Sep 3
Do find us on our YouTube channel @AfonwYandell
Rebecca and Nigel Yandell have formed a wonderful, collaborative partnership and look forward to sharing more news with you soon! Go to page ‘Listen to Rebecca & Nigel’ for audio and ‘Watch Rebecca & Nigel’ to enjoy our reels.
An exciting evening spent filming with wonderful colleagues: All will be revealèd soon!
Rebecca had a fabulous time ringing in the New Year with The Edinburgh Choral Union singing The Messiah with conductor Michael Bawtree and wonderful colleagues Emily Mitchell, Sam Jenkins & Jerome Knox
Reviewing Edinburgh Royal Choral Union’s Messiah for The Herald, Keith Bruce writes,
“Rebecca Afonwy-Jones proved the most impressive of the quartet, her voice now in full bloom with an especially rich power at the bottom of her range.”
In Vox Carnyx, The Voice for Classical Music & Opera in Scotland, the following review was posted:
There would be no meaningful victory in Handel’s Messiah without an enemy and the inspired selection of Biblical texts by the composer’s librettist, Charles Jennens, ensures that “gross darkness”, “the heathen”, and nations that “furiously rage” are part of the narrative. It was mezzo-soprano Rebecca Afonwy-Jones’s peerless enunciation of the word “smiters” in her aria He Was Despised that encapsulated the triumph of Christ’s sacrifice in this performance.
Taste in the sound of the vocal soloists is always subjective – and the perennial topic of conversation at the extended picnic interval of the Edinburgh Royal Choral Union’s New Year concert – but Afonwy-Jones, who was a Scottish Opera Emerging Artist in 2011, now has an instrument that is rich-toned across its range and especially impressive in the lower alto voice.
Just a quick update to give you Rebecca’s forthcoming concerts at a glance over the next couple of months
Saturday 16th November for Mozart Requiem and Durante Magnificat at Llandaff Cathedral, with The Cardiff Polyphonic Choir, for their 60th Anniversary Concert, conducted by Thomas Blunt starting at 19:00
Thursday 21st November at Christchurch Oxford with The London Concertante for a Candlelit Opera Gala A host of enjoyable hits with a wonderful ensemble – We commence at 19:30
Saturday 23rd November – it’s Rebecca’s first Messiah of the season, which will be at Arundel Cathedral, conducted by George Jones
Saturday 7th December – Rebecca is off to Norwich Cathedral to perform Messiah by Candlelight with the Norwich Baroque, conducted by Ashley Grote
Saturday 15th December will be an early start at 18:00 for Messiah at Cheltenham Town Hall, conducted by David Crown with the Cheltenham Bach Choir
Friday 27th December is a return to Cadogan Hall, London, but this time with London Concertante for a festive Opera by Candlelight concert with this exuberant Ensemble.
Thursday 2nd January 2025, Rebecca will be ringing in Hogmanay in Edinburgh at The Usher Hall with conductor Michael Bawtree and The Edinburgh Royal Choral Union for their 137th Messiah, beginning at 12 Noon. Bring your picnic!
📸 attributed to Tim Dunk
In his comprehensive Festival round up by Paul Conway wrote:
Mezzo-soprano Rebecca Afonwy-Jones joined the orchestra’s string players for an
emotionally committed account of Richard Blackford’s Songs of Nadia Anjuman (2022), five
keenly responsive settings of poems by the Afghan poet, Nadia Anjuman (1980-2005). The
performers captured the wide range of emotional states conveyed by these thoughtful, finely
tuned treatments, from affection and confidence to despair and alarm. The soloist’s cogent,
directly communicative interpretation of the solo lines, clear, dignified and ardent, had a
powerful effect on the audience and the orchestra’s expert handling of Richard Blackford’s
varied and finely shaded string writing was equally compelling.
Rebecca Afonwy-Jones sang Susie in A Quiet Place by Leonard Bernstein & Stephen Wadsworth for her debut with The Royal Ballet and Opera, at The Linbury Theatre.
Conducted by Nicholas Chalmers and Directed by Oliver Mears it was an evening which promised to be thought provoking, challenging and enjoyable.
In Bernstein’s own words
“A work of art does not answer questions, it provokes them; and its essential meaning is in the tension between the contradictory answers”.
https://www.rbo.org.uk/tickets-and-events/trouble-in-tahiti-a-quiet-place-details
Rebecca makes her debut with The Royal Opera, London, next season as Susie in A Quiet Place at The Linbury Theatre. General booking opens from July 10th, with performances on 10|12|14|15|18|19m|21|22|24 October 2024
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