CAST
Daniella Sicari
Cinders / Maid Marion / Red Riding Hood
Daniella Sicari is a dynamic Australian-British soprano known for her vibrant stage presence and vocal versatility. A graduate of the Royal Northern College of Music and the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts, she brings a rich blend of training, charisma, and stylistic range to her performances.
Recent performance highlights include Norina in Don Pasquale (Longhope Opera, Haffner Orchestra & Diva Opera) and Maria in Maria de Rudenz (Gothic Opera). Daniella has also worked for Buxton International Festival, Bergen National Opera, Waterperry Opera Festival, Wild Arts UK and Clonter Opera.
Awards include Joyce & Michael Kennedy Strauss Prize, The Elizabeth Harwood Prize and Opera Box Arts Leadership Award. She was recently a finalist of the Southbank Sinfonia Peter Huslen Orchestra Song Prize and is currently supported by the Eugénie White Award, Tait Memorial Trust.
Daniella has performed in Liverpool many times including Poulenc’s Gloria with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Love Bytes (Pratt) with Ensemble 10:10 conducted by Clark Rundell at the Tung Auditorium and the premiere of A Most Wanted Man (Davismoon) at the Capstone Theatre. Upcoming engagements include Rossini’s Petite Messe Solennelle, at the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Hall and The Easy Rollers in the RLPO Music Room.
Hugo Herman Wilson
Hansel / Dr T
Hugo Herman-Wilson studied at King’s College, Cambridge and the Royal College of Music. He was a Young Artist for Les Arts Florissants Young Artist, Britten-Pears and Opera Prelude.
Engagements include Papageno in Damon Albarn’s Magic Flute II (Lido2 Paris), The Fairy Queen (Les Arts Florissants, Lincoln Center, La Scala, Philarmonie de Paris and on tour to South America and Spain), Notary The Sorcerer and Basilio Il Barbiere di Siviglia (Charles Court Opera), cover Monsieur Presto Les Mamelles de Tirésias and The Notary Don Pasquale (Glyndebourne), Dottore Grenvil La Traviata (Nevill Holt and Oxford Opera), debuts at the Lucerne, George Unescu, Tanglewood and BBC Proms festivals.
Concerts include Bach Cantatas (OAE and at the London Handel Festival),recitals at Wigmore Hall, SmorgasChord Festival, Aldeburgh Festival.
Lawrence Thackeray
Hunter
Mancunian tenor Lawrence Thackeray graduated from the Opera Course at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama in 2015, having first trained in acting at Salford University and in Musical Theatre at the Royal Academy of Music, before turning to opera in 2010 at Dublin’s DIT Conservatory.
His operatic roles include Rodolfo, Alfredo, Tamino, Nemorino, Peter Quint, Don José, and Eisenstein, performing with Glyndebourne, Opera North, Wexford Festival Opera, Garsington, and others.
On the concert stage he has sung major oratorios by Haydn, Britten, Verdi, Beethoven, and Handel, appearing at venues including The Barbican, LSO St Luke’s, and The National Concert Hall Dublin.
Lydia Shariff
Gretel / Griselda / Dr M
Lydia Shariff is a British mezzo-soprano and recent graduate of the Guildhall Opera School. Renowned for her “commanding” and “luxurious” tone, she is a versatile performer, equally at home in opera, song, and jazz repertoire.
In 2024, Lydia was a Wagner prize nominee in the International Vocal Competition in ’s-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands. She was a Britten Pears Young Artist (2023–2024), a Serena Fenwick Artist with British Youth Opera (2023), and a Sybil Tutton Award holder through Help Musicians. She is also a bursary recipient of the International Opera Awards Foundation.
Recent engagements include covering as the guest singer in the Royal Ballet and Opera’s performances of Like Water For Chocolate, performing the role of The Sorceress in Longborough Festival Opera’s production of Dido and Aeneas, and premiering the role of The Bird in Damon Albarn and Jeremy Sams new opera The Magic Flute II: The Curse at the Lido Theatre in Paris.
Madeleine Todd
Soprano chorus / Chrystal
Madeleine Todd is a Scottish-Irish lyric coloratura soprano. She has worked with the Bayreuther Festspiele chorus, Waterperry Opera Festival, Gothic Opera, and more.
A graduate of the Masters programme at Trinity Laban Conservatoire, where she was a Kathleen Roberts Vocal Scholar.
Her recent operatic performances include the role of Janthe in Der Vampyr (Gothic Opera), Barbarina in Le nozze di Figaro (Opera Anywhere), Annina (cover)/chorus in La Traviata (Leytonstone Summer Festival), and Wolf/chorus in Le dernier sorcier (Gothic Opera).
Madeleine is a founding member of voice and harp quintet Levedy Ensemble, with whom she has worked across the UK and Europe.
Olivia Bell
Mezzo chorus / Dr B
Olivia completed her performance master’s with distinction as Kathleen Roberts scholar at Trinity Laban Conservatoire, winning the Gold Medal. She previously read English at Queens’ College, Cambridge.
Last year she was appointed junior fellow at the Guildhall School, having graduated with distinction from their Opera Makers MA as a librettist.
Recent commissions include for the Royal Opera House and Carnegie Hall, with a full-scale youth opera, Spark, upcoming for Glyndebourne next November. She is in her second year of PhD study at the Guildhall, researching verbatim opera, inspired by The Hive.
Recent performance credits include First Witch [Dido and Aeneas, Hurn Court Opera]; Mother Goose [The Rake’s Progress, Aylesbury Opera]; King Harald’s Saga [King’s Place]; Haitch [Syllable,TheatreO]; and she is a company member with Opera Anywhere.
Valerie Wong
Soprano chorus / Dr A
Valerie Wong is a Hong Kong-born soprano acclaimed for her versatility in both opera and concert performance.
Her roles include Despina (Così fan tutte), La Fée (Cendrillon), Musetta (La Bohème), and Susanna (The Marriage of Figaro).
A 2025/26 Pegasus Opera Mentorship mentee, she has premiered contemporary works at the Tête à Tête Opera Festival and performed the UK premiere of Zhou Long’s The Konghou Fantasia.
Wong holds a Master of Performance from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and a Bachelor of Music (Honours) from the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts.
William Kyle
Bass chorus / Dr G
William is a baritone based in Manchester. He was a principal artist for Wexford Festival Opera, British Youth Opera and Merry Opera Company. He has also recently performed with Irish National Opera, Longborough Festival Opera, and at the Salzburg Festival.
William was previously a young artist at the Rossini Opera Festival and an Associate artist for Nevill Holt Opera. In Spring 2026, he will be joining English Touring Opera, covering Giuseppe in the Gondoliers, and performing in the ensemble of Pagliacci.
He is a long-standing member of Kantos Chamber Choir and has performed as a soloist with the RLPO.
William Semple
Bass chorus / Long John Silver
Baritone William Semple has recently completed his master’s studies at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland with distinction under the tutelage of Iain Paton and Cameron Burns, where he was generously supported by the RCS Trust.
During his time at RCS, he performed the role of Zalzal in the RCS Opera School’s production of Chabrier’s L’étoile, and also featured as bass soloist in Mozart‘s Requiem.
Other operatic roles include 1st Mate Billy Budd (New Palace Opera), Zaretsky & Captain Eugene Onegin (Bart’s Festival Chorus) and Junius The Rape of Lucretia (Trinity Laban Opera).
Recently, William performed the role of Judas & Pontifex 2 in Mendelssohn’s adaptation of Bach’s St. Matthew Passion at the Edinburgh International Festival with the Edinburgh Festival Chorus and the BBC SSO, conducted by Ryan Wigglesworth.
William continues his studies with Robert Dean.
Matthew Sotillo-Cooke
Tenor chorus / Dr J
Matthew is a British tenor currently based in London where he studied at the Royal Academy of Music with Richard Berkeley-Steele. Prior to his study in London, Matthew graduated with a first-class degree in French, Italian and Business from the University of Kent with a year spent at the Université de Neuchatel in Switzerland.
Over the course of his studies, Matthew performed numerous roles with the Royal Academy Opera and Academy Vocal Faculty. Highlights include a masterclass with Freddie de Tommaso and singing Monostatos, Erster Geharnischter & Zweiter Priester in Die Zauberflöte.
More recently, Matthew has appeared with the Grange Festival Chorus and Garsington Opera as an Alvarez Young Artist.
Matthew particularly enjoys performing Oratorio and recently has sung Mendelssohn’s Elijah, Mozart’s Requiem & C Minor Mass, Bach’s St John Passion (Evangelist) & Magnificat, Rossini’s Petite Messe Solenelle, Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis, and Handel’s Judas Maccabaeus & Messiah.
PRODUCTION TEAM
Francesca Lauri
Répétiteur
Francesca Lauri is sought after as a collaborative pianist specialising in song. She won the Help Musicians Accompanist’s prize at the 2025 Kathleen Ferrier Awards and the collaborative piano prize at the 2024 Royal Over-Seas League competition.
Francesca has been a young artist at Leeds Lieder, Britten Pears, Samling, Shipston Song, Oxford Song and the Wigmore French Song Exchange.
She graduated her masters in Collaborative Piano at the RCM with Honours, where she studied with Simon Lepper, Kathron Sturrock and Roger Vignoles. She is the current Lord and Lady Lurgan fellow for the RCM vocal department as well as a Viola Tunnard Young.
Daisey Friend
Stage Manager
Daisey Friend studied stage management accidentally while reading Classics at Pembroke College, Cambridge.
Credits include: Mazeppa (ASM, Grange Park Opera); Tosca (SM on Book, Oxford Opera); The Score (Cover ASM, West End), Jeeves Takes Charge (ASM, Ustinov Studio Bath); UK premiere of Donizetti’s Maria de Rudenz (ASM, Grange Park Opera).
She has worked on productions for Creation Theatre, Dorset Opera, Rose Theatre Kingston and the National Theatre and was ASM for Glyndebourne’s 2025 Autumn Season on La bohème and Sir Peter Hall’s iconic production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream.