ETO Programme 2007 - English Touring Opera

Transcription

ENGLISH
TOURING
OPERA
EUGENE ONEGIN TCHAIKOVSKY
THE SERAGLIO MOZART
SPIRITOFVIENNA STRAUSS
SPRING TOUR 07 PROGRAMME
CONTENTS
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SPRING 2007 TOUR DIARY
WELCOME: FROM THE GENERAL DIRECTOR
OUTREACH
ETO’S BOARD OF DIRECTORS
CAN WE MEET AGAIN?
nETwOrks: BE THE NEXT LINK IN THE CHAIN
ETO STAFF
ORCHESTRA
PRODUCTION TEAM
SINGERS
SYNOPSIS: EUGENE ONEGIN
ONEGIN: IN PLACE OF HAPPINESS AND LOVE
SYNOPSIS: THE SERAGLIO
SERAGLIO: MOZART AND THE TERRIBLE TURK
SYNOPSIS: SPIRIT OF VIENNA
SPIRIT OF VIENNA PRODUCTION ESSAY
ETO IN THE COMMUNITY: A HOUSE ON THE MOON
BRIDGETOWER
OUR SUPPORTERS
BIOGRAPHIES
Supported 2007 by
SPRING 2007TOUR DIARY
WELCOME
March
to this English Touring Opera performance.
We started the season on a special high: our
autumn season of baroque opera, a risky one
by any reckoning, was by most reckonings a great
success. The artists, performing in several shows
and covering in others, were gifted and versatile,
the operas themselves rich and various, the
outreach projects (including the wonderful opera
for young people), recitals, street shows and pub
performances strong and fun. We made a festival!
Well, no - you made a festival, by coming along and
taking a chance on our work. I think I’ll always
remember attending performances in Malvern near
the end of the tour and finding that a significant
number of people had pitched up 3 and 4 nights
in a week, and still looked cheerful! Thank you,
again and again, for your time, good will and the
price of your tickets - the French would rightly
say that you have ‘assisted’ at performances
(especially if you sang in one of the choirs
who performed with us in Orfeo).
LONDON HACKNEY EMPIRE
020 8985 2424 7.30pm
Thu 15 EUGENE ONEGIN
Fri 16 THE SERAGLIO
Sat 17 EUGENE ONEGIN c
CRAWLEY THE HAWTH
01293 553 636 7.30pm
Mon 19 THE SERAGLIO
Tue 20 EUGENE ONEGIN
TUNBRIDGE WELLS ASSEMBLY HALL
01892 530 613 / 01892 532 072 7.30pm
Fri 23 THE SERAGLIO
CHELTENHAM EVERYMAN THEATRE
01242 572 573 7.30pm
Tue 27 SPIRIT OF VIENNA
Wed 28 THE SERAGLIO
Thu 29 EUGENE ONEGIN c
Fri 30 THE SERAGLIO
Sat 31 EUGENE ONEGIN
April
TRURO HALL FOR CORNWALL
01872 262 466 7.30pm
Mon 2 THE SERAGLIO
Tue 3 EUGENE ONEGIN
Wed 4 SPIRIT OF VIENNA
ALDEBURGH SNAPE MALTINGS
01728 687 110 7.30pm
Thu 12 EUGENE ONEGIN c
Fri 13 THE SERAGLIO
Sat 14 EUGENE ONEGIN
POOLE THE LIGHTHOUSE
08700 668 701 7.30pm
Mon 16 THE SERAGLIO
Tue 17 SPIRIT OF VIENNA
Wed 18 EUGENE ONEGIN c
BEXHILL DE LA WARR PAVILION
01424 229 111 7.30pm
Fri 20 THE SERAGLIO
WOLVERHAMPTON GRAND THEATRE
01902 429 212 7.30pm
Mon 23 THE SERAGLIO
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EUGENE ONEGIN A
BUXTON OPERA HOUSE
0845 127 2190 7.30pm
Thu 26 THE SERAGLIO
Fri 27 EUGENE ONEGIN
Sat 28 THE SERAGLIO
SHEFFIELD LYCEUM
0114 249 6000 7.45pm
Mon 30 EUGENE ONEGIN c
Tue 24
May
Tue 1
Wed 2
Fri 4
Sat 5
Tue 8
Wed 9
Thu 10
Fri 11
Sat 12
Tue 15
Wed 16
Thu 17
Fri 18
Sat 19
Mon 21
Tue 22
Thu 24
Fri 25
Sat 26
SPIRIT OF VIENNA
THE SERAGLIO A
KENDAL LAKES LEISURE
01539 729 702 7.30pm
THE SERAGLIO
EUGENE ONEGIN
CAMBRIDGE ARTS THEATRE
01223 503 333 7.30pm
THE SERAGLIO
EUGENE ONEGIN c
SPIRIT OF VIENNA
THE SERAGLIO
EUGENE ONEGIN
WARWICK ARTS CENTRE
024 7652 4524 7.30pm
THE SERAGLIO
EUGENE ONEGIN c
SPIRIT OF VIENNA
THE SERAGLIO
EUGENE ONEGIN
DURHAM GALA THEATRE
0191 332 4041 7.30pm
THE SERAGLIO
EUGENE ONEGIN
PERTH FESTIVAL
0845 612 6330 7.30pm
THE SERAGLIO
EUGENE ONEGIN
THE SERAGLIO
c Captioned performances
A Audio described performances
The success of that season has emboldened us
to tour with a period orchestra again in Autumn
2007 - performing Handel’s little known, brilliant
Teseo, a display of fiery drama and vocal virtuosity
if ever there was one, and Haydn’s Country
Matters, a sparkling comedy of (mostly bad)
manners and (mostly very good) humours.
Alongside these we are proud to present our first
jazz opera, and our first collaboration with City
of London Festival: Bridgetower. Will we this piece
its world premiere at the Festival during the
summer, just two weeks after our other new
commission, A House on The Moon, culminates
in Wolverhampton (read on for further details).
Just as we started rehearsing this season, we were
honoured by the Royal Philharmonic Society, which
has nominated the two productions we toured last
spring (Jenůfa and Tosca) as best new opera
productions of the year. Our 2004 A Midsummer
Night’s Dream was nominated for the same award,
and our 2005 Mary, Queen of Scots was nominated
in the same category for a South Bank Award.
As we went to press with this programme we
were very excited to learn that our two education
projects, Ice and Crossing the Styx, have also been
nominated for a Royal Philharmonic Society Award.
So we are optimistic, and happy to be in front
of you again. Not just in front, but all around I
hope, given the formidable energy and enterprise
of Tim Yealland, who masterminds all the
productions we do in schools, colleges, and
in other communities outside the theatre (well,
inside the Wolverhampton Grand Theatre, too).
What you see in an ETO show is the result of the
work of many people. On tour this spring there
are about 70, with 10 back in the office. Then
there are the animateurs working at colleges and
special schools, the refugee artists joining other
animateurs in the creation of A House on the
Moon, and the very large number of people
actually taking part in community projects around
the country. I guess you could say we are a very
diverse group, loosely but passionately associated.
Thanks for joining us tonight - and special thanks
to those of you who have decided - or who
decide tonight - to join an ETO nETwOrk, to help
us spread the word about our work on tour.
James Conway
General Director
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OUTREACH
Photograph Frederick Carr (left) Andrew Stepan (right)
Crossing the Styx: Edmund Connolly Catrin Johnsson Sam Boden
Photograph Andrew Stepan
In the last few years the education programme
at ETO has focused on three main strands of work:
specially devised performances for young people,
creative residencies in schools, and collaborative
community opera. This is an exceptionally busy
year for us. In the autumn we toured a new opera,
Crossing the Styx, to primary schools and small
theatres across the country. This highly successful
retelling of the Orpheus myth was fully interactive,
supported with songs for the audience and
commissioned cartoon strips. A multi-talented and
multi-national cast of actors, players and singers
(including a latin-dancing trombonist) told the
story through song, puppetry, drama and dance.
It was a second collaboration with storytelling
theatre company Wonderful Beast, with new
music by Rachel Leach. The show proved a great
introduction to the world of classical mythology,
bringing to life such key figures as Orpheus,
Charon, Pluto and Persephone.
Corbets Tey Residency: Emmanuel
Here are comments from our young audience:
‘I felt I was going to cry because
it was very good’ Douglas, 10
‘Your work made me feel the happiest
I’ve ever been!’ Melissa, 8
‘I felt like a spark was flickering
inside me’ Matty, 10
‘It made me want to sing!’ Connor, 9
‘It made me feel all floaty and
excited and sad’ Aysha, 10
Meanwhile our commitment to creative work in
school continues. The raw energy of these sessions
can amaze participants, teachers and professionals
alike. In particular, residencies in special schools
such as Corbets Tey in Essex, Moorfield School
in Preston and Tuke School in Peckham have seen
ETO develop with teachers whole new strategies
in delivering this joyful work.
Crossing the Styx: Miguel Tantos
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ETO’S BOARD
OF DIRECTORS
CAN WE
MEET AGAIN?
Richard Lyttelton (Chairman)
Judith Ackrill
Ewen Balfour
Verena Cornwall
Jane Forman Hardy
Robin Leggate
Bill Mason
Ursula Owen
John Tattersall
Lucy Wylde
Sam Younger
ETO Friends
The next time we’re in town, why not make sure
that you secure the best seats? There’s no secret
to it: the people who have done so this evening
jumped to the front of the queue by becoming
Friends of ETO. In addition to receiving exclusive
information about our tour dates before anyone
else, our Friends are also given access to a priority
booking facility, which gives them far more
flexibility as to where they’d like to sit.
Spotlight on Bill Mason
Bill Mason has been a Director of ETO for six years.
He is also a director of the Cambridge Arts Theatre
and Cambridge Music Festival and has been a keen
supporter of the arts for many years. He was also
Chairman of the Year of Opera and Musical Theatre
focused on the seven counties of Eastern England.
‘I am very excited to have been part of the ETO
board since 2001. In that time I have watched
the company grow from strength to strength
in the quality and diversity of its performances
and of its audiences. I joined the board because
I believe in the work of the company and in the
ethos behind its mission.
the theatre I am very aware of the challenges
raised when touring the grandest of art forms.
I believe we all have to play our part in making
this happen. I would encourage all of you to visit
our Friends desk and talk with our ETO team
about how you can get involved through
our nETwOrk ambassador scheme, Friends
or business partnerships.’
Best of all, becoming an ETO Friend is not
expensive. The vast majority of our Friends receive
all of the benefits described for less than £2
a month. If you’d like to be one of them, just talk
to one of our representatives this evening,
or call 020 7833 2555. Alternatively, please visit
our website on www.englishtouringopera.org.uk
where you can become a friend online.
I care deeply that people in the regions have
access to high quality art provision. I think this
is important, not just for the audiences who
may be unable to travel to access the arts, but
for new audiences who may like to try opera
butwould be deterred by the inconvenience
and expenses of having to travel, were
it not for ETO.
I am especially pleased to be involved in ETO’s
work in developing partnerships with audiences
and businesses in Cambridge and the East Anglia
region. Sitting on the board of the company and
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Our Friends also receive regular updates about all
our activities, and are invited to special events and
receptions. What’s more, by becoming a Friend,
you are helping us to bring opera into primary,
secondary and special schools through our ETO
outreach efforts. A full house at our performances
only gives us a third of the funds that we need to
do all of our work, so by becoming an ETO Friend,
you know that you are actively securing the
future of the company.
Join ETO’s Patrons’ Circle
If you really like what you’ve seen so far, and want
to be even more involved with ETO, you can
become one of our Patrons. As a member of the
ETO Patrons’ Circle, you will enjoy exclusive access
to the heart of the company, including invitations
to our rehearsals.
Business Relationship
ETO also enjoys close relationships with our
Friends in the business world, offering them
exclusive hospitality and branding opportunities
in some of the most prestigious venues
in the country.
Legacies
We can also tell you about ETO’s Legacies
programme. Remembering us in your will
is a highly effective way of securing our
long-term future.
To learn more about these ways of supporting
ETO please contact Andrew Higgins:
020 7833 2555
[email protected]
For every £10 you give, ETO can receive an extra
Bill Mason
ETO Board Member
£2.80 from the Inland Revenue if you choose
to Gift Aid your donation
7
nETwOrks
BE THE NEXT LINK
IN THE CHAIN
Fancy a free upgrade to club class?
There are many ways you can enjoy ETO’s work,
but you ought to know that more and more
people are becoming more deeply involved with
the company by joining one of our nETwOrks.
It’s our way of making sure that we don’t just
parachute in and out of your area once or twice
a year, leaving you pining for your next dose
of high-quality opera. Through a range of social
events organized by your local nETwOrk, you
can get together with fellow opera lovers
in your part of the world and become closely
involved with ETO and its performances. It’s
a bit like upgrading your ETO experience to
club class, except that we don’t ask for anything
in return except your local knowledge as to
how we can best spread the word about our
forthcoming performances.
So, what can you expect if you join? Once again
this spring, our nETwOrkers have been invited
to working rehearsals of our shows, this time
at the London Buddhist Arts Centre. Not only
did this involve an exclusive preview of the
performance you’re enjoying this evening,
but it also included a behind-the-scenes talk
by ETO’s General Director, James Conway.
What’s more, some of our nETwOrkers are flirting
with fame this spring by posing for the publicity
material for our tour! If you look at the cover of
this programme you will see audience members
sitting in front of our mother and daughter team.
By expanding the photograph a little (see below),
you can make them out more clearly.
We currently have nETwOrks in London, Crawley,
Truro, Bath and Cambridge, and if you’d like
to join them, please get in touch. We are also
looking at locations for new nETwOrks, so if you
think your area needs a more permanent ETO
presence, again, email or telephone our nETwOrk
coordinator, Esyllt Wyn Owen, on 020 7833 2555
or [email protected]
ETO STAFF
General Director
James Conway
Associate Conductor
Michael Rosewell
Artistic Associate
Education
Tim Yealland
Director of Finance
and Administration
David Burke
We would like to thank our ETO
nETwOrkers throughout the
UK, with a special thanks to:
Jean Cole
Joanna Dickson-Leach
Iris Goldsmith
Bob Hall
Verina Jones
Jane Morley
Peter Nicolson
Sarah Roberts
John Symon
Artistic Administrator
Shawn McCrory
Office and Education
Administrator
Eva Hocquard
Director of Marketing
and Development
Andrew Higgins
Marketing and
Development Officer
Esyllt Wyn Owen
Press and Marketing Officer
Chantelle Staynings
Development and
Finance Officer
Brendan Dinen
The mission of English Touring Opera is to present
Production Manager
Paul Tucker
vibrant, innovative, high quality opera and music
theatre to existing and new audiences and venues
in communities throughout England. ETO seeks to
stimulate new access, understanding and appreciation
of this genre, whilst promoting the development
of the highest performance standards and enlivening
ETO nETwOrkers at the spring marketing photoshoot
8
career development opportunities for our artists.
9
ORCHESTRA
Violin 1
Andrew Court (Leader)
Cathy Schofield
John Smart
Nicolette Brown
Vernon Dean
Ciaran McCabe
Melissa Majoni
Susan Alexander
Viola
John Rogers
Sarah Harris
Rachel Robson
Violin 2
Jeremy Metcalfe
Vladimir Naumov
Robert Higgs
Katalin Kertecz
Charlotte Newman
Double Bass
Caroline Harding
Mark Thistlewood
Cello
Ben Davies
Jonathan Kitchen
Claire Constable
Harp
Ruth Potter
Helen Cole
Alison Martin
PRODUCTION TEAM
Flute
Luke Strevens
Judith Treggor
Katy Gainham
Nicola Smedley
Oboe
Owen Dennis
Rachel Harwood-White
Louise Hayter
Clarinet
Peter Thompson
Mark Simmons
Helen Bishop
Bassoon
Lizbeth Elliott
Simon Chiswell
Julia Staniforth
Horn
Jonathan Hassan
Jo Greenberg
Duncan Fuller
Trumpet
Alan Cramp
John MacDomnic
Ruth Ross
Timpani
Simon Archer
Scott Bywater
EUGENE ONEGIN
THE SERAGLIO
SPIRIT OF VIENNA
STAFF
Conductor
Michael Rosewell
Conductor
Gary Cooper
Conductor
Gareth Hancock
Staff Director
Robin Norton-Hale
Director
James Conway
Director
Gavin Quinn
Director
Robin Norton-Hale
Technical Stage Manager
Simon Airey
Set and Costume
Designer
Joanna Parker
Set and Costume
Designer
Mauricio Elloriaga
Lighting Designer
Dominic Jeffery
Stage Manager
Helen Bowen
Lighting Designer
Guy Hoare
Lighting Designer
Guy Hoare
Assistant Director
and Choreographer
Bernadette Iglich
Assistant Conductor
Gareth Hancock*
Associate Designer
(Costumes)
Ilona Karas Prokopcova
Assistant Director
Robin Norton-Hale
Wardrobe Mistress
Jessie Fleck
Assistant to
the Director
Tom Littler
Photograph Keith Pattison
Production Electricians
Dominic Jeffery
Robert Stemson
Costume Supervisor
Adrian Gwillym
Assistant to the
Lighting Designer
Clare Seviour
ETO’s Autumn 2006 Baroque Orchestra and Singers
Assistant
Stage Manager
Rosina Webb
Production Carpenter
Alex Hale
Assistant Conductor
Gareth Hancock*
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Deputy Stage Manager
Anna Jordahl
Driver
John Farrant
Wigs and Make-up
Supervisor
Melissa van Tongeren
*Gareth Hancock
Eugene Onegin 3 April and 5 May
*Gareth Hancock
The Seraglio 26 April, 2 May & 21 May
Repetiteurs
Andrew Smith
Sergey Rybin
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EUGENE
ONEGIN
THE
SERAGLIO
SPIRIT OF
VIENNA
ENSEMBLE SPRING 2007
Clare Shearer
Larina
Richard Jackson
Selim
Cheryl Enever
Mezzo-Soprano
A provincial
landowner, widowed
Spoken
Pasha
Soprano
Sion Goronwy
Osmin
Amanada Echalaz
Tatiana
Bass
His servant
Soprano
Larina’s elder
daughter
Elizabeth Donovan
Constanza
Soprano
A Spanish lady,
Selim’s captive
Lorina Gore
Blonde
Soprano
Her maid
Hal Cazalet
Belmonte
Tenor
A Spanish nobleman,
betrothed to Constanza
Marie Elliot
Olga
Mezzo-Soprano
Larina’s younger
daughter
Linda Hibberd
Filipyevna
Mezzo-Soprano
Their nursemaid
Michael
Bracegirdle
Vladimir Lensky
An actress, mistress
to Count Zedlau
Nicky Spence
Joshua Ellicott
Pedrillo
Tenor
His servant
Franziska
(Franzi) Cagliari
Tenor
Count
Balduin Zedlau
Viennese ambassador
of Reuss-Schleiz-Griez
Sylvia O’Brien
Soprano
Countess
Gabriele Zedlau
His wife
Patrick Ashcroft
Josef
Tenor
Count Zedlau’s
manservant
Mary O’Sullivan
Pepi Pleininger
Soprano
Josef’s girlfriend
Richard Jackson
Prince Ypshium
Gindelbach
Tenor
A poet and neighbour,
betrothed to Olga
Roland Wood
Eugene Onegin
Baritone
His friend
Patrick Ashcroft
Triquet
Tenor
A tutor in the
Larin household
Anthony Cleverton
Zaretsky
Nicholas Lester
Kagler
Baritone
An officer
Spoken
Franzi’s father
Geoffrey Moses
Prince Gremin
Bass
A retired officer
in St Petersburg
Mark Cunningham
Peasant Leader
Baritone
Patrick Ashcroft
Anthony Cleverton
Laurence Cole
Mark Cunningham
Cheryl Enever
Helen Johnson
Niamh Kelly
Nicholas Lester
Sylvia O’Brien
Mary O’Sullivan
Benedict Quirke
Renée Salewski
Olivia Shrive
Nicky Spence
Robert D Williams
Prime Minister of
Reuss-Schleiz-Griez
Tenor
Yevgeny Onegin
Lyric Scenes in 3 acts
By Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Libretto by the composer and K S Shilovsky
After the poem by Alexander Pushkin
English singing version by David Lloyd-Jones
By permission of Boosey & Hawkes Music Publishers Ltd
First performance at Moscow, Maly Theatre, 17 March 1879
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Die Entführung aus dem Serail, K384
Singspiel in 3 acts
By Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Text by Christoph Friedrich Bretzner, adapted by Gottlieb Stephanie
English singing version by John Warrack
First performance at Vienna, Burgtheater, 16 July 1782
Wiener Blut
Operetta in three acts
Arranged by Adolf Müller from the music of Johann Strauss
Text by Victor Léon and Leo Stein
English singing version by Nigel Douglas by permission
of Barenreiter Joseph Weinberger Ltd
First performance at Vienna, Carltheater, 25 October 1899
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SYNOPSIS
EUGENE
ONEGIN
Act 1 Scene 1 At her estate in provincial Russia,
the widow Larina lives with her two daughters,
Tatiana and Olga, and their nurse Filipyevna.
Listening to her girls’ singing lesson, Madame
Larina wistfully recalls her youth, and a romance
in St Petersburg before her marriage. Peasants are
heard singing as they return from work in the fields.
Their responses to the peasants’ song distinguish
the two young sisters: Tatiana, the elder, is
sensitive, much given to reading sentimental
novels; Olga, on the other hand, is carefree.
Their neighbour Lensky arrives with his friend
Onegin, a reputed misanthrope who has lately
come from St Petersburg to take possession of his
uncle’s property. Onegin swiftly disturbs Lensky’s
idealism, commenting in private that he “would
have picked Tatiana”. The couples walk the
grounds, and then go in to supper.
Scene 2 Unable to sleep, Tatiana confides to her
nurse that she is in love. In the course of the night
she pours out her heart as she writes - but does not
sign - a letter to Onegin, bearing all the influences
of the novels she reads. In the morning she orders
her reluctant nurse to see that it is delivered.
Scene 3 Onegin calls. Identifying Tatiana as
the author of the letter, he is at first generous.
He claims that he is not suited to marriage,
however affecting her appeal. Coldly, he advises
her to be more prudent.
Act 2 Scene 1 Several weeks later, a ball is held
on Tatiana’s name-day. Lensky has persuaded
Onegin to attend, promising that it will only
be an informal supper; when they arrive, Onegin
is appalled by the uncouth crowd and by Tatiana’s
tearfulness. He resolves to revenge this
awkwardness on his friend by flirting with Olga.
Lensky is quickly jealous, and he is not distracted
14
by the song of the French tutor, M Triquet. Enraged
by Onegin’s conduct, and by Olga’s apparent
faithlessness, Lensky challenges Onegin to a duel.
Publicly insulted by his friend, Onegin accepts the
challenge, and the party is ruined.
Interval
Act 2 Scene 2 As he waits for Onegin at dawn,
Lensky considers how unlike his present condition
were the days of youth he idealised in his poems.
Onegin arrives late, and heedless of the etiquette
of duelling. Each wills the other to stop the duel,
but neither will take the initiative. The conduct of
the duel is a shambles, and Lensky is fatally shot.
Act 3 Scene 1 Returning to St Petersburg after
years of aimless travel, Onegin is still haunted
by the spectre of his one friend. At a ball he sees
Tatiana, now the cool, elegant wife of his aged
relative, Prince Gremin. Gremin’s praise of married
life, like the lyrical outbursts of Lensky, affects
Onegin strangely. He decides that he must
be in love with Tatiana.
Scene 2 For some time since they met at the ball,
Onegin has been writing impassioned letters to
Tatiana. Finally she summons him to her house
in order to ask him to write no more. She voices
her suspicion that he pursues her only in order
to gain notoriety by destroying her character and
marriage. She reminds him of his own dismissal
of her innocent, if ill-advised love letter – but he
surprises her by quoting her own (memorised?)
expressions back at her. He contrasts his ardour
with what he supposes to be her bleak, loveless
situation. She confesses that she still loves him,
even knowing him as she now does, but resolves
nonetheless to be faithful to her marriage vows.
When Onegin will not leave, she leaves him.
Onegin sees the ruin that lies ahead of him.
ONEGIN: SOME NOTES FROM THE NOVEL AND OPERA
IN PLACE OF
HAPPINESS AND LOVE
But it is sad to think that to no purpose
Youth was given us,
that we betrayed it every hour
that it duped us;
that our best wishes,
that our fresh dreamings
in quick succession have decayed
like leaves in putrid autumn.
(Chapter 8, xi)
When an opera is made from a familiar poem
or play, the director is often tempted by the text.
I tried to stop myself this time, as I knew from
past reading that Pushkin and Tchaikovsky were
far apart in terms of temperament, and far
enough apart historically to make any kind of
assumptions problematic. In terms of the latter,
slavophilism had taken on different meanings
as the nineteenth century advanced; in terms
of the former, Tchaikovsky’s libretto and music
seems to me not ironic, and Pushkin’s is elusive
and ironic at every point.
That said, the audience for whom Tchaikovsky
wrote the opera would have known the poem not just the story, but the tone. This enabled the
composer to prepare so successfully a sequence
of ‘lyric scenes’ knowing that the audience could
fill in ellipses - like the hero’s barren foreign tour
between Lensky’s death and the Petersburg ball
at which he meets Tatiana again, or even like the
visit to Onegin’s library that changes Tatiana’s
opinion of Onegin during the same absence.
The audience would know of Olga’s easy wooing
after Lensky’s death; they might even have
learned by heart the text of Onegin’s letter
to the Petersburg Tatiana, balancing her own
letter to him in more innocent times.
What this signals to me is that it serves to
be familiar with the poem, but to respect the
16
different creative temperaments of the composer
and the poet. Small details from the poem I have
allowed to influence the production directly.
Tatiana’s letter scene, for example, has
suggestions of bedroom and garden:
The ache of love chases Tatiana
and to the garden she repairs to brood
and all at once her moveless eyes she lowers
and is too indolent to further step;…
Tatiana in the darkness does not sleep
and in low tones talks with her nurse.
(Chapter 3, xvi)
I also looked to the poem to help with genuine
motivational problems in the opera. Why does
Onegin - a man who has given hours of time and
sympathy to one friend, the naïve young poet
Lensky, in preference to all others - so lightly and
callously torment his friend at the Larin’s ball. Sure
it’s boring and provincial, and people talk about
him, but how does he let it go so far? Onegin’s
arrival at the ball, it seems, has a bad effect on
Tatiana, ‘a doe in the moonlight... on the verge of
collapse’. Tatiana’s tears provoke Onegin, as much
as the big party (he had been promised a small
supper, and had reluctantly agreed in order to
humour his friend) and Lensky’s gloomy jealousy.
Curiously, moments later the same sadness
in Tatiana elicits a look from Onegin that is
‘wondrous tender’, and her hopes revive. This
is a key moment. The poet says that he cannot
(or will not) discern Onegin’s true attitude, which
could be coquettish or sympathetic, habitually
insincere or momentarily disarmed. To Pushkin’s
narrator, Onegin is ever ‘my strange travelling
companion’. The guileless Tatiana is, on the
other hand ‘my true ideal’.
Though Tatiana is idealised by the composer
as much as the poet, in the opera there is less
chance to see that she is as damaged as Onegin
by Lensky’s death and the passage of years.
Of his model for the character of Tatiana,
Pushkin lamented ‘Ah, fate has much, much
snatched away!’ Of Princess Gremina,
the Petersburg Tatiana, he says:
Of a constricting rank
the ways how fast she has adopted!
Who’d dare to seek the tender little lass
in this stately, this nonchalant
Legislatrix of salons?
(Book 8, xxv)
The Onegin she meets there is lost, cursed.
In his impassioned letter to her he explains:
‘From all that to the heart is dear
then did I tear my heart away;
to everyone a stranger, tied by nothing,
I thought: liberty and peace
are a substitute for happiness. Good God!
What a mistake I made, how I am punished!’
Tragiconervous scenes,
the fainting fits of maiden tears,
long since Eugene could not abide:
enough of them he had endured.
The odd chap, on finding himself at a huge feast,
was cross already. But the dolent girl’s
quivering impulse having noticed,
out of vexation, lowering his gaze,
he went into a huff and, fuming,
swore he would enrage Lenski,
and thoroughly, in fact, avenge himself.
(Chapter 5, xxxi)
17
SYNOPSIS
THE
SERAGLIO
What now draws the lost Onegin to the chilled
Tatiana, the ‘indifferent princess, the inaccessible
goddess’, so that he writes her a letter far more
compromising than the one she once wrote him?
Tatiana herself is ruthless in her reckoning:
‘But now!... what to my feet
has brought you? What a little thing!
How, with your heart and mind,
be the slave of a trivial feeling?
(Book 8, xlv)
Tatiana loves him; she says so, and in Tchaikovsky’s
music that motive soars. That does not mean that
she is not cold, disillusioned, dutiful and unhappy,
and it does not mean that she does not despise the
love Onegin at last offers her. Despite her feeling
for him, she is even more concise and honest than
he was with her, and she knows him better than
he knows himself. She has a compelling moral
beauty, but the picture is not pretty.
What the poem helped me to understand about
the opera is that it is about youth. Love in youth
has grace, however misplayed are its moves: ‘its
impulses are beneficial as are spring storms to
fields’, and ‘vigorous life gives both lush bloom
and sweet fruit’. At ‘a late and barren age’ (and
by this poet and composer mean in the later
twenties and thirties!) ‘sad is the trace
of dead passion’:
Thus the storms of cold autumn
into a marsh transform the meadow
and strip the woods around.
(Book 8, xxix)
Society, sophistication, experience: these are all
loss to Pushkin, and to Tchaikovsky, ‘chill dreams’
and ‘stern cares’ in contrast to ‘the delights,
the melancholy, the dear torments, the hum,
the storms, the feasts’ of ‘my light youth’. While
in youth all emotions are sheer, and all causes
slight, maturity is a threat to the artist,
who cries:
Let not a poet’s soul grow cold,
callous, crust-dry,
and finally be turned to stone
in the world’s deadening intoxication
in that slough where with you
I bathe, dear friends.
(Chapter 6, xlvi)
Lensky was fortunate to die young. As Eugene
Onegin is an opera unified by sad, radiant
descending scales, Eugene Onegin is a poem
of repeated beatitudes, culminating in the
bitter conclusion that it is better to die young,
like Lensky, than to live to cold maturity like
Tatiana and her mother, or to despair
and isolation, like Onegin:
Blest who’s life’s banquet early
left, having not drained to the bottom
the goblet of wine;
who did not read life’s novel to the end
and all at once could part with it
as I with my Onegin.
James Conway
Quotes from Eugene Onegin by Aleksander Pushkin (author) Vaidimir Nabokov (translater) Prinston University Press 1991.
18
The action takes place in the grounds of the
Pasha Selim’s palace, on the Mediterranean
coast of Turkey.
Act One Belmonte, a Spanish nobleman, is
searching for his long-lost lover Constanza, who
has been abducted by pirates along with his
servant Pedrillo and Constanza’s maid, Blonde.
Finding himself outside the Pasha Selim’s palace,
Belmonte meets Osmin, the Pasha’s steward.
Osmin flies into a rage when he is questioned
about Pedrillo, who has ingratiated himself
with the Pasha and become a gardener
at the palace.
After Osmin’s angry exit, Belmonte and Pedrillo
meet. Pedrillo tells Belmonte that the Pasha
bought him from the pirates along with Constanza
and Blonde (whom Pedrillo loves). Constanza has
become the favourite of the Pasha’s harem, while
Blonde has been given to Osmin. Pedrillo warns
that it will be difficult to outwit the cunning
Osmin. They plot to introduce Belmonte to the
Pasha as a brilliant young architect in order
to engineer an escape from the palace.
The Pasha arrives in great ceremony, accompanied
by Constanza, whom he begs in vain to give him
her love. She replies that it is separation from
her beloved that is causing her grief, and leaves.
Pedrillo introduces Belmonte to the Pasha, who
agrees to give him an audience. Osmin furiously
tries to prevent Pedrillo and Belmonte entering
the palace but they finally get past him.
Pasha’s threats of torture, resigning herself to
death rather than betray her love for Belmonte.
Pedrillo tells Blonde of Belmonte’s arrival and
of their escape plan. While Blonde goes to tell
Constanza, Pedrillo persuades Osmin to try some
wine. Soon, Osmin has passed out and the four
lovers are joyfully reunited.
Act Three Belmonte, waiting to put the escape
plan into action, reflects on the power of love.
As a signal to the women, Pedrillo sings an
‘oriental’ serenade about a young knight rescuing
a maiden held prisoner. Pedrillo and Blonde are
caught by Osmin, whose guards also catch
Belmonte and Constanza. Osmin exults in the
prospect of their torture and execution.
The Pasha confronts the lovers and Belmonte
pleads for compassion, explaining that he is from
a noble Spanish family who will pay a large ransom.
The Pasha realises that Belmonte is the son of his
greatest enemy, who cruelly forced him into exile.
He leaves them under guard, while Belmonte and
Constanza welcome death as the only way they
can remain together.
The Pasha returns to deliver his judgment. He tells
Belmonte that he will repay injustice with mercy,
and allows all four their freedom. Osmin is furious,
but everyone else joins in praise of the Pasha and
agrees that nothing is worse than revenge.
Act Two Osmin tries to woo Blonde, but she
is outraged at his crude advances and tells him
it is tenderness, not force, that will win her love.
She threatens to exploit Constanza’s influence
over the Pasha to have Osmin punished.
Meanwhile, Constanza defiantly resists the
19
ONEGIN: SOME NOTES FROM THE NOVEL AND OPERA
MOZART AND THE
TERRIBLE TURK
Three times in his career Mozart made use of
'Turkish music': in the finales of his A major Violin
Concerto and his A major Piano Sonata, and,
of course, to lend local colour to his opera
Die Entführung aus dem Serail.
It was a popular feature in 18th Century Vienna:
Gluck included it in his operas (and later told
Mozart how much he enjoyed The Seraglio). Haydn
inserted 'Turkish' passages in his symphonies
and operas, and even as late as 1823 Beethoven
included a 'Turkish' variation in the finale of the
Ninth Symphony. Plenty of other works drew on the
sounds of the Turkish bands that were to be found
playing in the streets of Vienna. The characteristic
'Turkish' episode in these works consisted of
a thumping bass, emphasizing repeated chords
under a simple, repetitive melody, and the addition
to the orchestra of bass drum, cymbal and triangle
to enhance the rhythm with their exotic timbres.
There were even pianos, preserved to this day
in Viennese museums, that included mechanisms
for bringing in cymbal and drum devices.
The opening and close of The Seraglio and the
Janissary Chorus are brilliant instances of Mozart's
relish of these sounds. They are, of course, a
taming of the true martial music of the Turkish
Janissaries. The yeni ceri, or 'new army', formed
by the Sultan in the 14th Century, was a grim
fighting force, recruited from abducted Christian
children, who were brought up as Muslims in fierce
barrack conditions without any family life or any
expectation apart from that of fighting the Sultan's
wars. This they did with ruthless courage, and the
sound of the Janissaries advancing to their band
music, with slow, menacing tread, was sometimes
enough to scatter faint-hearted enemy troops
before battle was even joined. An eighteenth
century drawing of a Janissary band, which might
contain up to a hundred players, mounted and
20
on foot, shows blaring trumpets, clashing
cymbals and drummers twirling their drumsticks
with the histrionic bravado that survives into
modern military bands. A Janissary band would
also include fifes, shawms (primitive, harsh-toned
oboes) and a 'Turkish crescent', or 'Jingling
Johnny', a richly decorated pole, hung about with
gleaming crescents and little bells, that would
be shaken to reinforce the pounding rhythm.
A Viennese writer who heard such a band
declared, 'No other genre of music requires so
firm, decided and overpowering a beat. The first
beat of each bar is so strongly marked with
a new and manly accent that it is impossible
to get out of step.' The sound was one to haunt
the 18th Century Viennese folk memory. As
recently as 1683 (within the lifetime of Haydn's
and Mozart's grandfathers), the Ottoman armies
led by the Janissaries had swept across Hungary
and laid siege to Vienna. They were turned back,
but the image of the Terrible Turk remained.
Moreover, the sound of the Janissaries left such
an impression that their bands became much
sought after. Early in the 18th Century, Augustus
II of Poland was presented with a Janissary band
by the Sultan; not to be outdone, the Empress
Anne of Russia sent for one in 1725.
Behind this fear of the cruel Turk in Mozart's
opera - from the Pasha Selim's threat of torture
to make Constanza yield down to Osmin's grimly
comic catalogue of torments he devises for Blonde
and Pedrillo - lies another dark menace, that of
the Barbary pirates. When the Moors were expelled
from Granada in 1492 by the Christian armies
of Ferdinand and Isabella, parties of them took
revenge with attack on the Spanish coast,
helped by adventurers from the Levant who
included the fearsome Barbarossa brothers.
Piracy became a regular trade plying along the
coast of Northern Africa, with Algiers and Oran
the main ports from which the pirates would set
off to carry out their raids and abductions. Spain
sought retaliation, and in May 1509 Oran was
stormed. The Spaniards suffered only light losses,
but then proceeded to massacre a third of the
Muslim population, plunder the wealth of the
city and, under Cardinal Ximenes, install the
Inquisition. These are the events to which the
Pasha Selim bitterly alludes in the opera, and
cause him to redouble his hatred for the young
Spaniard, son of the brutal Commandant of Oran,
who has been caught trying to steal Constanza
from him. His last-minute magnanimity satisfies
the need for a comedy to end happily, and
is in the tradition of many other plot-solving
royal acts of mercy (such as, later, Mozart's
own La Clemenza di Tito).
In translating the opera for these performances,
it has seemed advisable to shorten a little the
very lengthy dialogue that contemporary Viennese
audiences would have accepted, perhaps more
readily than we do today. With one exception,
I have not ventured to amend the characters
as Mozart portrayed them. They are vivid enough
in their own right, though of course they derive
their nature from the conventions of Singspiel.
They also owe some of their character to the
singers whom Mozart, ever the practical musician,
found to hand. He was a practical man of the
theatre, and one willing to indulge, if he must,
an imperious but fashionable prima donna or
a tenor furious that he had fewer arias than his
rival. In a letter to his father, Mozart admitted
that he had 'sacrificed Constanza's aria a little
to Mlle Cavalieri's flexible gullet'. Caterina Cavalieri
was twenty two, the toast of Vienna, and Mozart
needed to flatter her with two big arias
including plenty of elaborate coloratura (even
if the second of them brings the drama
to a halt, and spends time showing off the
orchestra as well the singer).
Valentin Adamberger (Belmonte) was another
popular favourite, 39 at the time and at the peak
of his career; he had a voice said to be pliant, agile
and accurate, if a little nasal in tone. He was given
an extra aria which also gets in the way of the
drama and does not find Mozart at his best:
there is every case for cutting it tonight. For
Osmin, Mozart was lucky to have Ludwig Fischer,
the greatest German bass of his day and in his
prime. Mozart lavished much on this richly comic
character, and even inserted what is perhaps
a small private joke by giving prominence to
Fischer's famous low note, a deep bass D. Blonde
was Therese Teyber, at 21 already much loved
by audiences for her portrayal of artless (and
artful) little maids, and her Pedrillo, as on many
occasions, was Johann Dauer, a reliable singer
of goodhearted village lads.
There remains the Pasha Selim. Mozart seems
originally to have intended this to be a singing role,
and then found the artist intended for the part,
a Herr Walter, to be inadequate. He was replaced
by a fine actor from the Burgtheater, Dominik
Jautz. Without music, we cannot know Selim as
we know the others. His lines suggest a capricious
and cruel tyrant, even his last minute magnanimity
containing, however forgivably, a grain of malice.
But in him there is also gentleness of bearing and
courtesy of manner. Viennese audiences living
under the unpredictable Joseph II would not have
been surprised by his abrupt reversals of mood,
his generosity together with his violence. Selim
is also, we learn, a renegade Christian embracing
Islam (the play adapted for Mozart's use has
him turning out to be Belmonte's father). I have
allowed myself to make a little more of Selim,
to reduce his threat of torture to a mention
21
of how other Turkish Pashas might behave
(something Constanza then furiously
misunderstands), and to allow her at the end
to show a gesture of sympathy, even a touch
of tenderness, in her response to him as they
bid one another farewell.
Matters are simpler with the others. Osmin would
never have got anywhere with Blonde, and anyway,
as the Pasha points out, she's too hot for him to
handle. She and Pedrillo will probably find a way
of finally outwitting him and settling down
together. They are a cheerful and loving
22
couple, and will make the best of things. But
Constanza is a more agonised and complicated
character. The enigmatic Selim is not the Terrible
Turk of legend, and has flattered her by falling
for her. Between him and Constanza a degree
of mutual understanding passes. Perhaps
it is high time Belmonte came to the rescue.
John Warrack
23
SYNOPSIS
SPIRIT OF
VIENNA
The Prime Minister reminisces about the time
he spent at the Congress of Vienna - a political
occasion of some importance, but even more
significant for the prevalence of parties and
extra-marital affairs.
Act 1 The Zedlaus’ Villa, Vienna Josef, Count
Zedlau’s valet, is increasingly stressed by the fact
that he can’t find his master. Count Zedlau’s
mistress, Franzi, appears and demands to know
where the Count is - he has installed her in his villa
on the outskirts of Vienna, but she hasn’t seen him
for days. Josef is spared having to invent excuses
for the Count by the arrival of the man himself,
who eventually mollifies Franzi by explaining that
he has been with his wife (for once). Having got
Franzi out the way, the Count and Josef write a
love letter to a shop girl whohas caught Zedlau’s
eye, asking her to meethim at the Volksfest
in Hietzing at midnight.
Josef’s girlfriend, Pepi, (who works in the
dressmaker’s), arrives to deliver a costume for
Count Bitowski’s ball later that night. She and
Josef arrange to meet later at the Volksfest.
The Prime Minister pays a visit. Meeting Franzi,
he naturally assumes she must be Countess
Zedlau, and offends her by telling her about the
Count’s scandalous affair with a dancer (Franzi
herself). While the Minister attempts to apologise
to Franzi, the Countess appears. She is staying
in town, but is curious as to why the Count was
so eager to dissuade her from coming to the villa.
The Prime Minister is horrified, taking the Countess
to be Zedlau’s mistress rather than his wife. In the
midst of this the Count and Franzi reappear. The
Count whispers to the Minister, ‘Introduce the lady
as your own wife’, so the Minister introduces the
Countess as his wife, to general confusion.
24
Act 2 Count Bitowski’s Ball The Count and
Countess amicably discuss their incompatibility.
The Countess thinks that the Count’s philandering
is an improvement on his previous provincial
ways. Left alone, the Count muses on what good
intentions he had when he first got married but there are so many girls to tempt him, it is
impossible to follow a virtuous path. He slips Pepi
the love letter - she is the shop girl he is after.
Pepi is unimpressed, but when Josef cancels their
assignation she decides to teach him a lesson
by going to Hietzing with the Count.
Interval
The Prime Minister assures Franzi (whom he still
believes to be the Count’s wife) that he will put
an end to the Count’s ‘affair’ with the Countess.
He attempts to seduce the Countess, who
plays along. Announcing to Franzi that he has
successfully removed her rival, he introduces the
two ladies, who are astonished to be called by each
other’s names. The Count only mischievously adds
to the confusion, until an announcement makes
it clear which is the real Countess, to the great
embarrassment of the Prime Minister.
Act 3 The Volksfest in Hietzing Two waitresses
sing of the delights of Vienna. The Countess (who
is determined to catch the Count out) arrives
with the Prime Minister and they go into a private
arbour. Franzi is also on the trail of Count Zedlau,
and drags Josef along with her. Finally, a third
arbour is occupied by a dubious Pepi and the
frisky Count.
Josef manages to warn Count Zedlau that Franzi
is on the prowl, so the Count leaves him to
entertain his shop girl while he goes to find Franzi
and prevent a scene. Inevitably Josef’s discovery
that the Count’s latest amour is none other than
Pepi leads to a huge row.
Meanwhile the Countess and Franzi have joined
forces to outwit the Count, and swap arbours.
Expecting to find Franzi, the Count instead meets
his wife, with no good explanation for what he is
doing there, much to her amusement. The arrival
of Pepi forces him to confess that it was she he
came to see, but he reassures Josef that Pepi
has been entirely faithful, and the lovers make
up. Even the moralistic Prime Minister seems
to get swept away by the Spirit of Vienna,
as he falls for Franzi’s charms.
SPIRIT OF
VIENNA
In the last year of the 19th century, the producer
Franz Jauner came up with a foolproof plan for
creating a hit operetta in Vienna. Take some
famous tunes by Johann Strauss the Younger,
including the hugely popular ‘Wiener Blut Waltz’,
link them together with a comic story which also
flatters the pride of the Viennese by lavishly
praising the city, and he would have box office
gold. If he had been able to look forward in time
to the phenomenal success of Mamma Mia! and
other ‘greatest hits’ shows, he would have been
even more confident.
The ageing Strauss gave his blessing to the project,
but was too busy working on a ballet to be actively
involved himself, and wrote no new material for
the operetta. The task of weaving together the
waltz king’s old music fell to a composer called
Adolf Müller Jr. Müller rose to what must have
been a somewhat intimidating task, creating
comic theatrical numbers - such as the Act One
Finale in which the bungling Prime Minister
mistakes the Countess for the Count’s mistress which also cleverly incorporate many of Strauss’
most well-known melodies.
At first glance, the story (contributed by librettists
Victor Léon and Leo Stein, who later collaborated
on Franz Lehár’s The Merry Widow) is a departure
from Viennese operetta tradition. Settings
were often fantastical, as with Strauss’ first
operetta Indigo, or the forty thieves, which was
based on a fairy tale, or contemporary, like Die
Fledermaus. Spirit of Vienna, on the other hand,
is given the historical setting of the 1815 Congress
of Vienna, an international conference that was
called in order to remake Europe after the downfall
of Napoleon I, with no less exalted an aim than
the preservation of world peace. It soon becomes
apparent that this backdrop is a mere pretext the characters see the Congress as nothing more
26
than an excuse for more balls than usual, and
an opportunity to meet new lovers. The historic
specificity did allow Léon and Stein to pander to
their audience’s partisan loyalty to the city, with
numerous songs about the wonders of Vienna.
It is also no coincidence that the sophisticated
Countess, who runs rings around her husband
and is not remotely fazed by his philandering,
is Viennese, while the Count’s provincial naivety
is explicitly linked to his being German!
The Countess is the heroine of piece, and far from
being the tragic deserted wife we expect when we
first meet her unfaithful husband, we discover that
she finds him much more interesting as a Don Juan
than she did when he was a loyal stay-at-home.
Although she devotes some energy to catching him
out, it is for the thrill of it rather than because she
is wounded by his infidelity. Considering everything
else we see of her, her appeal to Franzi, ‘How does
one keep these men at home?... I can’t help feeling
you mistresses know so much more than we mere
wives’ can only be a ploy to get her on side. One
feels that if she really wanted to keep the Count
interested, she could, and at the end of the
operetta she might just try it, as an experiment.
The Count is no hardened womaniser either.
It seems that his success with, or even interest
in, women is a new development (which is why
it is fantastic to have Nicky Spence playing a very
young Count in this production), and this fledgling
lothario is reliant upon his valet Josef to act as
advisor, agony uncle and procurer. Although the
Count’s ceaseless pursuit of new lovers is faintly
ridiculous, we get a glimpse of how different
things might have been had the Countess not been
so dismissive of him when they first married, and
can’t help feeling a little sorry for him when he
complains, ‘The bliss I’d dreamt of was nipped
in the bud’.
We have given the Prime Minister a slightly more
prominent role in this production, exploiting
Richard Jackson’s excellent acting skills (he
also takes the speaking role of the Pasha in
this season’s The Seraglio) by giving him some
passages of narration. The Count’s antics provide
the backdrop for the action, but it is the Minister’s
short-sighted attempts to avoid scandal that really
propel it, and it seemed interesting to bring his
blundering and eventual embarrassment to the
fore. In the course of the operetta the Minister
experiences the ‘Viennesation’ that the Count
has undergone before it begins - a process
by which he loses his unbending morals,
but gains Franzi.
suicide in his office. After the famous Theater
an der Wien staged a new production in 1905, the
Viennese public embraced the operetta, and since
then it has become one of Johann Strauss’ most
frequently performed works for the stage.
Robin Norton-Hale
Of course, Spirit of Vienna is a light-hearted romp,
and everyone pairs up happily at the end. If we
took it to be an accurate picture of 19th-century
Viennese society, we would have to conclude that
the city was populated by sexually confident, welladjusted people who took their partners’ infidelity
in their stride, blithely breezing on to their next
conquest. It is an unrealistic picture, but anyone
who has wished that they or other people were
less insecure must see its appeal! This adulterer’s
paradise also features a chorus who only break
off their melodious adjurations to drink and
dance in order to extol the delights of Vienna,
with a stream of exhilarating waltzes and polkas
from the orchestra (playing on-stage
in this production).
It is worth noting that despite the fun of the
libretto and Strauss’ intoxicating tunes, Wiener
Blut was not the immediate success it was
expected to be. The first run at the Carltheater
(where Franz Jauner was director) lasted only
a month, and with the finances of his theatre in
ruins, poor Jauner lamented, ‘The best, the very
best, no longer pleases the public’ committing
27
BRIDGETOWER
July, October and November 2007
ETO is delighted to be co-producing a new jazz
opera this summer along with the City of London
Festival. Jazz pianist Julian Joseph and historian
Mike Phillips have been commissioned to write
Bridgetower: A Fable of London in 1807, to mark
the 200th anniversary of the Abolition of the
Slave Trade Act.
ETO IN THE COMMUNITY
A HOUSE ON THE MOON
The opera is based on the extraordinary and
compelling story of George Augustus Polgreen
Bridgetower, the son of a former slave of
Abyssinian heritage. Bridgetower became one
of eighteenth-century Europe’s leading virtuoso
violinists and was employed, like his contemporary
Haydn, in the Esterhazy court. He struck up a
close friendship with Beethoven, who originally
wrote his fiendishly difficult Kreutzer Sonata
for Bridgetower but changed the dedication
after the pair fell out over a woman!
Wolverhampton has a vibrant and ethnically mixed
community, and the local young people and adults
involved in creating A House on the Moon reflect
this diversity. They, together with professional
ETO and local artists, will perform at the
Wolverhampton Grand in two full-length shows
on June 20th this year. The project is supprted
by a number of generous grants, including
a large award by Youth Music.
Image by Babis Alexiadis
This trans-continental lunar fantasy began as
an idea inspired by individual stories of enforced
migration, and by an artist’s genuine attempts
to raise enough cash to inflate a red house on the
moon. Much of the narrative follows the real and
extraordinary journey of a 21 year old from
Afghanistan, granted refugee status in the last
few months. Eminent Iraqi poet Saadi Yousef
is creating the lyrics, while British composers
Helen Chadwick and Kate Pearson are creating new
music, working alongside notable musicians in the
West Midlands, including Harjit Singh and Mustafa
Abassi-Zadeh. Animator and filmmaker Babis
Alexiadis is creating the design. The piece
is devised and directed by Tim Yealland.
28
Photograph James Bell (left)
June 2007
A House on the Moon is an exciting collaboration
with several arts partners in Wolverhampton,
including the Wolverhampton Grand Theatre,
the Light House Media Centre, Wolverhampton
Music Service, and the West Midlands Refugee
Arts Service. We are working with nearly
200 local people to create a new opera based
on the themes of exile, refuge and dreams.
ex-slaves. The opera will also provide a fascinating
glimpse into the shaping of contemporary London,
as we follow Bridgetower’s experiences among
the different strata of London society.
Julian Joseph, one of Britain’s top jazz musicians
and an acclaimed composer and broadcaster, has
played a substantial role in breaking down
artificial barriers between ‘jazz’ and ‘classical’
music. Mike Phillips - award-winning novelist,
historian and a curator at Tate Britain - has written
the libretto. The production will feature a cast of
opera and jazz-based singers, a ten piece jazz band
and a small community choir. It will be directed
by Helen Eastman, who directed ETO’s hugely
successful production of Dido and Aeneas
in our recent Baroque Festival.
Bridgetower’s life is powerfully symbolic of the
creation and establishment of a black British
community which has its roots in the eighteenthcentury importation and migration of slaves and
After opening at the City of London Festival in
July, Bridgetower will tour to a number of venues
in the autumn, including Cambridge, London,
Malvern, Sheffield and Truro. We hope you can
join us for what promises to be a hugely exciting
and inspirational synthesis of opera singers,
jazz music, and one man’s incredible story.
Julian Joseph
Mike Phillips
29
OUR SUPPORTERS
English Touring Opera would like to thank:
Trusts and Foundations
Abbey Charitable Trust Ltd
Angus Allnatt Charitable Foundation
Awards For All
Arts & Business / Arts & Kids
The Coutts Charitable Trust
Creative Partnerships
Baron Davenport’s Charity
The John Ellerman Foundation
The Equitable Charitable Trust
The Ernest Cook Trust
Esmée Fairbairn Foundation
The Eveson Charitable Trust
The Joyce Fletcher Charitable Trust
The Forman Hardy Charitable Trust
The Freshgate Trust Foundation
The Garfield Weston Foundation
The Goldsmiths’ Company Charity
The Grocers’ Charity
The Earl of Harewood’s
Charitable Settlement
The Harris Charitable Trust
The R J Harris Charitable Trust
The Leche Trust
The Lynn Foundation
The James Beattie Charitable Trust
John Lyon’s Charity
The Mercers’ Company
The Peter Moores Foundation
Morgan Crucible Company
Plc Charitable Trust
Northern Rock Foundation
The Helena Oldacre Trust
The PRS Foundation
The Paul Hamlyn Foundation
The Rayne Foundation
The Worshipful Company of Information
Technologists (WCIT)
Youth Music
Corporate Supporters
Smith & Williamson
Investment Management
Brunswick Group
Cambridge University Press
Chandos Records
EMI Group
Forman Hardy Holdings Limited
James Stewart Printers
John Lewis Partnership Plc
Lordimer Langhurst and Lees
National Portrait Gallery
Pricewaterhouse Coopers
Rose Bruford College
Slaughter & May Trust Ltd
Patrons
Mr Christopher Ball
Anne Binney
Sir Winfried and Lady Bischoff
Delia Broke
Rosemary Burns
Mr Greg Chapman
Mr Jerry Cowhig
Sir Harry Djanogly CBE
Serena Fenwick
Paul Findlay
Mr John & Elizabeth Forrest
Roger Gilford
Mr Peter Golden
Mark Greatorex
Mr & Mrs Richard Christopher Gregory
Ann Hacker
Nicholas & Jane Forman Hardy
The Rt Hon the Earl of Harewood
Noel Harwerth
Mr Michael Higgins
Dr Peter Hughes
Mrs Susan Jane Joyce
Mrs Joanna Dickson Leach
Robin Leggate
Dame Felicity Lott DBE
The Hon Richard & Mrs Lyttelton
Jane Massey
Nicholas and Joy MacAndrew
Christine McRitchie Pratt
Charles Naylor
Sean Rafferty
Mr W P Robinson
Mr W M Samuel
John & Madeleine Tattersall
Mr D W Webb
Jeremy Willoughby OBE
David G Wilson
Associates
Mrs Hilary Anne Albright
Lady Wendy Ball
Mr Barry Stafford Browne
Mr & Mrs Edward & Elizabeth Coningsby
Mr L Carlisle
Dr C. J Dilloway
Mrs Hilary Stephanie Dixon-Nuttall
Mrs E Barbara Fairhurst
Mrs Harriet Feilding
Mr Colin Gamage
Mr Nicholas Gold
Mr P Gray
Mr and Rev Charles and Pauline Green
Mr James H Gregory
Rev Gerald A Griffin
Mr N J Guthrie
Mr David Hadley
Mr R D Harris
Mr N J Hawkins
Mr Ralph Huckle
Peter Humfrey
Mr J Kindell
Mr J Landless
Sir Christopher and Lady Lawrence-Jones
Mr & Mrs M Levesley
Mrs Judith Lorman
Mr Matthew Thomas Maxwell
Mrs J E McCormick
Mrs Julia Money
Mr and Mrs Alex and Susan de Mont
Dr Christine O’Brien
Mr K J Omar
Mr Jaspal Pachu
Mrs Barbara Pare
Mr Edward Powell
Mrs Virginia Mary Shankland
Mr G R Shillingford
Mr H J Sims-Hildtich
Miss Marilyn Stock
Dr M. J Stowell
Mr Ian James Sutherland
Mr Ian Tegner
Mr H J Tripp
Ms Deirdre Sandra Wakefield
Mr Michael Watkins OBE
Mr Ian Welham
Mr John Westcott
Mr A Whitelegge
Mr Martin Widden
Mr Tony Wingate
Mr and Mrs Michael and Ruth Wright
Mr B Youel
Fabris Lane are proud to support English Touring Opera in their production of Mozart's The Seraglio
30
Patrick Ashcroft
Tenor
Joseph, Spirit Of Vienna,
Triquet, Eugene
Onegin, Ensemble
Born
Reading
Training
GSMD, University
of Cambridge
(Choral Scholar)
Opera
Bertrando L’Inganno Felice
(Opera Minima); Borsa
Rigoletto (First Act Opera);
Ensemble Merry Widow
(Opera Holland Park);
Damon Acis and Galatea
(Kentish Baroque); Bob
Boles Peter Grimes
(Cambridge University
Opera Society)
Concerts
Purcell King Arthur (Snape
Maltings), Haydn Nelson
Mass (Windsor Castle/RPO);
Handel Messiah (various)
Recordings
Stainer, Crucifixion; Rutter,
Requiem (Naxos)
Michael Bracegirdle
Tenor
Lensky Eugene Onegin
Cover Pedrillo The Seraglio
Born
Preston
Training
RNCM, Durham University
Awards
Winner, Emmy Destinn
Award for Young
Singers 2006
Opera
Jenik The Bartered Bride
(Mid Wales Opera); Alfredo
La Traviata (Clonter Opera);
Steve Jenůfa, Cavaradossi
Tosca (both ETO); Don José
Carmen (Stowe Opera)
Concerts
Beethoven Missa Solemnis
(The Anvil, Basingstoke),
Puccini Opera Gala (RPO);
Verdi Requiem (Imperial
College, London); Proms
in the Park (RLPO)
Broadcasts
In Tune (BBC Radio 3)
Hal Cazalet
Tenor
Belmonte The Seraglio
Born
London
Training
Juilliard Opera Center,
GSMD
Awards
Shoshana Foundation Award
Opera
Alfred Clement Let’s
Make an Opera (Aldeburgh
Festival); Lysander
A Midsummer Night’s
Dream, Orfeo Orfeo, Quint
Turn of the Screw (ETO);
Macbeth, The Threepenny
Opera (Danny Kaye
Playhouse/Opera Group/
OTC); Albert Herring
Albert Herring (GTO);
Glass Les Enfants
Terribles (premiere world
tour); Charles The
Music Programme
(Polish National Opera)
Concerts
Tristan Keuris L’Infinito
(New York premiere);
Concert of Wodehouse/
Kern Songs (Wigmore
Hall, Library of
Congress, Washington)
Anthony Cleverton
Baritone
Zaretsky Eugene Onegin,
Ensemble, Prime Minister
Spirit of Vienna (17 May)
Born
Tunbridge Wells
Training
RNCM
Awards
Rosin Kay Memorial;
Frederic Cox Award;
Alexander Young Award
Opera
Guglielmo Cosi Fan Tutte
(Glyndebourne Touring),
Cover Guglielmo Cosi Fan
Tutte, Cover Ferdinand
Betrothal in a Monastery
(Glyndebourne Festival),
Germont Pere La Traviata
(Opera En Plein Air;
Idee Fixe)
Concerts
Rossini Petite Messe
Solenelle (St John’s Smith
Square); Tippet A Child
of Our Time (Bridgewater
Hall), Elgar Dream
of Gerotius (Liverpool
Philharmonic Hall)
Recordings
The Land Where the Good
Songs Go (Harbinger);
Les Enfants Terribles
(Nonesuch); L’Infinito
(WNYC Lincoln Center live
broadcast); Loose Ends,
In Tune (BBC Radio)
BIOGRAPHIES 31
Laurence Cole
Bass-Baritone
Ensemble
Cover Zaretsky
Eugene Onegin
Born
St Albans
Training
Birmingham Conservatoire;
University of York
Opera
Jailer Tosca, Sarastro
The (Little) Magic Flute
(both ETO); Cover
Mephistopheles Faust
(Opera South); Seneca
Coronation of Poppea
(Birmingham Conservatoire)
Concerts
Handel Messiah (Ripon
Cathedral); Bach Mass in
B Minor (Shrewsbury Choral
Society), Haydn Nelson Mass
(Birmingham Choral Union)
James Conway
Director Eugene Onegin
Gary Cooper
Conductor The Seraglio
Born
Quebec
Born
London
Opera
Orfeo, Tolomeo, Erismena,
Jenůfa, Alcina, Mary, Queen
of Scots, A Midsummer
Night’s Dream (all ETO);
Ariodante, The Cunning
Little Vixen (both ETO/OTC);
Flavio, Tamerlano, Amadigi,
Rodelinda, L’Elisir d’Amore,
Katya Kabanova, The Rake’s
Progress (OTC); Cinderella
(De Vlaamse Opera/
Transparant); Don Giovanni
(Canadian Opera Company);
La Voix Humaine (Teatro
Nacional São João,
Oporto); staging of Kurt
Weill songs (Culturgest,
Lisbon); La Spinalba
(Casa da Musica, Porto)
Training
New College, Oxford
University; John Loosemore
Centre; Chetham’s
Music School
Other
James is General Director
of ETO and has written
original libretti for two
operas and translations
for three others, as well
as several works of fiction.
Awards
Gramophone (Early
Music) 2002; The Sunday
Times Record of the Year
2000 (Bach’s WellTempered Clavier)
Opera
Orlando (Independent
Opera); Alcina (ETO);
Albert Herring (Kent
Opera); Tamerlano (RNCM);
Assistant Conductor Rake’s
Progress (B. Pears Opera
School/Philharmonia)
Concerts
Beethoven Emperor Piano
Concerto (Barbican);
Handel Dixit Dominus
(Berlin, Antwerp, Ghent,
Amsterdam); Mozart
Sonatas (Wigmore Hall/BBC
Radio 3, Innsbruck, Bern,
Bergen); Bach Goldberg
Variations & Beethoven
Diabelli Variations
Recordings
Mozart Piano Variations
(Channel Classics); Mozart
Complete Sonatas for Piano
and Violin (Channel
Classics); Bach WellTempered Clavier: Books
I/II (ASV/Sanctuary)
32
Mark Cunningham
Tenor
Peasant Leader,
Eugene Onegin
Ensemble
Cover Josef Spirit of Vienna
Cover Triquet Eugene Onegin
Born
South Wales
Training
GSMD, Birmingham
Conservatoire
Opera
Count Almaviva The Barber
of Seville (Swansea City
Opera); Passarino The
Phantom of the Opera
(Her Majesty’s Theatre);
Count Almaviva The Barber
of Seville (Savoy Opera);
Remondado Carmen
(Opera Holland Park)
Elizabeth Donovan
Soprano
Constanza The Seraglio
Amanda Echalaz
Soprano
Tatiana Eugene Onegin
Born
Cardiff
Born
South Africa
Training
WNO, RNCM
Training
Neil Howlett Awards
Represented South
Africa in Cardiff Singer
of the World 2005;
Finalist Kathleen Ferrier
Competition; finalist,
Winner Bayreuth
Bursary and Great Elm
Singing Competition
Awards
Concours International de
Chant Toulouse (2nd prize,
2006); Winner, Welsh
Singers Prize (2002);
Marjorie Gill Award, Chris
Ball Bursary, Sir John
Moores Award (all WNO)
Opera
Zerlina Don Giovanni;
Barbarina Le Nozze di
Figaro; First Lady The
Magic Flute; Echo Ariadrie
auf Naxos; Blumenmadchen
Parsifal (all WNO)
Concerts
Mozart Requiem (Welsh
Proms, St David’s Hall);
Tchaikovsky Iolante
(BBC Proms Albert
Hall); Britten Spring
Symphony (RLPO Chester
International Festival)
Other
Represented Wales in
the BBC Singer of the
World in Cardiff (2003).
Elizabeth is generously
supported by the Peter
Moores Foundation.
Opera
Donna Elvira Don
Giovanni (Klagenfurt
Stadttheater), title roles
in Manon Lescaut (OHP),
Jenůfa, and Alcina, Fiordiligi
Così fan tutte (all ETO),
Barena Jenůfa (GFO), title
role in Tosca (London City
Opera, Central Festival
Opera, Northampton),
First Bridesmaid Le Nozze
di Figaro, Flowermaiden
Parsifal (both WNO)
Joshua Ellicott
Tenor
Pedrilio, The Seraglio
Cover Lensky
Eugene Onegin
Born
Manchester
Training
GSMD, University of York
Awards
S’Hertogenbosch
International Vocal
Competition (1st prize);
Arleen Auger Prize;
Dutch Song Prize; Opera
Engagement Prize
Marie Elliott
Mezzo-Soprano
Olga Eugene Onegin
Born
Plymouth
Training
RAM; GSMD
Awards
Eric Vietheer Memorial
Award (Glyndebourne);
Isabel Jay Prize; Isabella
Lucas Prize
Opera
Angelina Cenerentola
(Stanley Hall Opera);
Olga Eugene Onegin (Opera
by Definition); Bradamante
Alcina (ETO); Cover Giulio
Cesare Giulio Cesare (GFO)
Concerts
Bach Matthew Passion (East
Cornwall Bach); Duruflé
Requiem (St Endellion
Festival Choir); Bach
Christmas Oratorio (North
Cotswolds Chamber Choir)
Concerts
Mendelssohn St Paul (Tring
Choral Society), Vaughan
Williams Sea Symphony
(Tring Choral Society),
Victorian Parlour Songs
with Robert Tear
Future
Cover Katya Katya Kabanova
(ROH); Fiora L’Amore dei tre
re (OHP); Cover Cio-Cio-San
Madame Butterfly (ON);
Bird The Minotaur (ROH)
BIOGRAPHIES 33
Mauricio Elorriaga
Designer The Seraglio
Born
Mexico
Training
Theatre Studies, National
Institute of Fine Arts,
Mexico City; Set and
Costume Design, Rose
Bruford College;
Manchester University
Assisting
Les Vepres Siciliennes,
(Opera National de Paris);
One Touch of Venus,
(Opera North); Eugene
Onegin (ROH); The Ring
Cycle (ENO); Masked
Ball, La Bohème
(Bregenz Festival); Faust,
(Sächsische Staatsoper).
Design
The Nun (ICA); The Elixir
of Love, (Opera Theatre
Company); Mappa Mundi
(Border Crossings);
La Vie Ne Vaut Rien
(L'ensemble Sauvage
Public, Canada); Phantom
Palace (Musik der
Jahrhunderte, Stuttgart);
Alejandria Termino (Teatro
Arena, Mexico); Salon
de Belleza (Circo
Raus, Mexico)
Cheryl Enever
Soprano
Franzi Spirit of Vienna
Ensemble
Cover Tatiana
Eugene Onegin
Born
Ilford
Training
Bath Spa University
Opera
Donna Elvira Don Giovanni
(Opera Anywhere); Cover
Gutrune Götterdämerung
(Mastersingers); Rusalka
Rusalka (Aylesbury
Opera Group); First
Lady The Magic Flute
(Surrey Opera); Tamiri
Il Re Pastore (Classical
Opera Company)
Concerts
Haydn Creation (St Paul’s,
Knightsbridge); Handel
Messiah (London Festival
Orchestra); Verdi Requiem
(Stowe Chapel)
Recordings
In Tune (BBC Radio 3);
Don Giovanni (Opera
Anywhere/Channel 4)
Other
Planned BBC3 film
of Perfect Picnic
(Opera Play)
Lorina Gore
Soprano
Blonde The Seraglio
Cover Countess Grafin
Spirit of Vienna
Sion Goronwy
Bass
Osmin, The Seraglio
Cover Gremin
Eugene Onegin
Born
Australia
Born
Bala, Wales
Training
National Opera Studio;
Australian National University
Training
BBIOS; RCM; GSMD;
University of Wales,
Aberystwyth
Awards
Robert & Betty Saltzer Prize
(Opera Foundation Australia,
2004); Phoebe Patrick Award
Opera
Norina Don Pasquale (New
Zealand Opera); Lucia Lucia
di Lammermoor (Ilford
Arts); Giulia La Scala di
Seta (Independent Opera);
Fiakermilli Arabella
(Garsington Opera); Susan
A Dinner Engagement,
Alison The Wandering
Scholar (both Opera East)
Concerts
New Year’s Eve, Barbican
(Royal Philharmonic
Orchestra); Lurline & Wallace
arias (Australia House);
Mozart Don Giovanni (London
Mozart Players); Viennese
music (Royal Festival Hall)
Recordings
Several recital concerts for
Australian broadcasters
(ABC Classic FM, 3MBS FM)
Other
Full time principal artist,
Opera Australia
(later in 2007)
34
Awards
Legal and General Junior
Fellowship, D’Oyle Carte
Scholar, Pidem Scholar
(all RCM).
Opera
Kaspar, Hermit Der
Freischütz; Osmin The
Seraglio (both Valladolid,
Spain); Sparafucile Rigoletto
(European Chamber Opera);
The Martyrdom of St
Magnus (Norwegian Royal
Opera); Sarastro Die
Zauberflöte (BBIOS, RCM)
Concerts
Haydn The Creation;
Scarlatti St Cecilia Mass;
Mozart Requiem, Coronation
Mass, Vesperae Solennes
de Confessore
Other
Scholarships from the
National Eisteddfod of Wales
& S4C Television
Gareth Hancock
Conductor Spirit of Vienna
Assistant Conductor Eugene
Onegin, The Seraglio
Born
Worcester
Training
RAM; Clare College,
Cambridge
Awards
ARAM
Opera
Rape of Lucretia (RAM);
The Marriage of Figaro
(Savoy Opera); The Barber
of Seville (Savoy Opera);
Rigoletto (ETO); Misper
(Glyndebourne Education)
Concerts
As Music Director: English
Serenade To Music (St
John’s, Smith Square)
Recordings
Film: The Magic Flute
(dir. Kenneth Branagh);
Sound: Alfie Boe (Sony
BMG/Classic FM); Puccini
Highlights (Chandos)
Linda Hibberd
Mezzo-Soprano
Filipyevna Eugene Onegin
Guy Hoare
Lighting Designer Eugene
Onegin, The Seraglio
Born
London
Born
Epping
Training
RAM
Opera
Ring Cycle, Magic Flute,
(Longborough); Tosca,
Simon Boccanegra, The
Merry Widow, Cosi Fan Tutte
(Opera UK); Names of the
Dead, Venus & Adonis,
Treemonisha, The Cradle
Will Rock (BAC)
Opera and Theatre
Choreographer The Cunning
Little Vixen (ETO, OTC),
Sweeney Todd (RAM), Who
Killed Mr Drum (Treatment
Theatre), Jenůfa (ETO),
Director Hansel and Gretel
(Stowe Opera), Jephte (ETO)
Dance
Little Red, Green In Blue,
Tiger Dancing, Expression
Lines, Second Signal, White
Space, Frontline, Shot Flow
(Henri Oguike); Sea of
Bones, Green Apples, Bad
History, Dive (Mark Bruce);
Flicker (Shobana Jeyasingh)
Odyssey (Krische/Wright);
Show, Spirit Level
(Snag Project).
Dance
Void (Northern School
of Contemporary Dance),
Fluminis (Northern Ballet
School, Dancehouse
Theatre, Manchester),
Three Short Dance
Pieces (London Studio
Centre, Shaw Theatre
London), Encounters
(Northern School of
Contemporary Dance)
Theatre
Macbeth (West Yorkshire
Playhouse), Season's
Greetings (Liverpool
Playhouse); Of Mice and
Men (Mercury Theatre,
Colchester); A Streetcar
Named Desire (Clwyd Theatr
Cymru); Old Times, Frozen,
Closer (London
Classic Theatre)
Other
Bernadette’s career as
a dancer and performer
includes working for
Tanztheater Wuppertal, ARC
Dance Company, Siobhan
Davies, Aletta Collins,
London Contemporary
Dance Theatre, Fabulous
Beast Dance Theatre,
Corp Feasa and many
leading choreographers
and directors in dance,
opera and theatre.
Opera
Frugola Il Tabarro (WNO),
Auntie Peter Grimes,
Katisha The Mikado (both
ENO), Innkeeper’s Wife
The Cunning Little Vixen
(City of Birmingham
Touring Opera), Filipyevna
Eugene Onegin (ON);
Burya Jenůfa (ETO)
Concerts
Elgar Sea Pictures (City
of Southampton Symphony
Orchestra), Verdi Requiem
(Singapore Symphony
Orchestra), Beethoven
Symphony no. 9 (Hallé
Orchestra)
Recordings
Robert Saxton Caritas
(Collins Classics), various
musicals including The
Sound of Music, Carousel,
Fiddler on the Roof, South
Pacific and a Gershwin
album (Carlton Label)
Musicals
includes My Fair Lady
(Singapore); City of Angels
(Frankfurt); Assassins
(Sheffield Crucible)
Bernadette Iglich
Assistant Director,
Choreographer
Eugene Onegin
Born
Johannesburg
BIOGRAPHIES 35
Richard Jackson
Baritone
Pasha Selim The Seraglio
Prime Minister Spirit
of Vienna
Born
Penzance
Training
London Opera
Centre; GSMD; King’s
College, Cambridge
Opera
Testo Tancredi (Monnaie,
Brussels); Jakob Lenz Jakob
Lenz (Almeida Opera); Nardo
La Finta Giardiniera (Opera
North); Onegin Eugene
Onegin (Aldeburgh Festival);
Papageno Magic Flute
(Glyndebourne Touring)
Concerts
Mahler Lieder Eines
Fahrenden Gesellen
(Aldeburgh Festival); Bach
St John Passion (Monteverdi
Choir/Eliot Gardiner)
Recordings
Bach St Matthew Passion
(BBC TV and CD); Schubert,
Brahms, Poulenc (Hyperion);
several broadcasts for
BBC Radio 3
Helen Johnson
Mezzo-Soprano
Ensemble
Lori Spirit of Vienna
Filipyevna (Durham/Perth
& cover), Larina (cover)
Eugene Onegin
Born
Tonbridge
Training
Trinity College of Music;
Colchester Institute
Awards
Malpas and Palamoke; Joan
Greenfield Trust Award;
Lloyd Scholarship
Opera
Hatred (cover) Armide
(Buxton Festival Opera);
Kolusina Jenůfa (ETO); Mrs
Goodbody/Ruth The Parson’s
Pirates (Opera Della Luna);
Jezibaba Rusalka (Iford
Opera); Bianca The Rape
of Lucretia (Opera East)
Concerts
Mahler Symphony No. 3
(Fairfield Halls, Croydon)
Future
Rosalinde Blue Beard
Offenbach (Buxton Festival
Opera July 2007)
Ilona Karas
Associate Designer
(Costume)
Eugene Onegin
Niamh Kelly
Mezzo-Soprano
Ensemble
Cover Olga Eugene Onegin
Born
Czech Republic
Born
Moville, County Donegal
Training
Centre School of Speech
and Drama
Training
RNCM; University of
Limerick; NUI Maynooth
Opera
Costume Supervisor Falstaff
(ETO); Deputy Costume
Supervisor Lincoronazione
Di Poppea, Die Fledermause,
Cosi Fan Tutte (all RCM)
Opera
Cover Olga Eugene Onegin
(British Youth Opera);
Eurynome Pénélope
(Wexford Festival Opera);
Rosina Il Barbière di Siviglia,
Mistress Quickly Falstaff,
Bianca The Rape of Lucretia
(all RNCM)
Other
Other credits for costume
design include: The Wild
Girl, Father’s Eggs (Quick
Silver Theatre Company);
Over My Shoulder
(Evergreen); True or
Falsetto, The Veiled
Screen (both Allegro
Non Troppo); After Mrs
Rochester, Kasimir
& Karoline (both The
Oxford School of Drama);
Summerfolk (Central
School of Speech
and Drama)
Concerts
Mozart Requiem, Vespers
& Cosi Fan Tutte (excerpts)
(Bolton Choral Society);
Stephen McNeff Names
of the Dead (Opera
North); Laurence Roman
Isabella and the Pot
of Basil (Hungarian
Institute, London)
Nicholas Lester
Baritone
Kagler Spirit of Vienna
Ensemble
Cover Onegin
Eugene Onegin
Born
Adelaide
Training
Adelaide Conservatorium
of Music, Adelaide University
Awards
Young Artist, State Opera
of South Australia (2001);
Various, Adelaide Eisteddfod
Opera
Cover Belcore L’elisir
d’amore (Opera South);
Cover Second Prisoner
Fidelio, Cover Miguel
Betrothal in a Monastery
(both GFO); Macbeth
The Gatekeeper’s Macbeth
(Covent Garden Street
Opera); Paris Romeo and
Juliet (British Youth Opera);
St Brioche The Merry
Widow (Opera UK)
Concerts
Australia House/Victoria
League; Charles Court
Opera; Lyrebird Opera
Geoffrey Moses
Bass
Gremin, Eugene Onegin
Cover Osmin The Seraglio
Born
Abercynon, Wales
Training
Emmanuel College,
Cambridge University;
GSMD, Sussex University
Opera
Snug A Midsummer Night’s
Dream (GFO); Micha
Bartered Bride, Pistola
Falstaff, (ROH);
Mephistopheles Faust,
Georgio I Puritani, Marke,
Tristan and Isolde, Sarastro
Magic Flute, Raimondo,
Lucia (WNO); Snug A
Midsummer Night’s Dream
(La Fenice); Collatinus The
Rape of Lucretia (Seville);
Basilio Barber, Colline
Boheme (Staatsoper
Hamburg); Walton I Puritani
(Deutche Oper Berlin);
Peter The Last Supper
(Staatsaoper Berlin)
Concerts
Verdi Requiem
(Philharmonie Berlin);
Berlioz The Damnation of
Faust (Alte Oper, Frankfurt);
Mendelssohn Elijah
(Edinburgh Festival)
Recordings
Rigoletto (Teldec & Phillips);
Bartered Bride (Chandos);
Falstaff, The Marriage
of Figaro (BBC)
36
Robin Norton-Hale
Director Spirit of Vienna
Assistant Director
The Seraglio
Staff Director
Born
London
Training
Oxford University; King’s
Head Theatre (Trainee
Assistant Director
programme)
Opera and Theatre
As director: The Rover
by Aphra Behn (Network
Theatre, Waterloo),
Pimpinone by Telemann
(Colourhouse Theatre,
Wimbledon), Les Mains Sales
by Jean Paul Sartre (Burton
Taylor Theatre, Oxford).
As assistant director Sweet
Charity by Cy Coleman
and Dorothy Fields (Theatre
Royal, Drury Lane), Peter
Pan by J. M. Barrie (King’s
Head Theatre, Islington),
Ariodante by Handel
(English Touring Opera
at the Buxton Opera
Festival) and A Family
Affair by Ostrovsky
(Network Theatre)
Sylvia O’Brien
Soprano
Countess, Grafin Spirit
of Vienna
Ensemble
Constanza (30 March,
21 May) The Seraglio
Born
Dublin
Training
RIAM, DIT College of Music,
Trinity College Dublin
Awards
Margaret Arnold Scholar, Arts
Council Ireland Scholar, RIAM
Scholar, Robert McCullagh
Bursary, Finalist Veronica
Dunne Competition
Opera
Governess Turn of the Screw
(OTC), Aspasia Mitridate OPW,
Barena Jenůfa (Opera Ireland)
Jenůfa (ETO), Mabel Pirates
of Penzance (R&R), Despina
Cosi Fan Tutte(OSC), Gabriele
The Bitter Tears of Petra
von Kant (NSOI)
Concerts
NSOI soloist, PROMS in Park
(Strauss & Lehar), Theatre Nights
Series (Mario Lanza), Evening
of G&S with RTECO (Ivor Novello)
Other
Shostakovich Seven Songs op
127 (Carnegie Hall), Feldman
Neither (NSOI), Mozart Die
Schuldigkeit des erstens Gebots
(NDR Germany), Orchestra of
St. Cecilia (Mozart Festival),
Concerto for soprano op 82,
Gliére (with RTECO)
BIOGRAPHIES 37
Mary O’Sullivan
Soprano
Pepi Spirit of Vienna
Ensemble
Cover Blonde The Seraglio
Born
Dublin
Training
Zurich Opera House; RNCM;
DIT College of Music, Dublin
Opera
First Lady Die Zauberflöte
(Opera Ireland); Nedda I
Pagliacci (Wexford Festival);
Queen of the Night Die
Zauberflöte (Sarganz Opera,
Switzerland); Papagena
Die Zauberflöte, Miss
Wordsworth Albert Herring
(both Zurich Opera House);
Maiden and Lubanara
(cover), Der Stein der Weisen
(Garsington Opera).
Concerts
Recital Songs and Arias
(Bank of Ireland Choice
Recital Series); Mozart
Mass in C Minor (Konstanz
Festival, Germany);
Alexander Zemzinsy
Walzer-Gesänge Op. 6
(Zurich Opera House)
Recordings
DVD: Sylvain Die Lüstige
Witwe (Zurich Opera House)
Film: Soloist, ‘Best’
(a film about the life of
footballer George Best)
Sound: Several recordings
as a soloist for the Irish
National Chamber Choir.
38
Joanna Parker
Designer Eugene Onegin
Born
London
Opera
Alcina, Falstaff, The
Marriage of Figaro, A
Midsummer Night’s Dream
(ETO), The Cunning Little
Vixen (ETO, OTC), The Kiss,
Flavio (OTC), A Friend of the
People (Scottish Opera),
Julius Caesar, Heroes Don’t
Dance (ROH)
Theatre
The Noise of Time (Theatre
de Complicité), After Darwin,
Featuring Loretta, Nabokov’s
Gloves (Hampstead Theatre),
The Misanthrope, American
Buffalo (Young Vic), The
Robbers (The Gate), Off
Camera (West Yorkshire
Playhouse), Dealers Choice
(Salisbury Playhouse)
Dance
Phantasmaton, Hinterlands,
(Shobana Jeysasingh Dance
Company); Work with many
other dance companies
Benedict Quirke
Tenor
Ensemble
Born
Manchester
Opera
Ensemble: Der Stein der
Weisen (Garsington Opera),
La Bohème, Carmen
(Raymund Gubbay RAH);
Macbeth, La Sonnambula,
L’Elisir d’Amour, Madame
Butterfly, (Opera Holland
Park), Iolanthe, Yeoman
of the Guard, The Mikado,
HMS Pinafore (D’Oly Carte
Opera), Leonardo The
Merchant of Venice, Paolo
Understudy Luis The
Gondoliers, Water Baby and
Tormentor The Water Babies
(The Chichester Theatre
Festival 2003)
Concerts
Paul McCartney Ecce Con
Meum (Royal Albert Hall)
Recordings
Paul McCartney Ecce Con
Meum (EMI)
Gavin Quinn
Director The Seraglio
Michael Rosewell
Conductor Eugene Onegin
Born
Dublin
Born
Bristol
Opera
Four Note Opera, Hamelin
(OTC), The (Little) Magic
Flute (OTC, ETO)
Training
RCM
Theatre
Playboy of the Western
World (Oriental Theatre,
Beijing); Oedipus Loves You
(Smock Alley Theatre);
Mademoiselle Flic Flac in the
Red Room Strindberg
(Krakow Theatre Festival),
A Bronze Twist of Your
Serpent Muscles (Dublin
Fringe Festival), Peepshow
group creation (Gdansk
International Theatre
Festival), Cartoon
Staundinger (Hwasong
Theatre Festival), Mr. Staines
Healy (Samuel Beckett
Theatre), Standoffish
(Adelaide Fringe Festival);
Amy the Vampire (and her
Sister, Martina) Quinn
(Triskel Arts Centre),
For The First Time Ever
(TNT Theatre, Germany),
MAC-BETH 7 (Project
Arts Centre)
Future
Cosi Fan Tutte
(Opera Ireland)
Other
New York Contemporary
Arts Foundation Grant
Recipient (2007)
Opera
Barber of Seville, A
Midsummer Night’s Dream,
Jenůfa (ETO); Magic Flute,
Mikado, Don Quixote,
Timon of Athens (ENO);
A Midsummer Night’s Dream,
L’infeldelta Delusa, Magic
Flute (Aldeburgh Festival);
Radamisto, Ottone, Flavio
(London Handel Festival);
Billy Budd, Hansel and
Gretel, Rosenkavalier,
Falstaff, Tosca, La Bohème
(Nationaltheater Mannheim)
Concerts
London Mozart Players
(Mayfield Festival);
Mahler Symphony No. 4
(Philharmonic Hall, Zagreb);
Rheinische Philharmonie,
Koblenz; Bernstein
Symphonic Dances, West
Side Story, Ives 3 Places
in New England, (Leipzig)
Recordings
Radio France Musique;
Südwestfunk, Baden-Baden
Other
Assisted Claudio Abbado as
a member of music staff,
Vienna State Opera.
Resident conductor, National
theater, Mannheim. Director
of Opera, (RCM) and
Associate Conductor (ETO)
Renée Salewski
Soprano
Lisi, Cover Franzi
Spirit of Vienna
Ensemble
Born
Ontario, Canada
Training
Queen’s University, Ontario
Opera
Arline The Bohemian Girl
(NewLog); Cobweb A
Midsummer Night’s Dream,
Cover Barbarina The
Marriage of Figaro (both
ETO); Marsinah Kismet (The
Arcola Theatre); Marie
Wozzeck/Woyzeck (Misha
Aster’s Theatre of Ideas)
Concerts
Haydn The Creation
(Canterbury Cathedral);
Mozart Mass in C Minor
(Canterbury Cathedral);
Rossini/Mozart Stabat
Mater/Requiem
(St John’s/Whitstable
Choral Society)
Recordings
Film: Exodus
(ArtAngel/Channel 4forthcoming); Gloria
(Monllao / Ethan
Lewis Maltby)
Clare Shearer
Mezzo-Soprano
Larina Eugene Onegin
Born
Hamilton, Scotland
Training
RSAMD
Awards
John Noble Bursary;
scholarship winner to Banff
Centre, Canada
Opera
Siegrune and Grimgerde
Die Walküre; Sosostris
A Midsummer Marriage,
Wowkle Fanciulla del West
(all ROH); Siegrune Der
Ring des Nibelungen,
Azucena Il Trovatore, Mary
Wollstonecraft Monster,
Dorabella Cosi fan tutte
(all Scottish Opera); Carmen
Carmen, Santuzza Cavalleria
Rusticana, Fenena Nabucco,
La Frugola Il Tabarro (all
WNO); Suzuki Madama
Butterfly (ENO); Rosina
The Barber of Seville
(Opera North)
Concert
Tchaikovsky Iolanta (BBC
Proms); Mahler Rückert
Lieder, Brahms Opus 91
Songs (both Scottish Ballet);
Mahler Resurrection
Symphony, Verdi Requiem
(Montreux Festival)
Olivia Shrive
Mezzo-Soprano
Ensemble
Cover Pepi,
Spirit of Vienna
Born
Norwich
Training
Abbey Opera, University
of London; RWCMD
Opera
Second Bridesmaid Le Nozze
di Figaro (Grange Park
Opera); Cover Gianetta and
Ensemble L’Elisir d’Amore
(Pimlico Opera); Ensemble
Maria Stuarda, Thais, South
Pacific (Grange Park Opera);
Dorabella Cosi fan Tutte
(Starlight Opera); Carmen
Carmen (City Opera)
Recordings
Joe St Johanser
The Tempest (BBC)
Other
Sang at memorial service
of Walter Sisulu, ANC
founder, at St Martin-inthe-Fields and also at
a Royal banquet in Kuala
Lumpur, Malaysia
Recordings
Cherubini Medea (Decca)
BIOGRAPHIES 39
ENGLISH
TOURING
OPERA
Nicky Spence
Tenor
Count Spirit of Vienna
Cover Belmonte
The Seraglio
Ensemble
Born
Dumfries
Training
GSMD
Awards
Kathleen Ferrier Bursary;
Samling Foundation; Solti
Scholar; Finalist, Gold Medal
(GSMD); Patricia Routledge
Opera
King Arthur (Britten-Pears
Young Artist); Peter Grimes
(Salzburg Festival); Cosi Fan
Tutte (Westminster Opera);
I Giardini della Storia
(Batignano); Ballad of
Salomon Parey (Globe)
Concerts
Britten Who are these
Children? (St Martins);
Welsh Prom with Amanda
Roocroft; Oxford/Leeds
Lieder Festivals, performed
RAH, Millennium Centre,
Cadogan Hall, Clyde
Auditorium, Sage Centre
Recordings
5 album contract, Universal.
Schumann collaboration
Graham Johnson
(forthcoming, Hyperion).
Royal Variety (ITV1), Friday
Night is Music Night (Radio
2); Classical Brits (2006);
Remembrance Service (BBC1).
40
Robert D Williams
Bass-Baritone
Ensemble
Roland Wood
Baritone
Onegin Eugene Onegin
Born
Adelaide
Born
Berkshire
Training
University of Southern
Queensland
Training
RNCM; National
Opera Studio
Opera
Figaro The Marriage
of Figaro, Masetto Don
Giovanni (both London
Opera Players); Major Domo
The Fair Maid of Perth
(Buxton Festival Opera);
The Speaker The Magic
Flute (Opera At Bearwood);
El Dancairo Carmen
(Stowe Opera)
Awards
Prize Winner Cardiff Singer
of World (2003); Runner-up
Kathleen Ferrier (2000);
Concerts
Orff Carmina Burana
(Warriner Choral Society);
Handel Messiah (Akeman
Voices); Mozart Requiem
(St Martin In The Fields)
Opera
Papageno Die Zauberflote;
Schaunard La Boheme, Falke
Fledermaus (Scottish Opera
Principal); Kissinger Nixon in
China, Baron La Traviata,
Ajax B La Belle Helene
(ENO); Shadow Rake’s
Progress (GFO); Count
Marriage of Figaro (OHP);
Escamillo (Cork Opera
House)
Concert
Berlioz L’Enfance du Christ
(ECO); Britten War Requiem
(Bydgoscz); Walton
Belshazzaar’s Feast, Child
of our Time (Halle); Faure
Requiem, Vaughan Williams
Serenade (Edinburgh
Festival); Rosenblatt Recital
(St John’s Smith Square);
Bath International Festival
Recital
Recordings
Un Ballo Maschera, Madam
Butterfly, Carmelites
(Chandos); Il Diluvio
Universale (Opera Rara);
Faure Requiem (Lammas)
Abbreviations
BAC Battersea Arts Centre
BBIOS Benjamin Britten
International Opera School
BOC Birmingham Opera Company
BYO British Youth Opera
CBSO City of Birmingham
Symphony Orchestra
ENO English National Opera
ETO English Touring Opera
GFO Glyndebourne
Festival Opera
GSMD Guildhall School
of Music and Drama
GTO Glyndebourne
Touring Opera
LAMDA London Academy
of Music and Dramatic Art
OAE Orchestra of the Age
of Enlightenment
OHP Opera Holland Park
ON Opera North
OTC Opera Theatre Company
NOS National Opera Studio
RAH Royal Albert Hall
RAM Royal Academy of Music
RCM Royal College of Music
RIAM Royal Irish
Academy of Music
RLPO Royal Liverpool
Philharmonic Orchestra
RNCM Royal Northern
College of Music
RNT Royal National Theatre
ROH Royal Opera House
RPO Royal Philharmonic
Orchestra
RSAMD Royal Scottish
Academy of Music and Drama
RSC Royal Shakespeare Company
RWCMD Royal Welsh College
of Music and Drama
SO Scottish Opera
WNO Welsh National Opera
TESEO
HANDEL
COUNTRY
MATTTERS
HAYDN
BRIDGETOWER
JULIAN JOSEPH
AUTUMN TOUR 07
To learn more about ETO
and the Autumn 2007 tour
please visit our website
www.englishtouringopera.org.uk
Telephone 020 7833 2555

ETO Programme 2007 - English Touring Opera

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