A masterclass with Sir John Tomlinson and budding Wagnerians from Longborough's 2024 company, accompanied by Harry Sever.
Singers will include Charne Rochford, William Stevens, and Freddie Tong.
This event is part of Between the Ring, our standalone series of exciting events designed to fit around our Ring cycle. You don’t need a ticket to the Ring to book for these events.
John Tomlinson was born in Lancashire. He gained a B.Sc. in Civil Engineering at Manchester University before winning a scholarship to the Royal Manchester College of Music. He was awarded a C.B.E. in 1997 and knighted in the Queen’s Birthday Honours of 2005. He was awarded the Royal Philharmonic Society Music Award for Singer in 1991, 1998 and 2007 and in 2014 their Gold Medal.
John Tomlinson’s engagements include performances at La Scala, Milan, Rome, Barcelona, Geneva, Lisbon, Metropolitan Opera, New York, Chicago, San Francisco, San Diego, Tokyo, Opera Australia, Paris, Amsterdam, Berlin (Deutsche Oper and Deutsche Staatsoper), Dresden, Hamburg, Frankfurt, Munich, Vienna, Antwerp, and Bilbao and the Festivals of Bayreuth (where he sang for eighteen consecutive seasons), Orange, Aix-en-Provence, Salzburg, Edinburgh and the Maggio Musicale, Florence. He has sung regularly with English National Opera since 1974 and with the Royal Opera, Covent Garden, since 1977 and has also appeared with all the other leading British opera companies. His repertoire includes Wotan DAS RHEINGOLD and DIE WALKÜRE, Wanderer SIEGFRIED, Hagen GÖTTERDÄMMERUNG, Titurel and Gurnemanz PARSIFAL, King Marke TRISTAN UND ISOLDE, Heinrich LOHENGRIN, Hans Sachs DIE MEISTERSINGER VON NÜRNBERG, Landgraf TANNHÄUSER, title role and Daland FLIEGENDE HOLLÄNDER, Swallow PETER GRIMES, Baron Ochs DER ROSENKAVALIER, Boromeo PALESTRINA, Orestes ELEKTRA, Moses MOSES UND ARON, Green Knight in the world premiere of Harrison Birtwistle’s GAWAIN, Claggart BILLY BUDD, Doctor WOZZECK, Rocco FIDELIO, King Philip and Grand Inquisitor DON CARLOS, Sarastro DIE ZAUBERFLÖTE, Leporello and Commendatore DON GIOVANNI, Lindorf, Coppelius, Dr Miracle and Dapertutto LES CONTES D’HOFFMANN, Golaud and Arkel PELLÉAS ET MÉLISANDE, Boris Timofeyevich Ismailov LADY MACBETH OF MTSENSK, title role, Pimen and Varlaam BORIS GODUNOV, Ivan Susanin A LIFE FOR A TSAR, Fiesco SIMON BOCCANEGRA, Tiresias OEDIPUS, Dosifey KHOVANSHCHINA, The General THE GAMBLER, Thomas à Becket MURDER IN THE CATHEDRAL, Ivan Yaklovlevich, Newspaper Clerk and Doctor THE NOSE, Sergeant of Police THE PIRATES OF PENZANCE and title roles in BLUEBEARD’S CASTLE, OBERTO, MOSE IN EGITTO, Priesterkönig in Jörg Widmann’s BABYLON, and the world premieres of Birtwistle’s THE MINOTAUR, Brett Dean’s LAST DAYS OF SOCRATES and Ghost of Old Hamlet in the world premiere of Brett Dean’s HAMLET, Doctor Charles Conde in Thomas Ades’ EXTERMINATING ANGEL and the title role in THE MIKADO. He took the title role of KING LEAR at the Grange Festival in 2021.
John Tomlinson has a large concert repertoire and has sung with all the leading British orchestras and in Germany, Italy, Belgium, Holland, France, Spain, Denmark and the U.S.A. He has made many recordings including Wotan, Wanderer, Hagen, Hans Sachs, Titurel, Don Alfonso COSÌ FAN TUTTE, Leporello, and title roles LE NOZZE DI FIGARO and BLUEBEARD’S CASTLE, Beethoven CHORAL SYMPHONY, MESSIAH, ACIS AND GALATEA and the Verdi REQUIEM. Videos include MARIA STUARDA, PETER GRIMES, GIULIO CESARE, RIGOLETTO, DAS RHEINGOLD, DIE WALKÜRE, SIEGFRIED and THE MINOTAUR.
In 2023, he will perform in HAMLET at the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich, MOSES UND ARON at the Deutsche Staatsoper in Berlin, and KATYA KABANOVA concert performances with the LSO.
BBC Music Magazine ‘Rising Star’ conductor Harry Sever studied at Oxford University and trained at the Guildhall School of Music and Royal Academy of Music. A finalist in both the LSO’s Donatella Flick and the Athens International Conducting Competitions, recent and upcoming engagements include Cavalleria Rusticana / Aleko (Opera North), Siegfried (Sønderjyllands Symfoniorkester / Den Ny Opera), Carmen (Opera North), Fantasio (Garsington), La traviata (Opera Holland Park); concerts with the orchestra of Welsh National Opera and recordings with the orchestra of Opera North.
He is currently the Ring Cycle Conducting Fellow at Longborough Festival Opera, and Music Director of the Cambridge Philharmonic Orchestra and Chorus.
As an Assistant Conductor and member of music staff, Harry has worked with Scottish Opera, Opera North, Kammerakademie Potsdam, English National Opera, the Royal Danish Opera, Den Jyske Opera, Garsington, Opera Holland Park, the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra at the Grange Festival, and the Britten Sinfonia at Sadler’s Wells. His education work has included projects with The Royal Opera House Covent Garden, The Royal Opera Academy, Copenhagen, British Youth Opera, Birmingham Conservatoire and Trinity Laban Conservatoire.
Born in London, Charne Rochford is gaining reputation as one of Britain’s most promising Heldentenors - praised for the ‘baritonal qualities in his voice that give him an almost Otello-like stature’ (Opera Magazine).
His wide range of roles include Siegmund, Tristan, Tannhäuser, Achilles, Mao, Cavaradossi, Bacchus and Siegfried.
Recent engagements include Elgar’s Gerontious with the Philharmonia at the RFH, An Opera Gala with the CBSO & CBSO Chorus at Symphony Hall, Wagner’s Tristan with the Ealing Symphony Orchestra, an opera gala with CBSO, a New Year’s Day Prom with the Manchester Camerata at Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool and ‘Italianissimo’ - a concert series with The Hallé and an opera gala with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra.
Other highlights include Eisenstein (RPO), Lyonel Martha (Volksoper Zürich) Cavaradossi (Mid-Wales Opera) 1st Armed Man (GFO, GTO and ON), Bacchus/ Tenor (The Mastersingers) for ETO he has performed: Adorno Simon Boccanegra, Luigi Il Tabbarro (2014 & revival in 2018) and Achilles in their Olivier award-winning production of Tippett’s King Priam at the ROH, Linbury Theatre. He recently sang the role of Schoolmaster in Cunning Little Vixen (Opera Holland Park)
He is equally experienced on the concert platform. Engagements include: Verdi Requiem (Orchestre Symphonique Genevois) at Victoria Hall, Mahler’s ‘Das Lied von der Erde’ at Opera Holland Park (Fifth Door Ensemble) He was a soloist with the LPO in Mahler’s ‘Das Klagende Lied’ and Korngold’s ‘Wunder der Heliana’ under Vladimir Jurowski. He recently gave a recital with composer Howard Blake at the Chelsea Arts Club.
He made his cinematic debut at the Venice Film Festival as Second Officer in The Magic Flute directed by Kenneth Branagh, conducted by James Conlon.
In 2014 he was made an Associate of the Royal Academy of Music.
Current and future engagements include: Mahler’s 8th Symphony at the Bridgewater Hall, Walter von Stolzing ‘Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg’ at Saffron Hall, The Dream of Gerontious at Southwark Cathedral, an opera gala with the CBSO and Beethoven’s 9th Symphony at the RFH with the LPO.
William Stevens is a singer and conductor who studied singing with Donald Maxwell at the RWCMD.
He enjoys singing a variety of comic and dramatic roles on stage including the title roles in Le nozze di Figaro and Sweeney Todd, Sarastro/Die Zauberflöte, Fasolt/Das Rheingold, Olin Blitch/Susannah, Nick Shadow/The Rake’s Progress, Superintendent Budd/Albert Herring, Dulcamara/L’elisir d’amore, and numerous Gilbert and Sullivan roles. He is currently preparing Il Commendatore/Don Giovanni and the title roles in Don Pasquale and Bluebeard’s Castle.
He is the Artistic Director of Cardiff Opera and the Musical Director of Cardiff Chamber Orchestra, The Idris Consort, and CitySound Voices and has conducted major symphonic, choral, and operatic works by Handel, Mozart, Beethoven, Donizetti, Tchaikovsky, Wagner, Brahms, Mahler, Sullivan, Elgar, Vaughan Williams, Britten, and Pärt.
Hong-Kong born British bass-baritone Freddie Tong has built a reputation as a leading singing-actor of repertoire ranging from traditional buffo characters to the most dramatic bass-baritone roles.
Operatic engagements include Nourabad/The Pearl Fishers, The Cardinal/The Duchess of Malfi, and Monterone/Rigoletto (English National Opera); Dr Bartolo/Il barbiere di Siviglia and Dulcamara/L’elisir d’amore (Grange Park Opera); Masetto/Don Giovanni (Opera Holland Park); Raimondo/Lucia di Lammermoor, Sparafucile/Rigoletto, Timur/Turandot and Ferrando/Il trovatore (Musica Viva Hong Kong); Colline/La bohème, Der Sprecher/Die Zauberflote and Angelotti/Tosca (Opera Hong Kong); Angelotti/Tosca and Don Basilio/Il barbiere di Siviglia (Diva Opera UK); and the Bong Tree in Anne Dudley’s The Owl and the Pussycat for the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden.
Recent engagements include the Mayor/Jenufa, Baron Douphol/La traviata and Zuniga/Carmen (English National Opera); Alberich/Siegfried and Götterdämmerung at the HackneyEmpire; Hunding/Die Walküre for Longborough Festival Opera; the Councilman in Missy Mazzoli’s Breaking the Waves at the Edinburgh International Festival with Scottish Opera, and on tour to the Adelaide Festival, Australia.
Upcoming engagements include Doc/A Quiet Place at the Linbury Theatre, Royal Opera House.
Freddie studied at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama, later undertaking postgraduate studies at its prestigious Opera School.
