Escapism, dreams and fractured realities: Mezzo-soprano Helen Charlston presents worlds of old and new in the first half of 2026

• World premiere of Michel van der Aa’s Theory of Flames from Friday 6 – Saturday 22 March at Dutch National Opera

• The premiere recording of Héloïse Werner’s Knights Dream and Schumann’s Dichterliebe on BIS Records, for release on Friday 8 May

• Performances across the UK with leading baroque orchestras including the Academy of Ancient Music and Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment

The versatile and expressive British mezzo-soprano with a ‘miraculous’ voice (The Standard), Helen Charlston, reveals major new projects in the first half of 2026.

Beginning with creating the role of Marianne for Michel van der Aa’s new opera Theory of Flames with Dutch National Opera, and a new album on the BIS label featuring Schumann’s Dichterliebe and accompanying premiere recording of Héloïse Werner’s Knights Dream. Helen will also give performances with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment (OAE), Academy of Ancient Music (AAM) and Dresden Philharmonie in Spring 2026, featuring works by Bach and Telemann.

Ahead of her 2026 programming, Helen Charlston says:

“This coming year is full of new opportunities, firstly collaborating with composer Michel van der Aa in his new opera The Theory of Flames. When someone writes specifically for your voice, there is an amazing exchange of ideas, with possibility in every bar or movement. It’s the most fascinating experience to hear what others hear in your voice and see how it is reflected in what they write.

In looking towards A Poet’s Love, I am delighted to return to the piece that made me fall in love with song. I have the most incredible memories of spending hours on the piano with Dicheterliebe and losing myself in endless recordings of this work. It is a privilege to be joining those artists with this recording.

One of the reasons my teenage-self loved all those different recordings of Dichterliebe was because it was the first time I fully understood the magic in a singer's individual voice, met with their musical interests and their choices to make their rendition of something totally and uniquely their own.”

Debut with Dutch National Opera

Helen will make her debut with Dutch National Opera on 6 - 22 March with the world premiere performances of Michel van der Aa’s new opera Theory of Flames as part of the annual Opera Forward Festival, which this year celebrates its 10th edition. In a deeply human and moving story, Helen’s voice is quintessential to this new work, collaborating with van der Aa to create an indelible character.

Theory of Flames is a new film opera, which explores themes including disinformation and conspiracy theories. Conflicting perspectives not only fuel polarisation in society but also create tensions between friends and family. In Theory of Flames, film director Neola becomes entangled in a web of alternative facts, while her loved ones watch on helplessly.

Helen creates the role of Marianne joining soprano Mary Bevan as Neola, baritone Roderick Williams as cameraman Josh, whilst soprano Julia Bullock joins the ensemble in the film footage. The cast are conducted by Elena Schwarz, who returns to Amsterdam following her house debut with Saariaho’s Innocence.

A Poet’s Love

On 8 May 2026, Helen releases A Poet’s Love, a new album with pianist Sholto Kynoch to be released on the BIS label. Helen explores her first musical love: Schumann’s Dichterliebe, providing her interpretation of the composer’s fantasy world. Having first performed the work in 2023, Helen now captures the insightful poetry in such an immediate form: performing directly into someone’s ear.

Previous releases from Helen – Battle Cry and If the Fates allow - focus on the haunting world of baroque and early music. A Poet’s Love shows the other side of her musical personality: the intimate and beguiling world of song, shaped by the early Romantic German composers, Schumann, Fanny Hensel, Carl Loewe, Felix Mendelssohn and Josephine Lang.

The album also features a premiere recording of Héloïse Werner’s Knights Dream, an accompanying piece to Dichterliebe, commissioned by Helen in partnership with BBC Radio 3. Werner sets a poem by Heine – the prologue from the large book of poems Schumann chose his texts from. Knights Dream tells an amazing story of possibility, and the power of love, and the ease with which it can slip through our fingers. In setting the stage with energy and wit, Werner creates a sound world for the listener that feels new and familiar all at once.

Along with Sholto, Helen will give a performance of this programme at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire (13 January) and at Leeds Song (15 April).

A Poet’s Love – Track List

Carl Loewe Die Lotosblume

Josephine Lang Wenn Zwei von einander Scheiden

Fanny Hensel Schwanenlied

Felix Medelssohn Reiselied

Héloïse Werner Knights Dream

Robert Schumann Dichterliebe

Further Performances

Helen’s concert and recital performances begin in the new year with Mozart’s Requiem with the Czech Philharmonic (7, 8 & 9 January). She performs Bach’s Matthew Passion with the Antwerp Symphony Orchestra (20 & 21 March), and Dresden Philharmonie (2 & 3 April), as well as the John Passion with the OAE (29 March).

Helen is reunited with A Poet’s Love pianist Sholto Kynoch for a recital at the University of York (25 March), featuring their critically acclaimed programme: Notes of Old. Repertoire includes works by Mompou, Hahn, Monteverdi, Bach, Schubert, Anna Semple, Pauline Viardot, Ravel, Marc Antoine Charpentier and Schumann.

Helen will also visit Cambridge and London with the Academy of Ancient Music, to perform Telemann’s Ich muß auf dem Berge weinen, Bach’s Du wahrer Gott und Davids Sohn and Cristoph Graupner’s Lobet den Herrn alle Heiden.

For further information, press tickets and images, please contact:

RDMR

Grace Siemens-Filmer, Senior Press Officer

grace@rdmr.co.uk | +44 (0) 7498 918 350