Meet the Cast and Creative Team: Angel's Bone

Allison Cook

Mrs Xe

A true Soprano Falcon, Allison Cook is renowned as one of today’s leading interpreters of 20th century and contemporary repertoire. Allison’s ability to sing both soprano and mezzo roles combined with her fearless dramatic ability and vocal range seldom found, has seen her create roles such as the Marquise in Francesconi’s Quartett at Teatro alla Scala in Milan, Wiener Festwochen and Teatro Colón Buenos Aires, Lea in Benêt Casablanca’s L’enigma de Lea at the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona and Lavinia in Errolyn Wallen’s Dido’s Ghost in San Francesco and London (Barbican). As well as her highly acclaimed interpretations of Adès's Powder Her Face at BAM in New York, La Monnaie in Brussels and Teatr Wielki in Warsaw, Brunhelda in Ramanati’s Amerika in Zurich and the title role in Kaija Saariaho's Emilie, Allison is equally at home in 20th century repertoire.

She most recently made her Salzburg Easter Festival debut in a new production of Mussorgsky’s Khovanschina, directed by Simon McBurney and conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen as well as a role debut as Elle in Poulenc’s La Voix Humaine for the Buxton International Festival.

Image: Beatriz Moreno

Rodney Earl Clarke

Mr Xe

Rodney Earl Clarke has maintained a distinguished and wide-ranging career across opera, musical theatre, television, and film since graduating from the Royal Academy of Music. Renowned for his commanding stage presence and rich vocal artistry, he has performed in major opera houses worldwide, including Opéra de Lyon, Den Norske Opera in Oslo, the Royal Danish Opera in Copenhagen, as well as at the Styriarte Festspiele in Graz. Rodney appeared in Kenneth Branagh’s film of The Magic Flute and was honoured to sing a specially commissioned anthem for Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee.

With English National Opera, his roles have included the Chief of Police in Kismet, Workman/Rajah Bimmy in On the Town, and the Firefighter in Tansy Davies’ Between Worlds at the Barbican Theatre. Other notable performances include title role in Don Giovanni (Birmingham Opera Company) Crown (Porgy and Bess, Royal Danish Opera), Jake (Porgy and Bess, Opéra de Lyon), Pasha Selim (Die Entführung aus dem Serail, Opera di Roma) and the Ferryman in Britten’s Curlew River with Birmingham Opera Company under the direction of Graham Vick.

Matthew McKinney

Boy Angel

Hailed for his ‘gorgeous lyric voice’, Scottish tenor Matthew McKinney is quickly establishing a reputation for his nuanced artistry, innate musicality and expressive performance across opera, song and concert. Winner of the 2024 Kathleen Ferrier Award main prize, Matthew makes a principal debut at Glyndebourne this season in the world premiere of Mark Anthony Turnage’s The Railway Children, followed by a debut with English National Opera in the spring. In recital, he appears with Malcolm Martineau, Roelof Temmingh, and Dearbhla Collins, and on the concert stage, he performs the Evangelist in St. John’s Passion in Paisley Abbey and Mendelssohn’s Elijah in Ayr, Scotland.

Highlights of recent seasons include his debut at Carnegie Hall as a song studio artist, Beethoven’s An Die Ferne Geliebte as part of the newly compiled work Do Not Take My Story for a Fairy Tale for English Touring Opera, Bach’s St Matthew Passion for Dunedin Consort, cover Bardolfo Falstaff for Glyndebourne Festival Opera, and Luigino Il viaggio a Reims and Rustighello Lucrezia Borgia in new productions for English Touring Opera. Other roles include Tsar The Snow Maiden, Damon Acis & Galatea (Ryedale Festival) and Henrik A Little Night Music (Opera North, Buxton International Festival).

Image: Pablo Strong

Mariam Wallentin

Girl Angel

Mariam Wallentin a Swedish artist and one of Scandinavia’s most distinctive vocalists and composers, an artist whose work unites emotional intensity with fearless musical exploration. With roots in improvisation and contemporary music, as well as pop and soul, she moves effortlessly between genres, creating a deeply expressive and boundary-crossing sound. Often likened to a modern-day Alice Coltrane, Wallentin shapes music that resonates both spiritually and intellectually.

Internationally acclaimed as one half of the duo Wildbirds & Peacedrums and with her solo-alias Mariam The Believer, she has collaborated with artists including St. Vincent, Feist, Hildur Gudnadottir, Ben Frost and Caribou. She is also a central creative force within the Swedish jazz scene, and has been a prominent contributor the Fire! Orchestra ensemble, as both composer and performer.

Wallentin has appeared on major international stages, including a performance in honor of Björk at the Polar Music Prize ceremony, and has recently performed with the LA Phil as well as previously at the Royal Opera House and the Holland Festival. Recipient of the Manifest Prize and the Jazzkatten Award, and nominated for the Nordic Music Prize and several Swedish Grammys, she brings to the stage a rare combination of artistic integrity, vocal power, and visionary expression.

Image: Martin Wallen

Keith Pun

Male Soprano

Keith Pun is a versatile countertenor based in London, whose artistic interests span from baroque repertoire to interdisciplinary contemporary work.

Last season, he appeared as Singer in the revival of Ruination at the Royal Opera House, the Venice Biennale, and Théâtre de la Ville. He made his festival debut at Opera Holland Park, singing the roles of Cake and Berghahn in Jonathan Dove’s Itch, and returned to Longborough Festival Opera for the UK premiere of Wahnfried, covering the role of Siegfried. Critically praised for his “luminous vocals” (Gramophone), he also performed the roles of Fish and King in Alex Ho’s Fedora Prize-winning opera Yexian at the Southbank Centre.

He has worked with major companies and festivals including Flemish Opera, English Touring Opera, Leeds Opera Festival, O. Festival, Hong Kong New Vision Arts Festival, and the Beijing Music Festival.

In 2013 Keith was a member of Opera Works at the English National Opera and he is delighted to return to the company.

Baldur Brönnimann

Conductor

Baldur Brönnimann is a conductor of great flexibility with a broad-minded approach to programme-building and music-making.  He is deeply committed to making classical music relevant in the 21st century and as such is active as both a commissioner of new works and as a curator of festivals and series.  He is the Principal Conductor and Artistic Director of the Real Filharmonia de Galicia and Escola de Altos Estudos Musicais, course director of the Contemporary-Conducting Program at the Lucerne Festival Academy and co-founder of the Between Mountains Festival in Switzerland, a 24-hour celebration of classical, ambient, electronic and contemporary music, which launched in July 2025.

In the opera house, Brönnimann has conducted Ligeti's Le Grand Macabre at English National Opera, Komische Oper Berlin and Teatro Colón (Buenos Aires) in both the La Fura dels Baus and Barrie Kosky productions, John Adams's Death of Klinghoffer at English National Opera, Saariaho's L’amour de loin at the Bergen Festival and Norwegian Opera, and Romitelli's Index of Metals with Barbara Hannigan at the Theater an der Wien. At Argentina’s Teatro Colón he has also conducted Schoenberg's Erwartung, Szymanowski's Hagith, and Helmut Lachenmann's The Little Match Girl with the composer as narrator, and Zimmermann's Die Soldaten.

James Ham

Conductor

British conductor James Ham enjoys a growing reputation for his versatility and genuine music making. Passionate about opera; this season, he stepped in to conduct Cenerentola with ENO and returns to Opera della Luna to conduct a new production of Oscar Straus’ The Chocolate Soldier in London, and also at the IF Opera Festival. Other recent performances include La Cenerentola and L’Incoronazione di Poppea with English Touring Opera, and the English premiere of Tchaikovsky’s Oprichnik. In addition to opera, he has guest conducted with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, RTÉ Concert Orchestra, Magdeburg Philharmonie, Neubrandenburg Philharmonie, Brandenburger Symphoniker, Gibraltar Philharmonic, Scottish Ballet, and Northern Ballet amongst others.

James has assisted at the Bayerische Staatsoper (Peter Grimes), Norwegian National Opera (Damnation de Faust), Theater an der Wien (Porgy and Bess), Gärtnerplatztheater (Rigoletto), Longborough Festival Opera (Wahnfried), and been an off-stage conductor with the Royal Ballet and Opera (Tosca). He was previously an Assistant Conductor with the London Philharmonic Orchestra working with Edward Gardner and Vladimir Jurowski.

James studied conducting at the St Petersburg Conservatory and Universität der Künste Berlin, and was Conducting Fellow of the contemporary music programme at the Lucerne Festival Academy.

Kip Williams

Director

Kip Williams is a multi-award-winning director and writer for theatre, opera and screen, renowned for pioneering cine-theatre. His acclaimed gothic trilogy – The Picture of Dorian Gray, Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde and Dracula – has reached more than 400,000 people worldwide and earned international praise. After a sold-out West End season, The Picture of Dorian Gray opened on Broadway at the Music Box Theatre in 2025, starring Sarah Snook, who won the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play. The production received six Tony nominations, including Best Direction of a Play for Williams, and won the Drama Desk Award for Unique Theatrical Experience.

Williams’ opera work has been widely acclaimed across Australia, with productions for Opera Australia, Sydney Chamber Opera and Victorian Opera. A longtime collaborator of SCO Artistic Director Jack Symonds, he directed the first theatrical staging of An Index of Metals. In 2024, he directed the world premiere of Gilgamesh, the first English-language operatic adaptation of The Epic of Gilgamesh. In 2026, he makes his UK opera debut directing Angel’s Bone at Aviva Studios for English National Opera.

Williams was appointed the youngest Artistic Director of Sydney Theatre Company at age 30, serving eight years as Artistic Director and Co-CEO, directing 24 productions, championing new Australian writing and leading the company to record box office success.

Marg Horwell

Designer [Set & Costume]

Marg Horwell is a multi-award-winning set and costume designer. Credits include set and costumes for: Most recently she designed costumes for The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui (Sydney Theatre Company). Blasted, Melancholia, Revolt. She Said. Revolt Again, The Testament of Mary, The Real and Imagined History of the Elephant Man, The Homosexuals, or Faggots, Edward II, I am a Miracle, The Good Person of Szechuan, The Histrionic (Malthouse Theatre); Animal (InFlux Theatre); Lilith Jungle Girl, Summertime in the Garden of Eden (Sisters Grimm); The House of Barnada Alba, Peddling, Cock, Constellations, Music, Birdland, I Call My Brothers (Melbourne Theatre Company); Resplendence, Chapters from the Pandemic, Save for Crying, Wretch (Angus Cerini Doubletap); Big Heart, Shit, Savages (Dee & Cornelius); Eight Gigabytes of Hardcore Pornography (Griffin Theatre Company/Perth Theatre Company); Ophelia Doesn’t Live Here Anymore (Bell Shakespeare Company/Chambermade Opera); Bliss, Nora, La traviata (Belvoir); Common Ground (Chunky Move); Marlin (Arena Theatre/Melbourne Theatre Company).

Jack Knowles

Designer [Lighting]

Jack trained at the Central School of Speech and Drama.

Opera includes La bohéme (Göteborgsoperan); The Seven Deadly Sins/Bluebeard’s Castle (Teatro Colón).  Theatre includes Death of a Salesman (Broadway); 1536 (Ambassador’s Theatre/Almeida); Every Brilliant Thing (Broadway/@sohoplace); Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York) (Broadway/A.R.T/Criterion Theatre/Kiln Theatre); A Moon for the Misbegotten, Spring Awakening, Carmen Disruption (Almeida Theatre); Sunset Boulevard (Broadway/Savoy Theatre); Julie (ITA); London Tide, Top Girls, Barber Shop Chronicles, Cleansed (National Theatre); Long Day’s Journey Into Night (Wyndham’s Theatre); Much Ado About Nothing, Hamlet, Venice Preserved (Royal Shakespeare Company); Patriots (Broadway/Noël Coward Theatre/Almeida Theatre); Best of Enemies (Noël Coward Theatre); Caroline, or Change (Broadway/Playhouse Theatre); Beginning (Ambassador’s Theatre/National Theatre); The Unbelievers, Glass. Kill. Bluebeard. Imp, The End of History (Royal Court); Private Lives, Committee (Donmar Warehouse); Singin’ in the Rain, Light Falls, Happy Days (Royal Exchange).

Awards include Tony Award for Best Lighting Design of a Musical, Olivier Award for Best Lighting Design, Drama Desk Award for Best Lighting Design of a Musical, WhatsOnStage Award for Best Lighting Design (Sunset Boulevard); Knight of Illumination Award (Barber Shop Chronicles).  He was recently included in the Stage 100 list of the most influential people in British theatre.

Ash J Woodward

Designer [Video]

Ash J Woodward is a video designer and filmmaker. He has designed and animated content for large-scale shows in the West End, on Broadway and around the world. His work includes hand-drawn, 2D and 3D animation, cinematography, visual effects and design work for other live performance genres such as live music, exhibitions and art installations. Ash J Woodward is an associate artist at Squint Theatre Company. His work in theatre as video and projection designer includes Paddington The Musical and The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry for the West End, Ballet Shoes, Coriolanus, Roald Dahl’s The Witches, Dear England and Hex at the National Theatre; Manhunt at the Royal Court; Fangirls at the Lyric Hammersmith; The Artist at Theatre Royal Plymouth; Harry Potter and the Cursed Child worldwide; Local Hero at Chichester; Famous Five the Musical at Theatr Clwyd; The 47th at the Old Vic; Can I Live? for Complicité; The Beauty Parade at Wales Millennium Centre; Armadillo at The Yard; Molly for Squint Theatre; The Glass Menagerie at Duke of York’s; and Patriots at Noël Coward and on Broadway.

Dominic Bilkey

Co-designer [Sound]

Dominic Bilkey is a Tony and Olivier Nominated Sound Designer and is currently Head of Sound & Video at the National Theatre in London England.

He is actively involved in the teaching sound and associated technologies at several UK Universities. He is co-creator of Atlas Show Control and specializes in spatialized object-based audio.

Online Designs

Into the Night, Stumped, Original Readings, Viral – Online Film, Apollo 13, Birdsong Online (Original Theatre)

Recent Designs

Beautiful Little Fool (Mark Cortale, Jonathan Murray, Harvey Reese, and Willette & Manny Klausner); Maiden Voyage (Mark Cortale, Dale Franzen, Jonathan Murray and Harvey Reese); This Is My Family (Southwark Elephant – Anthology Productions); Percy Jackson & The Lightning Thief Musical (The Other Palace - Bill Kenwright Ltd);The Lehman Trilogy (National Theatre, International, West End & Broadway); Iolanthe, Pirates of Penzance – (English National Opera); Darker Shores, Three Steps to Heaven – (Windsor Theatre Royal); Stumped – (Original Theatre Hybrid); Into the Night – (Original Theatre Hybrid); Death of a Salesman - Soundscape Designer (Elliott Harper Productions); Pippi Longstocking the Musical (Royal & Derngate Northampton); Dick Whittington, Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella & Aladdin (Windsor Theatre Royal); (Peter Pan (National Theatre and White City Troubador); Highway One (Welsh Millennium Centre) Shadowlands (Birdsong Productions); Go Bang Your Tambourine (Two’s Company); Flarepath (Birdsong Productions); Jane Eyre (National Theatre/Bristol Old Vic & Touring); Pinocchio (Guy James and Szpiezak Productions); Tommy the Musical (Aria Entertainment, Guy James and Szpiezak Productions); Birdsong (Birdsong Productions/Original Theatre).

Joseph Reiser

Co-designer [Sound]

Joseph Reiser is a Manchester-based Sound Designer, Audio Engineer and Producer working across a wide spectrum of contemporary music practice, with a particular focus on amplified acoustic performance, electronic work, and the intersection between the two.

He maintains longstanding creative and touring relationships with ensembles and artists including the BBC Philharmonic, GoGo Penguin, Abel Selaocoe and Manchester Collective. Alongside his work as a touring Front of House engineer and Production Manager worldwide, Joseph has delivered sound design, audio system design and implementation for a number of site-specific projects throughout the UK and Europe.

Joseph is co-founder of Fuzzy Elephant Studio in Manchester, a recording and mixing studio specialising in immersive and spatial audio production. His engineering and production credits include releases on Warner Classics, Blue Note Records, XXIM, Gondwana Records, Bedroom Community, Cantaloupe Music and Tru Thoughts.