News: Latest From The Show
Recent News
01.09.08Opera stars join Maestro
Soprano Rebecca Evans and tenor Alfie Boe will join the Maestro show for Episode 4 as the five remaining students face the challenge of conducting opera.
Tenor Alfie Boe was born in Blackpool - his full name is the suitably operatic "Alfred Giovanni Roncalli Boe" - his middle names perhaps laying down a marker for a future exponent of Italian opera. Alfie's father probably instilled in him a love of the tenor voice, after he was made to indulge his father's love for the great Austrian tenor Richard Tauber, by listening to recordings after family Sunday lunches. Alfie joined a local operatic society 'to meet girls', but it was while working in the TVR sports car factory in Blackpool that he was spotted by a music industry client and encouraged to join the D'Oyly Carte touring company. Alfie went on to study at the Royal College of Music, the National Opera Studio and was accepted into the Royal Opera House Young Artists' Programme.
Alfie's big break happened when film and theatre director Baz Luhrmann engaged him for his controversial Broadway production of Puccini’s La Boheme, earning Alfie a Tony Award which sits beside his John McCormack Young Voice and Lyric Tenor of the World Audience awards. Alfie has made popular recordings for EMI, including ‘La Passione’, a collection of traditional, mainly Italian folk songs featuring the perennial classics ‘O Sole Mio’, ‘Funiculi Finicula’, and ‘Santa Lucia’. Alfie comfortably straddles the worlds of the light tenor repertoire and major roles in opera, with productions at Glyndebourne, La Monnaie, Brussels, Strasbourg, English National Opera and the Royal Opera, where later this year he performs in Richard Strauss's Elektra.
Rebecca, from South Wales, is a company favourite at Welsh National Opera, where her roles have included Mimi (La bohème), Pamina, Susanna, Ilia, Marzelline (Fidelio), Norina (Don Pasquale), Hero (Béatrice and Bénédict) and Gretel (Hänsel und Gretel). She's also performed major roles at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, and in Munich, Berlin, Lausanne, and the Netherlands; her American credits include the Metropolitan Opera, New York, and engagements with Sante Fe Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago and San Francisco Opera.
A Grammy Award-winning artist, Rebecca has recorded prolifically including Marzelline, Pamina and Gretel with Sir Charles Mackerras, Ilia with David Parry (Chandos); Nanetta with Sir John Eliot Gardiner (Philips); a series of Gilbert and Sullivan recordings with Sir Charles Mackerras and a solo recording of Italian songs (EMI). She sang Belinda in the BBC film of ‘Dido and Aeneas’ (later released on CD and Video) and hosted her own BBC television series ‘A Touch of Classics’ with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales.
Recent News
08.12.08More Maestro for Christmas
A revealing new documentary, Maestro: The Inside Story, will be shown over Christmas.
13.09.08Sue takes Hyde Park by Storm
Maestro winner Sue Perkins tonight wowed the 35,000-strong Proms in the Park audience at the Last Night of the Proms.
10.09.08Sue's win - first verdicts from the press
Charlotte Higgins, the Guardian’s arts correspondent, was first up with a review of the Maestro Final posted on the Guardian Culture Blog at 9.53 this morning. A Spectator review has also been posted by Henrietta Bredin.
09.09.08Congratulations to Sue Perkins!
At tonight’s Grand Final, writer and comedienne Sue Perkins emerged from the audience vote to win the BBC’s first ever Maestro competition.
04.09.08Vengerov flies in for Final
Virtuoso violinist and conductor Maximum Vengerov will replace Simone Young on the panel of judges for the Maestro Final on Tuesday 9 September.
02.09.08Dramatic vote saves Jane and Goldie
The Maestro series reached new levels of tension as four students faced the orchestra vote.
01.09.08Opera stars join Maestro
Soprano Rebecca Evans and tenor Alfie Boe will join the Maestro show for Episode 4.
01.09.08Do Men Hog the Podium?
Will female conductors ever achieve equality? I think they will, says conductor Madeleine Lovell
01.09.08Press on 'posh talent show'
TV talent shows come in many demographically targeted guises - I commend a different event - Maestro.
26.08.08Bradley exits the competition
Bradley Walsh did not survive the BBC Concert Orchestra’s vote this week.
26.08.08Behind the scenes
Maestro viewers have asked about the various musicians who have helped the students in their preparation.
22.08.08What the papers said ...
I watched Maestro (BBC2) mostly because it was there … how wrong could I be because it was riveting.
22.08.08Sue's reality check
Maestro student Sue Perkins posted a thoughtful article in the Guardian newspaper. These are her thoughts on what she has learned
22.08.08How Goldie got into Classical
Ex-grilfriend Bjork had a hand in Goldie’s conversion to classical …
22.08.08The Thoughts of Alex and Brad
Alex: “The first thing you have to learn as a conductor is how to stand up straight.”
21.08.08Lessons learned, by David Soul
Rejected student David Soul bares his … about what he learned from the Maestro experience.
19.08.08Second student leaves Maestro
Following the BBC Concert Orchestra’s vote, Bradley Walsh was saved and David Soul exited the competition.
19.08.08Don't smile at the brass ...
In the run-up to Episode 2, Katie Derham has been finding out how to get an orchestra to do what she wants …
12.08.08First student exits Maestro
The BBC Concert Orchestra decides who remains in the competition.
05.08.08How hard can it be?
Journalist Christopher Middleton visitis the students as they try out their conducting skills on an orchestra of young musicians in a church in London.
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