Rebecca Afonwy-Jones

MEZZO-SOPRANO

"Rebecca Afonwy-Jones dealt with Olga's tricky tessitura with great assurance, and skilfully managed to make dramatic sense of her ballroom conversion to über-coquette"

Opera Magazine

Representation: General Management

Photo: Tim Dunk

Overview

Rebecca studied at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama and at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. Rebecca also participated on the emerging artist programme for Scottish Opera and was an associate artist with Welsh National Opera, a relationship that continues into the coming seasons. Rebecca has also appeared regularly with Opera North and maintains a busy concert diary in repertoire that stretches from Handel to Judith Weir.

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Full Biography

Welsh mezzo-soprano Rebecca Afonwy-Jones studied at the Guildhall School of Music, London, and graduated from the Alexander Gibson Opera School at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland with distinction.

She was a Scottish Opera Emerging Artist and sang the title role in its touring production of Carmen, and Fox The Cunning Little Vixen. Further roles also include Cherubino Le Nozze di Figaro, Maria Akhrossimova War & Peace, La Muse/Nicklausse Les Contes d’Hoffmann and Komponist Ariadne auf Naxos (Rostov on Don, Russia).

Concert engagements include Vaughan Williams Serenade to Music at BBC Proms (Runnicles), Mahler Kindertotenlieder with RCS, Verdi Requiem at the Usher Hall, Edinburgh & Ronald Corp’s The Wayfarer at the Royal Festival Hall. Rebecca also appeared as a Samling Artist at The Sage. Further concert engagements include Haydn Nelson Mass for St Alban’s Choral Society, Mahler 2^nd Symphony at Bridgewater Hall, Manchester Messiah at the Usher Hall, Verdi Requiem at St David’s Cathedral Festival and also with City of Glasgow Chorus, Mozart Mass in C Minor for Nottingham Festival Chorus, Ravel’s Shéhérazade for the Sinfonia of Leeds with Anthony Kraus and Handel Solomon for the Oxford Bach Choir with Nicholas Cleobury. Concerts further include Dream of Gerontius (Hertford & Nottingham), Elijah (Aberdeen), Gala Concert at Bath International Festival, Beethoven Mass in C (St Alban’s).

Following her company & role début as Countess Geschwitz Lulu, Rebecca was an Associate Artist at Welsh National Opera where highlights included Sara, Duchess of Nottingham (cover) Roberto Devereux and Anna Kennedy Maria Stuarda (UK and on tour to the Royal Opera Muscat, Oman). Further roles with WNO included Judith Weir Sleeping Mat–Ballad (special commission), Flora La Traviata, 4th Naked Virgin/Sick Woman Moses und Aron (with performances at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden), Fenena (cover) Nabucco, Amenofi (cover) Mosé in Egitto, Beggar Woman Sweeney Todd and Lola Cavalleria Rusticana. Rebecca also sang Louhi Swanhunter for Opera North, Olga Eugene Onegin for Grange Park Opera and Kunstgewerblerin/cover Geschwitz Lulu for Teatro Communale, Bolzano.

Rebecca’s recent engagements have included her debut with Festival Opera New Zealand as Suzuki Madama Butterfly, Mozart Requiem with the Norwegian Wind Ensemble, St John Passion with the Bournemouth Symphony Chorus, Kerstin in Joseph Phibbs’s new chamber opera Juliana at Cheltenham Music Festival, Requiem Reflections at the North Wales International Music Festival, Flora La Traviata for WNO, Mozart Requiem with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Elgar Sea Pictures with Wrexham Symphony Orchestra and Wellgunde Das Rheingold for Longborough Festival Opera.

Engagements in the 2019/2020 season include Orlofsky Die Fledermaus for West Green Opera, Handel’s Israel in Egypt at the 2019 Three Choirs Festival, Rosina Il Barbiere di Siviglia for Opera Project, Sea Pictures at St Asaph’s Cathedral, Lieder eines Fahrenden Gesellen with the Ludlow Orchestra, Christmas Oratorio with the Norwegian Wind Ensemble and Mahler 8^th Symphony at Bridgewater Hall, Manchester.

Promoters please note: if you wish to include this biography in a concert programme etc, please contact Hazard Chase to make sure you receive the most up to date version.

Email: Elin Jones

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The Sleeping-Mat Ballad by Judith Weir

News

Three Choirs Festival 2019

July 24th, 2019

Hazard Chase artists perform in Gloucester at renowned festival

UK Summer Opera 2019

May 20th, 2019

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

Juliana Première

July 11th, 2018

Rebecca Afonwy-Jones sings Kerstin in World Première

Concerts across the Easter Period

March 23rd, 2018

Hazard Chase artists performing across Holy Week and Easter

Butterfly returns to WNO

February 8th, 2017

Rebecca Afonwy-Jones (Suzuki), David Kempster (Sharpless) and Judith Howarth (Cio-Cio San) appear in the revival of Puccini’s heartbreaker.

Reviews

Strauss – DIE FLEDERMAUS – West Green House Opera

“The Prince’s ditty is sung with firmness and spice by Rebecca Afonwy-Jones”

Yehuda Shapiro, The Stage (July 2019)

“Peter Van Hulle is an excellent Eisenstein and Rebecca Afonwy-Jones a sumptuously voiced Prince Orlofsky”

Sam Smith, Music OMH (July 2019)

Wagner – DAS RHEINGOLD – Longborough Festival Opera

“Characters are delineated very well so that the Rhinemaidens (Mari Wyn Williams as Woglinde, Rebecca Afonwy-Jones as Wellgunde and Katie Stevenson as Flosshilde) convey a strong combination of elegance, allure, playfulness and cruelty.”

Sam Smith, Mucsic OMH (June 2019)

Joseph Phibbs – JULIANA – Nova Music Opera

“In a potentially bland role, the mezzo Rebecca Afonwy-Jones imbued Kerstin with a stoic dignity as well as a growing sense of helplessness that was ultimately very touching”.

Paul Conway, Opera Magazine (September 2018)

Glasgow Meets Berlin: A Gala Celebration – Glasgow Festival 2018

“Rebecca Afonwy-Jones delivered Gershwin’s immortal Summertime with seductive charm”

Ken Walton, The Scotsman (August 2018)

Artist in Residence – Presteigne Festival 2017

” …in the afternoon song-recital given by mezzo Rebecca Afonwy-Jones who, along with Rachel Roberts (viola) and Timothy End (piano) gave outstanding performances of works by Nielsen, Falla (Siete canciones populares españolas), Brahms (his Opus 91) and Edward Gregson’s superbly written Five Songs of Innocence and Experience – receiving the premiere of its revised version. Afonwy-Jones combined lustrous tone, generous phrasing and a natural ease of communication that demands attention and also further study of Gregson’s music.”

David Truslove, The Classical Source (August 2017)

Elgar – THE DREAM OF GERONTIUS – RTE National Symphony Orchestra

“There was a gentleness and mellowness to Rebecca Afonwy-Jones’ Angel from her entry in Part Two of the oratorio. Hers is a pleasing, sweet voice that sounded at its best when the orchestra was at a low volume. The dialogue with the Soul of Gerontius was sometimes gently consoling and later on, as her voice opened up, morally eloquent. There was a spine-tingling moment as Afonwy-Jones explained about the purifying flame of ‘Everlasting Love’. ”
Andrew Larkin, Bachtrack (May 2017)

CBSO Summer Classics – Symphony Hall, Birmingham

“Afonwy-Jones is simply quite superb in interpreting a song, as one might expect from a past finalist in the Welsh Singers Competition…During the lengthy orchestral introduction to the Chanson Bohème from Bizet’s Carmen, she stands aloof, even haughty, examining the audience. Her stage presence has such power that she remains the centre of attention throughout. Her singing is accurate, well-phrased and lively, even flirtatious. In her second piece, the Habanera also from Carmen, her interpretation is teasing and fiery. After the interval, her final piece is Gershwin’s Summertime, which she imbues with a decidedly sultry feel.”
Selwyn Knight, The Reviews Hub (July 2016)

Mascagni – CAVALLERIA RUSTICANA – Welsh National Opera

“David Kempster [is] solid as Alfio, though for all-round excellence one must turn to Rebecca Afonwy-Jones’s butter-wouldn’t-melt Lola and Anne-Marie Owens’s fraught Mamma Lucia.”
George Hall, The Stage (May 2016)