Glyndebourne’s Jerwood Young Artists, Matthew Fletcher (piano)

They’re all stars and already delivering great things. This year’s programme ran the full gamut of emotions, beginning with a comic blast. In a scene like a mini opera, Rossini’s randy valet, Dandini, was posing as Cinderella’s love-sick Prince. The rich, mellifluous baritone voice of Hector Bloggs transformed the Dome into an opera house. His story-telling was enchanting and the twinkle in his eye a delight. So too was his bel canto singing. Passages as difficult as Rossini could make them sounded so easy, so comic – that’s skill! He later gave us a tragic piece of Mahler, and then completed the whole programme adorably with the tragi-comic tale of the whale with the ’flu, a real show stopper. With a voice you’ll remember, a name you won’t forget and a personality that embraced the whole auditorium, this lad’s going far.

Hector Bloggs (baritone) © Beth Clarence

After the Rossini came Mozart, with Oliver Williams as Don Giovanni and Angelina Dorlin-Barlow as Zerlina. Initially he was rather stiff and later even more formal as Wolfram, Wagner’s love-lorn Minnesinger, but his clear baritone did all the work for him. Then he got us all laughing as he mellowed wonderfully in Great Things, a lusty setting of Thomas Hardy by John Ireland.

Oliver Williams (baritone)

Angelina Dorlin-Barlow’s character began suitably weedy, clearly in awe of the dastardly Don, until the very end of their duet when she got the message and saucily took the lead. She then changed gear completely to sing the male rôle of Idamante with a very convincing grief-stricken aria. Her third song was the beautifully sustained setting by Korngold of Christina Rossetti’s When I am dead, my dearest.

Angelina Dorlin-Barlow (mezzo) © Gerard Demattio

After the Mozart came Verdi, and the voice. Liam Forrest has the stature, voice and personality for the great Verdi rôles. His first offering was Macduff’s heart-wrenching lament for his slaughtered children; his first notes completely filled the auditorium – sonorous, full of character and yet promising more. This came with his heroic high notes and then again with the contained sweetness of his Alfredo in the duet from La traviata, where he was very careful not to swamp the beautiful singing of Seohyun Go as Violetta. Later in the programme they both sang Strauss, she sparkling and stratospheric to tell the tale of Amor and he in fullest romantic flow singing Cäcilie.

Liam Forrest (tenor)

As so often with Strauss, I was left breathless afterwards so Seohyun Go’s third song, the tender Returning Flower, in her own language of Korean, was a treasured moment. She too can break the heart – her Violetta, Butterfly, Mimi must all be devastating!

Seohyun Go (soprano) © Vanity Studios

Holding all this together was the magical Matthew Fletcher who can make the Steinway piano evoke so many different scenarios, atmospheres and emotions. He was clearly enjoying the performances as much as we were.

Matthew Fletcher (piano)

These weren’t just well sung audition numbers but a delightfully curated concert, four voices we can hope to hear again, often and soon.

Andrew Connal
Brighton Dome
18 May 2026

Rating:

Jerwood Young Artists, Glyndebourne
Seohyun Go – soprano
Angelina Dorlin Barlow – mezzo-soprano
Oliver Williams – baritone
Hector Bloggs – baritone
Liam Forrest – tenor

Matthew Fletcher – piano

Programme:
Rossini – La Cenerentola: Come un’ape ne’giorni d’aprile
Mozart – Don Giovanni: à ci darem la mano
Mozart – Idomeneo: Il padre adorato
Verdi – Macbeth: O figli miei
Verdi – La traviata: Parigi, o cara
Wagner – Tannhäuser: Wie Todesahnung… O du, mein holder Abendstern
Mahler – Lieder eines fahrenden Ggesellen: Ich hab’ ein glühend Messer
Korngold – Sterbelied
Strauss – Amor
Strauss – Cäcilie
Taegyu Lim – Returning Flower
Ireland – Great Things
Flanders & Swann – The Whale (Mopy Dick)