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It was great to see Jenny Agutter at one of our final rehearsals and you can hear her talking about "The Merry Wives of Windsor" and Duchy Opera on the David White Show. Go to 1:51 (about "Call the Midwife" - her TV show) and 1:55 for Duchy Opera.
Thanks, Jenny, for your encouragement!
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Since its debut in 1977, Duchy Opera has built up a reputation as one of the finest regional semi-professional opera companies in the UK.
It performs an annual opera using its own chorus, soloists and orchestra, plus professional soloists where required. Regular concerts are also performed throughout the county. After many successful years as Director of Music, Paul Drayton will be stepping down in the Autumn of 2018 and Duchy Opera is now looking for a successor. The role requires experience of opera musical production with both singers and orchestra and applicants will need to have time flexibility with availability for extra rehearsals being essential. Our production in 2019 will be during June/July. An honorarium is payable, to be discussed at interview. If you are interested in the position please send your curriculum vitae, contact details and covering email by 15 July 2018 to duchy@duchyopera.co.uk Not long now to our #NIGHT AT THE #OPERA. Will you be there? The Merry Wives of Windsor will be visiting Perranporth (Weds 23rd May) & St Austell (Thurs 24th). Truro and Penzance performances are the following week at Truro Burrell Theatre (Weds 30th May) & Penzance Penwith College Zennor Theatre (Thurs 31st). The last two venues are Bude (Sat 2nd Jun) and Falmouth (Thurs 7th June). If it's Thursday it's Merry Wives of Windsor night! Tickets £15 (£7.50 under 18s) Book at CRBO Phone 01726 879500   The subject of "Shakespeare in Opera" was thoroughly explored on Saturday May 12th when Paul, in his inimitably relaxed and disarming manner, led his audience through some key scenes in Nicolai's sparkling comedy The Merry Wives of Windsor, Duchy Opera's current production, amply illustrated by music recordings. filmed opera scenes and expertly performed 'snippets' on the piano.
He compared Nicolai's German treatment of this play with an Italian approach to the same story by Verdi in his final masterpiece Falstaff and we encountered doomed love in Gounod's Romeo et Juliette plus magical fantasy in Britten's 1960 opera A Midsummer Night's Dream with references to Mendelssohn's incidental music for the same play. We saw how librettists and composers of the 19th / 20th centuries gave Jacobean drama a fresh lease of life on the operatic stage and how opera composers skilfully sculpted the original text to allow for the extravagant elaborations required in the recitatives and arias we love to indulge in. A thoroughly enjoyable and enriching afternoon! You can see the opera in a theatre near you as part of the Cornwall tour which is about to start Future |
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