Julien van Mellaerts takes to the stage in A Dangerous Obsession

New Zealand baritone Julien van Mellaerts is set to dazzle on stage when he performs in the London Song Festival this month.

The musician, who represented New Zealand at the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World Competition in 2019, is taking part in the LSF’s Autumn Season whose focus this year is ‘obsession’.

He will perform on the night named A Dangerous Obsession, which LSF describes as: ‘The turbulent love affair of the French poets Paul Verlaine and Arthur Rimbaud, who met 150 years ago in September 1871, tore both their lives apart, unleashing passions that neither could control and culminating in gunfire and prison. This remarkable story is told through their poetry set to music by composers including Gabriel Fauré, Claude Debussy, Benjamin Britten, Gustave Charpentier, Poldowski, Louis Vierne, Delius and John Carpenter.’

Tickets are £20, and can be booked here.