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Duchy Opera has built an enviable reputation as one of the country’s finest regional, semi-professional opera companies where a passion for opera is brought alive with imagination and flair.
The company strives to present opera productions of the highest standards possible, whilst fostering education about the art form and encouraging its growth with services and programmes designed to fill the needs of the Cornish community. If you are interested in being part of the county's foremost opera company, please contact us via this site for more details.
*****Events News****
As the beautiful spring sunshine begins to thaw the winter cold, Duchy Opera
looks forward to this year's performances beginning with a romantic concert in the chapel of the Tresanton Hotel in St Mawes.
Feauturing one of Duchy's finest principle singers, Kay Deeming (soprano) and rising star, Nicholas Hawker (tenor), the evening promises to begin your celebrations of the god of love and beauty in style.
Kay portrayed the title role in Duchy Opera’s 2008 production of Handel’s
Semele to great acclaim, whilst Nicholas gave depth and pathos to the character of Martin Lee, a carpenter in the brand new opera, The Hanging Oak, written by Musical Director, Paul Drayton,and performed in 2009.
Kay and Nick will be joined by ladies and gentlemen of the Duchy Opera chorus, and Duchy’s own, Men of Good Fortune.
Tickets are £10, including a glass of wine, and can be reserved by calling 01326
270055.
At Easter, the Duchy Opera chorus together with guest soloists Louise Merrifield, Shirley Tyack and Steven Phillips will be travelling to Cyprus to perform in a variety of concerts set against a backdrop of outstanding natural beauty. The proceeds from these concerts will go to the Army Benevolent Fund.
In June, Duchy Opera will be special guests at a concert in Truro Cathedral featuring the outstanding Russian soprano, Vera Belova. Accompanied by Duchy's Musical Director, Paul Drayton, details of how to obtain tickets for this exciting event will appear shortly.
In October, Duchy will perform a brand new interpretation of Franz Lehar’s much-loved operetta, The Merry Widow. The librettists, Viktor Léon and Leo Stein, based the story – concerning a rich widow, and her countrymen's attempt to keep her money in the principality by finding her the right husband – on an 1861 comedy play, L'attaché d'ambassade (The Embassy Attaché) by Henri Meilhac. Travelling the length and breadth of Cornwall, further information regarding venues and tickets will be available later in the year.
Throughout the year, Duchy Opera will be continuing their popular primary school outreach programme, The School Run. Launched last term, Duchy Opera received an unprecedented response from schools requesting them to visit. Designed to educate and engage school children with opera, a small group of singers visit schools where they join in animated talks with the children about music and then hold a singing session of fun songs that the children join in with.
With many further concerts and events being organised this year, including a return to Lanhydrock, a magnificent late Victorian country house with extensive gardens and a wooded estate, following last years wonderful Floralia concert, 2010 is set to be an interesting and exciting year for Duchy Opera.
Further details on all of the above performanceswill be posted shortly and you can also follow Duchy on their Facebook page for all the latest information.
FOR FURTHER CONCERT INFORMATION PLEASE GO TO CALENDAR
The Hanging Oak 2009
Review by Eric Dare
Jonathan Haynes, The Archdeacon (John Hobbs)
A chamber opera in two acts by Paul Drayton
Adapted from a short story by M. R. James
The Hanging Oak, a new opera composed for Duchy Opera by its musical director Paul Drayton, was premièred last week in All Saints Church, Falmouth. It was a triumph!
The opera tells of an ambitious cleric who, by hastening the death of his elderly predecessor, becomes the cathedral archdeacon, with his sister Constance as housekeeper.
They give the maid Jane the sack; but she knows his crime and blackmails him. Guilt-stricken and haunted by his mysterious cathedral stall, with images of a snarling cat and skeleton, made from an oak used for hanging, he becomes unhinged and dies.
The original ghost story is M R James's, but Paul Drayton has embellished it in many inventive ways, particularly in creating Martin, a carpenter, as husband to Jane.
Thus an arrogant, upper class couple in the cleric's study are contrasted with an impoverished, servile pair in the carpenter's workshop. Fortunes are reversed: the venerable (!) archdeacon gets his desserts; the young couple are happy as Jane is pregnant: birth replaces death.
 
Martin (Nicholas Hawker) and Jane (Louise Merrifield) Constance (Cheryl Brendish)
The haunted stall carved, we discover, by Martin's ancestor, is placed in the church's quire, (the 'cathedral') between the two platforms – the study and workshop – and where, before its reredos, the final gestures of the deranged priest ('I am pursued by an avenging demon') are dramatically echoed by huge shadows.
We may be in Trollope's 'Barchester', but the music is akin to Benjamin Britten with an orchestral score – seven instruments – that emphasises the mood of the protagonists.
The singing from all four was superb: powerful solo arias from the two sopranos included 'Why should I be blamed?' (Louise Merrifield, Jane) and 'You clergymen, grey as the day of doom!' (Cheryl Brendish, Constance). There is some ensemble singing, but much is sung as dialogue.
John Hobbs (baritone) stepping from the pages of Trollope, looked and acted the part of the archdeacon. The accompaniment to his vigorous singing echoed his imperious indignation and subsequent horror.
Nicholas Hawker (tenor) as Martin had a more difficult role. Calm, patient 'saintliness' limits acting opportunities, especially when confined to a small platform, but his singing was superb as in his opening aria: 'A simple man with calloused hands'.
Into the modern musical mode Paul Drayton very effectively wove the traditional Anglican choral music sung, unseen, by the Duchy Opera chorus ('cathedral choir').
The words in the canticles and psalm ('…depart in peace.'; 'let another take his office') added a counterpoint to the archdeacon's emotional journey.
While the venue was perfect for staging, it was disappointing that the acoustic distorted the singers' enunciation. Directed by Kathy Brown, the opera was repeated in Bodmin and Tavistock.
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