Regents Opera - August Newsletter
Dear All,
Many greetings to you all from la belle France, where, thanks to our link with Peter and Carolyn Bear, who used to run Opera Loki, we have just given our second of five performances of Don Giovanni at various chateaux.
Last night’s venue at Brout-Vernet, near Vichy
If you are currently in France, our next performances of Don Giovanni are at:
Saturday 10 August : Chateau de Romenay, Diennes-Aubigny 58340
Monday 12 August : Chateau de Sauvages, Beaumont-la-Ferrière, 58700.
Wednesday 14th August : Chateau de Courcelles, Courcelles-les-Semur 21140. TICKET LINK
Oliver Gibbs as Don Giovanni, with Andrew Tinkler as the Commendatore, and Ashley Mercer as Leporello. Photo by Sarah Heenan
The Final Scene: (L to R) Isolde Roxby as Donna Elvira, Davide Basso as Don Ottavio, Christine Buras as Donna Anna, Alistair Ollerenshaw as Masetto, Justine Viani as Zerlina and Ashley Mercer as Leporello. Photo by Sarah Heenan.
The Alpine Symphony and Walton Cello Concerto - On sale now!
So yes, our big symphonic concert - “Regents Opera presents a concert with no singers…” is all systems go and we’re very excited about it. Someone asked me the other day: why the Alpine Symphony? And there are several good answers I thought I might share with you:
Firstly, it is a monumental work by one of the company's historically favourite composers. You'll recall our production of Strauss's wonderfully eccentric Die Ägyptische Helena in 2021, complete with an omniscient mussel! We love the breath breadth of Strauss's incredible imagination.
The Alpine Symphony resonates on a personal level with me/us - the whole concept of scaling a massive mountain, with various challenges along the way, really symbolises the ethos of Regents Opera.
It's also a huge logistical undertaking in getting the players together - it's written for an enormous orchestra, including Wagner tubas and a Heckelphone! We even have someone to play said hecklephone - very exciting!
The BBC Symphony Orchestra, under Sakari Oromo, are performing the Alpine Symphony tonight at the BBC Proms, if you'd like a taste of Strauss's snowy soundworld.
I can also recommend Herbert Von Karajan's classic recording: Apple Music. Youtube. Spotify
It is truly an incredible piece of music
Next month, our principal cellist, Alison Holford, will be introducing the other main piece in the programme, Walton's Cello Concerto.
I first played this as a violist at Chetham's - I'm looking forward to being on the other side!
Finally, I'd like to propose a toast to late Keel Watson, who would have been 60 today.
His Wotan will live long in our memories.
Ring news - 184 days to go!
Well, there’s a lot going on behind the scenes, though it’s probably not that exciting to read about here! We’ve just hired a marketing person to make sure it sells out, we’re sorting out some big bits of PR to tell the story of it before it happens, so everyone that could possibly want to be aware of it, is aware of it! We’ve been having fundraising meetings with Joe our development officer, and we’re about to launch an education project around the plinthed artworks in Rheingold. I wonder if that will help with an Arts Council grant… hmmmm…!
If you can help with any element of it, especially if you would be able to be philanthropic towards it, then please do get in touch.
And as ever, a huge thanks to our sponsors, Big Yellow Storage at Camberley - Thank you for looking after our stuff!
Here’s wishing you all a lovely summer! Thank you for reading.
Ben