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Marta Fontanals-Simmons

@martafontanals

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🇬🇧🇪🇸 Mezzo
🔜@royalballetandopera @thegrangefestival @bregenzerfestspiele @thecbso @wienerkonzerthaus @konzerthaus_do @elbphilharmonie @bbcsso

POSTS STORIES REELS

I spent a very enjoyable hour with Sean Rafferty @rafferty803 on @bbcradio3 InTune talking about my upcoming recital with @simon_lepper for the Glenarm Festival of Voice @northernirelandopera.

We talked about our programme ‘From the Salons of Great Women’ which celebrates the musical worlds of four mega talented, highly original and super supportive women: Fanny Mendelssohn, Pauline Viardot, Elizabeth Sprague-Coolidge and Winnaretta Singer-Polignac.

Here is a clip of Hai Luli by Pauline Viardot. The other songs performed live were Gluck ‘Che faro senza Euridice’ (1h10m in) de Falla ‘Polo’ (1h25m in) and Ethel Smyth’s ‘After Sunset’ (1h37m in). Huge thanks to the totally wonderful pianist Gavin Roberts @gavrobpianist for his beautiful playing.

The recital will be on Saturday 26th Sept and the @bbcradio3 broadcasts will focus on each Salon with the recitals of Robin Tritschler @robintritschler and James Atkinson @james_atkinson94 between 19-22nd September.

You can listen to InTune for a month here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001pn43?partner=uk.co.bbc&origin=share-mobile

#radio3 #mezzosofinstagram #womencomposers #singing #operasinger #lieder by @martafontanals

It’s 10 years to the day since Aurora performed its first memorised @bbc_proms - Mozart’s 40th Symphony!

Here’s Aurora in rehearsals for Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony today with the @nationalyouthchoir, @bbc_singers and four fabulous soloists @masabane_cecilia_rangwanasha @martafontanals @brendengunnell and @christopherpurves, almost ready for Aurora’s next memorised Prom on Wednesday. by @martafontanals

F E S T E N
@turnagetime #leehall
@royalballetandopera
February 2025

Where to begin with this one? Sometimes I can be overly effusive about the projects I do, but with this one I think it’s allowed!
The path to Linda has been the most soulful journey of my career. I have challenged myself to find my most vulnerable, free and naked self whilst on one of the greatest stages in the world. It hasn’t been easy, and I don’t think a moment has passed where I have been fully at ease, and yet with this phenomenal cast and team I have felt seen, supported, respected and enabled. Such things I am lucky enough to take for granted.
I feel a deep pride and gratitude to be part of a group of people who value the power and freedom of Art as a mirror. Perhaps some things are too hard to talk about and certainly there is much in this world too awful to cope with in one lifetime, but we shouldn’t look away when things get tough, in fact, we should take a longer, closer look and especially in the mirror. This opera, Festen, has taken a lot of trust by a lot of people and now we are trusting the audience with it too. So much care has gone into it and my hope is that those who come to see it or read about it, will be provoked by it - to look again, to listen again, to take action, and certainly to feel something deeply and profoundly.

For all the huge number of people involved in this production, you have all been incredible and supportive and kind, thank you and Toi Toi Toi.

For anyone who may be affected by themes in the opera, there are wonderful charities that are here for you:
https://napac.org.uk
https://thesurvivorstrust.org
https://www.samaritans.org/

All my love xxxxx

Photos by @marcsbrenner

#firstnight #worldpremiere #festen #markanthonyturnage #leehall #opera #contemporaryopera #newmusic #creative #art by @martafontanals

4.48 Psychosis 5 Ever

🖤🪳💡

Composer: @philipvenables
Text: Sarah Kane
Director: @tedddrh
Conductor: @woonaomiwoo
Asst. Director: @harriet_taylor
Asst. Conductor: @micah__gleason
Designer: Hannah Clark
Lighting Designer: @diem.wood
Movement Directors: @rcannie_ltd (@raecbw + Ruth Cooper-Brown)
Orchestra: @chromaensemble
Reps: @bensmithkeys_ + @berrakdyer

Gwen: @jacquelynstucker
Jen: @hannahedmunds1
Suzy: @sophiamburgos3
Clare: @vakamamakia
Emily: @lozbyoung
Lucy: @martafontanals

SMs: @harrietkennedy4174 @tobias.millard
Producers: @a.darraghkelly @chibbs @g_cook by @martafontanals

🌀 4.48 PSYCHOSIS 🌀

This will need more than one post and I realise now I’m not equipped to write it on the morning of our final show, so I will come back and edit! But I wanted to share photos of the incredible people involved in this unforgettable experience. With thanks and love to everyone involved. Toi Toi Toi one last time.
I am lost for words 🩶

The beautiful ladies:
@lozbyoung @vakamamakia @sophiamburgos3 @hannahedmunds1 @jacquelynstucker

Conductor @woonaomiwoo @micah__gleason
Director @tedddrh @harriet_taylor
Composer @philipvenables
Reps @bensmithkeys_ @berrakdyer
SM @harrietkennedy4174 @tobias.millard
Producers @g_cook @a.darraghkelly @chibbs
Movement @rcannie_ltd
Drama Therapists #Patriciaojehonmon #kathrinequiller
Design #hannahclark
Lighting @diem.wood
Ensemble @chromaensemble @claireshov @delia_percussion @catherine_percussion
@royalballetandopera

With respect and gratitude to the hard work and love that the original casts and crews gave and whose fingerprints are indelibly pressed upon this work. by @martafontanals

At Florence Fest our trio, The Erda Ensemble, premiered Robert Peate’s Five Fairyland Songs 🧚‍♀️ Written for mezzo-soprano, flute and harp these 5 songs set text by Shakespeare and include a guest appearance from a triangle 🔺 and a church bell 🔔. We are extremely grateful to the Delius Trust for generously supporting this new work, to @stpeterslimpsfield for facilitating the commission and to Graham Dixon for all his help making this Delius-inspired new work happen in the church where Delius is buried.

🔔 Special thanks to the most aptly named bell ringer in town, David Bell, for ringing at the perfect spots from the bell tower (and to @abihydesmith for drop calling him at the precise spots!).

📸 Many thanks too to @rw_crowley for these brilliant pictures

#florencefest #delius #erdaensemble by @martafontanals

in London for the @royalballetandopera Linbury Studio PREMIERE of @philipvenables 4.48 PSYCHOSIS — we are so back, fam by @martafontanals

2025-2026 Highlights

‘Enemigo del Pueblo’ - Francisco Coll
Creating the role of Marta and premiering Coll’s first full length opera with amazing cast, creatives, teams and esteemed director Alex Rigola at Les Arts Valencia and Teatro Real Madrid.

The Erda Ensemble - continuing to augment our trio repertoire with new commissions and performing rarely heard music from women composers at venues around the UK.

Premiering new chamber works by Eleanor Alberga, Gavin Higgins, Taylor-Leigh Payne and an oratorio by Ed Picton-Turberville

Oratorio concerts at The Royal Albert Hall, Bath Abbey, Barbican Centre, Wells Cathedral.

‘Songs of Separation’ - Carlos Simon
With Brussels Philharmonic and Kazushi Ono

‘Das lied von der Erde’ - Mahler
London premiere of new arrangement for 16 players at Sinfonia Smith Square

‘The Galloping Cure’ - Missy Mazzoli
Workshopping and covering the role of Dr Theresa Hart in premiere performance with Scottish Opera at The Edinburgh Festival

This was a season that taught me a lot about my worth as an artist. To concur with a recent article, despite creating really fantastic work at some of the most reputable venues in the world, I struggled to pay my way last season. The cost of living and working is too high for the low fees and short runs. The guilt of this is something I struggle with as every contract taken is time away from my son and stress added to my family. Fees haven’t increased in any structured way in fact most have decreased. Certainly the pandemic is one factor but there are so many more. I don’t think I can change this but I can certainly stop thinking that my worth or value as a person is in any way linked to the arbitrary fees offered to me. So I encourage us all to double check that the fee / expenses offered to you ‘is the best they can do’ (because usually it isn’t!) but mainly to know that you are bloody worthwhile and have every right to do your job and do it well.
It’s just not good enough to ask freelancers to cover an entire industry’s financial short fall and you shouldn’t have to.

X by @martafontanals

🎠THE G A L L O P I N G CURE 🎠
Composer @missymazzoli
Librettist @rvavrek
Director Tom Morris
Associate Director Leah Hausman
Conductor @stratford.stuart
@scottishopera @edintfest

This was a beautiful opera to work on. I have been an admirer of this creative team for a while and jumped at the chance to be part of the workshop process of their new opera. The story, drawn from lived experiences and filtered through the poetic surrealism of Kafka and Karen Russell, centres on a small community that’s promised a pain free future but with devastating and seemingly never ending ramifications. The role of Doctor Theresa Mack was, even from the first glimpses a deliciously conflicted, tragically beautiful and at times intoxicatingly messy woman to inhabit. Her words and music burn with a truthful mix of vulnerability and power. It was a dream role to explore and witness the piece be formed and then performed which such commitment and love by the stellar cast. Love and Congratulations to everyone involved both at the Edinburgh Festival and when it travels to @norrlandsoperan and beyond.

A brief selection of photos from an unforgettable few weeks in bonny Scotland.
1: Missy’s beautiful hand written score
2-4: at Theatre Royal Glasgow, rehearsing Horse Wars & the amazing cast
5-8: Festival Theatre Edinburgh outside and in, with @dbarrettone, @breathesingrach, @graceturnaround, @sandrabendrik
9: Curtain call
10: Water of Leith
11: birthday celebrations with Monty and Mike on Loch Lomand
12: England & Scotland Commonwealth Netball matches
13: watching @yujawang.official with @jazzdotorg @usherhall by @martafontanals

10th September 6pm - Recital at Bechstein Hall
New Paths Collective
Marta Fontanals-Simmons (mezzo)
Libby Burgess (piano)
Jane Atkins (viola)

Programme:
Schubert - Arpeggione Sonata in A minor, D. 821
Britten - Charm of Lullabies
Grace Williams - Songs of Sleep
Brahms - Op 91 for voice, viola and piano

New Paths Music Festival present a new series of rush-hour performances pairing song cycles by Britten (who died 50 years ago this year) with major instrumental sonatas.

This evening’s recital opens with Schubert’s lyrical masterpiece, the Arpeggione Sonata. The concert is centred around Britten’s cycle, A Charm of Lullabies. In it, Britten sets five diverse texts unified by the themes of night and sleep, including poems by Burns and Blake.

These themes are echoed in Grace Williams’ mystical Songs of Sleep – settings poetry of Fletcher, Campion and Tennyson. Finally in Geistliches Wiegenlied (Sacred Lullaby) the Virgin Mary asks the wind and trees of the forest to be still so her baby can sleep in peace: the luscious sonorities of viola and mezzo-soprano combine in Brahms’ much-loved Viola Songs.

https://bechsteinhall.com/events/a-charm-of-lullabies/ by @martafontanals

We’ve arrived in London for the start of our 10th birthday mini-tour. What a city! Home to so many of our festival artists, it’s the natural place for New Paths Collective to kick things off.

Join us at Bechstein Hall today (Tue 8th Sep) and Thursday (10th Sep) for a pair of rush hour concerts, which combine Britten song cycles with major instrumental sonatas.

Tickets (£20) available from Bechstein Hall. We can’t wait to see you there at 6pm tonight and Thursday.

From Yorkshire to London with love 🧡 by @martafontanals