Natalie Raybould - Soprano
Soprano and actress Natalie Raybould read music at St. Edmund Hall, Oxford, and graduated with first class honours. She then attended the Royal Academy of Music to study with Joy Mammen and Clara Taylor, supported by Countess of Munster Trust and alumni funding, and graduated from Royal Academy Opera in 2002 with a Dip.RAM.
Natalie has developed a reputation for combining operatic flair with dramatic intensity, her extensive experience in both disciplines making her equally at home in operatic or theatrical productions. She has been critically acclaimed in the fields of both opera and contemporary music theatre, and brings her versatility to bear in long-standing collaborations with composers and the creation of new roles alike.
Natalie created the role of Female Narrator in the world première of Pinocchio (Will Tuckett) for ROH2 at The Royal Opera House, which toured the UK after a residence at the Linbury Studio, ROH. Pinocchio was also shown on the BBC in January 2006. She also created the role of Lover in the world première of Liebeslied/My Suicides (Clark/Blees Luxemberg/Duttman), an ICA/Genesis co-production. Other notable role creations include the soprano roles for Six Pack, the collection of operas commissioned by ENO Studio in collaboration with Tête à Tête, performer/cover of the title role in The Opera Group's UK tour of Varjak Paw (Julian Philips), and The Girl in the English-language première of Hamelin (Ian Wilson) for Opera Theatre Company Ireland. Natalie has worked with, among others, Almeida Opera, ROH2, The National Theatre Studio, The Young Vic, and Aldeburgh Productions in developing new operas, music theatre, and world première performances.
Natalie also brings her distinctive theatrical approach to the concert platform, and specialises in the most dramatic and challenging of contemporary repertory. She has performed Pierrot Lunaire (Schönberg) in many venues including the Concertgebouw, Amsterdam under Klaus Ager, Purcell Room, South Bank, and St. Magnus Festival, Orkney. Other concert experience includes Symphony 14 (Shostakovich), Les Illuminations (Britten), Akhmatova Songs (Tavener), Sequenza (Berio), Cinis (Donatoni), Aventures et Nouvelles Aventures (Ligeti), as well as many first performances of works written for her.
Natalie enjoys a close working relationship with the composer Cheryl Frances-Hoad. The chamber work The Glory Tree was written for Natalie, and she has performed it in many venues, including The Purcell Room and for the St. Magnus Festival in Orkney, to great acclaim. She has also recorded The Glory Tree with the Kreisler Ensemble for inclusion in Frances-Hoad’s debut CD, due for release by Toccata Classics in late 2010. Natalie and Cheryl are currently collaborating as Golden Hat Opera on a one-woman music theatre work, Passing Afflictions, which was performed as a Work in Progress part of the Tête à Tête Opera Festival 2009, and is planned for full performance November 2010.
Most recently, Natalie created the roles of Marie and Arnie the Snow Stoat in the world première of Skitterbang Island for Polka Theatre/Little Angel Theatre:
"A complete and utter delight.....brilliant cast" (Lyn Gardner, The Guardian, 4 stars)
and was the soprano in Six Word Operas for Warehouse Ensemble at the Tête à Tête Opera Festival 2010:
“Natalie Raybould who was uniformly excellent and brought so much to even the most under-composed of repertoire. Her acting ability matched her singing and defined the character-based works such as those by Tattersal and West. Her ability to switch from the experimental and avant-garde to the sentimental and traditional seamlessly is one of the most potent weapons in her armoury, and was greatly used in this performance. It can’t be long until she is given a major role by a major company.” (Catherine Elford, Operaticus)
Updated August 2010