Rachel Cleland-Ainsworth
Soprano, Rachel Cleland-Ainsworth received critical acclaim for her portrayal of Sharon Graham singing Lady Macbeth’s Entrance Aria and Cabaletta in Terrence McNally’s play Masterclass. Her operatic repertoire includes: Donna Anna in Don Giovanni (Mozart), Euridice in Orfeo ed Euridice, Pamina and Zweite Dame in Die Zauberflote (Mozart), Nanetta in Falstaff (Verdi), Norina in Don Pasquale, Musetta in La Boheme (Puccini), Fiordiligi in Cosi fan Tutte (Mozart), Ophelie in Hamlet (Thomas), Cissie Woodger and Lady Billows in Albert Herring, and Leonore in Fidelio (Beethoven). As an artist committed to Canadian Contemporary Opera, she has performed the title role in the world premiere of The Last Wife (Howard Alexander), the Lady in Waiting and Barbara Croft in the double bill of The Fool and The Night Blooming Cereus (Somers and Beckwith) with Opera in Concert, The Summoning of Everyman (Cousin) and Dream Play (Agnes) with Opera in Concert and as Carolyn Boulton in The Last Duel (Gary Kulesha). Her operetta roles include Elsie Maynard in Yeomen of the Guard, YumYum in the Mikado, Countess Lisa in Countessa Maritza and Rosalinde in Die Fledermaus..
Ms. Cleland-Ainsworth’s 2010 season started with a solo recital with pianist, James Cheung in London, England at the historical St Olave’s church that featured the music of Schumann, Britten and Rachmaninov. In the spring of 2009, she added Orff’s Carmina Burana to her concert repertoire. Critics hailed her performance as astonishing, florid, full and agile. Her other concert repertoire includes Mozart’s Requiem and Coronation Mass, Handel’s Messiah, Rutter’s Magnificat, Haydn’s Seven Last Word’s of Christ and Little Organ Mass, various Bach Cantatas including Cantata 199 for solo soprano, and Britten’s Te Deum. In August she participated in a Schumann lieder class with Malcolm Martineau and Susan Youens at the prestigious Britten-Pears Young Artist Programme (Snape, England) where she studied Frauenliebe und Leben and various other lieder.