Insights on Wahnfried

Dr Flora Willson is a writer, broadcaster and cultural historian of music. She is one of the Guardian’s classical music critics and a Senior Lecturer in Music at King’s College London. Her academic research and teaching focus on nineteenth-century music history, especially opera, and her book about operatic culture in 1890s London, Paris and New York will be published in 2026. Flora presents events, talks and livestreams for organisations including English National Opera, Glyndebourne Festival Opera, Opera Rara and Royal Ballet & Opera and she has interviewed numerous conductors, directors and singers including Harry Bicket, Julia Bullock, Robert Carsen, Diana Damrau, Kevin John Edusei, Maxim Emelyanychev, Juan Diego Flórez, ElinaGaranča, Stefan Herheim, Barrie Kosky, Lisette Oropesa, Erwin Schrott and Adele Thomas. Flora has been a frequent contributor to BBC Radio 3 and 4 for over a decade, presenting audio documentaries and occasionally other broadcasts as well as appearing regularly as a critic and commentator. She also appears occasionally in BBC TV documentaries and is the presenter of Unmissable Opera on Royal Ballet & Opera Stream.

Justin Brown was for twelve years General Music Director of the Badisches Staatstheater Karlsruhe, where he was recognised as “one of today’s leading Wagner conductors” (Süddeutsche Zeitung), received the German Publishers Award for innovative programming, and won wide acclaim for productions such as Les Troyens, A Village Romeo and Juliet, The Ring, Tristan and Isolde, Parsifal and Wahnfried, which he commissioned. He is also Music Director Laureate of the Alabama Symphony Orchestra in the United States, where his programming and commissioning work won multiple national awards and saw the orchestra invited to Carnegie Hall’s Spring for Music Festival.

As guest conductor, he has worked with over 100 orchestras and opera houses worldwide, including the London Symphony Orchestra, BBC Symphony, Royal Philharmonic, City of Birmingham Symphony, Oslo Philharmonic, St. Petersburg Philharmonic, Dresden Philharmonic, Cincinatti Symphony, Tokyo Philharmonic, Sao Paolo Symphony and Sydney Symphony; the Bayerische Staatsoper Munich, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Oper Frankfurt, Grand Théâtre de Genève, La Monnaie, Teatro San Carlo Lisbon, Santa Fe Opera and Teatro Colón Buenos Aires.

His discography includes Mahler’s Symphony No. 9 (Badische Staatskapelle; Diapason d’Or), Gershwin’s complete works for piano and orchestra (Dallas SO, Anne-Marie McDermott; Editor’s Choice Gramophone Magazine) as well as works ranging from Dvorak and Elgar to Elliott Carter and Poul Ruders.

Brown studied at Trinity College, Cambridge and at Tanglewood, later becoming an assistant to both Leonard Bernstein and Luciano Berio. He began his career at ENO and Scottish Opera, and made his debut with Bernstein’s Mass at the Guildhall School.

Susan Bullock’s unique position as one of the world’s most sought-after dramatic sopranos was recognised by the award of a CBE in June 2014.

Of her most distinctive roles, Wagner’s Brünnhilde has garnered outstanding praise leading Bullock to become the first ever soprano to sing four consecutive cycles of Der Ring des Nibelungen at the Royal Opera House under Sir Antonio Pappano. Appearances as Richard Strauss’ Elektra have brought her equal international acclaim and collaborations with some of the world’s leading conductors including Fabio Luisi, Semyon Bychkov, Seiji Ozawa, Sir Mark Elder and Edo de Waart.

In recent seasons, Susan has explored new repertoire, debuting her “chilling” Kabanicha (The Guardian) in Katya Kabanova at Grange Park Opera under Stephen Barlow, Klytaemnestra (Elektra) for the Canadian Opera Company under Johannes Debus, and with Oper Frankfurt in Claus Guth’s new production under Sebastian Weigle.

This season, Susan Bullock will return to Scottish Opera as Lady Billows in Daisy Evans’ new production of Albert Herring under William Cole and joins La Monnaie / De Munt for the world premiere of Mikhale Karlsson’s Fanny and Alexander as Helena Ekdahl, directed by Ivo van Hove and conducted by Ariane Matiakh.

Baritone Oskar McCarthy’s career spans opera, theatre and music theatre. Recent highlights include The Presenter in New Year for Birmingham Opera Company, Eight Songs for a Mad King with Red Note Ensemble, Simon Hughes in Bermondsey, 1983 at Tête-à-Tête, Adam in Paradise Lost at Shipwright and Laura Bowler’s Lines, Letters and Disinformation for baritone and electronics, which he commissioned and premiered at Snape and Cafe OTO. He has devised new music theatre works with ERRATICA, Rufus Isabel Elliott, Zeo Fawcett and Alex Groves, given premieres by Ion Marmarinos and Robin Holloway, and appeared at Longborough Festival Opera, Scottish Opera, Waterperry Opera Festival and the Grange Festival.

Oskar is co-Artistic Director of Festival Voices, an experimental vocal ensemble with whom he has recently performed at Bold Tendencies and Southbank Centre. He was a member of the inaugural VOICEBOX programme for contemporary vocal performance, delivered by Juliet Fraser, is a graduate of the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland opera school and the University of Cambridge, and has studied Lecoq technique, clown and mime at the International School of Dramatic Corporeal Mime in Paris.

Praised for his thoughtful and critical programming and excellent technique, Thomas Ang (he/him) is an experienced pianist with a vast repertoire. He has earned recognition as a specialist in the music of Kapustin and Medtner, and has a strong affinity for contemporary and experimental music, having played and conducted various first performances around the world. He continually works to unearth neglected and obscure gems, as well as championing music by minority composers. He is currently recording the complete piano works of Medtner, and the first three discs have received great praise.

In his daily life, Thomas works as a répétiteur for the Royal Ballet. He considers teaching and coaching to be important parts of his musical personality, and counts opera as another part of his foundation. He also accompanies and improvises for silent film. He is also interested in the cross-pollination of classical music and other genres, and, in addition to a background in Chinese orchestral and folk musics, also occasionally plays jazz. 

Thomas has edited music and made arrangements for Schott Music and Edition Peters, as well as being an orchestrator for various concert and opera works. He transcribes songs and symphonies for solo piano, keeps a pet rabbit, and restores fountain pens in his spare time.