Programme Information:
Landscapes of Love and Dreams
Jessica Hopkins — Soprano
Nico de Villiers — Piano
Francis Poulenc
Fiançailles pour rire (FP101)
La Dame d'André
Dans l'herbe
Il vole
Mon cadavre est doux comme un gant
Violon
Fleurs
Samuel Barber
The Daisies (op. 2, no. 1)
Amy Beach
Ah, Love, But A Day (op. 44, no. 2)
The Year’s at the Spring (op. 44, no. 1)
Samuel Barber
Sure on this shining night (op. 13, no. 3)
Richard Strauss
Four Selected Songs
Begegnung (WoO 72)
Nachtgang (op. 29, no. 3)
Cäcilie (op. 27, no. 2)
Morgen (op. 27, no. 4)
——Interval——
Claude Debussy
Proses Lyrique (L90)
De rêve
De grève
De fleurs
De soir
William Bolcom
Selections from Cabaret Songs
Waitin’
Toothbrush Time
Meet the Musicians:
Jessica Hopkins
Soprano Jessica Hopkins is currently studying for a PGDip in Vocal Performance under Mary Plazas at the Royal Northern College of Music, where she previously completed her MMus.
During her time at the RNCM, Jessica has won the Frederic Cox Award for Singing, the Joyce and Michael Kennedy Award for the Singing of Strauss, and Clonter Opera’s Betty Bannerman Award for French Song. Prior to this, Jessica graduated with a Double First from Clare College, Cambridge, where she read Music as a choral scholar and was awarded the Donald Wort Prize, the Royalton-Kisch Prize for Music, and several academic prizes over the course of her studies.
Opera roles Jessica has performed include Giulia in Rossini’s La Scala di Seta (RNCM), Snow Maiden in Rimsky-Korsakov’s The Snow Maiden (RNCM), Maria Bertram in Dove’s Mansfield Park (RNCM), Cendrillon in Massenet’s Cendrillon (Bedfordshire Youth Opera), Clorinda in Rossini’s La Cenerentola (Aylesbury Opera), and Marianna in Rossini’s Il Signor Bruschino (Edinburgh Fringe). Later this year, Jessica looks forward to singing the role of Annina in Verdi’s La Traviata for the Musique Cordiale International Festival and Adina in Donizetti’s The Elixir of Love for Aylesbury Opera.
As a regular oratorio and concert soloist, Jessica has performed repertoire including Brahms’s Ein deutsches Requiem; Vivaldi’s Gloria; Handel’s Messiah, Saul and Samson; Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater; Parry’s Ode on the Nativity; and Rutter’s Requiem under Rutter himself; as well as Mozart’s Requiem, Vesperae solennes de confessore, Coronation Mass and Regina Coeli K108. In May this year, Jessica also made her debut at the Wigmore Hall performing Nico Muhly’s Endless Space.
Jessica appeared as a Young Artist with the Buxton International Festival for their 2022 and 2023 seasons, performing in the chorus for Rossini’s La donna del lago and Bellini’s La Sonnambula, and she looks forward to performing in the chorus for Mozart’s The Magic Flute with Opera North this Autumn.
Jessica is extremely grateful to Help Musicians UK, the Tillett Trust, the Colin Keer Trust, the D’Oyly Carte Charitable Trust, and the Waverley Fund for their support towards her studies this year.
Nico de Villiers
Nico de Villiers is a British-South African pianist, coach, and author. He holds degrees from the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, the University of Michigan, as well as the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Nico was the recipient of the ABRSM International Undergraduate Scholarship, a University of Michigan Teaching Assistant Scholarship, and scholarships from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama scholarship fund.
He performed as soloist, accompanist and chamber musician in prestigious venues such as the Queen Elizabeth Hall and Royal Festival Hall in London’s Southbank Centre, the Barbican and St. Martin-in-the-Fields in London; Birmingham Symphony Hall; the Kammermusiksaal in Bonn, Germany; the Mozarteum Grosser Saal in Salzburg, Austria; the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, the Netherlands, and the Terrace Theatre at the Kennedy Center in Washington DC. Duo partners have included singers such as Chen Reiss, Siobhan Stagg, Barbara Bonney, William Berger, and Matthew Rose. Festival performances include the Salzburg Festival, Edinburgh Festival, Oxford Lieder Festival, Chopin Birthday Festival in Warsaw, Poland, and the International Johannesburg Mozart Festival in South Africa.
Nico is the Deputy Head of Vocal Studies in the School of Vocal Studies and Opera at the Royal Northern College of Music. He previously served as a vocal coach on the vocal faculties of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, the Royal College of Music, Trinity Laban Conservatory in London, and the University of Michigan School of Music. As researcher, Nico’s focus has been on the vocal music of Dutch-American composer Richard Hageman. In addition to publishing articles in Classical Singer and Opera Magazine, Nico co-authored Richard Hageman: From Holland to Hollywood (Peter Lang, 2020), the first critical biography on Richard Hageman, with co-authors Kathryn Kalinak and Asing Walthaus. In 2022, Nico collaborated with soprano Siobhan Stagg in recording Voices: Songs by Richard Hageman (Aloud Records), the first album solely dedicated to Hageman’s songs. Nico’s forthcoming monograph on Richard Hageman — Song Composer (Peter Lang) is due for release in November 2024.