Madeleine Holmes studied French and Italian at Cambridge and on ENO’s “Knack” programme for young singers and has since played Mimi and Musetta (La Bohème), Tatyana (Eugene Onegin), Giorgetta (Il Tabarro), Romilda (Xerxes) and Naiad (Ariadne auf Naxos). Last year she studied Massenet’s Manon in masterclass as a Crear scholar with Malcolm Martineau. She appeared as Mrs Lovett in Sondheim's Sweeney Todd at Dartington International Festival, and this year plays Lucy Barker in a staged production of the same musical at Huddersfield Town Hall.
Madeleine loves bringing new works to life and creating new characters, notably in the form of Eve and Dragonfly in new operas for Tete-a-Tete and the Arcola, and in the world premiere of Julian Philips’ dramatic monologue Life Lessens at the Wigmore Hall.
Equally passionate about song and obsessed with all things in Italian, Madeleine received a travel scholarship from the Finzi Trust to begin research into the little-performed 20th century Italian repertoire and performs regularly in recital with pianist Gavin Roberts (Song in the City, St Marylebone Festival, LSO St Lukes, ROH Clore ‘New Dots’ Symposium).
Recent oratorio appearances include Mozart Requiem (St Martin-in-the-Fields), Orff Carmina Burana and Haydn Creation (St John’s Waterloo), Bach St John Passion (St George’s Cathedral) and Mozart Coronation Mass (Anghiari Festival).
Madeleine further combines her love of words and music in her teaching work as a vocal tutor at Morley College and as vocal coach to The Actors’ Richmond Centre. She is a regular member of the professional church choir of St Etheldreda’s, Ely Place, and in her spare time she can most likely be found striding the Suffolk coastal paths or practising yoga on the beach.
Madeleine joins BCI’s faculty for a second time, this year in Prague.