Rodney Clarke
Encyclopedia
Rodney Earl Clarkeis a British bass-baritone
opera and concert singer of Jamaican origin.
between 1989 and 1996.He trained at the Royal Academy of Music
London where he was awarded the Richard Lewis
/Jean Shanks Award 2001 and recipient of a Peter Moores
Scholarship.
, Handel
and Mozart in particular.
In 2004 he made his debut singing the role of Tancredi
in Monteverdi's opera Il Combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda
directed by the renowned Graham Vick
with Birmingham Opera Company. Later that year he played the title role in Mozart's famous opera The Marriage of Figaro
with English Touring Opera
in a production which set the Beaumarchais play in 18th century Colonial Cuba. The year was triumphantly completed with Clarke's acclaimed portrayal of the Ferryman in Benjamin Britten's parable for church performance Curlew River
again with Birmingham Opera Company featuring at the BBC Proms.
In 2006 Clarke made his role debut as Don Giovanni for Birmingham Opera Company and also made his film debut as Second Officer in Kenneth Branagh's version of Mozart's opera The Magic Flute
. In May of that year, Clarke debuted at the Aldeburgh Festival were he created the role of Anastase in Sante an opera depicting the horrors of the Rwanda Genocide, composed by Emily Hall
with the London Sinfonietta
. In October that year Clarke featured in the Young Vic's first production after its refurbishment as Ashmodeus the demon in Jonathan Dove's community opera Tobias and the Angel
. In December he was invited to turn on the Christmas Lights in Waterloo's 'The Cut' as he headed the renowned Christmas show at The Young Vic playing the eponymous hero of the newly-commissioned Jonathan Dove
opera The Enchanted Pig.
Clarke then went onto make his European house debuts in France, Norway and Italy performing and creating new roles including Leo in Glenn Erik Haugland's opera Rebekkah for the Norwegian Opera, Marquis D'Obigny La traviata for Birmingham Opera Company, Jake in Porgy and Bess
for Opéra National de Lyon and Pasha Selim in Mozart's opera Die Entfuhrung aus dem Serail
for Opera di Roma.
Clarke remains a regular on concert platform performing at St.John's, Smith Square, The Royal Festival Hall, The Purcell Room, The Royal Albert Hall, The Wigmore Hall and the 02 Arena. Highlights include Haydn's Creation at the Royal Albert Hall under Sir David Willcocks, Bernstein's Mass at the Barbican with the LSO under Marin Alsop, the title role in Porgy and Bess (concert version) with the Orchestra di Santa Cecilia, Rome under Wayne Marshall and recently bass soloist in Handel's Messiah
alongside soprano Dame Emma Kirkby at the Olavsfestdagene Trondheim, Norway.
Bass-baritone
A bass-baritone is a high-lying bass or low-lying "classical" baritone voice type which shares certain qualities with the true baritone voice. The term arose in the late 19th century to describe the particular type of voice required to sing three Wagnerian roles: the Dutchman in Der fliegende...
opera and concert singer of Jamaican origin.
Personal Life
Clarke was born in Greenwich, London and is one of five children. He sang as a boy treble in the choir of St. George's Cathedral, Southwark RC and attended Dulwich CollegeDulwich College
Dulwich College is an independent school for boys in Dulwich, southeast London, England. The college was founded in 1619 by Edward Alleyn, a successful Elizabethan actor, with the original purpose of educating 12 poor scholars as the foundation of "God's Gift". It currently has about 1,600 boys,...
between 1989 and 1996.He trained at the Royal Academy of Music
Royal Academy of Music
The Royal Academy of Music in London, England, is a conservatoire, Britain's oldest degree-granting music school and a constituent college of the University of London since 1999. The Academy was founded by Lord Burghersh in 1822 with the help and ideas of the French harpist and composer Nicolas...
London where he was awarded the Richard Lewis
Richard Lewis (tenor)
Richard Lewis CBE was a Welsh tenor.Born Thomas Thomas in Manchester to Welsh parents, Lewis began his career as a boy soprano and studied at the Royal Manchester College of Music from 1939 to 1941...
/Jean Shanks Award 2001 and recipient of a Peter Moores
Peter Moores
Sir Peter Moores CBE DL is a British businessman, art collector and philanthropist, a former chairman of the Liverpool-based Littlewoods football pools and retailing business in the United Kingdom....
Scholarship.
Career
Clarke has emerged as one of the prominent young talents in British Opera and has been recognised for his interpretation of BachBạch
Bạch is a Vietnamese surname. The name is transliterated as Bai in Chinese and Baek, in Korean.Bach is the anglicized variation of the surname Bạch.-Notable people with the surname Bạch:* Bạch Liêu...
, Handel
HANDEL
HANDEL was the code-name for the UK's National Attack Warning System in the Cold War. It consisted of a small console consisting of two microphones, lights and gauges. The reason behind this was to provide a back-up if anything failed....
and Mozart in particular.
In 2004 he made his debut singing the role of Tancredi
Tancredi
Tancredi is a melodramma eroico in two acts by composer Gioachino Rossini and librettist Gaetano Rossi, based on Voltaire's play Tancrède...
in Monteverdi's opera Il Combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda
Il Combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda
Il combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda is an operatic scena for three voices by Claudio Monteverdi, although many dispute how the piece should be classified. The piece has a libretto drawn from Torquato Tasso's La Gerusalemme Liberata , a Romance set against the backdrop of the First Crusade...
directed by the renowned Graham Vick
Graham Vick
Graham Vick CBE is an English opera director. He studied at the Royal Northern College of Music, Manchester....
with Birmingham Opera Company. Later that year he played the title role in Mozart's famous opera The Marriage of Figaro
The Marriage of Figaro
Le nozze di Figaro, ossia la folle giornata , K. 492, is an opera buffa composed in 1786 in four acts by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, with Italian libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte, based on a stage comedy by Pierre Beaumarchais, La folle journée, ou le Mariage de Figaro .Although the play by...
with English Touring Opera
English Touring Opera
English Touring Opera is an opera company in the United Kingdom. From 1979 to 1992 it was known as Opera 80.- About the company :Opera 80 was founded in 1979 by the Arts Council of Great Britain as the successor to Opera For All; in 1992 the company changed its name to English Touring Opera...
in a production which set the Beaumarchais play in 18th century Colonial Cuba. The year was triumphantly completed with Clarke's acclaimed portrayal of the Ferryman in Benjamin Britten's parable for church performance Curlew River
Curlew River
Curlew River — A Parable for Church Performance is the first of three Church Parables by Benjamin Britten. The work is based on the Japanese noh play Sumidagawa of Juro Motomasa , which Britten saw during a visit to Japan and the Far East in early 1956...
again with Birmingham Opera Company featuring at the BBC Proms.
In 2006 Clarke made his role debut as Don Giovanni for Birmingham Opera Company and also made his film debut as Second Officer in Kenneth Branagh's version of Mozart's opera The Magic Flute
The Magic Flute
The Magic Flute is an opera in two acts composed in 1791 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to a German libretto by Emanuel Schikaneder. The work is in the form of a Singspiel, a popular form that included both singing and spoken dialogue....
. In May of that year, Clarke debuted at the Aldeburgh Festival were he created the role of Anastase in Sante an opera depicting the horrors of the Rwanda Genocide, composed by Emily Hall
Emily Hall
Emily Hall is a composer of classical music, electronica and songs. Her music has been performed by the Duke Quartet, the London Symphony Orchestra, the Brodsky Quartet, the London Sinfonietta, and the Philharmonia; it has been broadcast on BBC Radio 3, BBC Radio 4 and France Culture...
with the London Sinfonietta
London Sinfonietta
The London Sinfonietta is an English chamber orchestra founded in 1968 and based in London. The ensemble specialises in contemporary music and works across a wide range of genres, performing modern classics alongside world premieres, and includes music by electronica artists as well as folk and...
. In October that year Clarke featured in the Young Vic's first production after its refurbishment as Ashmodeus the demon in Jonathan Dove's community opera Tobias and the Angel
Tobias and the Angel
Tobias and the Angel is the title given to paintings and other artworks depicting a scene in which Tobias, son of Tobit, meets an angel without realising he is an angel and is then instructed by the angel what to do with a giant fish he catches , including:-Paintings:*"Tobias and the Angel", print...
. In December he was invited to turn on the Christmas Lights in Waterloo's 'The Cut' as he headed the renowned Christmas show at The Young Vic playing the eponymous hero of the newly-commissioned Jonathan Dove
Jonathan Dove
Jonathan Dove is a British composer of opera, choral works, plays, films, and orchestral and chamber music. He has arranged a number of operas for English Touring Opera and the City of Birmingham Touring Opera , including in 1990 a famous 18-player two-evening adaptation of Wagner's Der Ring des...
opera The Enchanted Pig.
Clarke then went onto make his European house debuts in France, Norway and Italy performing and creating new roles including Leo in Glenn Erik Haugland's opera Rebekkah for the Norwegian Opera, Marquis D'Obigny La traviata for Birmingham Opera Company, Jake in Porgy and Bess
Porgy and Bess
Porgy and Bess is an opera, first performed in 1935, with music by George Gershwin, libretto by DuBose Heyward, and lyrics by Ira Gershwin and DuBose Heyward. It was based on DuBose Heyward's novel Porgy and subsequent play of the same title, which he co-wrote with his wife Dorothy Heyward...
for Opéra National de Lyon and Pasha Selim in Mozart's opera Die Entfuhrung aus dem Serail
Die Entführung aus dem Serail
Die Entführung aus dem Serail is an opera Singspiel in three acts by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. The German libretto is by Christoph Friedrich Bretzner with adaptations by Gottlieb Stephanie...
for Opera di Roma.
Clarke remains a regular on concert platform performing at St.John's, Smith Square, The Royal Festival Hall, The Purcell Room, The Royal Albert Hall, The Wigmore Hall and the 02 Arena. Highlights include Haydn's Creation at the Royal Albert Hall under Sir David Willcocks, Bernstein's Mass at the Barbican with the LSO under Marin Alsop, the title role in Porgy and Bess (concert version) with the Orchestra di Santa Cecilia, Rome under Wayne Marshall and recently bass soloist in Handel's Messiah
Messiah
A messiah is a redeemer figure expected or foretold in one form or another by a religion. Slightly more widely, a messiah is any redeemer figure. Messianic beliefs or theories generally relate to eschatological improvement of the state of humanity or the world, in other words the World to...
alongside soprano Dame Emma Kirkby at the Olavsfestdagene Trondheim, Norway.
External links
- Royal Academy of Music
- rodneyclarke.com Official Site