +0000

Following the great success of Beginnings, Hugh's songs for me with string orchestra that were premiered at the 2010 Presteigne Festival, he has dusted off a second set, this time converting the original orchestral score into a piano accompaniment. The Laurie Lee Songs were begun at a similar time to Beginnings, in the late 1950s, and set Lee's five poems Boy in Ice, The Edge of Day, The Easter Green, Town Owl and April Rise. Like Beginnings the songs are full of rich lyricism, lush textures and dramatic colour.

Click here to go to the ROH bookings website - the concert is free to the public but tickets are limited and booking opens nine days before the performance, with some tickets held back until the morning of the concert itself.

Click here to listen to excerpts from Beginnings