Moira Docherty made her debut with Tayside Opera in 2008, and the company has been very fortunate to enjoy her singing and acting talents in every production since then. In her 14th season with us, Moira takes on the role of Lucia Ashton for the second time. 

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Over her decade and a half with Tayside Opera, Moira has sung the title role not only in Lucia di Lammermoor, but in Tosca and The Merry Widow, and Mimi in La Bohème, Violetta in La Traviata twice, Adina in L’Elisir d’Amore, Abigaille in Nabucco, Rosalinda in Die Fledermaus twice, Lady Macbeth in Macbeth and Oscar in Un Ballo in Maschera. 

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Moira is also much in demand for concerts, oratorio and recital work throughout the North-East. She studies voice at the North East of Scotland Music School in Aberdeen with Judith Howarth, and was previously a student of Alison McDonald, Dr Raimund Herincx and Lisa Milne. 

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A CD showcasing Moira’s beautiful voice, A Scottish Rose, is for sale in the foyer. Her future singing engagements are listed on her website, www.moiradocherty.com.

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We are delighted that Moira is reprising her role as Lucia this year. 

Jasmine Munns is a graduate of the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, where she studied under Elizabeth McCormack. She was also a student of Marjan Kuiper at ArtEZ Hogeschool voor der Kunsten, and Jane Anthony and Sarah Estill at the University of Leeds - where she graduated with honours and was awarded the Lord Snowden Prize for academic excellence.

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Jasmine’s operatic roles include the title role of Delibes’s Lakmé with Fife Opera, Queen of the Night in Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte with the Berlin Opera Academy, ‘A’ in Anna Semple’s The Next Station is Green Park with New Voices Theatre, and the Fairy Godmother in Massenet’s Cendrillon with Fife Opera. She has performed in the chorus for Jonathan Dove’s The Day After at the Royal Scottish Conservatoire, Prokofiev’s The Fiery Angel with Scottish Opera, and Berlioz’s Le Damnation de Faust with the Monteverdi Choir, as part of the BBC Proms.

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As a soloist, Jasmine has performed across Europe, including the UK, the Netherlands and Spain, on platforms such as Zwolle’s Stadtfestival, Ripon Cathedral’s concert series and the Leeds Lieder Festival. Recent engagements include Mozart’s Requiem with the Bridge of Weir Choral Society, and a gala performance with Polaris Opera. She is also an experienced choralist, having performed with various ensembles including The Clothworkers Consort of Leeds, the Cantabile chamber choir, RCS Voices and the National Youth Choir of Scotland.

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We are very happy to welcome Jasmine to Tayside Opera in such a significant role.

We are delighted to welcome back Sebastian Penalver to another lead tenor role with Tayside Opera. 

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Last year Seb made his principal operatic debut with us as the simple love-struck peasant Nemorino in L’Elisir d’Amore. In 2023, he went on to sing for Fife Opera as Rinuccio in Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi. 

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Seb is a student of the Scottish mezzo-soprano Katherine Aitken, who helped him to create the foundation for his vocal technique. Classical musical education in his home country of Venezuela is limited, and Seb did not have the opportunity to study formally at a conservatoire. On moving to Scotland to work as a lawyer, however, a life-long passion for music and singing drove Seb to develop his talent and gain operatic performance experience. 

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We first met Seb when he rehearsed with us in the chorus for Aida at the 2022 Opera Festival. In the same year, he had his solo debut as Hadji in Delibes' Lakmé with Fife Opera. 

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As Edgardo in our 2024 production of Lucia di Lammermoor, Sebastian continues on an exciting journey and we are pleased once again to showcase this emerging new talent. 

Theodore Rankine-Fourdraine is making his debut with Tayside Opera this year in Lucia di Lammermoor - and the lead role also marks the tenor’s introduction to opera as a whole. 

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Originally from London, but with family from England, France and Scotland - including a grandfather who grew up in Dundee - Theo works in Edinburgh as a microchip designer, where he and his wife are renovating their first home. 

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Theo’s previous principal roles include Nanki-Poo in The Mikado and Marco in The Gondoliers with the Edinburgh Gilbert and Sullivan Society. An experienced choral singer, Theo has also performed in Verdi’s Requiem at the Palais des Baux-Arts in Brussels.

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Although for many years an opera enthusiast who attended performances all over Europe, Theo only began auditioning for operatic roles after working with singing teacher Rupert Forbes.

 

He is very excited to be making his start in grand opera with the role of Edgardo in Lucia di Lammermoor, and we are delighted to be able to offer him the opportunity.

Making his Tayside Opera debut in the role of Enrico, Brannon Liston-Smith is originally from Llanelwy, North Wales. 

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While studying for a Masters in Pure Mathematics at the University of St Andrews, Brannon co-founded the St Andrews Chamber Opera Group. The baritone is a regular on stage at St Andrews and beyond, singing operatic roles including Sam in Trouble in Tahiti, Papageno in The Magic Flute and Don Alfonso in Cosi Fan Tutte. Other roles include Giuseppe in The Gondoliers and Strephon in Iolanthe, both at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

In 2023, Brannon sang the part of Edmund Bertram in Mansfield Park with Byre Opera. 

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Brannon also gives regular song recitals, including two appearances at the StAnza Poetry Festival, and was formerly senior chorister of St Salvator’s Chapel Choir. In his spare time he is a keen composer and a jazz drummer. 

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We are delighted to welcome Brannon to Tayside Opera, and we hope that this is the first of many performances with the company.  

The role of Raimondo Bidebent is something of a departure for Tayside Opera veteran Russell Malcolm - who, over three decades of singing opera, has been more used to playing murderers, scoundrels and diabolical schemers than Lucia di Lammermoor’s compassionate voice of reason.

 

Since joining the company in 1982 to sing Dancaire in Carmen, Russell’s many principal baritone roles have included Belcore for Tayside Opera’s productions of L’Elisir d’Amore both in 2023 and 2009, the title roles in Verdi’s Macbeth and Nabucco, Don Carlo in Ernani, Danilo in The Merry Widow and Tonio in Pagliacci. 

 

While Raimondo is Russell’s first bass role with us, he has sung several lower-register roles with various other companies, notably Fife Opera. These include Mephistopheles in Faust, Sarastro in The Magic Flute and Gremin in Eugene Onegin. 

 

Russell feels that baritones are fortunate in their ability to degenerate into mad kings, despots and tyrannical fathers as they grow older, and we look forward to watching him descending to even greater depths of villainy for many years to come. 

This is Duncan’s first principal role with Tayside Opera, after joining the company in 2022 to sing in the chorus of Die Fledermaus and then L’Elisir d’Amore the following year. 

 

He enjoyed singing solos at our winter concerts and Patrons’ Evenings, taking the part of the Sergeant of Police in Pirates of Penzance and Marco in The Gondoliers. 

 

Before joining Tayside Opera, Duncan sang with Haddo House Choral and Operatic Society for 24 years and took part in the choruses of Carmen, Pagliacci, Cavalleria Rusticana and Eugene Onegin. Duncan has also been a member of the National Youth Choir of Scotland, and participated in the Scottish Opera Connect youth performance programme and the Mary Garden Opera School as part of the Aberdeen Youth Festival Programme run by the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.

 

A student of Alice E. Dennis, former Musical Director of Haddo, Duncan was awarded a scholarship from the North East Scotland Music School under the tutelage of Peter Webster. 

 

We are pleased to be welcoming Duncan to his first principal role. 

Elaine Young has appeared on stage in opera, G&S, musicals and in concert for over 45 years. A member of Kirkcaldy Gilbert and Sullivan Society since 1990, she has played the majority of the contralto and mezzo principal roles in the Gilbert and Sullivan canon - some several times. In March 2024 she appeared with Dunfermline G&S as the Queen of the Fairies in Iolanthe.

 

Elaine has played a number of mezzo-soprano and contralto roles with Fife Opera, including Cornelia in Giulio Cesare, Mme de la Haltiere in Cendrillon, the Princess in Suor Angelica and Manon in Bitter Sweet. She has also sung the role of Schwertleite in Die Walküre with the Edinburgh Players Opera Group and in 2022 performed for the first with Tayside Opera in the role of Orlofsky in Die Fledermaus.

 

In addition to her operatic work, Elaine has appeared all over Scotland and abroad both as a soloist and with the vocal concert group Ensemble, with whom she has helped to raise many thousands of pounds for charity, and has performed at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe for over 30 years.

 

Now happily retired from a long career in banking, when not singing Elaine enjoys the garden, reading, walking and tending to her two cats, William (Gilbert) and Arthur (Sullivan).

 

This is Elaine’s third season with Tayside Opera, and we are delighted to welcome her back for the role of Alisa in Lucia di Lammermoor.

Euan Smith is now in his third year with Tayside Opera, having performed in the chorus for Die Fledermaus in 2022 and L’Elisir d’Amore in 2023. The role of Arturo in Lucia di Lammermoor is the tenor’s principal debut with the company. 

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An Acting, Performance and Theatre Practice undergraduate with the University of West London, Euan is currently preparing to develop his craft further with a Masters in Acting at Napier University in Edinburgh.

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Euan has performed with Broughty Ferry Operatic in White Christmas, and is a very active member of Monifieth Amateur Dramatics. His ultimate ambition is to appear on stage in the West End - in the meantime, we are very happy to have Euan on the team. 

This is David Clark’s first principal role with Tayside Opera. 

 

A keen amateur actor and singer, with many years of experience in shows from village panto to opera, David joined the company in 2022 to take part in the chorus of L’Elisir d’Amore.

 

Before moving to Dundee, he frequently appeared in musical theatre in Kent, where his roles included Pseudolus in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Emile in South Pacific, The Wolf/Cinderella’s Prince in Into the Woods, and Lumière in Disney’s Beauty and the Beast.

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David has also made numerous solo appearances in oratorios, sings with Dundee Choral Union and St Paul's Cathedral Choir, and has entertained audiences with songs and duets from stage shows and the popular classical repertoire. 

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We are excited for David’s Tayside Opera debut in the role of Normanno.