Episode 9: Orfeo's journey, with Robert Howarth, Olivia Fuchs and Tom Randle
Looking ahead to our 2023 production of Monteverdi's L'Orfeo, Robert Howarth, Olivia Fuchs and tenor Tom Randle explore Orfeo's pivotal scenes and monologues as he journeys into the underworld to find Euridice.
Alex Ross has argued that with Monteverdi's ground-breaking opera of 1607, the composer allowed audiences to go “walking in the landscape of Orfeo’s soul”.
In this podcast, two of the lead creatives on this summer's production at Longborough - Music Director Robert Howarth on keyboard, and Director Olivia Fuchs - are joined by acclaimed tenor Tom Randle, singing extracts from the title role and exploring this fathomless portrait of a grieving lover.
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Robert Howarth read music at the University of York and is establishing a reputation as a gifted director and conductor of early and classical repertoire.
Howarth’s opera engagements include Opernhaus Zürich (Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria); Hamburg State Opera (Alcina); Opera North (Giulio Cesare, The Magic Flute); The Grange Festival (Agrippina); Stadttheater St Gallen (The Fairy Queen, Alcina); Norwegian Opera (Haydn L’Isola Disabitata); Academy of Ancient Music (L’incoronazione di Poppea, Ulisse); Buxton Festival (Dido & Aeneas), Birmingham Opera Company (Ulisse, Il combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda); Welsh National Opera (Ulisse) The Early Opera Company (Acis & Galatea) and English Touring Opera (Ulisse, Tolomeo, Alcina).
Howarth was Music Director for Farinelli and the King at the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse and Duke of York’s Theatre, London and Belasco Theater, New York.
His orchestral collaborations include the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Hallé, Bournemouth Symphony, Danish Radio Symphony, Bilbao Symphony, Irish Baroque, Royal Seville Symphony RTE National Symphony, English Chamber and Salzburg Mozarteum orchestras.
Olivia Fuchs
Olivia began work as a theatre director and now directs opera internationally. Notable productions include: Der Rosenkavalier (WNO); Marriage of Figaro (English National Opera); Midsummer Night’s Dream (Royal Opera House, Linbury); Rusalka (Opera Australia - Helpmann and Green Room awards); Pelleas et Melisande (Teatro Colon, Buenos Aires); Rusalka, Don Giovanni, Pied Piper (Opera North); Ines de Castro by James MacMillan and Midsummer Night’s Dream (Scottish Opera). She has also directed Faust, Der Rosenkavalier, Madama Butterfly (Magdeburg); Die Zauberflote, Madama Butterfly (Oviedo); Rigoletto, La traviata, Il trovatore (Danish National Opera); The Rake’s Progress, Hansel und Gretel, Cherevichki, Maynight, Osud and Sarka (Garsington Opera) and Katya Kabanova, Jenufa, Fidelio, Iris, Macbeth, Lucia di Lammermoor amongst others (Opera Holland Park). She enjoys working with young singers and has given workshops and coached at the National Opera Studio, the Jette Parker Young Artists programme at the Royal Opera House and has recently directed Semele and Alcina for the Royal Academy of Music, and Cendrillon at the Royal Northern College of Music.
Tom Randle
Los Angeles born Tom Randle made his debut with the English National Opera as Tamino/The Magic Flute a role repeated at Deutsche Oper Berlin, Glyndebourne Festival Opera, Hamburg, New Zealand and the Covent Garden Festival, swiftly followed by his Royal Opera House debut in 1994 as Essex Gloriana and Opera North, later released as a film for BBC. Subsequent roles for ROH include Johnny Inkslinger/Paul Bunyan, Fool Gawain and Macheath/The Beggar’s Opera and Song of the Earth for The Royal Ballet. Well known for his vivid and committed stage portrayals and a unique ability to embrace a wide variety of repertoire, Tom has emerged as one of the most exciting and versatile artists of his generation, with performances across the globe.
Recent and future engagements include the world premieres of Al Wasl (Welsh National Opera at Expo, Dubai), Goro/Madama Butterfly (WNO), Loki, Helgi, God/The Monstrous Child (ROH), Malatestino dall’Occhio/Francesca da Rimini (Opéra National du Rhin), Beethoven’s 9th Symphony and Mozart’s Requiem (Handel and Haydn Society).
Tom is now enjoying new success as a composer with works performed in UK, Europe and US, including the Buxton and Presteigne Festivals, Lille Opera and the Broad Stage Concert Hall in Los Angeles.
