Second Year student Ben Fletcher has had a busy few months of singing. He originally took on the challenging role of Miles in Britten’s Turn of the Screw at Garsington Opera, Buckinghamshire, performing throughout the summer. He then spent two weeks in Budapest in August rehearsing the same role with Ivan Fischer and the Budapest Festival Orchestra. This led to highly acclaimed performances in Budapest in early September, with Ben’s performance being specially praised in one review as “mind-blowing brilliance”. The review also mentioned Ben’s performance of “Miles’s Malo song [which] was sung by Fletcher with heart-breaking beauty”.
In October Ben was then invited to sing solos in Handel’s L’Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato with William Christie (left) and Les Arts Florissants in San Sebastian. Les Arts Florissants are one of the most sought-after baroque vocal and instrumental groups on an international level, and opened the classical music season at the Centro Kursaal. The technical demands for this performance were significant and quite different from the Britten opera, but Ben again excelled, garnering outstanding reviews. One critic from Platea magazine said Ben’s performance “literally blew me away. He showed an enviable self-confidence on stage and the final ovation he received from the audience in his individual greeting was tremendous.”
Finally, Ben re-joined the Budapest Festival Orchestra to perform Britten’s The Turn of The Screw in the Olympic Theatre, Vicenza, the oldest covered theatre in the world. Not surprisingly, Ben again was favourably reviewed with the Telegraph calling it a “totally accomplished performance”.
While being able to take up these incredible opportunities to perform on an international stage, Ben is supported by his teachers at Trinity to keep on top of his schoolwork and manage his professional commitments.
At Trinity, Ben sings in the Concert Choir, Choristers and NINE, and so has returned to school to join in with the busy schedule of performances coming up for Christmas.
Many congratulations to Ben for these outstanding achievements.
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