London Early Opera are leading exponents of baroque research as they work closely with musicologists, historians, editors and researchers finding new interesting programmes, unrecorded music which feature detailed historical performance practice.

LEO link dramatic music and singing with narration and art history to create magical performances in their oratorio and concert performances.

They have recently recorded discs of Handel at Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens and Handel in Italy with multi Grammy winning producer Chris Alder and singers Sophie, Mary and Ben Bevan, Eleanor Dennis, Greg Tassell, Kirsty Hopkins, Claire Bessent, Charles MacDougal.

The group is directed by harpsichordist, conductor and early music specialist Bridget Cunningham and they have performed to acclaim at several major venues including Southwark Cathedral, Grosvenor Chapel and St James’ Church, Piccadilly and across France.

London Early Opera offers concerts, operas, educational workshops, lecture recitals and recordings and collaborate on other projects such as their recent recording of George Butterworth.

Bridget Cunningham is a prizewinning harpsichordist, musicologist and an international, versatile conductor who trained at the Royal College of Music where she was awarded a Fellowship.
This celebratory recording is part of an important larger series of her albums with Signum Classics – many of which include world premiere recordings.
As Artistic Director of London Early Opera, Cunningham is a leading exponent of baroque music and created these outstanding recordings with many international singers such as Sophie Bevan, Lucy Crowe and Mary Bevan, baroque musicians and historians. Albums include Handel’s Eight Great Harpsichord Suites, Handel in Italy, Caio Fabbricio HWV A9 , Handel at Vauxhall, Handel in Ireland and Handel’s Queens which have been reviewed with international acclaim and shortlisted for a Gramophone Award nomination in 2020; “Handel has never sounded better” (Handel’s Queens) ★★★★★ BBC Music Magazine, 2019 “Bridget Cunningham is just such a player... Her feeling for dance rhythms is infectious and her ability to entertain unassailable” (Handel’s Eight Great Harpsichord Suites) ★★★★★ 5 stars BBC Music Magazine, 2022 Cunningham’s harpsichord performances include playing at the London Handel Festival, Maison Hine Cognac, Victoria International Festival, Gozo as well as for the Royal family at Buckingham Palace. She has performed at the Innsbruck Festival, Yale University, St John’s Smith Square, Teatro Petruzzelli Bari, Handel Hendrix Museum, St George’s Hanover Square, the Foundling Museum and St Martin-in-the-Fields. She regularly collaborates with baroque dance groups and has a passion for combining the artworld with music. Cunningham is a keen advocate for directing baroque music from the harpsichord. As well as her numerous performances including several of Handel’s operas, Bach’s Easter Oratorio, Vivaldi’s Gloria and a 400th anniversary performance of Monteverdi’s Vespers at Southwark Cathedral, she has also directed a world premiere for BBC Radio 4 with London Early Opera written by a BBC Inspire Young Composer of the Year, Grace Evangeline- Mason, for the 300th Anniversary of Handel’s Water Music.
She has appeared on several BBC Radio and TV broadcasts including BBC Radio 3 In Tune, BBC 2 Messiah, BBC 4 Vivaldi’s Women, Radio 4 Front Row and SkyArts, RTE, RTP and Radio Stephansdom.

Mary Bevan (soprano) read Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic at Trinity College, Cambridge, before training at the Royal Academy of Music in London. She became an Associate Artist of Classical Opera in 2010, and is a winner of the Royal Philharmonic Society’s Young Artist award and the UK Critics’ Circle Award for Exceptional Young Talent in Music.

Her opera roles include Susanna (The Marriage of Figaro), Despina (Così fan tutte), Papagena (The Magic Flute), Yum-Yum (The Mikado), Second Niece (Peter Grimes) and Rebecca (in the world première of Nico Muhly’s Two Boys) for English National Opera, where she is a Harewood Artist, Gerechtigkeit (Die Schuldigkeit des ersten Gebots), Tamiri (Il re pastore), Servilia (La clemenza di Tito) and Emma (Thomas Arne’s Alfred) for Classical Opera, Zerlina (Don Giovanni) for Garsington Opera, Belinda (Dido and Aeneas) for The English Concert, and – for The Royal Opera – Music/ Euridice (Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo) at the Roundhouse and the title role in Luigi Rossi’s Orpheus at the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse.

Her extensive concert engagements have included Bellezza (Il trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno) with the Dunedin Consort, a Handel residency with Emanuelle Haïm at the Aix-en-Provence Festival, and Handel’s Messiah with The English Concert and the English Chamber Orchestra, and she has appeared at the BBC Proms, Edinburgh International Festival, Spitalfields Festival and Oxford Lieder Festival. Her recordings include ‘Handel in Italy’ with London Early Opera for Signum Classics, Handel’s The Triumph of Time and Truth and Ode for Saint Cecilia’s Day with Ludus Baroque for Delphian Records, and Ludwig Thuille songs with Joseph Middleton and Mendelssohn songs with Malcolm Martineau, both for Champs Hill Records.

The recipient of the Young Singer award at the inaugural 2013 International Opera Awards. Sophie Bevan is now at the forefront of the new generation of young British singers. A graduate of the Benjamin Britten International Opera School, she was awarded the Queen Mother Rose Bowl Award. Her concert repertoire ranges from Handel to James Macmillan and she has worked with conductors that include Sir Antonio Pappano, Edward Gardner, Laurence Cummings, Harry Bicket, Sir Neville Marriner, Phillipe Herreweghe, Sir Mark Elder, Ryan Wigglesworth, Daniel Harding and Sir Charles Mackerras. Already highly accomplished on the operatic stage, her engagements include her first Sophie in Der Rosenkavalier for English National Opera; the title role in The Cunning Little Vixen for Welsh National Opera; her first Susana Le Nozze di Figaro for Garsington Opera; Michal Saul for Glyndebourne Festival Opera; Waldvogel Siegfried, Pamina and Ilia for the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, Susana and Antigone Oedipe at Covent Garden; concerts with the Sao Paulo State Symphony, CBSO, and recitals at the Wigmore Hall; Pamina for the Teatro Real, Madrid; her debut at the Salzburg Festival as Beatrice in the world première of Thomas Adès’ The Exterminating Angel; Engagements this season and beyond include concerts with the Bayerische Rundfunk, Gulbenkian Orchestra, the Hallé and the CBSO. She will return to Covent Garden as Sophie in a new production of Der Rosenkavalier and as Beatriz in The Exterminating Angel. She will also create the role of Hermione in the world premiere of Ryan Wigglesworth’s A Winter’s Tale for ENO and will sing Tytania A Midsummer Night’s Dream for Aldeburgh Music. Further future engagements include a return to Teatro Real, Madrid and her debut at the Metropolitan Opera, New York.
Sophie is also the recipient of the 2010 Critics' Circle award for Exceptional Young Talent, The Times Breakthrough Award at the 2012 South Bank Sky Arts Awards and the Young Singer award at the 2013 inaugural International Opera Awards.