A graduate of the Opera Course at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama, British bass William Thomas is fast making a name for himself as one of today’s most promising young singers. He is the recipient of a number of major awards, most notably the 2018 Kathleen Ferrier Competition, the 2018 John Christie Award and the 2019 Veronica Dunne International Singing Competition.
He has appeared at Wigmore Hall as part of Graham Johnson’s Songmakers’ Almanac and in concert with the London Symphony Orchestra under François-Xavier Roth, the Orchestre national de Lyon under Alan Gilbert and with the Monteverdi Choir conducted by Sir John Eliot Gardiner. Highlights on the concert platform include Rossini’s Stabat Mater with the Hallé under Sir Mark Elder and Verdi’s Requiem with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra under Ryan Wigglesworth.
He made his debuts at La Scala Milan as Hobson in a new production of Peter Grimes and at the Bayerische Staatsoper as Colline in La bohème. Other opera engagements include Nicholas in the UK premiere of Barber’s Vanessa at the Glyndebourne Festival, Snug in a new production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream at Vienna State Opera and Sparafucile in Rigoletto at the English National Opera.
Argentine baritone Germán Enrique Alcántara is a graduate of the Jette Parker Young Artists Programme at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, and made his company debut in the 2018/19 season as Dancaïre in Carmen, going on to appear in La traviata, Andrea Chénier and Faust (the latter also on tour to Japan) as well as, in 2021/22, singing Count Almaviva in Le nozze di Figaro under Sir Antonio Pappano and Enrico in Lucia di Lammermoor.
Among his many successes in international singing competitions are First Prize in the José Carreras Grand Prix in 2021, the Gold Medal at the Manhattan International Competition in 2020 and First Prize in the Concours Lyrique International ad Alta Voce in Paris in 2016.
Previous roles include Marcello in La bohème and the title role in Rigoletto at Welsh National Opera, the title role in Don Giovanni at New Israeli Opera, Belcore in L’elisir d’amore and Zurga in Les Pêcheurs de perles at Teatro Colón Buenos Aires. His concert repertory includes Mozart’s Requiem, Schubert’s Mass in G, Handel’s Messiah, Buxtehude’s Membra Jesu Nostri and Rossini’s Petite messe solennelle. He has recorded Misa Palatina with the Chamber Choir of the National University of Misiones.
Germán Alcántara studied at the School of Music in Misiones, Argentina, at the National University of Cuyo-Mendoza, at the Maîtrise de Notre-Dame de Paris (under Rosa Dominguez) and the Reina Sofía School of Music in Madrid (with Ryland Davies). He is currently studying for a PhD in Music and Performance at the University of Aveiro in Portugal with his project entitled ‘Cantocando: Self-accompaniment challenges’.
Japanese soprano Eri Nakamura first shot to prominence as a Royal Opera House Jette Parker Young Artist when she stepped in at short notice to replace Anna Netrebko as Giulietta in I Capuleti e i Montecchi. Since then she has made notable debuts in Europe, Asia and North and South America.
Highlights of her operatic career include: Cio-Cio San in Madama Butterfly with the Royal Swedish Opera, the New National Theatre, Tokyo, and Royal Opera House, Covent Garden; Gilda in Rigoletto at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, and Salzburger Landestheater; Liù in Turandot at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Bayerische Staatsoper, Opera de Oviedo and Théâtre du Capitole Toulouse; Magda in La rondine at Biwako Hall; Woglinde in Götterdämmerung with the Hong Kong Philharmonic and with the National Taichung Theater; Mimì in La bohème at the Teatro Municipal de Santiago de Chile; Clorinda in La Cenerentola at the Wiener Staatsoper; Susanna in Le nozze di Figaro at the New National Theatre, Tokyo, and Hyogo Performing Arts Centre; Juliette in Roméo et Juliette at the Teatro Municipal de Santiago de Chile; and Pamina in Die Zauberflöte with the Washington National Opera.
Nakamura is an alumna of the Osaka College of Music, the Opera Studio at the New National Theatre Tokyo, the Opera Studio Nederland and the Jette Parker Young Artists Programme at the Royal Opera House. After graduating from the programme, she returned to Covent Garden to sing Susanna in Le nozze di Figaro under Sir Colin Davis and Sophie in Werther under Sir Antonio Pappano, which was recorded by Deutsche Grammophon. From 2010 to 2016, she was a member of the ensemble at the Bayerische Staatsoper.
The tenor Iván Ayón-Rivas was born in 1993 in Peru. He has studied opera under María Eloísa Aguirre González, Juan Diego Flórez, Ernesto Palacio, Vincenzo Scalera, Maurizio Colacicchi and Luigi Alva, and is currently studying in Italy with the baritone Roberto Servile.
In 2013 he won Second Prize at the Peruvian National Competition for Opera Singers, and the following year he gave many solo recitals in Peru. In 2015 he won the Concorso Internazionale di Canto ‘Premio Etta e Paolo Limiti’, going on to sing in Mercadante’s Francesca da Rimini at the Festival della Valle d’Itria in Martina Franca, conducted by Fabio Luisi; he returned the following year in Verdi’s Un giorno di regno.
In 2021 he won First Prize in the Don Plácido Domingo Ferrer Prize of Zarzuela and the Rolex Audience Prize at the Operalia Competition. Recent and future engagements include the lead tenor roles in La traviata in Venice, Rimini, Florence and Rome, Falstaff in Turin, L’arlesiana in Berlin, Il corsaro in Piacenza, I Capuleti e i Montecchi in Rome and at the Puccini Festival in Torre del Lago, L’elisir d’amore in Las Palmas and Bari, Rigoletto in Florence (under Fabio Luisi), Liège (under Daniele Gatti), Turin, Palermo, Rome, Venice and Tokyo, Don Pasquale and Gianni Schicchi at the Liceu in Barcelona, Eugene Onegin and Otello at the Vienna Staatsoper, Faust in Venice and Les contes d’Hoffmann in Sydney and Venice. He made his debut at La Scala as Malcolm in Macbeth.
For Opera Rara, he sang the role of Arturo Murray in Mercadante’s Il proscritto, which won the 2023 International Opera Award for Best Opera Recording.
