Kathryn Rudge
Ensemble:
Press
'Kathryn Rudge was an intense Annio, delivering plenty of beautifully-centred tone, not least in her Act 2 aria'
Opera Magazine, Opera North La Clemenza di Tito, April 2013
'Fflur Wyn (Servilia) and Kathryn Rudge (Annio) provided the best moment in their heartbreaking duet, with Rudge altogether the most impressive of the singers, and doing marvellous things with her voice.'
Opera Now Magazine, Opera North La Clemenza di Tito, April 2013
'…for me the biggest news of the evening is young Liverpudlian soprano Kathryn Rudge as Annio: her cleanly produced tone, supple musical phrasing, and sensitive colouring of words combine with a vividly attractive stage personality to make something special. It was at Opera North that we first encountered Alice Coote: Kathryn Rudge has the same star potential.'
The Daily Telegraph / Opera North La Clemenza di Tito, February 2013
'Kathryn Rudge confirms her golden potential as a boyish Annio, the voice steadily gaining in colour'
The Times, Richard Morrison / Opera North La Clemenza di Tito, 4 February 2013
'The creamy-voiced mezzo Kathryn Rudge, sporting a short back and sides, in the smaller trouser role of Annio, friend of Sesto, drew arguably the loudest applause of the evening for her beguiling and utterly heartbreaking interpretation of Annio's Act II aria "Tu fosti tradito" imploring Tito to show clemency to Sesto.'
Opera Britannia, Geoffrey Mogridge, 3 February 2013
'The two trouser roles boast equally world-class performances...Kathryn Rudge is an intense, compelling Annio, delivering oceans of beautifully-centred tone, not least in her Act 2 aria'
The Press York, Martin Dreyer / 2 February 2013
'Kathryn Rudge in the castrato part of Annio sang faultlessly'
Seen and Heard, John Leeman, 4th February 2013
'The stand-out performance is Kathryn Rudge's deeply felt, endearingly jittery Cherubino.'
Financial Times, Glyndebourne Touring Opera/The Marriage of Figaro, 22 November 2012
'It doesn't take long (five notes, maybe) to hear why people are excited. Her mezzo-soprano voice already has tremendous reserves of power, impeccable intonation, the capacity for a gloriously sustained legato and, most interesting of all, a distinctive vocal quality. The timbre has a white-hot intensity that extends undiminished through all of two octaves…this could be a superb instrument, not least in those anguished English mezzo roles associated with Janet Baker and Kathleen Ferrier.'
The Times Wigmore Hall April 2012
'Kathryn Rudge, who plays Sesto, was so moving, so passionate and sang with such forthright ardour.'
Spectator Opera North/Giulio Cesare January 2012
'Kathryn Rudge's plucky Sesto manages to be both stylish and moving.'
Financial Times Opera North/Giulio Cesare January 2012
'Kathryn Rudge made a brightly spunky and impassioned Sesto, whose duet of parting from her mother Cornelia (an eloquent and dignified Ann Taylor) was one of the evening's highlights.'
The Daily Telegraph Opera North/Giulio Cesare January 2012
'Rudge overcomes the handicap of an ill-fitting uniform to sing an absolute blinder as the boy bent on revenging his dad, as auspicious a Leeds debut as she could possibly have hoped.'
The York Press Opera North/Giulio Cesare January 2012
‘The star performance comes from Kathryn Rudge’s Cherubino – chaotically sexy, charismatic, totally compelling’.
Financial Times English National Opera/Marriage of Figaro October 2011
'It [Erika] was sung by Kathryn Rudge with her mellowest and most lustrous tone. She is a splendid actress. Already this charismatic singer, with her immaculate diction, knows how to stir the heart, and one hardly dares to predict what is to come.'
Opera RNCM / Vanessa, May 2011
'This was where Kathryn Rudge (Erika) proved most accomplished. She has the ability to use her face as well as her voice, conveying an inner struggle which is more compelling than that of her aunt, despite the latter being the title role.'
City Life, RNCM / Vanessa, March 2011
'The mezzo-soprano Kathryn Rudge is already building a shining career. Her rich and flexible tone, clear diction and magnetic stage presence are ideal equipment. The elegance of her singing avoided any vulgar excesses such as this role easily attracts, yet she brought sultry passion and intensity to the Habanera and to the Card Song. If this Carmen guessed her fate, she kept it to herself. Every Carmen I have heard has found her own way into the character and Rudge is too fine and intelligent a singer not to develop the role at each encounter.'
Opera Magazine Feb 2011 RNCM / Carmen, December 2010
'Kathryn Rudge as Carmen was the temptress to silence all tempresses. Her voice; fluid, rich and wonderfully coloured, is reminiscent of a young Victoria de los Angeles with an intuitive acting style and sheer musicianship to boot. She was easily the pick of the singers...'
Musical Opinion Jan 2011 RNCM / Carmen December 2010
'Miss Rudge's singing and acting in Act Four, where it is possible for a lyric mezzo to be strained by the orchestra, was exemplary in colour, tone and expression in conveying the fraught drama of Carmen's nature and situation.'
Musicweb International RNCM / Carmen, December 2010
'Kathryn Rudge made the smaller role of Annio seem twice as important as usual and looked, walked and sang like a boy. There is a precious talent here: not only her voice, which is fluent and seems to be comfortable as well as beautiful in any register, but also her acting, which is natural and spontaneous. Her diction is immaculate.'
Opera Magazine May 2010 RNCM / La Clemenza di Tito, March 2010
'Kathryn Rudge sang with her customary lustrous tone and showed herself to be a natural comedienne.'
Opera Magazine RNCM /La Belle Hélène, December 2009
'Kathryn as an impetuous Cherubino brought bags of comedy to Voi Che sapete and proved herself as adept an actress as appealing a singer.'
Opera Now RNCM / Le Nozze di Figaro, May/June 2008
'Kathryn was a highly popular Cherubino, putting great energy into the girl-becomes-boy-becomes-girl routine and singing with purity and attack.'
Manchester Evening News, RNCM/Le Nozze di Figaro, December 2007
'Kathryn Rudge, a lively and charming Olga.'
Opera Magazine RNCM / Tchaikovsky Eugene Onegin, June 2007
'Kathryn's Olga was delightfully conceived, with a flexible voice and natural charm in the characterization.'
Manchester Evening News, RNCM / Tchaikovsky Eugene Onegin, March 2007
Recordings
Video
‘It doesn’t take long to hear why people are excited. Her mezzo-soprano voice already has tremendous reserves of power, impeccable intonation, the capacity for a gloriously sustained legato and, most interesting of all, a distinctive vocal quality.'
Featured as The Times Rising Star of Classical Music 2012, over the last year Kathryn has made her debut to critical acclaim with English National Opera as Cherubino (The Marriage of Figaro) in a production directed by Fiona Shaw, and at Opera North as Sesto (Giulio Cesare). Her concert work has included recitals at Wigmore Hall, Bridgewater Hall, the Brighton, City of London Festivals, and Cheltenham Festival (Broadcast by BBC Radio 3), and a performance of Carmen as part of Charles Hazlewood’s 2012 Orchestra In a Field music festival at Glastonbury Abbey.
Born in Liverpool in 1986, Kathryn completed her studies at the Royal Northern College of Music with Susan Roper on the International Artist Diploma scheme in 2011. On graduating she immediately joined the ENO Young Artist programme. This season Kathryn revisits the role of Cherubino (Le Nozze di Figaro) with Glyndebourne Touring Opera and in 2013 returns to Opera North in the roles of Annio (La Clemenza di Tito) and Hermia (A Midsummer Night’s Dream). She was selected for representation by Young Classical Artists Trust (YCAT) in 2010. During 2012 Kathryn also appeared as a special guest of the American tenor Noah Stewart in a UK tour.
On the concert platform Kathryn has appeared as soloist on several occasions with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra working with conductors Vasily Petrenko, Carl Davis and John Wilson. She has sung Beethoven’s Symphony No.9 with the Philharmonia Orchestra conducted by Paul Daniel at the Royal Festival Hall, Mahler’s Das Knaben Wunderhorn at Bridgewater Hall, Karl Jenkins The Armed Man with Manchester Camerata and Berio and Hesketh Songs with the RLPO Ensemble 10/10.
During her studies Kathryn’s operatic roles included a critically acclaimed Carmen, Erika in Barber’s Vanessa, Annio (La Clemenza di Tito), Cherubino (Le Nozze di Figaro), Sorceress (Dido & Aeneas) and Olga (Eugene Onegin), the latter for Haddo House and the RNCM. She also covered the role of Helénè (La Belle Helénè) and sung excerpts from Handel’s Ariodante.
While at the RNCM Kathryn won numerous prizes and awards including a Silver Medal, the Allcard Award and the audience prize for The Prince’s Prize from the Worshipful Company of Musicians, an MBF Sybil Tutton Award, the Annie Ridyard, Amanda Roocroft and Bridgitte Fassbaender awards; and the Alexander Young, Frederic Cox and Joyce and Michael Kennedy Strauss prizes. Nationally she has won a Susan Chilcott Scholarship, a BBC Fame Academy Bursary, Yamaha MFE Scholarship, Kathleen Ferrier Bursary, Clonter Opera Prize and the Bruce Millar/Gullivar Prize. Kathryn is a Samling Scholar and an RPS/YCAT Philip Langridge mentoring scheme artist.