Saturday 12th April
A Lovers’ Tiff
The wonderful, complicated mess of human connection
Bethany Horak-Hallett – mezzo
Dan D’Souza – baritone
Ian Tindale – piano
11.30am (75 minutes, no interval)
Ludlow Assembly Rooms
Every relationship has its highs and lows.
Join a new couple as they experience the heady rush of falling for someone new. Stick with them as they begin to get on each other’s nerves, and the honeymoon period ends. Celebrate when – at last – they find each other once again, and reach for a happy and satisfying ending.
“Bethany and I both really love it when recitals have a narrative running through them, and when Iain approached us – a married couple – about performing in Ludlow, we thought what better story to tell than one of a couple falling in and out of love? We’d hasten to add that this story is a fictional one, although I’m sure we’ll be able to draw on our own personal experiences as the recital progresses!”
Baritone Dan D’Souza
“Horak-Hallett is among the best young singers in Britain today”
Bachtrack
“Impressively charismatic”
Neil Fisher on Dan D’Souza, The Times
| Falling in Love | |
| Benjamin Britten | Tell me the Truth about Love |
| Sir Hubert Parry | Love is a Bable |
| Amy Beach | For Me the Jasmine Buds Unfold |
| Hugo Wolf | Wie lange schon |
| Roger Quilter | It was a Lover and his Lass |
| Henry Purcell | My Dearest, my Fairest |
| All’s fair in love and war | |
| Hugo Wolf | Selig ihr Blinden |
| William Bolcom | At the Last Lousy Moments of Love |
| William Bolcom | Over the Piano |
| Archie John | On Dreams |
| Michael Head | When I Think upon the Maidens |
| Franz Schubert | Licht und Liebe |
| Henry Purcell | Lost is my Quiet Forever |
| Love, thou art the best of human joys! | |
| Hugo Wolf | Nun lass uns Frieden |
| Henry Purcell | Love thou art the Best |
| William Bolcom | Blue |
| William Bolcom | Amor |
| Roger Quilter | Now Sleeps the Crimson Petal |
| Roger Quilter | Love’s Philosophy |
| Kurt Weill | Speak Low |
Bethany Horak-Hallett
British mezzo soprano Bethany Horak-Hallett is an Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment Rising Star alumni, and a recent Samling Artist.
This season she joins the Northampton Bach Choir, Tiffin Oratorio Choir, Sheffield Oratorio Choir, and Huddersfield Choral Society as guest soloist on the concert platform, and makes her solo recital debut at Bechstein Hall alongside Dylan Perez and Dan D’Souza; she makes her Royal Swedish Opera debut as Cherubino in their new production of Le Nozze di Figaro, directed by Linus Fellbom, and will create the role of Yolanda in newly commissioned opera The Railway Children by Mark-Anthony Turnage for Glyndebourne Festival Opera; and she will also partner with Delphian Records to record her debut album alongside duo partner Natalie Burch.
Recent highlights include concert performances with the Dunedin Consort directed by John Butt, the English Chamber Orchestra directed by Nicholas Kraemer, the London Handel Players, the National Symphony Orchestra, and the Irish National Symphony Chorus as guest soloist, and her Wigmore Hall and OISF recital debuts. She made her Opéra National de Paris role and house debut as Camila in the new Calixto Bieito production of Thomas Adès’ The Exterminating Angel, and made her role debut as Cherubino in Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro for Garsington Opera.
Dan D’Souza
In 2024 Irish-British baritone Dan D’Souza sang Belcore (The Elixir of Love, ENO) and Angelotti, covering Scarpia (Tosca, The Grange Festival). Other roles include Flemish Deputy (Don Carlo, Royal Opera), Silvio (Pagliacci, Iford Arts), Trinculo (La Tempesta, Wexford Festival Opera) and Riff (West Side Story, Edinburgh International Festival). Notable concert performances include High Priest (Semele, Paris Philharmonie), Monteverdi Vespers (Cadogan Hall), Handel’s Messiah (Nevill Holt Opera) and Christus in St Matthew Passion (National Concert Hall, Dublin).
As a recitalist, in 2025 Dan makes his debut at Bechstein Hall with Bethany Horak-Hallett. In 2023, he was a laureate for the Académie Orsay-Royaumont, performing in Paris with Dylan Perez, and sang Winterreise with the Ragazze Quartet (St Magnus International Festival). A keen performer of new music, Dan has created the roles of Crane in Powder Down (Shadwell Opera); Mohammed in Nobody/Somebody (Northern Ireland Opera); Beast in Beauty and the Seven Beasts (Opera Story); Himself in Liminal (Kings Head Theatre); and Cow in Bel and the Dragon (Tête à Tête). Dan was educated at Tiffin Boys School, the University of Cambridge, Royal College of Music, and Royal Academy Opera.
Ian Tindale
‘A wonderfully responsive and assured pianist’, Ian Tindale is increasingly in demand as a specialist in song repertoire and chamber music, with recital partners including Ailish Tynan, Roderick Williams, and Robin Tritschler.
In 2025, Ian returns to Salle Bourgie in Montréal with Harriet Burns and Julien Van Mellaerts for an all-Schubert recital, and he will join regular duo partner Nick Pritchard at the Aldeburgh Festival. Highlights in 2024 included performances at the Wigmore Hall in his role as Official Pianist at the Wigmore Hall-Bollinger International Song Competition, and two recitals at the Ludlow English Song Weekend. His release of a disc of Schubert Lieder with Harriet Burns was hailed as ‘a very fine disc indeed’ (Gramophone), and 2025 will see the release of their second album on Delphian Records.
Ian is the founding Artistic Director of Shipston Song; in 2024 the festival welcomed Ruby Hughes and James Atkinson for recitals and masterclasses in the Cotswolds.
