Helen Charlston was recently a BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artist (2021-23), and finalist of the 2021 Kathleen Ferrier Awards for which she was a recipient of the Ferrier Loveday Song Prize. In 2023 she won a Gramophone Award for Best Concept Album, and collected the Vocal award at the BBC Music Magazine Awards, both for her second Delphian album: Battle Cry: the only recording that year to win at both ceremonies.
This season, Helen makes her debut at the Gran Teatre del Liceu as Sesto in Calixto Bieito’s production of Giulio Cesare conducted by William Christie, and sings Handel’s Messiah at BBC Proms with The Academy of St Martin in the Fields, Bach’s St John Passion with the Academy of Ancient Music, Bach’s Christmas Oratorio with WDR Köln under Simon Halsey, and also with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra under Václav Luks, and Bach’s Magnificat with RIAS Kammerchor under Justin Doyle in South Korea. In recital she performs Battle Cry with Toby Carr at Brucknerhaus Linz, with Sholto Kynoch at the Oxford International Song Festival, a programme of Handel with the Prague Philharmonia at Lobkowicz Palace, and she returns to Wigmore Hall.
Other opera appearances have included her debut at Versailles Royal Opera singing Dido in Purcell Dido & Aeneas, at Grange Festival singing Sorceress/Spirit in the same opera and most recently she covered the title role in Charpentier Médée at Opéra national de Paris. She has also toured two semi-staged productions with Les Arts Florissant and William Christie singing Dido and Rosmira in Handel Partenope across France and Canada.
Recent appearances on the concert platform include premieres of a new song cycle written for her as a companion piece to Schumann Dichterliebe by Héloïse Werner at the Oxford International Song Festival and Wigmore Hall, Bach B minor mass with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and Richard Egarr, as well as Mendelssohn’s Elijah
at the BBC Proms with Maxim Emelyanychev, Britten’s Phaedra live in concert with BBC Philharmonic, Handel's Messiah with the Warsaw Philharmonic, Czech Philharmonic, and Britten Sinfonia, Handel’s Judas Maccabaeus with the RIAS Kammerchor at the Berlin Philharmonie with Justin Doyle, Mahler Lieder eines fahrenden gesellen with BBC Philharmonic and Irene in Handel Theodora with the Philharmonia Baroque in San Francisco.
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Schumann and Mendelssohn recital with the Consone Quartet, Music at Paxton
(July 2024)
Charlston’s smooth tone blended gloriously with Heine’s dreamy verse [Auf Flügeln des Gesanges]... In this delightful recital with string quartet, Charlston with her creamy toned voice was assured and relished the challenges of the settings, especially the more intimate texts... Charlston displayed excellent diction and persuasive phrasing, providing a level of expression that demonstrated her attention to the meaning of the text.
Michael Cookson, Seen and Heard International
The full-bodied effect of the gut-stringed instruments and the strong alto voice is an immediate delight and continues to give pleasure throughout.
Kate Calder, Edinburgh Music Review
‘The Honour of William Byrd’, Chelys Consort of Viols
Cambridge Early Music Festival (February 2024)
Helen Charlston’s voice was the Consort’s perfect accompaniment… Helen Charlston, outstanding throughout the concert, was at her absolute best when singing some of these lengthier, elegiac poems to which she lent a noble and compelling seriousness: ‘With Lilies White’, ‘Fair Britain Isle’, ‘Come To Mee Griefe For Ever’. To the final words of Byrd’s ‘Ye Sacred Muses’, his elegy on the death of Thomas Tallis (‘Tallis is dead and Music dies’), she convincingly transmitted the emotion of Byrd’s own grief at the irreplaceable loss of his friend.
John Gilroy, Cambridge Independent
Glories of English Song, Wimbledon International Music Festival
(November 2023)
Charlston’s voice is truly exceptional. It is both lithe and multifaceted rather than opulent, which makes it ideal for the song repertory. The way she can modulate between emotional contrasts within a phrase, drawing on a variety of tonal colours in response to the text, is little short of miraculous… She conjured the sense of nature’s beauty within a dreamscape in a pair of Hardy settings by Gerald Finzi.
Barry Millington, The Standard****
A Poet’s Love with Sholto Kynoch, Oxford International Song Festival
(October 2023)
Charlston has a superbly clear timbre, exemplary intonation and diction, and an admirable way of bringing out the core emotions of these Heine settings, whether the intense sadness of Fanny Mendelssohn’s Schwanenlied or the rage and bitterness of so many Dichterliebe songs, where Kynoch supplied notable strokes of disruptive accentuation.
Richard Morrison, The Times****
Charlston sang Werner’s haunting, lyrical vocal line exquisitely, alert to every nuance of the text, including spoken interjections in English, amusingly turning on its head the line “Yet never a word would be spoken”.
Her radiant expressiveness reached its peak in Schumann’s Dichterliebe, Op 48, Heine’s romantic journey through bliss and disillusion towards apparent resignation and resolution. With supremely sensitive playing from Kynoch, Charlston made us struggle with her over all these emotional hurdles in a superb performance, both exhausting and elating.
Stephen Pritchard, The Observer*****
Bach B minor mass, Scottish Chamber Orchestra,
Usher Hall Edinburgh (October 2023)
But the real surprise, and extraordinary revelation of the evening, was the mezzo-soprano voice of Helen Charlston, heard in "Qui sedes a dextra" and latterly in the gorgeous Agnus Dei. This is a voice of mysterious depths, and luscious texture, produced seemingly without effort, sounding at times close to a counter-tenor but without the latter’s sense of artificiality. It seems like a contradiction to say that a voice that is so unusual should also be quite sublime, but it is true… The soulful Agnus Dei leaves you wanting more, especially with Charlston singing…
Christopher Lambton, The Arts Desk
With a luxury line-up of five top-notch vocal soloists… this was always going to be a Bach B minor mass to remember… The lusciously liquid tones of mezzo Helen Charlston provided an ideal vehicle for the deliberate tread of the thoughtful penultimate ‘Angus Dei’.
David Kettle, The Scotsman*****
CD: Purcell Dido & Aeneas, La Nuova Música
Pentatone PTC5187032 (September 2023)
…with mezzo Helen Charlston (a recent Dido for Les Arts Florissants) a luxurious First Witch
Alexandra Coghlan, Gramophone
CD: The Honor of William Byrd with Chelys Consort of Viols
BIS2663 (August 2023)
[Charlston] can give life to a line like few others; her diction is marvellous, and marvellously varied; everything flows with incomparable beauty.
Gramophone
Whether or not these vocal works were meant to be sung by male singers is debateable, but Helen Charlston’s rich, deep timbre make such distinctions irrelevant. Supple, controlled and vibrato free, she is sympathetically supported by a combination of treble, tenor and bass viols, which come into their own in Byrd’s complex but rhythmically appealing Fantasias.
John-Pierre Joyce, BBC Music Magazine****
Played by the Chelys Consort and flawlessly sung by the mezzo-soprano Helen Charlston, the whole thing is beautifully done.
Erica Jeal, The Guardian
Purcell Dido & Aeneas (Sorceress), The Grange Festival
(June 2023)
Meanwhile, aided by a gang of sinister witches determined to bring destruction to Dido and her city, Helen Charleston’s Sorceress infused menace into her mezzo
George Hall, Opera Now
As the Sorceress, Helen Charlston – striding the stage in black leather and boots – is terrifically imperious and wicked.
Claire Seymour, Opera Today
Helen Charlston's performance as the Sorceress was truly remarkable. Without a silly voice in sight and looking a million dollars in leather dress and heels, she commanded the stage from her first entrance - this was pure Cruella de Vil with an added sense of glee. Kirsty Hopkins and Katy Hill made gleeful, hyperactive witches, eager minions for Charlston's Sorceress to command. Charlston played the Spirit too, the Sorceress in disguise rather than a pseudo-mythic figure.
Robert Hugill, Planet Hugill
Mendelssohn Elijah, BBC Proms, Scottish Chamber Orchestra
Royal Albert Hall (July 2023)
The excellent mezzo Helen Charlston
Richard Morrison, The Times****
The star of the show, however, was the mezzo, Helen Charlston. The concentrated syrup of her voice made for an Angel full of tender compassion, and ‘Though they are by him redeemed’ was overflowing with sweet yearning; for her Jezebel, though, she found heft in her chest voice and a steely edge to the top of her range, giving us the consummate ‘evil queen’.
Barry Creasy, MusicOMH
…the soloists were beyond compare… the silvery grace of mezzo Helen Charlston
Michael Church, The Scotsman*****
Helen Charlston brought great beauty of tone and sense of line to her moments as the Angel, creating a significant effect in a small moment. Her aria 'Woe unto them' was plangently expressive and very moving, whilst as the Queen, Charlston was highly trenchant and implacable.
Robert Hugill, Planet Hugill
Handel Messiah, Irish Baroque Orchestra
Wigmore Hall (April 2023)
If the infinite depths sounded by Helen Charlston, most distinctive of contraltos, were the most moving thing in an astonishing evening… it seems only fair that the contralto, especially given Charlston’s star quality, gets the last number in Part Three (“If God be for us”)
David Nice, The Arts Desk*****
Helen Charlston sang the alto solos with a lovely straight tone and nice directness. 'O thou that tellest' combined seriousness of purpose with a nice rhythmic bounce, whilst 'He shall feed his flock' had a telling sense of understatement. 'He was despised' had a sense of movement to it, with shape to the accompaniment and Charlston's remarkably intimate delivery. Throughout her performance, you sensed the commitment to the words, which came over right through her final solo 'If God be for us.
Robert Hugill, Planet Hugill
Helen Charlston Opera Repertoire
| Britten | Albert Herring (Florence Pike) |
|---|---|
| Bernstein | Trouble in Tahiti (Dinah) |
| Dove | Tobias and the Angel (Sara) |
| Eccles | Semele (Juno) |
| Handel | Semele (Ino) |
| Monteverdi | Ballo delle ingrate (Venere) |
| Purcell | Dido and Aeneas (First Witch) |
| Rhiannon Randle | Dido is Dead (Dido) premiere |
| Tchaikovsky | Eugene Onegin (Olga) |
| Tom Smail | Blue Electric (Anna) premiere |
Helen Charlston Baroque Recital Material
| Byrd | Songs with Viol Consort: |
|---|---|
| Handel | Solo Cantatas (continuo only): |
| Monteverdi | Lamento d’Arianna |
| Purcell | Bess of Bedlam |
| Strozzi | Il Romeo |
| Telemann | Ihr Völker Hort |
Helen Charlston Song/Lieder Repertoire
| Berg | Sieben frühe Lieder |
|---|---|
| Brahms | Various, including: |
| Britten | Charm of Lullabies |
| Elgar | Sea Pictures (with orchestra and piano) |
| Haydn | Arianna a Naxos |
| Schubert | Various, including |
| Schumann | Frauenliebe und -leben (Op. 42) |
| Clara Schumann | Die gute Nacht, die ich sage dir |
| Tchaikovsky | Again as before alond |
Helen Charlston Oratorio Repertoire
| J.S. Bach | B Minor Mass |
|---|---|
| Beethoven | Symphony No. 9 |
| Buxtehude | Membra jesu nostri |
| Durufle | Requiem |
| Dvorak | Stabat Mater |
| Handel | Dixit Dominus |
| Haydn | Harmoniemesse |
| Mendelssohn | Elijah |
| Mozart | Coronation Mass |
| Pergolesi | Stabat Mater |
| Rutter | Feel the Spirit |
| Scarlatti | Missa para o Santissimo Natal |
| Stravinsky | Cantata |
| Tippett | A Child of our Time |
| Vivaldi | Gloria |
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