Great Oxford Times Review - again

Its great to have nice feedback and reviews in the press at the conclusion of a performance, especially after such a long period of rehearsals. This time it was especially welcome as we had taken some 'interesting' decisions about the production, not least our original intention to direct the Christmas show ourselves and then bring in a stage director once we had incoprorated our ideas about some of the staging effects we wanted to introduce. I was also insistent about introducing a pet dog on stage, everyone thought I was mad to take the risk, but it did pay off... I can now boast that I have worked with children and animals on the same stage in the same production! We cut corners in our staffing in order to invest in some more elaborate staging and costumes, we also were able to incorporate some ballet, which was brilliant. I have to say though that we have never been so close to the edge than in this show, it literally only really did come together properly at the dress rehearsal...
The great feedback from our audience following the show and the subsequent emails were great to receive and another brilliant review in the Oxford Times.

The morning after the day before . .

My word, I am tired... its been a real struggle operating today following one of the most tiring weekends of my existence! I'm sure I can say the same for Vanessa as well, running Opera Anywhere is the most exhausting of life styles - our 'shoestring' production budgets means that we are run ragged when it comes to actually touring, we have to do so much of the running around ourselves to make it all happen. Having said that, we probably spent more on this Christmas production than many of our others, its just rather than spend it on supporting staff, we've invested heavily in staging and costumes for a change, we even incorporated ballet.... all these decisions I am so pleased with, especially when it came to the Selfish Giant performance. It was a shame we couldn't go as far as bringing in the dry ice but you have to draw a line somewhere!
The two resulting performances from the months of hard work yesterday were very pleasing indeed and we're hoping for a great review again in the Oxford Times.... there were many heroes yesterday, the kids in the show, Debbie our MD and composer of The Selfish Giant, Amy Standish who came in for the last 6 weeks of the show to refine and polish the production, Sarah Stead who inspired and developed the ballet.. the list could go on, just everyone was brilliant!! What would be brilliant now is to hear positive news about a grants application we made a couple of months ago for this Christmas show, we can't break even until we get some further funding and we'd love to have the financial stability to perform the production further, its worth really developing a tour programme for the show - even if I say so myself!

Oxford Times Preview

Nice article in the Oxford Times this week, featured as 'Pick Of The Week' on their events page. Should help to sell some more tickets for our Christmas show at the Cornerstone in Didcot. Rehearsals are going well now but there is still some more to do to get us all ready for Sunday. Both Vanessa and myself are feeling under considerable pressure this time, with our 'shoestring' approach to putting on our opera productions where we can't employ people to do some of the jobs, we've had to do these ourselves as well as perform.... anyway, by the time Sunday arrives and we've finished the evening performance, I'm sure we'll be really happy.
We're both really looking forward to having a break at Christmas, things have been manic just lately, been doing lots of stuff in restaurants and our last gig this year will be at the wonderful Flowing Well in Sunningwell
We're performing some Christmas items mixed in with some popular opera arias and duets, whilst clients are enjoying their Christmas dinner - Sunday 20th December....
Vanessa's had meetings with the Perch in Binsey to plan a special valentines day performance to accompany some their splendid french cuisine....
The Sunningwell Festival team met again this week, things seem to be moving ahead nicely, we've even got out tickets on sale now!

Tension is mounting!

There was definitely an air of tension throughout our young cast at our rehearsals last night for our Christmas show. We've only got 2 weeks to go before the performance of our double bill, Amahl and The Selfish Giant. There is still some considerable work to be done and the pressure is on! Lots of rehearsal time planned now over the next couple of weeks, one of the challenges has been illness throughout the cast, we never seemed to have had a full house for a rehearsal! All that in mind I'm sure we'll have a cracker of a show, do come and see it if you can, the venue for the 13th December performance is the fabulous new Cornerstone Theatre in Didcot.
Attended a full day conference organised by O.M.T.F. , studying the results of a recent survey of opera companies - the conclusion seemed to be suggesting that those of that want to survive the next few years of lean funding times, will need to be leaner and more adaptable than ever - trying to build alliances wherever possible in order to pool the slim and overstretched resources we all seem to be suffering from at the moment.
Good news on the Sunningwell Festival front, support beginning to come in . .

Debussy to Edith Piaf!

We had a great night at the splendid Binsey pub 'The Perch', its been redefined in recent years and now offers a fantastic range of exquisitely presented French food. We had been invited to perform some French opera and songs last night, the small and intimate audience were very appreciative and we've been invited back on Valentine's day, so watch this space!! The two Gina's did fantastically well and lit up the atmosphere with their performances, Vanessa had learnt some Edith Piaff songs especially and these offered a real contrast in the programme, something we would love to develop . .

Remembrance Day concert

The Remembrance Day concert at Bayworth Chapel proved a great success, the songs and poems proved to be very fitting and we received many compliments from the huge audience (we had to cram some extra seats in at the back!). Gina Kruger played delightfully and seemed to have a real feeling from the mainly British songs we performed. The poetry was perfectly presented by Jim Levy and May Hall (who announced that she was actually born during the first World War!).
Currently preparing for an Opera Anywhere directors meeting tonight, big one this as we hope to encourage our board of directors to be trustees of a new charity we hope to set up, watch this space! Our Christmas show is approaching the latter stages of preparation and our young cast are sounding great, and what a relief it is to have Amy Standish on board, directing The Selfish Giant, she has a great feel for things and has a fantastic rapport with the kids...
Our French night at The Perch is coming up soon, in fact next week! This will be a big gig for us as we hope to persuade The Perch to promote French opera in their restaurant on a regular basis.

Oxford Lieder - Final Concert

James Gilchrist - Tenor & Anna Tilbrook - Piano + Caroline Macphie - Soprano & Joseph Middleton - Piano

This final concert of the Oxford Lieder festival provided a wonderful conclusion to the events over the past two weeks. The concert began with a 'fifteen minute of fame' slot for Caroline Macphie & Joseph Middleton, they proved to be a good partnership & performed three songs by Schubert that I'd never heard before, the most impressive being the lengthy 'Viola', this could have been just a pretty, slightly twee song featuring a Viola flower. However, Caroline Macphie & Joseph Middleton managed to transport the audience to the early Spring meadows described in the song, & tell the desolate tale of the Viola with sensitivity & expression. Caroline Macphie is an ideal lieder singer with her lovely bright soprano sound & clear diction & I am sure she would be great on the opera stage too with her fine characterisation.
Before the concert James Gilchrist had given an enthusiastic & interesting talk on Schubert's 'Schwanengesang', there aren't many singers who would give a talk before a recital, most are too precious about their voices! This certainly had no detrimental effect to his performance of 'Schwanengesang' which was amazing. I love the total commitment one receives from James Gilchrist, he is a singer who mostly appears on the concert platform or in oratorio, rather than opera, well ,he doesn't need to do opera, he is an opera when he performs! Not only does he effectively communicate the narrative in each song, he also inhabits every element like noone else I've seen. He is not afraid to move around in recital, which some may find distracting, but I have no problem because all his movements are connected to the text, there are no weak habitual gestures in a performance from James Gilchrist, he can also create absolute stillness when required too. The partnership with Anna Tilbrook is a firm one, her accompanying is strong & also sensitive when appropriate, I like the way she also has freedom of movement making the visual element an important factor. The songs collected in 'Schwanengesange' are not a narrative journey but they all work well together in the order they are set, I liked the incredible contrasts achieved in these songs from the gentle 'Standchen' to the raging 'Aufenhalt' & the powerful 'In der ferne' all settings of Rellstab. The performance of Heine's poem 'Der Atlas' certainly did convey the weight of the world & showed to great effect James Gilchrist's huge dynamic range, the atmospheric 'Am Meer' & 'Der Doppelganger' were stunning in their performance. At the end I felt exhausted (in a good way) so I don't how James Gilchrist & Anna Tilbrook must have felt! We did try as an audience, to coax an encore from them but to no avail, I for one don't blame them!