After a string of comedy triumphs, Jacques Offenbach's last work was this strange opera fantastique from 1881, based on the writings of the German romantic poet E T A Hoffmann, and telling the story of his three failures in love.
We'll be singing it in English, with piano accompaniment, in the Great Hall of Shaw House in Newbury.
Dates are 2nd and 3rd February (at 7 pm) and 4th February (at 2.30 pm).
We presented Mozart's Seraglio there in 2023. The Hall was just what was needed for a pasha's palace!
Our 2023 concert programme, outdoors and in, was a no-holds-barred tour of favourites from the length and breadth of opera. The show included the well-known and the rarely heard; the serious and the ridiculous; choruses, solos and everything in-between.
We played:
As one customer said: "A beautiful programme, and a really astonishing level of talent and performance – it's amazing what a great sound you made in Brimpton Church. It's lovely to have the church used for a concert, and we all enjoyed it and felt so proud of you! Some delicious cakes too."
Concerts in Brimpton Church (top) and on Shaw House lawns
After three years with no stage performances, we were were back on the boards in early February this year with our first-ever performance of The Seraglio. We made some modest cuts and adjustments, but most of the opera, music director Jim Petts said, "remains untouched by our hands, and we hope you will enjoy the result!"
The singers did, and the audiences did, one commenting "I know it well from recordings but had never actually seen a performance. I thought yours was great: suitably funny, very well costumed and the setting worked really well. There was some gorgeous singing and lots of nice touches."
This was our last pre-lockdown staged production. Together with Opera Unmasked, in January 2020 we presented 'Amahl and the Night Visitors', Menotti's beautiful one-act opera, AND a selection of Great American Songs, in St John's Church Newbury. All in one show!
They played:Amahl was marvellously sung and acted by 13-year old Edward Bennet, and the part of his mother, following illness in the company, was sung by Emily Kyte for two nights and Serenna Wagner for one. We were joined for the first time by members of Wantage Choral Society and Wantage Church Choir; and once again by dancers from the Karen Brind school of dance.
