MASTERCLASS IN HONG KONG – MARCH 8th – 2-5pm

Singers or music lovers in Hong Kong – Tenor Robert Macfarlane and I invite you to attend or participate in a Masterclass for Vocal Music this coming March 8th.

Whether you are a professional voice user seeking to build your technique or simply singing for pleasure and want to find greater ease, freedom and joy in singing, Elena and I have the knowledge, skills and experience to take your voice to the next level.

We have over 40 years of professional singing experience in venues such as the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, English National Opera, The Sydney Opera House and the National Opera of Lyon. As teachers, we have taught professionals and amateurs alike, with former students ending up winning major competitions and attending prestigious schools such as the Schola Cantorum Basel. We have also performed and taught vocal techniques for diverse singing styles including Opera, Oratorio, Lieder, Jazz, Pop and extended vocal techniques.

Whatever you hope to achieve with your singing, we would love to hear you and help you embrace and share the amazing gift that is the human voice!

If you would like more details, please feel free to reach out to either of us at our WhatsApp numbers or Instagram

@mselenaxan

@robbiemacfarlanemusic

Individual lessons are available March 6-25th near Central – message for details.

 

Robert Macfarlane – Tenor

Tenor, Composer and Stage Director Robert Macfarlane enjoys a busy, multi-faceted career in works from the late renaissance
to the present day. He studied at the Elder Conservatorium, The HMT-Leipzig “Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy” and was a Young Artist of the National Opera of Lyon. He was also a protégée of the late, great German tenor Peter Schreier. He has won
numerous awards including the 2020 Bayreuth Young Artist Award from the Wagner Society of Victoria.

Robert made his role debut as Cavaradossi in Puccini’s Tosca in November 2024, signalling an exciting new direction towards
more dramatic repertoire. 2025 will see Robert continue this trajectory with his debut as David in Wagner’s Die Meistersinger
von Nürnberg for Melbourne Opera, and planned performances as Herod in Strauss’ Salome in Asia and the UK.

Other recent roles include Tanzmeister in Strauss’ Ariadne auf Naxos conducted by Simone Young, the Japanese Envoy in Robert Lepage’s production of Stravinsky’s The Nightingale (Adelaide Festival), Malcolm/Macduff in Bruce Beresford’s production of Verdi’s Macbeth, Pong in Puccini’s Turandot for New Zealand Opera, Bob Boles in Britten’s Peter Grimes for the
Sydney Symphony and his widely celebrated portrayal of Mime in the Melbourne Opera Ring Cycle directed by Suzanne Chaundy and conducted by Anthony Negus. His concert work includes the Evangelist in the Passions of J.S Bach, Handel’s Messiah, Haydn’s Creation, Mozart’s Requiem and Mass in C Minor, Missa Solemnis, Christus am Ölberge
and 9th Symphony by Beethoven, Schubert’s Winterreise and the tenor works of Benjamin Britten for Melbourne, Adelaide, Sydney, New Zealand and Darwin Symphony Orchestras, the Magdeburg Philharmonie and Collegium 1704 (Prague)

His work as a stage director has showcased a fascinating cross-disciplinary approach, with his dramatisation of Buxtehude’s Membra Jesu Nostri, Arms of Love, with Song Company and indigenous dance group Karul Projects being hailed ‘a revelation’ and his Circus and Schubert Lieder rumination on mortality More Guilty Than The Poet described as ‘Ingenious and thought-provoking’. Operatic credits as a director include Handel’s Radamisto (Sydney) and Acis and Galatea (Genesis Baroque) which was described as a ‘fantastically inventive theatrical transformation’. He will soon direct Britten’s Turn of the Screw for iOpera.

His original music has been performed all over the world and his hilarious Covid anthem ‘My Opera Career’s Over’ was a grand finalist and prize-winner in the 2021 International Songwriting Competition.

 

Elena Xanthoudakis – Soprano

Award-winning and versatile Australian soprano Elena Xanthoudakis is an expressive performer whose enthusiastic reviews speak of her captivating and engaging performances.

Recent performances include Mimi in La Boheme for Melbourne Opera in Sept 2024, Ada Marini in ‘Mimma the Musical‘ at Teatro Verdi in Trieste in July, Lucia di Lammermoor for Melbourne Opera May 2024, TrioKROMA Returns recital in Melbourne June 2024. Other recent performances include, Verdi’s Requiem with the City of Glasgow Choir and Orchestra of Scottish Opera, Donna Anna for Scottish Opera’s Don Giovanni in their Access and Mainstage performances, and recitals in Glasgow’s Merchant City Hall. Elena also performed Ada Marini in a new Musical score ‘Mimma’ with the BBC Concert Orchestra at Cadogan Hall 2022.

Elena made seven new role debuts in the last four seasons before Covid including, the title role in Pia de’ Tolmei (ETO), Donna Anna Don Giovanni (Winslow Hall), both Anna Bolena and Maria Stuarda (Melbourne Opera), Violetta La Traviata (Winslow Hall) and Giulietta I Capuletti e i Montecchi (Greek National Opera) and performed Adina L’elisir d’amore (Singapore Opera), and Pamina Die Zauberfloete (Clarion Opera, NYC). Elena also made an impression role as Desdemona in another role debut in Rossini’s Otello for Melbourne Opera, late 2018 to enthusiastic reviews. (link)

In 2018, Elena also toured a gala programme of serious Rossini Opera (Fireworks) for the English Touring Opera. As well as, performing in three recitals and concerts at the Newcastle Music Festival, and a programme of Mozart & Donizetti for the Melbourne Musicians Chamber Orchestra.

Operatic roles include: Miss Schlesen Satyagraha (ENO), Lisa & Amina La Sonnambula (Royal Opera House, Covent Garden), Frasquita Carmen (Royal Opera House; ENO, Longborough Festival), Pamina Magic Flute (ENO), Gilda Rigoletto (Opera Queensland), Lucia Lucia di Lammermoor (Opera de Quebec; Winslow Hall), Clorinda La Cenerentola (Glyndebourne; Royal Opera House), First Niece Peter Grimes (Rome) & Jemmy Guillaume Tell with the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia with Pappano (Rome/BBC Proms), Xenia Boris Godunoff (Opera National du Rhin), Anne Truelove The Rake’s Progress ( OzOpera/VCA Opera), Adina L’elisir d’amore (Scottish Opera; Victorian Opera, Melbourne): Euridice and Genio L’anima del Filosofo (Pinchgut Opera, Sydney), La Contessa di Folleville, Il viaggio a Reims (Maggio Musicale, Florence).

Elena covered Gilda Rigoletto and Countess Adele Comte Ory for the Metropolitan Opera, NY and Matilde Matilde di Shabran, Iseme Mitridate, Re di Ponto and Micaela Carmen for the Royal Opera House, as well as numerous roles from Handel to Poulenc for the ENO including while part of the Harewood Young Artist Program.

Elena has performed with numerous orchestras including the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, the Royal Philharmonic (London), BBC Concert Orchestra, Orchestra Victoria, Sydney Philharmonia Orchestra, Tasmania Symphony, Melbourne Symphony, Orchestra de Quebec, Oxford Philomusica, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, St Petersburg Camerata, Verdi Orchestra, Milan and the Mozarteum Orchestra.

Elena has a wide range of concert engagements in Oratorio & Song repertoire from Bach, Vivaldi & Mozart, Delius & Strauss and everything in between. Elena has performed throughout Australia, the UK, Ireland, throughout Italy in concerts and recitals, as well as in Japan, Hong-Kong, St Petersburg, Montreal, Quebec-City, Germany and in the USA.

Elena has won numerous first prizes in competitions in Australia and Internationally, including winning the Maria Callas International Grand Prix, and the International Mozart Competition in Salzburg and both the female first-prize and overall Grand prize in the International Adam Didur Opera Singers Competition, Poland.

Other International prizes include being a multi-laureate at the Jeunesse Musicales – Voix, Montreal, Canada and is a prize-winner in Placido Domingo’s Operalia.

Elena Xanthoudakis studied at the VCA, University of Melbourne and at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, London, on scholarship, where she received her second Masters of Music with distinction. Elena also undertook studies in part of the young artist programme at the Maggio Musicale, Firenze and the Harewood Young Artist Programme ENO. Elena was awarded a Solti Foundation Award to undertake Italian language studies in Florence and has participated in masterclasses at the Opera Studio at the Accademia di Santa Cecilia, Rome with La Signora Scotto.

Elena is a Borletti-Buitoni Trust Artist.