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News + Reviews

Anna Leese - Soprano

Anna has just been named as a semi-finalist in the very first Paris International Opera Competition. Of the 350 entries, just 20 singers were accepted to this stage. Information on the competition can be found on this link: www.cioperaparis.com. The competition takes place in Paris, Theatre des Champs-Elysees, on October 17th 2010.

Anna is currently in London, performing in Opera Holland Parks' new production of Zandonai's 'Francesca di Rimini'. The last time this opera was performed in London was in 1917. Next season Anna returns to OHP to sing her debut of the role of Suzel in Mascgani's 'L'Amico Fritz'.

From Eugene Onegin NZ Minister for arts, Chris Finlayson announced recently that Anna will be the first ever artist in residence at the New Zealand Singing School in January 2010. Read more here

On Sunday 14th March Anna performed with the Prince Consort at the Wigmore Hall. The recital received rave 5 star reviews. The Prince Consort have recently released an entire disk of Rorem repertoire, titled "On an Echoing Road". Available here.
Anna spent November in Cologne, performing the role of Antonia in "The Tales of Hofmann", a role debut and her first performance with Opera Koln.

Anna's latest solo CD, recorded for Michael Storrs Music, was released in May on iTunes- "Life is a Dream" CD of Haydn's songs.
The disk was given a five star review in the UK's Classical Music Magazine. (June issue) "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 just recorded a second disk which is currently being edited. On this disk disk Anna and New Zealand pianist Stephen de Pledge perform a mixture of rare and well-known Italian love songs, composed by Bellini, Puccini, Verdi, Leoncavallo, Arditi and Tosti

THE ANNA LEESE ROSE

Anna_Leese_Rose is now available in selected nurseries throughout New Zealand.
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: twitter_dark

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; 20th of April, 2009

  • Elijah/ Cardiff 1st 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; 5th 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; 2nd 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; 11th 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; 25th 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 provide her with a vehicle when she is home in New Zealand. Lexus have generously supported Anna since 2003, when she won the Mobil Song Quest- now the Lexus Song Quest.

BIOGRAPHY

Soprano Anna Leese graduated from the RCM Benjamin Britten Opera course in London, 2007, under tenor Ryland Davies. Upon graduating she won a major award from the RCM, the coveted Queen Elizabeth Rose Bowl, for representing the College in the community. Anna has previously completed a MusB degree with First Class Honours at the University of Otago in her native New Zealand, in 2002, under Isabel Cunningham. Anna is currently studying privately 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-Leese_serious 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.

Anna-Lees_762 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 Tatyana for Flanders Opera, Antonia (Hoffmann), Nelson Opera in the Park 2010, an Opera Gala with Heldentenor Simon ONeill in Matakana (postponed till 2012), 'Francesa di Rimini' with opera Holland Park in London in July/August 2011, and Mahlers' 8th Symphony 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

See Anna Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin

Anna's Performances
2010 to 2012

2010

  • July 4 Charity recital for the Ian Rennie Hospice at Home, with Rodney McCann, High Wycombe Abbey, UK
  • July-August 'Francesa di Rimini' with Opera Holland Park, London
  • September 7-12, Monserrat Caballe Competition in Zaragoza, Spain
  • September 13- November 17, Turn of the Screw with Opera North, UK
  • October 8 Concert at Cadogan Hall, London, UK
  • October 15-17 Paris International Opera Competition, Paris
  • October 21 Oxford Lieder Festival recital with the Prince Consort, UK
  • October 23-28 CD recording for Linn Records with the Prince Consort- Brahms and Schubert Liebeslieder
  • November 24 Lunchtime recital with pianist Joseph Middleton, St James' Piccadilly, London
  • November 27-30 CD recording; Italian Songs with Stephen de Pledge for MSM
  • December 12 Concert with the Renaissance Singers, Palmerston North, NZ
  • December 15 Fundraiser Christmas concert for the Wellington friends of NZ Opera
  • December 17 Bach's Christmas Oratorio with Tudor Consort, Wellington, NZ
  • December 26-Jan 4 Tour to be announced

2011

  • January 5-15 Artist in residence, New Zealand Singing School, Napier NZ
  • January 29 Opera in Concert, Black Barn Open Air stage
  • February 11 Concert with Dunedin Sinfonia, NZ
  • March 2-5 Performance on specialist arts Orion cruise NZ, with Sharolyn Kimmorley Pianist
  • March 14-21 Aldburgh Residency and CD recording with the Prince Consort, UK
  • March 23- April 8 NZSO tour of Mahler's 4th Symphony
  • April-June 'L'amico Fritz' (Suzel) with Opera Holland Park, London
  • July 29 Das Rheingeld with Auckland Philharmonic Orchestra, NZ
  • July-Sept Opera TBA

2012

  • January 2012 Opera in the Park, with Simon Oneill, Matakana New Zealand
  • March 25 Wigmore Hall recital, Brahms Liebeslieder with the Prince Consort, London
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