Kathryn Rudge
Ensemble:
Press
Kathryn Rudge, who plays Sesto, was so moving, so passionate and sang with such forthright ardour.
Spectator Opera North/Giulio Cesare January 2012
Kathryn Rudge's plucky Sesto manages to be both stylish and moving.
Financial Times Opera North/Giulio Cesare January 2012
Kathryn Rudge made a brightly spunky and impassioned Sesto, whose duet of parting from her mother Cornelia (an eloquent and dignified Ann Taylor) was one of the evening's highlights.
The Daily Telegraph Opera North/Giulio Cesare January 2012
Rudge overcomes the handicap of an ill-fitting uniform to sing an absolute blinder as the boy bent on revenging his dad, as auspicious a Leeds debut as she could possibly have hoped.
The York Press Opera North/Giulio Cesare January 2012
‘The star performance comes from Kathryn Rudge’s Cherubino – chaotically sexy, charismatic, totally compelling’.
Financial Times English National Opera/Marriage of Figaro October 2011
'It [Erika] was sung by Kathryn Rudge with her mellowest and most lustrous tone. She is a splendid actress. Already this charismatic singer, with her immaculate diction, knows how to stir the heart, and one hardly dares to predict what is to come.'
Opera RNCM / Vanessa, May 2011
'This was where Kathryn Rudge (Erika) proved most accomplished. She has the ability to use her face as well as her voice, conveying an inner struggle which is more compelling than that of her aunt, despite the latter being the title role.'
City Life, RNCM / Vanessa, March 2011
'The mezzo-soprano Kathryn Rudge is already building a shining career. Her rich and flexible tone, clear diction and magnetic stage presence are ideal equipment. The elegance of her singing avoided any vulgar excesses such as this role easily attracts, yet she brought sultry passion and intensity to the Habanera and to the Card Song. If this Carmen guessed her fate, she kept it to herself. Every Carmen I have heard has found her own way into the character and Rudge is too fine and intelligent a singer not to develop the role at each encounter.'
Opera Magazine Feb 2011 RNCM / Carmen, December 2010
'Kathryn Rudge as Carmen was the temptress to silence all tempresses. Her voice; fluid, rich and wonderfully coloured, is reminiscent of a young Victoria de los Angeles with an intuitive acting style and sheer musicianship to boot. She was easily the pick of the singers...'
Musical Opinion Jan 2011 RNCM / Carmen December 2010
'Miss Rudge's singing and acting in Act Four, where it is possible for a lyric mezzo to be strained by the orchestra, was exemplary in colour, tone and expression in conveying the fraught drama of Carmen's nature and situation.'
Musicweb International RNCM / Carmen, December 2010
'Kathryn Rudge made the smaller role of Annio seem twice as important as usual and looked, walked and sang like a boy. There is a precious talent here: not only her voice, which is fluent and seems to be comfortable as well as beautiful in any register, but also her acting, which is natural and spontaneous. Her diction is immaculate.'
Opera Magazine May 2010 RNCM / La Clemenza di Tito, March 2010
'Kathryn Rudge sang with her customary lustrous tone and showed herself to be a natural comedienne.'
Opera Magazine RNCM /La Belle Hélène, December 2009
'Kathryn as an impetuous Cherubino brought bags of comedy to Voi Che sapete and proved herself as adept an actress as appealing a singer.'
Opera Now RNCM / Le Nozze di Figaro, May/June 2008
'Kathryn was a highly popular Cherubino, putting great energy into the girl-becomes-boy-becomes-girl routine and singing with purity and attack.'
Manchester Evening News, RNCM/Le Nozze di Figaro, December 2007
'Kathryn Rudge, a lively and charming Olga.'
Opera Magazine RNCM / Tchaikovsky Eugene Onegin, June 2007
'Kathryn's Olga was delightfully conceived, with a flexible voice and natural charm in the characterization.'
Manchester Evening News, RNCM / Tchaikovsky Eugene Onegin, March 2007
'Kathryn Rudge as Carmen was the temptress to silence all temptresses. Her voice; fluid, rich and wonderfully coloured, is reminiscent of a young Victoria de los Angeles with an intuitive acting style and sheer musicianship to boot.'
Born in 1986 in Liverpool, in 2004 Kathryn Rudge took up a scholarship to study at the Royal Northern College of Music with Susan Roper, graduating with 1st class honours and distinction. She was selected by YCAT in 2010 and over the last year has completed her studies on the International Artist Diploma Scheme.
On graduating last summer Kathryn immediately joined English National Opera as part of the Young Singers programme, making her debut in the role of Cherubino in a new production of The Marriage of Figaro directed by Fiona Shaw. She went on to take the role of Sesto in Giuilo Cesare with Opera North and in Autumn 2012 joins Glyndebourne Touring Opera in the role of Cherubino (Le Nozze de Figaro). She returns to Wigmore Hall (3 April) and takes part in a Kathleen Ferrier centenary event at Bridgewater Hall (3 March).
During her studies Kathryn's operatic roles included a critically acclaimed Carmen, Erika in Barber's Vanessa, Annio (La Clemenza di Tito), Cherubino (Le Nozze di Figaro), Sorceress (Dido & Aeneas) and Olga (Eugene Onegin), the latter for Haddo House and the RNCM. She also covered the role of Hélène (La Belle Hélène) and sung excerpts from Handel's Ariodante.
Over the last year Kathryn has given recitals at Wigmore Hall, Purcell Room, Jacqueline du Pré Music Building, the Chester and Spitalfields Festivals and taken part in masterclasses and concerts as a Samling Scholar. On the concert platform she has appeared as soloist on several occasions with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra working with conductors Vasily Petrenko, Carl Davis and John Wilson. She has sung Beethoven's Symphony No.9 with the Philharmonia Orchestra conducted by Paul Daniel at the Royal Festival Hall, Mahler's Das Knaben Wunderhorn at Bridgewater Hall, Karl Jenkins The Armed Man with Manchester Camerata, Mahler's Lieder Eines Fahrenden Gesellen with the Wimbledon Symphony Orchestra, and Berio and Hesketh Songs with the RLPO Ensemble 10/10.
While at the RNCM Kathryn won numerous prizes and awards including a Silver Medal, the Allcard Award and the audience prize for The Prince's Prize from the Worshipful Company of Musicians, an MBF Sybil Tutton Award, the Annie Ridyard, Amanda Roocroft and Bridgitte Fassbaender awards; and the Alexander Young, Frederic Cox and Joyce and Michael Kennedy Strauss prizes. Nationally she has won a Susan Chilcott Scholarship, a BBC Fame Academy Bursary, Yamaha MFE Scholarship, Kathleen Ferrier Bursary and the Bruce Millar/Gullivar Prize.