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 appears with leading opera houses, orchestras and ensembles worldwide. For the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden she sang Morgana in a new Richard Jones Alcina, Lila in David Bruce The Firework-Maker’s Daughter, performed the title roles of Rossi Orpheus at the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse and of Turnage Coraline at the Barbican, and made her main stage debut as Barbarina Le nozze di Figaro. For English National Opera, roles include Susanna Le nozze di Figaro, Eurydice in Offenbach Orpheus in the Underworld and Zerlina Don Giovanni. She made her debut with Opera di Roma as Cleopatra Giulio Cesare, returning as Morgana, also debuting for the Zurich Opera House (La Folie Platée) and Bayerische Staatsoper (title role La Calisto). Opera highlights elsewhere have included appearances with Opera de Monte Carlo, Teatro Real Madrid, Teatro La Fenice, Royal Danish Opera, and the Bolshoi Theatre.

Bevan’s concert performances include her Carnegie Hall debut as Dalinda Ariodante with the English Concert (Harry Bicket), Creation at the Barbican with the Academy of Ancient Music, Sally Beamish The Judas Passion with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, orchestrated Schubert songs with the CBSO (Edward Gardner) and appearances with the Handel and Haydn Society Boston, Philharmonia Baroque, BBC Symphony Orchestra, BBC Concert Orchestra, Barokksolistine, LPO and at the BBC Proms. She has toured extensively across Europe, Australia, Asia and the US with the Kammerorchester Basel, Australian Chamber Orchestra and English Concert, and she appears regularly in recital at Wigmore Hall.

Bevan’s wide-ranging discography includes numerous releases on Signum Records: a recording of orchestral French song entitled Visions Illuminées, art song albums Voyages and Divine Muse with pianist Joseph Middleton, and Handel’s Queens. Other albums include Handel's The Triumph of Time and Truth and Ode for St Cecilia’s Day, Vaughan Williams Symphony No.3 and Schubert Rosamunde with the BBC Philharmonic, Arthur Sullivan songs (Chandos), Vaughan Williams folk songs (Albion), Brahms Liebesliederwaltzer (Resonus), and more.

Bevan is a winner of the Royal Philharmonic Society’s Young Artist award and UK Critics’ Circle Award for Exceptional Young Talent in music. She was awarded an MBE in the Queen’s birthday honours list in 2019 and was made a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Music in 2025.

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.