Opera events
An Opera Evening is an excellent way to raise funds for a charity, and London Festival Opera has a wealth of experience in creating programmes of opera, operetta and musicals to link perfectly with a dinner or reception. The company has been the vehicle to help charities raise many hundreds of thousands of pounds. These images are from a sell out dinner in a magnificent church raising funds for a hospice. The performance was accompanied by orchestral backing tracks.
It was a great pleasure, as always, to return to the magnificent and historic Goldsmiths’ Hall in the City of London for an ‘in-house’ opera gala for the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths’ and their guests. The evening began with a surprise burst of opera in the Drawing Room during the drinks reception, and then continued with the main performance during the courses of dinner in The Hall. The performers wore Victoria evening gowns for an added visual impact. The Goldsmiths’ Hall has one of the finest grand pianos in London: our pianist, Jenny, loves it so much she declared she would be prepared to lodge underneath it permanently!
The Goldsmiths’ Company has been located on the site since 1339.The present Hall, by Philip Hardwick, was built in the 1830’s and remains much as he designed it. The Hall and other state rooms have been used for a host of films including most recently for Buckingham Palace in ‘The Crown’.
London Festival Opera has a wealth of experience in creating the perfect selection of opera for a special event – including weddings. We recently returned from a magnificent wedding in Switzerland at the Palace Hotel (pictured). We work closely with the Bride and Groom and discuss the wide range of repertoire available, keeping an open mind. One Bride in London wanted something very different: she entered with the rock classic ‘Highway to Hell’ with a superb electric guitarist! After other arias (including from ‘La Traviata’ and ‘The Barber of Seville’) the grand final piece was an operatic version of ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ with singers and guitarist. In Gstaad, after the surprise waiter start, the cutting of the cake was accompanied by a rousing, opera version of ABBA’s ‘Dancing Queen’!! There is so much repertoire to choose from and live music can add something really memorable to a special day…
On New Year’s Eve London Festival Opera dovetailed celebrated opera arias with the exceptional feast served in the Lecture Room at Sketch. Sketch is an amazing complex within the original Georgian town house on Conduit Street, and was built in 1779 by James Wyatt. Formerly it hosted the HQ of suffragette movements in the early 20th century and was then the workshop of Christian Dior. In the late 90s it caught the eye of Mazouz and since 2023 has been owned by Mazouz. It has 5 highly decorated ‘fantasy’ eateries, including 3 restaurants in the building: the Parlour, the Lecture Room & Library, the Glade, the Gallery, and the Eastbar & Pods. The Lecture Room & Library holds 3 Michelin stars.
It has been a very challenging 18th months for performers or all kinds – some normality seems to be returning to our profession as we proceed with caution and start planning performances. Philip Blake-Jones (Baritone and Artistic Director of London Festival Opera) had the opportunity to sing last week at a charity event in an delightful garden in the Cathedral Close of Salisbury.
The surprise ‘burst of opera’ included Papageno’s Aria from Mozart’s ‘The Magic Flute’. The sunny day, trees and colourful flower beds provided the perfect enchanting setting!
Here’s to the future and the return of live performances of all kinds!
Covid 19 has had a profound impact on the arts generally, particularly live music. Some normality is returning but we seem far away from complete freedom from restrictions. It is possible that things will not be as they were for a considerable time and that the online concepts, such as Zoom Opera Galas and Online Choirs, will remain a vital option for music making of all kinds.
The Self Isolation Choir is a pioneering company – they presented their first mass ‘Messiah’ with a chorus of nearly 4,000 singers and instrumentalists from 35 different countries last year – and now continues to develop and offer choral experiences in many new areas. The SIC now moves into the world of grand opera with their https://www.theselfisolationchoir.com/opera-choruses and London Festival Opera is thrilled to be involved in this new project of five celebrated choruses from the operas of Verdi, Bizet and Puccini. Philip Blake-Jones has worked with four of his most talented soloists creating the rehearsal tracks to teach and inspire the international choristers, as well as the piano track which is the fundamental foundation of the whole musical creation. The rehearsal and concert will be under the baton of the very talented Ben England, who received the BEM in HM The Queen’s Honours marking his leadership in this new virtual creative world. Additionally, the course will include the expert contribution of Donald Palumbo the Chorus Master from New York’s Metropolitan Opera New. The Self Isolation Choir has once again assembled and impressive creative team!
We are still in the midst of lockdown limitations, but let’s look at what we can do in these times rather than what we can’t. It certainly seems that being able to go to the opera or present opera at a party is still some way off.
A client of ours wanted to do something operatic to celebrate a special birthday. The guests were in Israel, London, Kent and Oxford, but in these times of lockdown that is not an issue. A Zoom Opera Gala was the perfect solution.
Our Artistic Director turned up at the Zoom party in black tie resulting in some surprise. ‘Who is this?’ exclaimed the guest of honour. All was revealed and we created an opera celebration using wonderful footage from past performances with live spoken links. The result was magical with guests swaying to the rousing music and applauding enthusiastically.
The client now has a movie of the event as a memento of a wonderful party.
A Zoom Opera Party could be a useful option to anywhere in the world even after lockdown!?
Client comments:
What a truly super occasion! We all loved it so much, and as usual you were an incomparable master of ceremonies.
I cannot thank you enough for the excellent performance combined with your presence in person and the entertaining commentary which made it all so special and memorable.
The guest of honour really loved it and it was a joy to see her surprise and the sheer pleasure as she enjoyed the event.
Puccini met Elvira Gemignani in 1884 whilst giving her piano lessons. She was to become his lover though she was already married. Soon it became clear that she was expecting a child and not her husbands. This is was a shocking situation in 19th century Roman Catholic Italy.
Undoubtedly Elvira and Puccini were happy in the early days before her possessiveness and jealousy dominated their lifelong relationship, and ultimately marriage.
Elvira had a jealous disposition and attempted to control Puccini. He was not only creative as a composer. For instance, he is known to have paid pupils to play the piano in his study giving the impressions that he was there composing. Meanwhile he slipped out of the windows and Elvira slept soundly thinking he was hard at work at home.
In September 1908 Elvira’s jealousy led to a real-life tragedy as dramatic as an operatic plot. She became suspicions of one of their servants, the twenty-three year old Doria Manfredi, and was convinced that the girl was sleeping with her husband. Not only did she dismiss her, but hounded Doria and spread rumours. The situation became so intolerable to the poor girl that she drank poison and suffered a lingering and painful death. Puccini, very fond of the Doria, was devastated. Knowing she was innocent her family sued for defamation and Elvira narrowly avoided imprisonment. She was in fact sentenced to five months but Puccini stepped in and he and his lawyers persuaded the family to drop the lawsuit and paid them off.
Elvira was right to have her suspicions: Puccini was having an affair with another woman at that time, but not Doria!
Puccini died in 1924 and Elvira followed him in 1930
Can opera singers sing songs from musicals? The short answer is a resounding yes, but in our experience it’s important to select the right musicals and the right singers.
Some shows like ‘West Side Story’, all the musicals of Rodgers and Hammerstein, ‘Porgy and Bess’, plus many of the works of Sondheim and Lloyd Webber can all work wonderfully, particularly if the singers can loosen their vocal production a little and ‘speak’ to the audience. But this repertoire can be thrilling when the opera singers open up with full throttle – the tenor singing ‘Maria’ for instance, or the ensemble ‘Do you hear the people sing’ from ‘Les Miserables’. Wonderful repertoire!!
Opera singers cannot really do justice to musicals that have more of a jazz concept, such as ‘Chicago’, or a Heavy Rock inspiration. If they did, it may well sound comical – but that could be fun too! French and Saunders’ version of ‘I should be so lucky’ is truly hilarious and inspired us to include some pop songs from time to time including operatic versions of ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’, ‘Rock around the clock’ and ‘Delilah’. This can create an unexpected and powerful encore in a conventional opera programme!
We return to the magnificent Goldsmiths’ Hall in London later in the Spring for ‘A Night at the Musicals’. This is one of our favourite venues. Our pianist is always particularly keen as the Hall has a superb grand piano!
We were honoured to perform for a very distinguished audience in the magnificent setting of Kirtlington Park, Oxfordshire on Saturday evening. London Festival Opera presented ‘A Christmas Night at the Opera’ in the 18th Century Saloon of the house for a sell-out performance. The audience joined in a Gilbert and Sullivan chorus which prepared them perfectly to sing an absolutely rousing rendition of ‘Good King Wenceslas’, proving joyfully that people do love to sing!
The evening was in aid of the wonderful charity, Medical Detection Dogs, which trains dogs to detect the odour of human disease. The charity is at the forefront of the research into the fight against cancer and helping people with life-threatening diseases. In addition to this extraordinary work the charity also trains Medical Alert Assistance Dogs to live with individuals who have complex health conditions. Using their amazing sense of smell, the dogs are trained to identify the minute odour changes emitted prior to a medical emergency and then alert the person to take preventative action. This can help to prevent 999 calls and hospital admissions, giving these people and their families greater confidence and independence.
Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Cornwall is Patron of the Charity and gave her blessing to the fundraising evening in a letter printed in the programme. Her Royal Highness wrote: ‘As the proud Patron I would like to send you all my very best wishes for a wonderful evening of opera. …. By translating their research into reality, this charity could save many thousands of lives.’
It was an honour to be invited to help raise funds for such a worthy cause in the breath-taking setting of Kirtlington Park.
London Festival Opera
Opera Interludes Ltd