Hal Cazalet , as a singer and composer, is a keen advocate of new works which seek to converge multiple art forms into a more singular and immersive style of theatre. He studied singing and composition at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama in London and at The Juilliard School in New York, where he won the Shoshana Foundation Award. Hal has created many leading roles for world premiere operas, including Nicholas in Tod Machover’s Death and the Powers (Monte Carlo Opera, Boston’s Majestic Theatre, Chicago Opera Theatre, The Dallas Opera—Live Simulcast); Gerard in Philip Glass’s Les Enfants Terribles (BAM Opera House New York, Teatro Olimpico Rome, Odeon of Herodes Atticus in Athens, USA Tour—recording on Nonesuch Records); Charles in Roxanna Panufnik’s The Music Programme (Polish National Opera, The Linbury Theatre at The Royal Opera House Covent Garden); and Heracles in Heracles (Weill Hall at Carnegie Hall).
Other highlights include Richard Dauntless in Ruddigore for Opera North (Grand Theatre Leeds, Barbican Centre, UK Tour—BBC Radio 3 live broadcast); Cascada in The Merry Widow (ENO); Albert in Albert Herring (Glyndebourne Touring Opera); Prunier in La Rondine (Opera Holland Park); title roles for English Touring Opera including Orfeo in Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo; Belmonte in Il Seraglio; Macheath in The Beggar’s Opera; Tobias in Tobias and the Angel LUCY SEWILL (Young Vic/ETO); and as The Prince in The Love for Three Oranges at the Rose Theater, New York, directed and designed by his two mentors, Frank Corsaro and Maurice Sendak.
In New York, Hal made his Lincoln Center debut performing the world premiere of I’infinito by Tristan Keuris (WNYC live broadcast) and performed at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, under Christopher Hogwood and the NSO as Mr. Angel in Mozart’s The Impresario. Hal has toured Europe, Japan, and the Canary Islands with the Monteverdi Choir under Sir John Eliot Gardiner, with UK appearances at The Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, and the Royal Albert Hall (BBC Proms; recordings Phillips & Deutsche Grammophon labels). During his numerous collaborations with American pianist Steven Blier, Hal has composed and performed for the New York Festival of Song (NYFOS), a concert series founded by Leonard Bernstein which champions new song writing. For NYFOS, Hal performed at the Library of Congress in DC with Sylvia McNair in The Land Where the Good Songs Go, a revue based on the songs of Wodehouse, Kern, and Gershwin. Further performances followed at The Danny Kaye Playhouse (NYC) and at Wigmore Hall (London). The album The Land Where the Good Songs Go was released on Harbinger Records. Further NYFOS appearances include Topsy Turvy at Weill Hall at Carnegie Hall, and Rodgers, Rodgers and Guettel at the Kaufmann Center (NYC).
Hal’s appearances on TV and radio include: A Portrait of Wodehouse, Loose Ends, BBC Proms, In Tune on BBC Radio 3, Elaine Paige on Sunday, LBC Pete Murray Show, and WNYC Radio. Hal has appeared at Crazy Coqs (Live @ Zedel) for two seasons in his one-man show Play on Words, an homage to the great wordsmiths of Broadway and to his step-great grandfather, author and Broadway’s first lyricist, P.G. Wodehouse. He also performed the show on the Queen Mary 2 voyage from New York to London as part of the Cheltenham Literary Festival at Sea.
As a composer and lyricist, Hal’s musical First Night was presented at the Aspen Music Festival and directed by Frank Corsaro at Juilliard. His compositions have been performed at the Santa Fe Music Festival, Weill Hall at Carnegie Hall, and on BBC Radio. Hal recently directed his new musical based on Oscar Wilde’s The Happy Prince, for which he wrote music and lyrics. The show received its London premiere at The Place Theatre, starring Phil Daniels and Janie Dee, with principal dancers from Matthew Bourne’s New Adventures.