Rebecca Ockenden  Soprano

BIOGRAPHY

Following a degree in Modern Languages (French and Russian) at Oxford University, Rebecca Ockenden embarked upon vocal studies at the Centre de Musique Baroque in Versailles. She has taken part in masterclasses or studied privately with Vera Rózsa, Régine Crespin, Noëlle Barker, Schuyler Hamilton, Stefan Haselhoff, Margreet Honig and Roswitha Müller.

Her début was at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées as Barbarina (Le Nozze di Figaro) under Jean-Claude Malgoire, and with the same conductor she had a leading role in Telemann’s Der Geduldige Socrates in France and Germany. She sang Pamina in Die Zauberflöte at the Goetheanum, Basel and Zerlina in Don Giovanni staged by André Engel at Royaumont. She was selected for the Académie Européenne de Musique in Aix-en-Provence for Die Zauberflöte (Erste Dame). Further produtions have included Purcell’s The Fairy Queen at Opéra de Lyon, Dido and Aeneas (Belinda), Cassandra in Cavalli’s La Didone at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw under Gabriel Garrido and Lully’s Roland conducted by René Jacobs at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées. Contemporary music is an important part of her repertoire and she has appeared in Pascal Dusapin’s Medeamaterial, in Mauricio Kagel’s Aus Deutschland at the Hessisches Staatstheater, Wiesbaden, and in Mela Meierhans’ Shiva for Anne at the Berliner Festspiele.

William Christie engaged her for a series of productions with Les Arts Florissants: CD recordings of Desmarest’s Grands Motets Lorrains and Rameau’s Zéphyre, following a concert in the Cologne Philharmonic Hall, Venus in Purcell’s King Arthur on tour in the United States, and Monteverdi and Gesualdo madrigals, choreographed by Jiří Kylián at the Paris Opéra Garnier. She interpreted the role of Juno in Monteverdi’s Il Ritorno d’Ulisse in Patria in Paris, London, Vienna and New York, a production by Adrian Noble that was filmed for DVD by Virgin Classics.

She regularly sings oratorio, whether a Bach cantata, the Fauré Requiem or a contemporary piece, and she is an accomplished and dedicated recitalist and has been invited to perform at the Gasteig in Munich and at the Holywell Music Room, Oxford. She has sung programmes of German Lied and French mélodie, as well as Russian and English song. A recent recital programme, which she devised, centred on the figure of Goethe’s Mignon.

She performs as a duo with the Belgian lutenist Sofie Vanden Eynde and together they have given numerous concerts throughout Europe, notably at the Grachtenfestival, Amsterdam and at the London Handel Festival. Their CD “Mistress Elizabeth Davenant, her Songes” was released on the Ramée label to great acclaim.

Bringing her fascination for historical context and her in-depth knowledge of foreign languages to researching her programmes is a deeply satisfying part of her work, only surpassed by the pleasure of sharing these discoveries with her audience.