Serenata
Serenata is the luxury entertainment package for your event. Making Musical Memories. Bryony Burnham - Soprano
David Woods - Tenor Bryony and David x
As professional opera singers, our aim is to bring the high quality professionalism of the opera house to your event. Serenata was founded by soprano Bryony Burnham and tenor David Woods to provide bespoke, high quality entertainment for discerning audiences. We met at the University of Birmingham while performing in a range of productions, including The Yeomen of the Guard, Albert Herring, West S
03/04/2022
We’ve been a little quiet recently, but we’ve both been busy doing lots of concerts!
Bryony performed Beethoven’s Gellert Lieder with pianist Serena Sheane at the Chapel of St Peter and St Paul in Greenwich (pictured), and a Platinum Jubilee concert of Handel arias with Paddock Wood Choral Society.
David performed the tenor solos in Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s Hiawatha’s Wedding Feast with the Langcliffe Singers and in Philip Wilby’s An English Passion with Voces Seraphorum (pictured).
Busy busy!
Happy international women’s day!
Today Serenata is celebrating all female composers and we have a clip of Bryony performing a snippet of Barbara Strozzi’s ‘Che si può fare?’
Barbara Strozzi was a 17th century Venetian composer, who thrived without the support of the church or a private donor and had more secular music in print than any other composer of that time. It is believed that she was a courtesan and in her childhood, survived the plague that had killed 30% of the population of Venice.
01/03/2022
It's the first day of Spring!
Here is a beautiful Schubert song about the blossoming Spring clearing away the Winter blues. We all need a bit of that at the moment!
Frühlingsglaube - Faith in Spring
The gentle breezes have awakened,
They whisper and float day and night,
They create on all sides.
O fresh fragrance, o new sound!
Now, poor heart, be not afraid!
Now all, all must change.
The world becomes more beautiful with every day,
No one knows, what may become,
The blossoming will not end;
It blooms in the farthest, deepest valley:
Now, poor heart, forget thy pain!
Now all, all must change.
Music: Franz Schubert (1797-1828)
Text: Johann Ludwig Uhland (1787-1862)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_WMgEu63FA
Schubert - "Frühlingsglaube" Fischer-Dieskau, Moore For all those who are in need of respite from the cold, ice and snow...a little breath of Spring in the midst of Winter courtesy of Franz Schubert. Schubert ...
14/02/2022
Happy Valentine’s Day to you all from us at Serenata ❤️
08/02/2022
Today is our 7 year anniversary! We’re so happy to still be singing and working together as well as planning our wedding next year. Thank you all for joining us on this journey as we make musical memories! ❤️
01/02/2022
Are you planning an event and want to add something extra special this year? Serenata is the soprano/tenor classical duo, creating bespoke packages to make your event memorable.
For more information, contact:
www.serenataopera.com
[email protected]
23/01/2022
A very positive week for Serenata. David was lucky enough to perform Purcell’s My Beloved Spake at RNCM and Bryony got through to the final of The Soloists’ Competition at Trinity Laban.
11/01/2022
Today is Poetry at Work Day! Luckily for us, everyday is poetry at work day, but we thought we would share our favourite poems with you.
Bryony: My favourite poem is ‘Morgen’ by John Henry Mackay. I’ve never sung the Strauss song before, purely because I can’t listen to it without weeping(!), but I wanted to share it anyway! The opening line ‘and tomorrow the sun will shine again’, is so poignant particularly in these uncertain times. I’ve always imagined it as a reconciliation with a deceased loved one, meeting them for the first time in years on a beautiful beach.
Powerful stuff - if you want to have a listen, I would wholeheartedly recommend the Jessye Norman recording.
David: My favourite poem is the Sigh by Thomas Hardy, beautifully set to music by Gerald Finzi. It’s a very poignant text that takes place across decades discussing the seeds of doubt in a relationship and the way it gnaws away at a man’s psyche. The narrator senses some hesitation in his partner’s response to their first embrace and, despite his better judgement, the bottled away feelings of not understanding her continue right up until old age and after her death. Hardy manages to keep an intimate vision over the epic decades long scope, and the final stanza “though now I near November” is incredibly moving.
What is your favourite poem?
Serenata x
05/01/2022
Happy new year to all our followers! We’re starting the year with some recordings and we have lots of exciting projects coming up. Wishing you all a fulfilling and joyful 2022!
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