Natalie Raybould - Soprano
Soprano 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. She graduated from Royal Academy Opera in 2002 with a Dip.RAM, the highest award for postgraduate study. Natalie was recently made an Associate of the Royal Academy of Music, awarded to former students who have made a significant contribution to the music profession.
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.
Recent opera credits include Cousin Shelly (cover) in the world premiere of Anna Nicole (Mark-Anthony Turnage) for the Royal Opera House, the world premiere of Dr Quimpugh's Compendium of Peculiar Afflictions (Ward) for Petersham Playhouse, and Marie/Arnie the Snow Stoat in the world premiere of Skitterbang Island, a puppet opera for Polka Theatre/Little Angel Theatre. Other role creations include Female Narrator in the world premiere of Pinocchio (Will Tuckett/Martin Ward/Phil Porter) for ROH2 (shown on BBC4), the soprano roles for Six Pack, an ENO Studio/Tête à Tête collaboration, Lover in the world première of Liebeslied/My Suicides (Paul Clark/Rut Blees Luxemberg/Alex Duttman), an ICA/Genesis co-production, and The Girl in the premiere of Hamelin (Ian Wilson/Lavinia Greenlaw) for Opera Theatre Company Ireland. Natalie has worked with Almeida Opera, Opera North, ROH2, the National Theatre Studio, The Opera Group, The Royal Shakespeare Company, The Young Vic, Aldeburgh Productions and others in developing new operas, music theatre, and world premiere performances.
Natalie also brings her distinctive theatrical approach to the concert platform, and specialises in the most 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 credits include Symphony 14 (Shostakovich), Les Illuminations (Britten), Miss Brevis (Ferneyhough), 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 the St. Magnus Festival. The Glory Tree is also the title track on Frances-Hoad's debut CD (Champs Hill Records), which is BBC Music Magazine's Chamber Music Choice for October. Natalie is also currently collaborating with Cheryl, Stuart Murray and Little Angel Theatre in the creation of an opera about autism for Opera North.
Most recently, Natalie made her debut at the Wittener Tage für Neue Kammermusik, performing the world premier of Vier Aster Lieder (Stefano Gervasoni) with the French ensemble L'Instant Donné, which was broadcast on WDR3 in June. Future engagements include creating the role of Amy Johnson in Amy's Last Dive (Frances-Hoad), due to premiere in June 2012 as part of the Yorkshire 2012 Cultural Olympiad.
Updated September 2011
RECENT REVIEW
“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) - Six Word Operas