2018-19 Lunchtime Recital Series at St Bart's the Less
Lettera amorosa
"If my languishing looks, if my suppressed sighs, if my unfinished words, have not yet, oh my life, proved my passion, read these notes" (Lettera Amorosa – Claudio Monteverdi)
Despite being around 400 years old, the solo vocal works (a voce sola) of Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643) and Barbara Strozzi (1619-77) offer an intensity and emotional breadth worthy of modern opera. Mezzo-soprano Helen Charlston and lutenist Toby Carr pair these two great Italian composers in a programme including Monteverdi's Lettera Amorosa(published 1619) and his Lamento d'Arianna, the only surviving fragment of his 1608 opera, L'Arianna. The recital follows the highs and lows of love: from languishing looks and sighs of passion, to cries of 'Let me die'.
Helen joined the City Music Foundation Artist Programme September in 2018.
Hailed as “a rather special mezzo” (MusicWeb International), Helen Charlston’s warm and distinctive tone has cemented her as a key performer in the next generation of British singers.
She received first prize in the 2018 Handel Singing Competition, was a finalist in the Hurn Court Opera Competition, and in the upcoming season she will make her debut with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic (Handel Messiah) and return to work with Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra (Bach St Matthew Passion).
Other 2018-19 season highlights include performances as Kings Place, St John’s Smith Square, Halle Handel Festival, and York Early Music Festival. Her operatic roles include First Witch (Purcell Dido and Aeneas – Wigmore Hall), Olga (Tchaikovsky Eugene Onegin), and Florence Pike (Britten Albert Herring). Helen has also created the roles of Anna (Tom Smail Blue Electric – Tête à Tête) and Dido (Rhiannon Randle Dido is Dead).