Greetings everyone, and I hope you’ve had a good start to the year. Thanks to those of you who wished me a happy birthday a couple of weeks ago, and even more thanks to those of you who either donated to my birthday fundraiser, or who have already helped with sponsoring our Salome, which starts rehearsals in just two short weeks time!

Capriccio Orchestra Weekend, culminating in a run through on 1st March at 6pm

“Capriccio” Orchestral Study Weekend - this Sunday 1st March

Richard Strauss’s final opera “Capriccio” was referred to by the composer as a Konversationsstück - a conversation piece, and, bizarrely for an opera, doesn’t really have a discernable plot, though it mainly concerns itself with the question: Which is the greater art, poetry or music? This was a topic of discussion at the time of the setting, as in a 1786 Salieri opera named for the issue: Prima la musica, e poi le parole (first the music, and then the words).

We’ve got a marvellous cast of some of our Regents Opera stalwart singers, led by Corinne Hart (the Woodbird in Siegfried) as the Countess, Andrew Mayor as her brother, the Count, with Gerard Delrez as the Theatre Director, Ashley Mercer as Olivier, Howard Hutt as Flamand, Ingeborg Børch as Clairon, and Davide Basso and Anna Gregg as the Italian singers.

The final scene has become something of a soprano showpiece, and was a particular favourite of Renée Fleming, though yesterday I did find myself listening to a rather good recording by Nina Stemme and Antonio Pappano (Apple Music / Spotify)

Do come and see how we get on with it (goodness me it’s difficult…) on Sunday 1st March at 6pm at St Hilda’s Church on Courtrai Road in Crofton Park (map). We ask observers for a £10 contribution towards costs.

If you are a string player and would like to join us for the weekend, please get in touch with Jon Cooley post haste! joncooley30@gmail.com

Excitement building for Salome

Tickets for our big exciting Salome production are figuratively flying off the shelves, and you’ll see lots more content and presence of our advertising over the next few weeks as we start rehearsals in two weeks time.

Alison the orchestral manager met with Nigel the arranger the other day and she now has all of the orchestral parts in her possession, and meetings between production team, venue and to a lesser extent, yours truly, are now increasing in frequency as we prepare to bring you one of the most exciting operatic events to hit London for years. Superb singing, remarkable storytelling and an extremely distinguished choreographer are guaranteed to make this the 2026 event people will be talking about for years to come.

Tickets!

And of course, it wouldn’t be me producing opera if I didn’t ask once more if you might be able to help with a donation towards it, would it?

Donate to Salome!

Sponsor a role

Looking forward to Parsifal? Having (Regents) Wagner withdrawal?

I was doing a bit of work on Parsifal the other day, and I came across this rather splendid introduction to the opera, by my friend Elias Corrinth, from the Berlin Staatsoper. It’s in German with very accurate English subtitles, but if it’s of interest, and you have hitherto been a Parsifal denier or struggling to become converted to Wagner’s final opera, I’d heartily recommend Elias’s introduction.