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The Welsh soprano, Ruby Hughes, is the daughter of the celebrated Welsh ceramicist Elizabeth Fritsch. She gained a First Class Distinction Concert Diploma in Concert and Song at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater, Munich, and was awarded a Royal Philharmonic Society Susan Chilcott Award. A former Samling Scholar, she gained a full scholarship to study with Lillian Watson at the Royal College of Music in London, graduating in July 2009. She is a BBC New Generation Artist and Winner of both First Prize and the Audience Prize at the 2009 London Handel Singing Competition.
Selected by Opera Now as amongst “Who’s Hot in Opera”, Ruby Hughes made her debut at the Theater an der Wien in October 2009 as Roggiero in Tancredi conducted by René Jacobs, returning as Fortuna in L’Incoronazione di Poppea. She has sung the title role in Atalanta and Cleofide in Poro at the London Handel Festival, Michal in Saul at the Buxton Festival Euridice in L’Orfeo at the Aix-en-Provence Festival with René Jacobs, Minerva in The Return of Ulysses for English National Opera, She in King Arthur for the Lautten Compagney Berlin, The Statute in Pygmalion for the Early Opera Company, Argene in L’Olimpiade for Garsington Opera and Rose Maurrant in Street Scene for The Opera Group. Further engagements have included Silvia in L’isola disabitata (Bonno) with Pablo Heras-Casado at the Festival Internacional de Música Antigua, Madrid, the title role in Erismena for New Chamber Opera, Lucinda in Don Chischiotte in Sierra Morena for Musikwerkstatt Wien, George Frideric Handel’s Tragic Heroines for Classical Opera, Sandrina in L’infedelta delusa for Potsdamer, Narcissa in Philemon und Baucis at the Musikfestspiele Potsdam Sanssouci and Rose Maurrant in Street Scene at the Opéra de Toulon. She also appeared in Sir Jonathan Miller’s production of J.S. Bach’h St Matthew Passion (BWV 244) at the National Theatre.
In concert, Ruby Hughes has sung under conductors including Jan Tomasz Adamus, Celso Antunes, Arie van Beek, Steuart Bedford, Frieder Bernius, Avner Biron, Olof Boman, Douglas Boyd, Harry Christophers, Jonathan Cohen, Laurence Cummings, Christian Curnyn, Paul Daniel, Paul Goodwin, Andrew Gourlay, HK Gruber, Philippe Herreweghe, Wolfgang Katschner, Robert King, Juanjo Mena, Marc Minkowski, Gianandrea Noseda, Ian Page, Philip Pickett, Daniel Reuss, Pascal Rophé, Andreas Spering, Christoph Spering, Philipp von Steinaecker, John Storgårds, Takuo Yuasa and Johannes Wildner, and with ensembles such as the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, Les Arts Florissants, BBC Concert Orchestra, BBC Philharmonic, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Les bijoux indiscrets, Capella Cracoviensis, Cappella Amsterdam, Le Concert Lorrain, Huddersfield Choral Society, Israel Camerata Orchestra Jerusalem, The King’s Consort, London Handel Players, London Mozart Players, Manchester Camerata, Munich Radio Orchestra, Musica Saeculorum, Das Neue Orchestra, the New London Consort, Orchestre de Picardie, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Philharmonia Orchestra, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra, Stuttgarter Kammerorchester and Zürich Chamber Orchestra.
Festival appearances include Buxton, Cheltenham, Edinburgh, Eisenstadt Haydn, Göttingen, Schwetzingen, Potsdam, London Handel, Mananan, Nuremberg and St Endellion.
Her broadcasts and recordings include J.S. Bach’s Christmas Cantatas (SR2), J.S. Bach’s Wie freudig ist mein Herz (Fra Bernardo/ORF CD), a Handel 250th Anniversary Concert (RTÉ Lyric fM - broadcast to the EU as part of the G.F. Handel celebrations), Samuel Barber’s Knoxville: Summer of 1915, Chausson’s Poème de l”amour et de la Mer, Alban Berg’s 7 frühe and Altenberg Lieder, Benjamin Britten 4 Chausson Francaise and Phaedra, Debussy’s Le livre de Baudelaire, Dowland songs, Gabriel Fauré Mélodies, Grieg’s Peer Gynt, Haydn’s Arianna a Naxos and Scena di Berenice, Gustav Mahler’s Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen and Rückert Lieder, W.A. Mozart’s Ch’io mi scordi di te, Schubert Lieder, Robert Schumann Lieder, Sibelius’ The Tempest, Richard Strauss Lieder (BBC Radio 3), G.F. Handel’s Chandos Anthems (Polish Radio), Saul (Netherlands Radio), Handel on Tour (BR-Klassik), Messiah (ORF CD), Philemon und Baucis (Deutschlandradio Kultur), Montsalvatge’s Sinfonia de Requiem (Chandos CD), Dowland’s Lachrime (Alpha CD) and Orphée - French Cantatas from the Göttingen Festival (NDR).
Ruby Hughes appeared with Julius Drake at the 2012 West Cork Chamber Music and will return in 2013. Current engagements include Ella in In the Locked Room for Scottish Opera, Gismonda in Ottone at the Theater Magdeburg with Le Concert Lorrain, J.S. Bach’s Magnificat (BWV 243) and G.F. Handel’s Dixit Dominus at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, Crudel tiranno Amor with Arte dei Suonatori in Copenhagen and London, Gorecki’s Symphony of Sorrowful Songs at the 2013 BBC Proms, Messiah with the Dunedin Consort, the London Handel Players and the Ulster Orchestra, Peter Maxwell Davies’ The Devils with the BBC Concert Orchestra, W.A. Mozart Arias on tour with the Israel Camerata, The Indian Queen at the Schwetzinger Festival with Le Concert Spirituel, Ralph Vaughan Williams’ Symphony No. 3 with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Awake, sweet love at King’s Place, Christmas Concerts with the Bremen Philharmonic, a Wigmore Hall recital with Julius Drake and her debut at the 2013 Kammermusikfest Lockenhaus. |
