“What a wonderful artist”
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Madeleine Holmes is a lyric soprano known for her breadth of range and versatility as a singer and actor in opera, oratorio, musical theatre and song.
On stage Madeleine has sung Tatyana Eugene Onegin, Mimì and Musetta La Bohème, Giorgetta Il Tabarro, Cio-Cio San (cover) Madama Butterfly, Naiad Ariadne auf Naxos and Romilda Xerxes, and in opera scenes and in concert, Susanna and Contessa Le Nozze di Figaro, Ginevra Ariodante, Alice Ford Falstaff and Massenet’s Manon.
Madeleine loves working with composers to realise new pieces, and has created the characters of Eve in David Moore’s chamber opera The Diaries of Adam and Eve and Strekoza in Brian Hosefros’ Strekoza i Muravej, both for Tête-a-Tête Festival and the Arcola Theatre.
In musical theatre she has played Mrs Lovett in Sondheim's Sweeney Todd for Dartington International Festival under George Vass, and Beggar Woman with the Slaithwaite Philharmonic under Benjamin Ellin at Huddersfield Town Hall.
Recital work includes contemporary songs by Raymond Yiu, Ed Nesbit and Joe Atkins at the New Dots Symposium ROH / Clore and LSO ST Luke’s, premièring Julian Philips’ dramatic monologue Life Lessens at the Bloomsbury Festival and Wigmore Hall, and Britten’s Four Burns Songs at The Red House, Aldeburgh, for whom she has also devised a recital of Britten’s Chansons Françaises and Poulenc’s Fiançailles pour Rire with regular partner at the piano, Gavin Roberts.
Concert and oratorio performances include Mozart Requiem (St Martin-in-the-Fields), Orff Carmina Burana and Haydn Creation (St John's, Waterloo), St John Passion (St George's Cathedral), Fauré Requiem and Haydn Nelson Mass (Peterborough Cathedral), Mozart Coronation Mass (Anghiari Festival) and Birtwhistle The Fields of Sorrow (Snape Maltings / BBC Radio 3).
Opera chorus work includes Britten Death in Venice and Vaughan Williams The Pilgrim’s Progress with Philharmonia Voices under Richard Hickox at the QEH / Sadler’s Wells and Donizetti Caterina Cornaro with the BBC Singers for Opera Rara under David Parry.
Having initially studied French and Italian as a choral scholar at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, Madeleine worked for several years in arts administration and as a consort singer before training in opera with ENO.
Madeleine now regularly revisits her university jazz duo heritage and her first love, the American Songbook, as a guest vocalist at the Ritz Hotel London, and has devised and performed biopic-concerts of Sidney Bechet and Cleo Laine with The London Dance Orchestra for The St Marylebone Festival.
Current projects include recordings of American Songbook favourites and a collection Italian 20th century art songs, the latter the result of research begun with the generosity of a Finzi Trust Travel Scholarship.
Passionate about helping others find and nurture their authentic voice, Madeleine has a flourishing teaching practice in singing and yoga. When not singing or on the mat, she can most likely be found on a coastal walk with her imaginary labrador, preparing for the next plunge into the sea or writing project.
“In the time of your life, live”
William Saroyan