Concert 8: The Life and Loves of Christina Rossetti - Friday 5th December, 7pm
Susan Bullock - soprano
Nigel Foster - piano
Janine Roebuck - speaker

A tribute to the English poet Christina Rossetti, on her 195th birthday. This programme, devised by Nigel Foster, includes settings of Christina Rossetti’s poetry by well-loved composers of English Song, including Vaughan Williams, Parry and Michael Head, plus settings by Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, Arthur Somervell, Frederick Cowen, Juliana Hall, Charles Wood, Thomas Dunhill, Liza Lehmann and others. The programme also includes a song by J Scott Irvine, written for Susan Bullock. These songs will be combined with readings from Christina Rossetti’s letters and other sources to give a very human portrait of this fascinating character.

Susan Bullock’s career began with winning the Kathleen Ferrier Award, and has since sung in all the major opera houses of the world: La Scala, the Met, Covent Garden, Berlin Staatsoper, Teatro Colón Buenos Aires, Sydney Opera House, singing roles such as Brunnhilde, Elektra (17 different productions) and Salome, and she is equally at home on the recital platform. She was the soprano soloist at the Last Night of the Proms in 2011, and, as Britannia, she sang Always look on the bright side of life with Eric Idle during the opening ceremony of the 2012 Olympics in London.
Nigel Foster has performed at Wigmore Hall, the South Bank Centre, Barbican Centre, Royal Opera House Covent Garden (Crush Bar) and across Europe as well as in North and South America, Japan, Malaysia and New Zealand, playing for singers including Roderick Williams, Dame Sarah Connolly, Nicky Spence, Nadine Benjamin, Kate Royal, Lotte Betts-Dean, James Gilchrist, Julien Van Mellaerts, Ashley Riches, Simon Wallfisch, Louise Winter, and Elizabeth Llewellyn.
Janine Roebuck was a ‘Rossini Mezzo’ equally at home in opera, operetta, oratorio, and popular song and was particularly sought after for roles which required a touch of comedy. She has performed extensively abroad as a solo artist in all genres and in all continents including the Antarctic! Her recordings include works by Gilbert and Sullivan, Rodgers and Hammerstein, Cole Porter, Ivor Novello and Andrew Lloyd-Webber. A profound hearing loss forced her to take early retirement from singing, but not from speaking. She had life changing Cochlea Implant surgery 6 years ago and is now bionic ….

The concert takes place at Hinde Street Methodist Church W1U 2QJ in the heart of London’s West End: the nearest tube station is Bond Street.