News + Reviews

Anna Leese - Soprano

This week Anna records her new CD of Italian song repertoire with NZ pianst Stephen de Pledge, in Surrey, UK.
Mid-July Anna sings in Nice, Southern France, and in Linari, Tuscany at 'Festival Linari'.
Released in May on iTunes- "Life is a Dream" CD of Haydn's songs.
First review- "Anna Leese's performances of a splendid selection of Haydn's song repertoire are outstanding. In 'The Wanderer', 'Der Gleichsinn' and 'Fidelity', she sings with a flair and brilliance that matches the great interpreters of the past."
- Dominic McHugh, MusicalCriticism.com, April 2009

You can purchase the CD at iTunes.com or msm-cd.com

"Life is a Dream" is Anna's first CD with MSM and she will be recording a second disk for them this July in England. On the second disk Anna and New Zealand pianist Stephen de Pledge will perform Italian love songs.

Anna performs again with Jose Carreras on the opening night of the Hampton Court Festival in London on June 2^nd this summer. For tickets: www.hamptoncourtfestival.com

THE ANNA LEESE ROSE

was launched for public sale in August 2008.
Anna Leese (WEKscemala), bred by Tom Carruth of Weeks Roses, California, USA.
Blooms of an eye-catching combination of orange red suffused with apricot yellow are a feature of this rose, set off against mahogany red new growth.
A bushy grower to one metre high. Bred from Scentimental x Amalia.

What Anna Leese is doing now, find out via:

REVIEWS

On performing in La Boheme with the Canadian Opera Company -
"Vocally vivid, [Anna Leese as Musetta]... turned Act II into a mad scene, and stopped the show with her famous aria Quando m'en vo. I found myself wishing Puccini had given her more to do."
- The Globe and Mail; 20^th of April, 2009
Elijah/ Cardiff 1^st of March, 2009
"...the sheer vocal presence of Anna Leese's fine soprano provided an element of theatricality that might have surprised even Mendelssohn."
- The Guardian; 5^th of March, 2009
"...in particular, demonstrated a regal command of character and idiom in a voice bursting with dramatic potential. The big operatic roles can only be just around the corner."
- Nigel Jarrett, South Wales Argus; 2^nd of March, 2009
"The loveliness of her presence and of her art is indeed beyond compare. She shines like a flawless jewel, polished and ready to be placed in whatever crown the fates have prepared for her"
- The Tribune; 11^th of March, 2007
"I have rarely seen a substitute seize her chance more exuberantly. With her diamond-clear voice and natural comic timing she seemed born to play this part. Leese is one potential star in the making."
- The Times; 25^th of October, 2006
"Hers is a big, bright, gleaming soprano with richly coloured lower notes, and she uses it with taste and confidence beyond her years: one might think it rather cruel of a director to place a student singer atop a grand piano for the Czardas, but she carried it off with aplomb."
- Seen and Heard; November, 2005

LEXUS SPONSORSHIP

Anna is proud to annouce her continued sponsorship from Lexus New Zealand, who are providing her with a vehicle for the tour. Lexus have generously supported Anna since 2003, when she won the Mobil Song Quest- now the Lexus Song Quest.

BIOGRAPHY

Soprano Anna Leese completed the RCM Benjamin Britten Opera course under Ryland Davies, having completed a MusB degree with First Class Honours at the University of Otago in 2002, under Isabel Cunningham. Anna is currently studying with Lillian Watson in London.

Anna had a predominantly choral introduction to music through singing in church choirs, and was a member of the New Zealand Secondary Students choir, and the Tower New Zealand Youth Choir before she decided to concentrate on solo voice.

Anna has won an impressive list of awards and aria prizes, including the 2001 Dame Sister Mary Leo Scholarship, the 2002 Mobil Song Quest, the 2002 Lockwood Aria scholarship and the 2003 McDonalds Aria
Scholarship in Sydney, held in the Sydney Opera House.

Anna's solo performances include the Strauss' Vier Letzte Lieder, Brahms Requiem, Beethoven's 9th Symphony, Mendlessohn's Elijah, Bach's St John Passion, Handel's Messiah, and Faure's Requiem. Anna won the 2004 Royal Overseas League Vocal competition, was named best overseas competitor in the same competition, has performed, Mahler's second symphony with Bernard Haitink, and Donna Anna in excerpts from Mozart's Don Giovanni with the London Mozart Players under Andrew Parrot.

Anna has sung a fair amount under the baton of Canterbury-based Richard Cooke, who conducted her first performance of Richard Strauss' Four Last Songs in Canterbury Cathedral in 2007.

Operatic roles include Ilia in Mozart's Idomeneo with the Auckland Opera Studio, Female Chorus in Britten's The Rape of Lucretia, Fiordiligi in Mozart's Cosi Fan Tutte and Rosalinde in Strauss's Die Fledermaus, all for the Benjamin Britten Opera School and Juliette in Gounod's Romeo et Juliette with the British Youth Opera. She has performed the role of Tamiri in Mozart's Il re Pastore at the Linbury theatre, Royal Opera House (where she made her debut at age 24) and three Mozart heroines Fiordiligi, Countess Almaviva and Tamiri with the Classical Opera Company.

In 2006 Anna performed in her first Prom concert with SCO and Norrington. With the Royal Opera House, understudied Arminda in Finta Giardiniera, Musetta in La Boheme and in January 2007 she sang the role of Michaela in Bizet's Carmen with ROH. Since then, at the Royal Opera House, Covent garden, she has performed Musetta in La Boheme, Erste Dame in Die Zauberflote and Echo in Ariadne auf Naxos.

On the concert stage Anna has sung with several of the World's most-loved singers. She peformed with Andrea Bocelli in Auckland -August 2008, and with Jose Carreras in Newcastle, Seoul and Taipei. Another highlight (Anna is an avid All Blacks fan) was performing with Dame Kiri te Kanawa in Twickenham Stadium in 2005 for Jonah Lomu's return to rugby sevens.

Anna toured NZ with pianist Terence Dennis, for NZ Chamber Music Society in August 2008.

UPCOMING ROLES include Musetta for Canadian Opera, Tatyana for Flanders Opera and New Zealand Opera, Antonia (Hoffmann) and Fiordiligi (Cosi) for Opera Koln, and concerts with the Halle Orchestra and Mark Elder

Hear Anna Mozart's Fra i pensier, and
Hayden's Fidelity - Listen here

Podcast - interview on Musetta, Carreras and New Zealand

Anna's Performances
2009 to 2011

2009

March 1 Mendelssohn Elijah in Cardiff, Wales with BBC National Chorus of Wales. Thierry Fischer cond.
March 5 Lunchtime recital at Millikan University, Illinois, USA
March-May La Boheme (Musetta) with Canadian Opera, Toronto, Canada. Cond. Julian Kovatchev/ Derek Bate
May 26-30 Guest at New Brunswick Early Music Festival, Canada. Masterclass and recital.
June 2 Summer concert with Jose Carerras and city of London Orchestra, cond. Miquel Ortega
- at Hampton Court Palace, London. www.hamptoncourtfestival.com
June 27 Ian Rennie summer concert with RAF Halton Band in High Wickham, UK
July 1-5 CD recording in Surrey, UK. Italian love songs with pianist Stephen de Pledge, for Michael Storrs Music.
July 20-31 Linari Festival, Tuscany. Chamber ensembles and solo recitals with Kirsten Simpson and members of the Dutch Radio Orchestra
August 12-19 October - Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin (Tatyana) for New Zealand Opera. Cond. Alexander Polianichko, Dir. Patrick Nolan, NZ
October 23 Oxford Lieder Festival recital, UK
October/November Opera Koln Offenbach, Tales of Hoffmann (Antonia)., Germany
December 6, 7 Napier Messiah- NZ
December 12 Hamilton Messiah- NZ