biography

Soprano and actress Natalie Raybould read music at St. Edmund Hall, Oxford, and graduated with first class honours. She then attended the Royal Academy of Music to study with Joy Mammen and Clara Taylor, supported by Countess of Munster Trust and alumni funding, and graduated from Royal Academy Opera in 2002 with a Dip.RAM.

Natalie has developed a reputation for combining operatic flair with dramatic intensity, her extensive experience in both disciplines making her equally at home in operatic or theatrical productions. She has been critically acclaimed in the fields of both opera and contemporary music theatre, and brings her versatility to bear in long-standing collaborations with composers and the creation of new roles alike.

Natalie created the role of Female Narrator in the world première of Pinocchio (Will Tuckett) for ROH2 at The Royal Opera House, which toured the UK after a residence at the Linbury Studio, ROH, from December 2005 to February 2006. Pinocchio was also shown on the BBC in January 2006. She also created the role of Lover in the world première of Liebeslied/My Suicides (Clark/Blees Luxemberg/Duttman), a ground-breaking collaborative ICA/Genesis co-production. Other notable role creations include the soprano roles for Six Pack, the collection of operas commissioned by ENO Studio in collaboration with Tête à Tête, and The Girl in the English-language première of Hamelin (Ian Wilson) for Opera Theatre Company Ireland. She has worked with Almeida Opera, The National Theatre Studio, Aldeburgh Productions, SharpWire and The Opera Group in developing new operas, music theatre, and world première performances. In 2006/7 Natalie created the role of Jen in the multimedia one-woman opera The Girl Who Liked To Be Thrown Around (Michael Oliva) for madestrange Opera. She later performed this role for the Tête à Tête Riverside Festival and Grimborn Festival to rave reviews – “Natalie Raybould gave an intense, stunning and emotionally draining performance." (Audience feedback, Tête à Tête Riverside Festival). Most recently, Natalie both covered and performed the title role in The Opera Group’s UK tour of Varjak Paw by Julian Philips.

Natalie also brings her distinctive theatrical approach to the concert platform, and specialises in the most dramatic and challenging of contemporary repertory. She has performed Pierrot Lunaire (Schönberg) in many venues including the Concertgebouw, Amsterdam under Klaus Ager, Purcell Room, South Bank, and St. Magnus Festival, Orkney. Other concert experience includes Symphony 14 (Shostakovich), Les Illuminations (Britten), Akhmatova Songs (Tavener), Sequenza (Berio), Cinis (Donatoni), Ariadne (Elena Langer), and Requiescat (Elisabeth Lutyens), as well as many first performances of works written for her.

Natalie enjoys a close working relationship with the composer Cheryl Frances-Hoad. The chamber work The Glory Tree was written for Natalie, and she has performed it in many venues, including The Purcell Room and for the St. Magnus Festival in Orkney, to great acclaim - "It was another soprano, Natalie Raybould, who stole the show at Saturday lunchtime……Everything Raybould touched turned to gold” (Keith Bruce, The Herald). She has also recorded The Glory Tree with the Kreisler Ensemble for inclusion in Frances-Hoad’s debut CD, due for release by Toccata Classics in July 2009.

Natalie and Cheryl are currently collaborating on a one-woman music theatre work, Passing Afflictions, which will be in workshop as part of the Tête à Tête Opera Festival 2009.

Upcoming performances include Ligeti's Aventures et Nouvelles Aventures for Charles Court Opera and the world première of Alex Hill's Everything in Life can be Montaged, June 2009.