Three Bridges Opera
Three Bridges Opera was founded in 2019 as a celebration of performance, voice education and vocal health. Since its founding, the company has held steadfastly to its mission of helping singers at the start of their career explore opera, providing performance opportunities within Scotland, and giving time and space to not only learn roles, but immerse themselves in the context the work was written in with the idyll of Scotland as a backdrop.
The Three Bridges Opera programme consists of intensive study weeks of a single opera, aimed at (pre-)professional singers. The study weeks are supplemented by recitals, lectures, and exclusive events throughout the year.
Our home in Fife looks out upon the Firth of Forth and the three bridges spanning it, from which Three Bridges Opera has derived its name.
The Three Bridges Opera team
Jacob Zualski, Co-Artistic Director
“Consistently excellent” - All Edinburgh Theatre 2017
Jake is a talented professional singer and director, dedicated to producing captivating musical and dramatic works for both physical and digital spaces. As the pre-eminent student of opera singer Dr Nell Drew, he has regularly performed as a baritone at the Edinburgh Fringe, earning the accolade 'consistently excellent' from critics for his 2017 debut performance of Don Giovanni.
He has appeared as Il Conte di Almaviva (Mozart, Le Nozze di Figaro), Count Rodolpho (Bellini, La Sonnambula), Harlekin (R. Strauss, Ariadne), Guglielmo (Mozart, Cosi fan Tutte) and Papageno (Mozart, Die Zauberflöte) alongside delivering more dramatic repertoire on the concert platform. Additionally, Jake has filmed the role of Wotan (Wagner, Die Walküre) for an international film collaboration coordinated by Dramatic Voices Programme Berlin with digital art by New York based Leanne Arnold.
As long time conductor of Aria Alba Opera for All, and Assistant Musical director at Voice Arc, Jake has facilitated and/ or co- directed a number of works including A Little Night Music (Sondheim), Semele (Händel), La Sonnambula (Bellini), Idomeneo (Mozart) and Maria Stuarda (Donizetti).
With a thriving teaching practice and students distributed across the Northeast of England, Edinburgh and London, Jake produces robust voices with excellent technical awareness utilising the Physiological Method promoted by Dr Drew. He coaches singers across multiple genres from Opera, Classical and Music Theatre to more popular styles working with students from early years through to retiring singers.
Jolanda is a social media specialist by day, dramatic soprano and historian the rest of the time. Dutch-born but having lived in the UK for 10 years, starting out life in the UK as a student and sticking around ever since.
Her dual Master Degrees in Music and Ancient History made her the perfect person to provide a lecture on Strauss' Ariadne auf Naxos during Three Bridges Opera's first intensive study week. The rest is history. She now presents in-depth research for each Three Bridges Opera-project, providing participants a deeper understanding and new insights into the works' historical context, its plot and characters, and the music.
In her capacity as Co-Artistic Director of Thee Bridges Opera, Jolanda combines a background in operatic performance, a passion for language, and character work with unique historical insights to bring other people closer to the root of the opera's stories and music.
Bria Mason, Director of Programming
Jamie Whitfield, Creative Director
Bria Mason is a freelance Gaelic teacher and singer. She sings traditional material in Gaelic, Scots and English as well as her own work.
Bria is a soprano whose roles with Three Bridges have included Cherubino in Le Nozze di Figaro, Echo in Ariadne auf Naxos and Sophie in Der Rosenkavalier. She is delighted to share her love of singing and education with others through her work on the Three Bridges committee.
Based in Newcastle, Jamie is an architect by training. Over the past ten years he has worked on the production teams for many full-scale opera performances with VoiceArc, Aria Alba, and Harlekin Studio Opera (HSO), and in 2023 Directed ‘I Pagliacci’ (Leancavallo) for HSO. Jamie brings a keen interest in the cultural context of the operas we study and delivers talks which explore the social and political worlds in which the works were written.
Jamie is Dramatic Bass whose roles with Three Bridges include – Baron Von Ochs (Der Rosenkavalier), Truffaldin (Ariadne Auf Naxos), Figaro and Antonio (Le Nozze di Figaro); he has also sung the roles of Zuniga (Carmen), Count Rodolfo (La Sonnambula), Don Alfonso (Cosi Fan Tutte), Leporello (Don Giovanni), Aeneas (Dido & Aeneas) & Sarastro (Die Zauberflöte).
In his role as Creative Director Jamie oversees all things branding and provides support to the wider team.
