Ġawhar Misjub: Stage Director and mezzo-soprano, Clare Ghigo

The production ‘Ġawhar Misjub – an Operatic Banquet’ includes operatic excerpts by different Maltese composers highlighting Malta’s rich heritage in operatic music. The production involves several artists, today we shall take a look at the biography of the Stage Director and mezzo-soprano, Clare Ghigo. 

Clare Ghigo is a theatrically and musically versatile mezzo soprano. Her operatic roles include Cherubino in Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro, Annio in Mozart’s La Clemenza di Tito, Madrigale in Puccini’s Manon, Hänsel in Humperdinck‘s Hansel and Gretel, the Third Lady in Mozart’s Zauberflöte, the old Gypsy Woman in Rachmaninov’s Aleko, Speranza and Proserpina in Monteverdi’s l’Orfeo, Carmen in Bizet’s Carmen, Angelina in Rossini’s La Cenerentola, Maria in Piazzolla’s Maria de Buenos Aires, and Rosina in Rossini’s Il Barbiere di Siviglia. Clare also performed contemporary works such as works by Schoenberg, Morten Feldman, Luciano Berio, Reuben Pace, Karl Fiorini, Euchar Gravina, and Veronique Vella. In the 2021 Malta International Spring Orchestra Festival, Clare directed the semistaged opera and performed the role of the Trommler in Ullmann’s Der Kaiser von Atlantis.  

This coming April Clare will perform the role of Zerlina in Mozart’s Don Giovanni with the Camera Bardi in Syros, Greece and will understudy the role of Mercedes in Bizet’s Carmen at the Longborough Festival. 

Apart from operas Clare performed a number of recitals internationally in cities such as San Francisco (United States), London, Cardiff, Edinburgh (United Kingdom), Paris, Dijon (France) Karlsruhe, Berlin, Frankfurt (Germany), Pesaro, Lanciano (Italy), Yerevan (Armenia), Bethlehem (Israel), and La Mancha (Spain), and Luxembourg. 

Clare’s recent performances also include video productions such as an adaptation of Beethoven’s Fidelio/ Leonora with The Strada Stretta Concept, Trouser Girl –a superhero film with the Teatru Manoel Toi Toi project for Ziguzajg, chorus in Ravel’s L’enfant et les sortileges with Virtual Opera. Together with the Gozitan visual artist Joseph Calleja, she created the Stabat Metric project funded by the Malta Arts Council.  

Clare participated in various operatic competitions, she won the Malta International Singing Competition, was a semifinalist of the Alfredo Kraus Vocal Competition, a finalist in the Hans Gabor Belvedere competition, and a semifinalist in the London Handel Competition 2016. 

Clare performed for acclaimed singers such as Joseph Calleja, Bryn Terfel, Anna Tomova Sintova, Nelly Miriciu, Monserrat Caballé, Daniela Dessi, Richard Bonynge, Luciana Serra, Jennifer Larmore , Anna Bonitatibus and worked with various ensembles, such as the Jeune Orchestre Atlantique, Guildhall Consort, Karlsruhe duo, Rossini Ensemble, the Ensemble Télémaque, La Mancha Philharmonic, Re: Orchestra, and the Malta Philharmonic Orchestra. 

Clare forms part of the English National Opera chorus, is an ENOA (Aix en Provence) and a Solti Accademia Del Bel Canto scholar. 

‘Ġawhar Misjub – An Operatic Banquet’ will premier on the 27th of May 8 pm at St.Agatha Auditorium , Rabat.

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