Ellie Laugharne

SOPRANO

Representation: General Management

Overview

Soprano Ellie Laugharne studied at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, and was a Jerwood Young Artist at Glyndebourne where she sang Lucia in Rape of Lucretia and Susanna in Le Nozze di Figaro on tour. Ellie’s natural stage presence and beautiful soprano make her a joy to watch in performance. Her repertoire includes the Governess in Turn of the Screw and Tina in Jonathan Dove’s Flight, both of which she sang for Opera Holland Park. Ellie has also appeared at English National Opera, Opera North, Scottish Opera and the Buxton Festival.

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Full Biography

Ellie Laugharne studied on the Guildhall School of Music & Drama Opera course after graduating from Birmingham University and Birmingham Conservatoire. In 2012 she was a Jerwood Young Artist for the Glyndebourne Festival and more recently an Associate Artist for Opera North. Ellie is also a Samling Artist and an Associate Artist of the Classical Opera Company.

Ellie’s operatic appearances have included: Susanna Le nozze di Figaro and Lucia The Rape of Lucretia (in a new production by Fiona Shaw) for Glyndebourne on Tour; Phyllis in a new production of Iolanthe and Barbarina Le nozze di Figaro for English National Opera; Adina L’elisir d’amore, Frasquita Carmen and Mabel The Pirates of Penzance for Scottish Opera; Governess The Turn of the Screw (in a new production by Annilese Miskimmon), Tina Flight and Zerlina Don Giovanni for Opera Holland Park; Despina Cosi fan tutte, Gretel Hänsel und Gretel, and Susanna Le nozze di Figaro for Opera North; Sandrina La Finta Giardiniera and Edna Tobias and the Angel (by Jonathan Dove) for the Buxton Festival; Valencienne The Merry Widow for the International Gilbert and Sullivan Festival, and Yum Yum The Mikado for Raymond Gubbay Productions in London, Birmingham and Manchester. At GSMD, Ellie’s roles included Sophie Werther, Sophie Der Rosenkavalier, Frasquita Carmen, Morgana Alcina, Nanetta Falstaff, Marzelline Fidelio, Anna Reich Die Lustigen Weiber von Windsor and Tytania A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

Among her concert engagements are Mozart’s Requiem with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra; the St John Passion with the Ulster and Bournemouth Symphony Orchestras; Beethoven’s Choral Fantasy at the Edinburgh International Festival; a programme of music commemorating the Battle of the Somme for Brighton Festival; Auretta in Mozart’s unfinished opera L’oca del Cairo, completed by Stephen Oliver for the London Mozart Players, and recitals for Glyndebourne, Opera North, the Ryedale Festival and with the Myrthen Ensemble. With Classical Opera and Ian Page, Ellie has performed Haydn’s cantata Applausus and Zerlina Don Giovanni at Cadogan Hall and made her debut at Wigmore Hall singing Bastienne in Mozart’s Bastien und Bastienne.

Recent engagements have included the role of Polissena in Handel’s Radamisto, cover Belinda Dido and Aeneas and a semi-staged performance of the St Matthew Passion for English Touring Opera, a return to Opera North to sing Pamina The Magic Flute, Susanna Le nozze di Figaro in her company debut at The Grange Festival, and the title role of Helen in Blackheath Halls’ production of Offenbach’s La Belle Hélenè.

In the 2019-2020 season, Ellie returns to English National Opera to sing Cupid Orpheus in the Underworld and Frasquita Carmen. She then sings the roles of Gianetta and Zara in Scottish Opera’s new productions of Gilbert & Sullivan’s The Gondoliers and Utopia Ltd., which will transfer to London following its initial tour in Scotland. Ellie returns to The Grange Festival this summer to sing Eliza Doolittle in My Fair Lady.

Artist Website: www.ellielaugharne.co.uk

Promoters please note: if you wish to include this biography in a concert programme etc, please contact Hazard Chase to ensure that you receive the most up to date version.
Email: Tom Wood

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The Marriage of Figaro, Live from Barbican Hall

G&S “Iolanthe” with English National Opera

Donizetti “L’Elisir d’Amore” with Scottish Opera

News

Hazard Chase singers in Orpheus Series

September 27th, 2019

English National Opera’s Autumn 2019 season

UK Summer Opera 2019

May 20th, 2019

Hazard Chase artists in this year’s summer opera festivals.

English Touring Opera Debut

October 5th, 2018

Ellie Laugharne joins Handel’s Radamisto

Concerts across the Easter Period

March 23rd, 2018

Hazard Chase artists performing across Holy Week and Easter

Ellie Laugharne returns to the Coliseum

February 12th, 2018

Gilbert & Sullivan’s Iolanthe at English National Opera

Reviews

Mozart LE NOZZE DI FIGARO (The Grange Festival)

“Ellie Laugharne’s … vibrant tone is a distinct asset.”
George Hall, The Stage, 10^th June 2019

“Ellie Laugharne stood out as Susanna for clarity of tone and quality of legato; tightly-wound, she showed just the right combination of frustration and amusement.”
Dominic Lowe, Bachtrack, 8^th June 2019

”Ellie Laugharne grew in authority and impact until a barnstormingly beautiful ‘Deh vieni’ smashed the ball out of the park”
Boyd Tonkin, The Arts Desk, (7th June 2019)

Handel RADAMISTO (English Touring Opera)

“Ellie Laugharne is similarly commanding as Polissena. She acts as a voice for Tiridate’s conscience, and her two major appearances frame the opera. Laugharne has a narrow soprano voice, which she bolsters with a delicate vibrato, to particularly emotive effect in the last act”
Gavin Dixon, Arts Desk, (October 2018)

“Ellie Laugharne [is] a spitfire of a Polissena”
George Hall, The Stage, (October 2018)

“Ellie Laugharne and Katie Bray bring tonal clarity and sensitive style to the virtuous ladies in the cast”
Rupert Christiansen, The Telegraph, (October 2018)

Gilbert & Sullivan IOLANTHE (English National Opera)

‘Laugharne shapes her lines with delightful alertness’
Richard Bratby, The Spectator (February 2018)

‘Ellie Laugharne stands out for the sweetness and shape that she brings to her sound as Phyllis.’
Sam Smith, Music OMH (February 2018)

Marcus Farnsworth and Ellie Laugharne are excellent as the dainty Arcadian Strephon and Phyllis.
Aliya Al-Hassan, Broadway World (February 2018)

‘Ellie Laugharne and Marcus Farnsworth made a delightful pair of romantic leads, Phyllis and Strephon, costumed in 18th century Arcadian style complete with mock toile-de-jouy fabric! Both seemed to be having the time of their life, and it was this sense of enjoyment which radiated from the production. Both Laugharne and Farnsworth had the right degree of heft and lyrical charm to make the roles count, and their opening duet was a complete delight and they even managed to avoid being upstaged by the comic business with the sheep. And in their Act Two duet, we got a wonderful clog dance too, a brilliant touch.’
Robert Hugill, Planet Hugill (February 2018)

Donizetti THE ELIXIR OF LOVE (Scottish Opera)

“We were rewarded with an agile, well-schooled cast that seized their solo chances while blending together seamlessly. None did this more engagingly than Ellie Laugharne’s Adina, her glamorous trouser outfits suggesting a 1930s fashion goddess, with slim blonde looks, expressive persona and fragrant vocalità to match. This classy soprano made music of Donizetti’s decorative flourishes. She also gave meaning to the words and inhabited the stage like a natural: a joy to behold.”
Andrew Clark, Opera Magazine (November 2016)

“But there are some fine turns, particularly from soprano Ellie Laugharne, whose Adina is breezy and warmhearted, a natural for comic timing, a genuinely magnetic stage presence and a creamy and nimble voice. None of the rest of the cast matches her.”
Kate Molleson, The Guardian (September 2016)

“Ellie Laugharne as the teasing Adina is a constant fascination, both as actor and singer, finding that essential mix of social confidence and private vulnerability.”
Ken Walton, The Scotsman (September 2016)

“Ellie Laugharne sings the role of Adina convincingly, with a rich, potent voice.”
Miranda Heggie, Herald Scotland (September 2016)

Mozart COSI FAN TUTTE, Opera North

“…a versatile Ellie Laugharne as Despina, a cheeky soubrette who at times steals the show as she bustles around as maid, doctor and lawyer. For much of the time she has a faintly Japanese look, with what appear to be red chopsticks in her hair, her soprano is fresh, her diction crystal-sharp. Her Act II aria “A woman at fifteen years old” (Una donna a quindici anni) is truly memorable.”
Richard Wilcocks, Bachtrack (February 2016)

Artist Manager

Sue Nicholls (Cambridge)
sue.nicholls@hazardchase.co.uk
01223 706023

Associate Artist Manager

Tom Wood (London)
tom.wood@hazardchase.co.uk
020 7084 6951