INDEPENDENT at Sadler’s Wells presents Elizabeth Maconchy The Sofa and The Departure

Lilian Baylis Theatre Welcome Messages from Independent Opera

It gives me great pleasure to welcome back INDEPENDENT INDEPENDENT OPERA is moving forward in new directions. OPERA at Sadler’s Wells for their second season in our Our artists will present concerts at the Wigmore Hall and at The Sofa Lilian Baylis Theatre. Last year's season was a triumph, the opening of the V&A Jewellery Gallery in the spring of Opera in one act presenting high-quality opera in an intimate setting and 2008. We have also accepted an invitation to revive our giving young artists a platform. This year they are also production of Orlando at the Prague Spring Festival in 2009. providing a rare opportunity to enjoy the work of The October launch of INDEPENDENT OPERA Artist Support is Music by Elizabeth Maconchy Elizabeth Maconchy in these two chamber . particularly gratifying. This broad initiative of scholarships Libretto by Ursula Vaughan Williams I applaud the pioneering work of Independent Opera, not and fellowships, available to singers, directors, designers, Freely adapted from Le sofa by Crebillon fils only for its commitment to these annual productions but choreographers and conductors, provides longer-term support also for the extensive fellowship programme that they have in a way that fulfils our goal of encouraging new talent. By arrangement with Chester Music Limited just announced. Details are shown at the back of the programme.

I would also like to thank Independent Opera for its Our decision this year to mark Elizabeth Maconchy’s generous support to enable the refurbishment both inside centenary with two of her one-act operas demonstrates our and in the foyer to the Lilian Baylis Theatre, which we hope commitment to a wide range of repertoire. We hope you enjoy The Departure has made your visit here tonight more pleasurable. these relatively unknown works – we certainly think they Opera in one act deserve to be heard more often!

Music by Elizabeth Maconchy Libretto by Alistair Spalding Anna Gustafson Artistic Director and Chief Executive General Manager and Chief Executive, Artist Support By arrangement with Chester Music Limited Sadler’s Wells INDEPENDENT OPERA at Sadler’s Wells

Conductor Dominic Wheeler Director Alessandro Talevi Honorary Patrons 2007 Honorary Patrons Since our discovery of a recording of The Sofa in the National Laurence Cummings Sound Archive of the British Library in February, I have grown Set Designer Madeleine Boyd Eva Jiricna has achieved Michael Grandage very fond of this work and of its companion in this production, Costume Designer Ryszard Andrzejewski an international reputation Wasfi Kani OBE The Departure (of which no recording exists). Each day of Lighting Designer Matthew Haskins and received many rehearsal has been a wonderful journey of discovery as Elizabeth Nicholas Payne Movement Hanna Gillgren awards in recognition Maconchy’s rather forbidding handwriting has suddenly leapt to of her contribution to Répétiteurs Katrine Reimers, Anna Tilbrook Trustees life revealing richly romantic vocal lines and expressive harmonies. architecture. She formed Vocal Coach and Assistant Conductor Natalie Murray Annita Bennett her own practice in 1985. The detail and soloistic quality that defines the instrumental Judith Bollinger and vocal ensemble writing has meant that working on these Presented by INDEPENDENT OPERA at Sadler’s Wells Nicola LeFanu has William Bollinger pieces has been artistically rewarding for the whole company, composed over 60 Nigel Carrington while the challenges of the space have highlighted the creativity General Manager Anna Gustafson works (opera, orchestra, Wilson Kerr of the production team. The intimate confines of the LBT provide Artistic Director Alessandro Talevi chamber, solo) that the ideal setting for the re-introduction of these works into the have been played and Founding Patrons public domain, 50 years after their premiere at Sadler’s Wells. broadcast worldwide. Judith Bollinger She is the daughter of William Bollinger 13, 15, 17 November 2007 Elizabeth Maconchy. Alessandro Talevi www.independentopera.com Registered Charity no. 1117559 Artistic Director 2007, INDEPENDENT OPERA at Sadler’s Wells The first performance of The Sofa was given at Sadler’s Wells on 13 December 1959 Future dates • 22 May 2008 Victoria & Albert Museum Jewellery Gallery Opening • 21 June 2008 Wigmore Hall concert: Orlando The first performance of The Departure was given at Sadler’s Wells on 16 December 1962 • 18, 20, 22 November 2008 LBT: Pélleas et Mélisande • May / June 2009 Prague Spring 64th International Music Festival: Orlando

2 3 Messages from music colleges

INDEPENDENT OPERA at Sadler’s Wells is, I’m delighted The is delighted by the sheer to say, one of the great recent success stories of British range of opportunities offered by INDEPENDENT OPERA The Sofa operatic life – innovative stagework, interesting and at Sadler’s Wells to graduates of our own prestigious challenging repertoire and a splendid chance for young Vocal Faculty and the International Prince Dominic Nicholas Sharratt opera singers to appear on the stage in well- Opera School at the RCM. Monique Sarah Tynan rehearsed new productions. The company has a real interest Edward George von Bergen in the future of opera in the UK, and they merit serious support from all of us who are passionate about the art form. Dominic’s Grandmother Josephine Thorpe Lucille Alinka Kozari Dr Colin Lawson, Director Royal College of Music Laura Anna Leese Yolande Patricia Orr A Suitor Patrick Ashcroft Donald Maxwell, Director National Opera Studio The RNCM is delighted to endorse INDEPENDENT OPERA at Sadler’s Wells. This is a very exciting and welcome new venture that will offer rehearsal and Ensemble INDEPENDENT OPERA at Sadler’s Wells is a welcome performance opportunities to our most talented Samuel Boden newcomer to the British opera scene, and its vocal performers at that critical time in their careers, when Michelle Daly scholarships will significantly improve the range of support they are making the transition from full-time training Jassy Husk open to talented young singers. The Guildhall School is to establishing themselves in the profession. The College Simon Lobelson delighted to be associated with Independent Opera and is extremely grateful to Independent Opera for Benedict Nelson wishes it every success in its imaginative programming. the generous financial help that it intends to offer our young singers. Tom Oldham Kate Symonds-Joy David Webb

Professor Barry Ife, CBE FKC HonFRAM, Principal Guildhall School of Music & Drama Alexander Crowe, Head of School of Vocal and Opera Studies Royal Northern College of Music The Departure INDEPENDENT OPERA at Sadler’s Wells has gone from strength to strength in its mission to provide invaluable The Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama is Julia Louise Poole professional experience at the highest level for young grateful to INDEPENDENT OPERA at Sadler’s Wells opera singers. The is delighted for providing a major new scholarship for an opera singer Mark Håkan Vramsmo to be associated with it and is extremely grateful for in their final year. The recognition that opera training is the establishment of the intercollegiate scholarships. as arduous and long-term as that for architecture or the Opera training doesn’t stop with graduation and these medical profession brings with it the implication of a scholarships will provide expert tuition and professional need to find funding for the later stages of preparation stage experience for the recipients. I am very pleased for a career. This scholarship represents an investment in that Independent Opera has decided to mark the the future cultural health of our society and Independent centenary of the birth of Dame Elizabeth Maconchy and Opera is to be applauded. that two of our recent graduates will take leading roles in the productions.

Christopher Underwood, Head of Vocal Studies Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama

Curtis Price, Principal Royal Academy of Music

4 5 Synopsis Synopsis

THE SOFA Canon”. As they disperse, Monique enters Dominic, a playboy and pleasure-obsessed the room with Edward, a posh boy from the wastrel, is having a wild party. It is about two countryside. They are obviously old friends. in the morning and everyone is worse for wear. Edward eventually realises that Monique still The party is going full swing out on the balcony, finds him quite dishy and loses no time in while inside Dominic is busy trying to seduce seducing her on the Sofa. Monique on the Sofa. She is playing hard to get, but soon gives in. The Sofa is swiftly transformed back into Dominic, and Monique is left in a rather They are interrupted by the arrival of the compromised situation… Grandmother – a hag with magical powers and the holder of Dominic’s purse strings. She launches a tirade against his hedonistic and wasteful behaviour, and decides to punish him: “You say you’re sat on? Sat on you shall be.” With a flick of her wand Dominic is transformed into a Sofa, the condition for his release being that a couple must make love on top of him.

A trio of young women emerge from another room and plonk themselves down on the Sofa (the transformed Dominic), languidly dreaming about men. Two of the girls, Laura and Yolande, are approached by a pair of young men and are led off to the balcony. Lucille, however, is begged to stay by a third young man, the Suitor. He proceeds to flirt with her, which of course raises the Sofa’s hopes of an early release. As the passions rise to a climax and a by-now Alessandro Talevi Director almost hysterical Lucille swears to give him anything he desires, he produces… a diamond THE DEPARTURE engagement ring. The Suitor slips the ring onto The plot of this opera is so unusual and Lucille’s finger, and they float off, to the utter surprising that we feel to provide a synopsis fury and frustration of the Sofa. would dilute the work’s dramatic suspense.

The party guests swarm in, looking for Dominic. Alessandro Talevi No one can find him anywhere, which leads to a couple of revellers wondering whether his vengeful grandmother has had something to do

with his disappearance. They drink to his safe The performance begins at 7pm and ends at approximately 8.45pm. return with the witty and unusual “Champagne There is a 30-minute interval.

6 7 Patrick Ashcroft and Alinka Kozari as the Suitor and Lucille Dominic Wheeler Alessandro Talevi with Jassy Husk and Benedict Nelson The Sofa in rehearsal

Anna Leese, Patricia Orr and Alinka Kozari as Laura, Yolande and Lucille

TheChristopher, action of The Rebecca Sofa takesand Joanaplace atwith a wild Gary par Cooperty Kate Symonds-Joy and David Webb Alessandro, Patricia, Anna, Patrick and Alinka

8 9 no-nonsense, influenced as much by Bartók serialists nor to that of sitting comfortably Ursula Vaughan Williams, the librettist for The Sofa, was The rediscovery of and Janácˇek as by anyone English. On her on the side of English conservatism in its born in 1911 in Malta. She began writing poetry at the age Elizabeth Maconchy return to London she sent the score of her suite many forms, but composed what – and how – of ten and her first published collection appeared in 1927. The Land to Sir , who generously she felt. If we lose sight of her and if we fail She met in 1938 and they married Stephen Pettitt and with insight responded by programming to recognise the importance of her art, then in 1953. He turned to her for many texts for choral works and it in the 1930 Proms season. The work was we deny not only justice to her but nourishment songs, and she also revised the libretto for his comic opera an immediate success, its performance paving to ourselves. In a Musical Times article of The Poisoned Kiss. Meanwhile she continued to publish her When a composer dies, a strange thing often the way to performances and broadcasts of 1955, her friend Anne Macnaghten wrote own poetry, and was also in demand as a librettist for other happens. After the writing of the obituaries and other pieces. Importantly, she was championed perceptively:“It is sometimes asked whether composers. Vaughan Williams’s pupil Elizabeth Maconchy the tributes and maybe a few commemorative by the Macnaghten-Lemare Concerts, then her writing has any national flavour. Certainly was one of the first to turn to her, for The Sofa. Others who performances, quiet ensues. Pieces tend to be arguably the nation’s most important promoter there is no conscious use nor any discernable followed in search of texts or librettos include Anthony Milner, less frequently played, or played not at all. of the chamber music to which Maconchy trace of Irish folk tradition, but if the Cotswolds , Herbert Howells, Phyllis Tate, Roger One understands why. There are no more first instinctively leaned throughout her career. can be found in Vaughan Williams and others Steptoe and Ronald Senator. She also published (with Imogen performances, no expected or unexpected She had arrived. of the English School it may not be fanciful Holst) Heirs and Rebels, a collection of letters between RVW compositional developments, no living, breathing to see another, more disturbing landscape in and ; two novels; a biography of RVW (1964); personality from whom to elicit comment. Not even tuberculosis, which she contracted her music – the bare mountains, dark loughs, and, in 2002, her own autobiography, Paradise Remembered. in 1932 and which was then untreatable, black bogs and turf stacks of Connemara, the Ursula Vaughan Williams died on 23 October 2007, aged 96. To stand back from a body of work and take time thwarted her progress. She simply decamped country nearest her heart.” George Hall to consider is not such a bad thing. After all, with her husband (she’d married in the same what might seem significant at close quarters week as her Proms triumph) from London to the Elizabeth Maconchy Elizabeth Maconchy at the Proud Thames premiere, 1953 can sometimes turn out to be less so with the coast, and fought off the disease through sheer benefit of contextualising hindsight. But standing willpower. By the mid-1930s her works had back and considering does not mean forgetting. been heard in the USA and Australia and in And in the case of composers who die old, as many European centres. War meant evacuation Dame Elizabeth Maconchy did, it’s fortunate to Shropshire, and inevitably impeded the that centenaries come swiftly, providing a ready impetus of her career, but did not halt it. excuse to listen again, to remember, in her Afterwards, increasingly assured and individual, case, exactly how formidable a talent she was. she continued to produce a formidable stream of pieces, adding to her cycle of what would Maconchy, born to Irish parents of no particular eventually be 13 string quartets (in her own musical abilities in Broxbourne, Hertfordshire, view her most important and accomplished

in 1907, showed natural musical gifts at works), winning prizes, riding the sexist u n a F e an early age. At the Royal College of Music views of people like the critic Eric Blom L a l o c i

she made a considerable impact with her (who objected to what he felt was the undue N y s e t composition teachers, and Ralph aggressiveness of her music) and the ebbs and r u o Vaughan Williams, and should have walked off flows of musical fashions, and eventually and C with the prestigious composing prize, the successfully turning her hand to Ursula Vaughan Williams greets Elizabeth Maconchy, 1987 Mendelssohn Scholarship, had the Director at with a trilogy of contrasting, vivid one-acters the time not taken the then all-too-common – The Sofa (1956–7), The Three Strangers sexist view. He predicted that, scholarship or (1957–8) and The Departure (1960–1). no, she would just get married (which she did) These works showed her adeptness at writing and then stop writing (which she didn’t). for the voice, something confirmed in the cantata Ariadne (1970–1) and the song cycle

Typically undeterred, and with Vaughan My Dark Heart (1981), where a sense of d r o f x expressive freedom contrasts with the density O Williams’ endorsement ringing in her ears, , e g e l l

Maconchy instead secured an Octavia Travelling of her earlier music o C s ' a

Scholarship, which she used to go to Prague. d l i H t

There she met Josef Suk, studied with Karel Maconchy’s earlier style, based on short S , e v i h

Jirák, and heard her own motifs and dense argument, metamorphosed c u r n A a y F h into something freer, more lyrical and even e

played by Erwin Schulhoff (one of the legion c L n a o l c o a c

of fine Jewish composers to perish in Nazi expansive. Maconchy knew her musical mind. i M N h y t s e e b concentration camps in the Second World War). She succumbed neither to the temptation t r a z u i o l C Already her style was confident, tough, direct, of joining the Darmstadt second-generation E

10 11 The life and times of Elizabeth Maconchy LIFE TIMES

19 00s 1905 Composer Michael Tippett born in London p o l

n 1906 Composer born in Barry, Wales; composer born in London u D a n

n Born on 19 March in Broxbourne, Hertfordshire 1907 1907 Conductor, composer and writer , daughter of composer Gustav, born in Surrey A y s e t r u o C Begins to compose, age six 1913 19 10s 1913 Composer Benjamin Britten born in Lowestoft With siblings, 1918 Moves with her family to Ireland 1918 1918 World War I ends s t r A n & o

Father dies of tuberculosis 1922 t c 19 20s n i e s K u

1923-30 Other RCM pupils include Williams, Imogen Holst, Lutyens and Tippett M Begins studies at Royal College of Music (RCM), where her 1923 m t a r h t c s i most significant teacher is Ralph Vaughan Williams; she makes e r 1927 Belá Bartók tours Britain and takes part in two BBC broadcasts r T b e L lasting friendships with fellow students Grace Williams and Dorothy Gow © Leaves RCM. Goes to Prague on scholarship and studies with Karel Jirák 1929 1929 Premiere of Vaughan Williams’s opera Sir John in Love at the RCM; Sir John in Love, ENO, 2006 economic depression affects the world Her piano concerto is premiered in Prague by Erwin Schulhoff; 1930 19 30s 1930 Grace Williams goes to Vienna to study with Egon Wellesz The Land is performed at ; she marries William LeFanu 1931 Violinist Anne Macnaghten, conductor Iris Lemere and Lutyens launch Contracts tuberculosis, the disease that killed her father and would kill her sister. 1932 a concert series to promote British composers. Important early works by Leaves London for Brighton and Kent and eventually cures herself of the disease Maconchy, Lutyens, Imogen Holst, Tippett, Williams and Britten are p o l

n performed at these concerts u First String Quartet published; Daily Telegraph prize for Oboe Quintet D 1933 u n a a n F

n 1934 Michael Tippett becomes conductor of the South London Orchestra, e A

Prelude, Interlude and Fugue for two violins performed at the ISCM 1935 L y a s which is made up of unemployed musicians l e o

t (International Society for Contemporary Music) Festival in Prague c r i u N o C 1935 Britten starts work for the GPO film unit; is among his work y Second String Quartet performed at the ISCM Festival in Paris 1937 s e t r u

Portrait, 1930 1939 Britain declares war on Germany; both Britten and Tippett are o Birth of daughter Anna; family evacuated to Ludlow, Shropshire, during the war 1939 C conscientious objectors Maconchy (l) and 19 40s 1940 Premiere of Grace Williams’ Fantasia on Welsh Nursery Tunes Anne Macnaghten (r) in 1955 Premiere of Concertino for clarinet and string orchestra; 1947 1944 Tippett’s A Child of Our Time first performed, in London; Ethel Smyth dies birth of daughter Nicola, who would also become a composer 1945 World War II ends; premiere of Britten’s first opera, , at Sadler’s Wells to great success Edwin Evans prize for Fifth String Quartet 1948 19 50s 1952 Imogen Holst starts working for Britten London County Council prize for 1953 1953 Britten’s , a Coronation commission, is performed to adverse reception, p o

l Coronation overture Proud Thames

n leading to his return to chamber opera with The Turn of the Screw (1954) u D

a BBC Third Programme broadcast 1955 n 1955 Performance of Diabelleries, variations on “Where’s my little basket gone?” n A series of her first six string quartets y written by Alan Bush, Howard Ferguson, Gerald Finzi, Gordon Jacob, s e h t g r r u Lutyens, Maconchy, Alan Rawsthorne, Vaughan Williams and Williams; Finishes The Sofa u

o 1957 b C e d

Williams’ Penillion written for the National Youth Orchestra of Wales; l

Becomes Chair of the Composers’ Guild of Great Britain; 1959 A , y

Maconchy and family, 1954 premiere of Tippett’s first opera, The Midsummer Marriage, at Covent Garden r a

premiere of The Sofa at Sadler’s Wells r b i L s r a e

Premiere of The Departure (written in 1961) at Sadler’s Wells 1962 1962 Premiere of Tippett’s King Priam P s – 19 60 n e t t i

Premiere of Variazioni Concertante, a BBC Proms commission 1965 1966 Grace Williams’ only opera, The Parlour, a one-act work written in 1961, r B Premiere of The Birds (an “extravaganza, after Aristophanes”) and 1968 is performed in Cardiff; Nicola LeFanu enjoys critical success with Britten, Holst and Pears The Three Strangers (a one-act opera after ’s The Three Wayfarers) Soliloquy for solo oboe

Premiere of Ariadne, a dramatic monologue 1971 19 70s 1971 Britten’s televised with libretto by Cecil Day Lewis, at the King’s Lynn Festival 1972 Premiere of Lutyens’ opera Time Off? Not a Ghost of a Chance at Sadler’s Wells 1973 , Britten’s final opera, performed in Aldeburgh; Premiere of Epyllion for cello and string orchestra at the Cheltenham Festival 1975 Nicola LeFanu’s orchestral work The Hidden Landscape played at the BBC Proms Becomes President of the Society for the Promotion of New Music 1976 1976 Britten dies in Aldeburgh Made a CBE 1977 1977 Williams dies in Barry s

Premiere of Héloïse and Abelard, a dramatic cantata, at the Fairfield Hall, Croydon 1978 t d r t A L s & n n c o i o i i t Premiere of My Dark Heart, a song-cycle of Petrarch poems commissioned by 1982 s n c u n u

s i 19 80 M d t M o the RCM for its centenary and performed at her 75th birthday concert 1983 Lutyens dies in London r h n P c h e r o W J b J Imogen Holst dies in Aldeburgh Premiere of her last string quartet, No.13 “Quartetto corto” 1985 1984 e M L © Made a DBE 1987 Maconchy in the 1980s Caricature of Lutyens 1989 New Year, Tippett’s last opera, performed

Dies in Norwich on 11 November 1994 19 90s 1998 Tippett dies in London 12 13 achievements – substantial orchestral works, A distinctive voice ballet scores and numerous vocal works – an Why Maconchy turned to opera invitation had not come her way. She was a shy person without connections in the operatic Nicola LeFanu world, and there is little point in embarking on an opera without a prospective production. d r o

Certainly, a desire to write an opera “come what f x O , e

That Elizabeth Maconchy should be may” is a prerequisite, but the stimulus of g e l l o

remembered as primarily a composer of collaboration, the chance to work with librettist, C s ’ a d l chamber music would have surprised those director and all the operatic team has always i H t S ,

who knew her at the beginning of her career, been part of my own addiction to composing e v i h c r

which began with two spectacular orchestral opera, and doubtless it was for my mother. A y h c n

successes. In 1930 her Piano Concertino was o c a M

premiered by the Prague Philharmonic Opportunity came in 1957 when Maconchy h t e b a z

Orchestra, and the same year Henry Wood wrote The Sofa for the New Opera Company; i l E performed her orchestral suite The Land at the it became the first of her trilogy of one-acters. Proms. “Girl composer’s triumph” was one She seized and welcomed the chance, feeling Set design for INDEPENDENT OPERA’s production of The Sofa 1977 revival of Maconchy’s trilogy headline the next day. Although the influence that the new challenge was exactly what she of Holst, Bartók and Janáˇcek can be heard, wanted. The Sofa, libretto by Ursula Vaughan lively counterpoint in the choruses, the colours Anne Ridler, the librettist for The Departure, was born in what struck the critics most was Maconchy’s Williams, was premiered in December 1958; of solo woodwind in the orchestra, are all 1912 in Rugby. She read a great deal as a child and originality. She had found her distinctive and that year Maconchy completed The Three characteristic Maconchy fingerprints. eventually moved into the literary profession, working at individual voice, and remained true to it during Strangers, libretto after Thomas Hardy, and in The Departure is a tragedy, and at first its Faber & Faber between 1935 and 1940 and becoming a close her long composing life, though naturally the 1960-1, The Departure, libretto by Anne Ridler. world of richly expressive harmony seems far friend and collaborator of T. S. Eliot. She also formed idiom developed and broadened as she matured. removed from the diatonic frivolity of The Sofa. friendships with Lawrence Durrell, W. H. Auden and Dylan The trilogy was followed by more stage works. But both operas reveal Maconchy’s gift in Thomas. Her own first poetry collection was published in 1939 Not until she was 50 did Maconchy turn her An opera for young people, The Birds, “an writing for the solo voice. She has the sure feel and was succeeded by several others as well as some half- hand to opera. Despite appropriate musical extravaganza after Aristophanes” was premiered for tessitura that is essential for an opera dozen verse plays. Music was important to her, and translating in 1968. Then came two further collaborations composer and whether the line is soaring or and writing librettos seemed natural developments. Among with Anne Ridler: The Jesse Tree, a masque, lying in a vulnerable lower register, it is always her translations were operas by Cavalli, Monteverdi, Cesti, Elizabeth Maconchy and daughter Nicola LeFanu, 1981 was written in 1969. It was staged at lyrical and singable. Ridler’s libretto has all the Handel, Gluck and Mozart. As a librettist she wrote three Dorchester Abbey, with a distinguished cast hallmarks of an experienced poet, its evocative texts for Elizabeth Maconchy – The Departure, The Jesse Tree and designs by John Piper. Their final imagery creating light as well as shade and (1970) and The King of the Golden River (1975) – as well as collaboration was The King of the Golden thus enabling musical contrasts of pace and The Lambton Worm (1978) for Robert Sherlaw Johnson. She River, a children’s opera premiered in 1975. texture. It also gave Maconchy the opportunity won various prizes for her poetry during the 1950s and was for radiant vocal lines in Mark and Julia’s love awarded an OBE for her services to literature in 2000, the The Sofa is a French farce. The story, after duet. It was an opportunity she revisited in year before her death, aged 89. Crebillon fils, was probably suggested by Ralph concert works, creating love music for her George Hall Vaughan Williams. It is a sexy and delightfully heroine Heloise in a dramatic cantata and for ridiculous fairy-tale. For those who thought of Petrarch, mourning Laura, in My Dark Heart. her only as a composer of dissonant and “passionately serious” string quartets, it must Maconchy’s gift for the operatic medium In an anniversary book for the New moment when Dominic (“so far so have come as a surprise that in The Sofa stands out all through the trilogy. When Opera Company, Nicola LeFanu good”) embraced Monique embracing Maconchy was not afraid to recall the music of I staged The Three Strangers two years ago, remembers watching the Company’s Edward and her necklace went Die Fledermaus! She creates a succession of its tight dramatic structure, lively choruses and productions of her mother’s operas: trickling downstage. delightful and catchy waltz tunes for her haunting melodies captivated the young cast, ballroom, while spinning long lyrical lines for who asked continually, “why isn’t this better My childish memories of Sir John in Next memories are of a radiant her soloists. The libretto is succinct and witty, known?”. Now, thanks to Independent Love are vivid, but even clearer are performance by Catherine Wilson in and in turn Maconchy’s score emulates and Opera reviving the other two operas from those of The Sofa. I was entranced by The Departure (extraordinary that affectionately parodies a range of music from the trilogy, opera audiences will have the the upholstered tenor who turned into such a beautiful work has had so few u n a

F an upholstered sofa, and even more subsequent performances). Thereafter e Italian verismo to Beethoven. chance to rediscover Maconchy. L a l so by Monique. In my innocence the memories become hazier, but I saw o c i N

y point of the plot (the seduction) was almost all the NOC productions of s e

t Yet it is unmistakeably her own; the teasing This is an extract from an article that appears in the November r

u quite lost on me: I was mystified that the Sixties – some “finds”, some o C 5/8 duet as Monique and Dominic flirt, the 2007 issue of Opera. people were shocked by the lovely “best-losts”.

14 15 composers. A more eccentric undertaking was Grimes was undoubtedly the catalyst that From the first reviews for The Departure The rise of British opera the Glastonbury Festival, the “English Bayreuth”, brought English opera to life. It was the first “Miss Maconchy’s music is illustrative rather than From amateur passion to founded by composer Rutland Boughton in music drama in centuries to be set in English atmospheric, yet she has caught in some subtle way the international recognition 1914. Boughton’s operas were presented by an English composer, on a quintessentially poignancy of the curious, imaginative situation, and the alongside rediscovered works of Purcell and English subject, which was to find a popular and impression left is one of sincerity with commendable Jenny Doctor Gluck, all sung in English. Truly opera of the lasting place within the international repertory. economy of expressive means.” community, Glastonbury performers included This provided incentive for English audiences “H.S.R.”, Musical Opinion, February 1963 friends, pupils and professionals. and composers to hone their operatic interests ‘The history of opera in this country is … after the war – but it was not the only reason. “The production was excellent except for one contretemps. And very characteristically English in its mixture of What was the nature of those English operas even that served to remind me happily that it is over thirty amateurish enthusiasm, professional presented before 1945? Given the enormous By the time that Maconchy completed The Sofa years since I last saw a bed collapse under an operatic heroine.” indifference, occasional bright ideas without influence of Wagner in the early 20th century, in 1957, Britten had produced seven original Philip Hope-Wallace, The Guardian, 17 December 1962 the least sense of planning for the future, it is not surprising that some composers turned operas. He had also created his own company, commercial routine and – from the general to Celtic legend for themes. Celtic narrative the English Opera Group, and had founded the “… it was all the more unfortunate that the marital bed public – complete ignorance and bewilderment.’ and locale characterises Boughton’s The . Other music festivals and collapsed when the wife sat on it [during the performance]. Immortal Hour, a two-act setting of a folk opera companies were established during post- ‘Nevertheless,’ Miss Maconchy told me, ‘this accident did So wrote Edward Dent in 1945, in his history parable. First performed at Glastonbury in war reconstruction. This infrastructure not ruin the tension the piece was creating in the theatre. of Sadler’s Wells Theatre. The appraisal 1914 and revived in the 1920s and 30s, this supported conditions for the development of I was pleased with the production, and Catherine Wilson embraces the frustrations Dent experienced opera had more than 500 UK performances. opera in England, at last providing a solid sang the part of the wife very well indeed.’” trying to develop opera in England before foundation upon which English composers Essex Weekly News, 24 December 1962 World War II. In contrast, there emerged after English artists of this era often sought could realise their operatic dreams. From the first reviews for The Sofa the war a sudden burgeoning of English themes in pastoral traditions in reaction to interest in opera. Composers such as Elizabeth industrialization, new technologies, and When asked before the first performance of “Elizabeth Maconchy’s piece, The Sofa, had a distinct and Maconchy were not only inspired to create cultural shifts from the countryside and village The Sofa about composing opera, Maconchy agreeable personality of its own… The Sofa is unique in dramatic settings, but they were able to find lifestyles to mechanized, urban environments. succinctly replied: “I had always kept away that it includes the only attempt I have ever seen to present companies eager to stage their new works. Musically, this response involved the revival of from it as I wasn’t brought up in operatic the act of copulation on the public stage – and that this was So what changed? What in the post-war milieu English folk dance and song. The celebration circles, but couldn’t resist any longer so achieved, both vigorously and without offence, reflects very encouraged rapid development of an artform of idealized English village life is epitomized plunged in. You have to write opera from a creditably upon the ingenuity of the two ladies who, with that had previously aroused little interest? by Vaughan Williams’s ballad opera, Hugh the different angle. Always the stimulus is the every appearance of moral health and charm, came to bow Drover (1911–14). The plot includes themes dramatic situation. The music must illuminate and beam at us at the end.” As early as the 1880s, opera was performed in common to several English operas of the time: the situation and give it a point.” Edmund Tracey, The Observer, 20 December 1959 English at the Old Vic under Lilian Baylis, on a the stranger within the community, the shoe-string budget and in productions intended accusation and trial of the stranger, and the for local community appeal. Others launched chorus as a collective character representing The cast of INDEPENDENT OPERA’s production of The Sofa and The Departure comparable ventures, including, in the early the community. The score quotes traditional 1910s, Thomas Beecham, who offered seasons tunes and generally maintains a folk flavour. at Covent Garden with works by Strauss, Delius, Stanford and Ethel Smyth. Other composers exposed the village as a place of conflict, subversion and evil. Smyth’s After World War I, Beecham’s company The Wreckers (1906) takes place in an re-grouped as the British National Opera isolated Cornish fishing village, set above a Company. Many of the company’s performances rock-filled sea. The community depends on were received directly in listener’s sitting ships shattering on the rocks so that it may rooms through the new technology of radio; plunder the cargo. In this inverted world, the the BNOC broadcast acts from Covent Garden preacher leads prayers for destruction and several nights a week, bringing opera to the death to ensure community survival; not general British public for the first time. trusting to divine intervention, the villagers douse the lighthouse lamp on stormy nights. In 1931, as a north London counterpart to activities at the Old Vic, Lilian Baylis presented At the end of the war, Vaughan Williams’s ballet and opera at the rebuilt Sadler’s Wells victory anthem attracted little attention; instead, Theatre. By 1939 her company had over 50 a grim, tragic opera appealed to popular operas in its repertory, including many by British sensibilities. The success of Britten’s Peter

16 17 ‘Tremendous noise by a lady’ A

Born in Dorset, Dominic studied at Clare College, Cambridge, the RCM and the Dominic Wheeler r t

Conductor i

It wasn’t easy being a woman composer in the 20th century Liszt Academy in Budapest. For ENO he has conducted The Barber of Seville, s Siegfried, Rhinegold, War and Peace, The Capture of Troy and The Turk in Italy; for t B

Sophie Fuller , L’elisir d’amore and ; for Scottish Opera, Don Giovanni i o

and Alceste (also at the Opéra de Nice); for Opera New Zealand, Manon; for Holland g r

Park, Tosca, Werther, La bohème, Madam Butterfly; for Chelsea Opera Group, a p

In February 1935 an orchestral they created, should be like. Women However, after the Second World War, I Puritani, Giovanna d’Arco, Ermione and Lucrezia Borgia; for ETO, The Pearl h i concert was given in London’s were expected to be quiet, decorous, there was, in musical life as in so Fishers, The Marriage of Figaro, Fidelio and Macbeth; for CBTO, Faust; for RAM, e s Mercury Theatre that included three unassuming and delicate, while much else, something of a backlash A Night at the Chinese Opera; for ROH at the Linbury, Gentle Giant. Plans include substantial works by Elisabeth their music was expected to be against women’s presence in the public, concerts with the City of London Sinfonia, the London Mozart Players and the Lutyens, Elizabeth Maconchy and small-scale, tuneful, simple and professional arena. For Maconchy, Guernsey SO; The with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra and Paradise Grace Williams. An anonymous unchallenging. the comradeship of composers such Moscow for RAM. reviewer for the Glasgow Herald as , Gow and, in particular, wrote: “It has been observed that By the 1930s, when Maconchy’s Williams – women who, like her, Alessandro is Artistic Director 2007 for INDEPENDENT OPERA at Sadler’s Wells. Born Alessandro Talevi more and more women composers music started to be widely heard, worked to an extent outside the in Johannesburg, he read Music and History of Art at the University of the Witwatersrand. Director are finding their way into musical there was a long tradition of British mainstream musical establishment – After completing an MA he furthered his studies at the RAM as a vocal accompanist. programmes – the more remote and composers who were women. Some, remained a welcome source of support He has directed several operas in the UK and South Africa, including La voix humaine, superior kind of programme that is… such as Maude Valérie White and and encouragement. Maconchy’s Noye’s Fludde, La princesse jaune, Un giorno di regno and Gräfin Mariza. He has also – and that, as they do so, they are Liza Lehmann, conformed to friendship with Williams provided a produced opera tableaux for the RAM opera course and served as a staff director at more and more superior and remote expectations, concentrating on vital opportunity for discussing the ENO. In 2007, he revived Teatro ’s production of Ariadne auf Naxos in Lucca in their music… Musicians who have successful careers as songwriters. contemporary music scene and and Bolzano. For Independent Opera he directed and designed (2005) been looking on with considerable Others, such as Ethel Smyth, wrote constructively criticising each other’s and Orlando (2006). Future projects include Pelléas et Mélisande for Independent Opera, interest at this branch of the large-scale complex orchestral and work, as can be seen in their La fedeltà premiata at the RAM with Trevor Pinnock conducting and La Colombe and feminist movement are beginning to operatic works. In 1892, remarkable 50-year correspondence. L’occasione fa il ladro at the Guildhall School. Alessandro was recently awarded third wonder when a woman composer is George Bernard Shaw, reviewing a prize at the prestigious European Opera-Directing Prize in Wiesbaden. going to write some music reminiscent performance of Smyth’s Overture to One of the topics under frequent of the sex as it used to be.” Antony and Cleopatra, noted that discussion in their letters was the Madeleine graduated from Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design. Her recent Madeleine Boyd when the composer was called to composition of opera and getting opera designs include La gazzetta and La scala di seta for the Rossini Festival in Set Designer the platform “it was observed with opera performed. In 1949 Maconchy Wildbad, Germany. Non-opera design work includes Rhymes, reasons and bombass stupefaction that all that tremendous wrote to Williams: “Why oh! why beatz at the Oval Theatre, London; True Stories at the Drill Hall, London; and Vanda noise had been made by a lady.” haven’t they given you the opera at the Bloomsbury Theatre, London. She was recently the art director for the short film commission? (Possibly their Venice – The History of Carnival for the Creative Experience, Venice. She has worked Forty years after Shaw’s review, the ‘advisers’ think anything so large as as assistant and revival designer for opera productions at La Scala, La Fenice, Vlaamse music of Maconchy and her an opera unsuitable for women??).” Opera, Antwerp, the Spoleto Festival and Central City Opera (Denver). Forthcoming contemporaries, such as Lutyens, Like Smyth before them, Maconchy productions include costume designing for Orfeo ed Euridice for Theatre Augsburg, Williams, Dorothy Gow and Priaulx and Williams found that fighting for Germany. Next year she will design Pelléas et Mélisande for INDEPENDENT OPERA. Rainier, would also surprise with its good, committed performances forward-looking modernity – required dogged determination, something as unsuitable for a assurance and self-belief. woman as making too much noise.

s Since graduating from Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design in 2001, Ryszard Andrzejewski t r

A But there was plenty of enthusiasm Maconchy once said that as a mother

& Ryszard has assisted theatre and opera designers as a model maker as well producing Costume Designer c i

s for their work as well, especially from she had to learn to compose between u

M his own design work, which includes set and costume designs for Ubu Roi, , t

h other women musicians, including feeds. Her determination and talent c e r

b Baby With The Bathwater, Auction of Promises, The Promise, The Legend Of e

L the violinist Anne Macnaghten and more than met the challenge of

© Beowulf: A New Musical and Roccoco-A-Gogo with Arts Band The Irrepressibles at conductor Iris Lemare, who had put combining her roles as wife and the Hackney Empire. He has collaborated on Stonecrabs Theatre Company Ethel Smyth on the Mercury Theatre concert. This mother with developing one of the productions of Kafka’s Josephine The Singer, Waltz #6 and Charity Wars. His work for kind of support from other women most distinctive, powerful musical Josephine The Singer was exhibited as part of the Society of British Theatre Designers To the Herald reviewer – and to many was important for Maconchy’s early voices of 20th-century Britain. Collaborators’ Exhibition in Nottingham January 2007 and will be included in a of his contemporaries – the taut, career, even though she was also forthcoming exhibition at the V&A Museum. uncompromising music of these receiving high-profile performances The correspondence between Elizabeth Maconchy women confounded their notions of from institutions such as the BBC and Grace Williams, edited by Jenny Doctor and what women, and the music that and the Proms. Sophie Fuller, will be published in 2008.

18 19 A A

r Matthew Haskins Matt gained a BA (Hons) in Lighting Design at Rose Bruford College. His opera credits Samuel started his professional life as a pastry chef, but decided to go to Trinity Samuel Boden r t t i Lighting Designer Ensemble i s include ETO/Wolverhampton Grand (House on the Moon), RCM (Le nozze di Figaro), College of Music to study voice under John Wakefield, subsequently gaining a First s t ETO (Orfeo), Classical Opera Company (Così fan tutte), RCM/ETO/London Handel Class Honours degree in 2006. At Trinity, Sam won the Ricordi Opera Prize in 2005 Tenor t B B i Festival (Tolomeo) and Young Vic/ETO (Tobias & the Angel). His theatre credits for his portrayal of Orfeo in Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo and the Greenhouse-Allt Prize for i o o g include Albany Theatre (What Does it Take?), Gate Theatre (Mud), Arts Theatre cantata and oratorio in 2006 following Trinity’s acclaimed performance of Britten’s g r r a London (The Pool), Trafalgar Studios (Lovely & Misfit), Kazzum UK Tour (Sorcerer’s . He represented Trinity at the Wigmore Hall for the Derek Butler a p p h Apprentice), Hackney Empire (Ana In Love), Bridewell (We’ll Gather Lilacs) and London Prize. He is completing his postgraduate studies at Trinity while performing in h i i e Riverside Studios (Four Knights in Knaresborough). Matt frequently lights for recitals and concerts around the country. He recently took part in Graham Johnson’s e s major drama schools such as Drama Centre London and Arts Ed. He has created Young Songmaker’s Almanac at St John’s, Smith Square, and sang under Roger s architectural and site-specific project for The Shout/De La Warr Pavilion (Sea Tongue), Vignoles in Leeds Lieder Plus. ECOS Stones Somerset (Interactive Lighting Commission) and Greenwich & Docklands Festival (Encounters), as well as consultancy work specialising in aircraft interiors.

Hanna Gillgren Hanna’s choreographic work has been performed at venues including the Biennale Michelle studied at the RNCM with Honor Sheppard and at the Guildhall School with Michelle Daly Movement for Arts in Turin 2000; Gavalla Theatre, Zagreb; Theatre de Caen, France; Dansens Annette Thompson. Her concert experience includes a recital at the Waterfront Hall Ensemble Hus, Stockholm and Post Hof Teater in Linz, Austria. With Heidi Rustgaard, she is as a finalist in the 2003 Belfast Music Bursaries Competition, Purcell’s Fairy Queen Mezzo-soprano co-artistic director of h2dance, which was associate artist at The Place in 2001-2. at Aldeburgh (Britten–Pears Young Artist Programme) and a performance at the In 2004 the company was selected as British representatives on the European Junge Theatre Royal, Wexford (Wexford Opera’s Young Artist’s Programme), directed by Hunde network. In 2004 she collaborated with film director Rachel Davies on Gold, Dennis O’Neill. Her oratorio experience includes Haydn masses, Vivaldi’s Gloria and an Arts Council Capture film that won the prestigious IMZ Dance on Screen Award. Mozart’s Requiem at St-Martin-in-the-Fields. Her operatic experience includes Seconda She choreographed Stor Stark Cowboys for Sweden’s national contemporary dance Cercatrice (Suor Angelica) and Dorabella, Cherubino and Cornelia (Guilio Cesare). company NorrDans, Zygote for LUDUS Dance Company and new work for Cie Gaara She has also sung at Opera Holland Park (Così fan tutte) and Buxton Festival Opera in Nairobi, Kenya. In 2005 h2dance created a new work for the opera in Karlstad, (Roberto Devereux and Bluebeard). She has understudied Madam Larina (Eugene Sweden, and the company is about to embark on a new touring production, To Die For. Onegin) and more recently Nancy in , both at BYO.

Natalie Murray Natalie studied at the Sydney Conservatorium, the Guildhall School and the National Originally from Tasmania, Jassy moved to England four years ago. Since her Jassy Husk Vocal Coach and Opera Studio. She is a professor at the RCM and opera coach to the Jette Parker graduation from the RCM in 2005, she has made regular appearances with Buxton Ensemble Assistant Conductor Young Artist Programme (ROH) and the National Opera Studio. She began her career Festival Opera. She has performed opera scenes with Northampton Festival Opera as Soprano on the music staff of the Welsh National Opera and continues her association with their guest soprano, singing Lucia (Lucia di Lammermoor), Tytania (A Midsummer them as a guest artist. She has also worked for Glyndebourne Festival Opera, ETO, Night’s Dream) and Adele (Die Fledermaus). She has also sung the Queen of the Night Savoy Opera, Opera Holland Park and the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World. Natalie is in The Magic Flute at the Dame Judi Dench Concert series at St George’s Hanover the 2007 Conducting Scholar for the London Symphony Chorus and has assisted Square, where she continues to perform regular recitals. Jassy has also had much Rinaldo Alessandrini, Nicholas Kok, Peter Robinson and James MacMillan. She is success with her diverse performance repertoire by performing for The Ministry of currently conducting 20 Women Singing for the WNO. Sound, “Beat Freakz” and has just been featured on the new release by the Young Punx, “Your Music is Killing Me”.

Patrick Ashcroft Based in Oxford, Patrick completed a PhD in cosmology at the University of Born in Hungary, Alinka studied at the Liszt Academy with Magda Nádor, receiving Alinka Kozari A Suitor Cambridge before studying at the Guildhall School with tenor Adrian Thompson. her diploma with a distinction in 2005 before joining the Birmingham Conservatoire on Lucille Tenor At the Guildhall School he was generously supported by the Arts and Humanities the Weingarten Scholarship. She attended the National Opera Studio course and now Soprano Research Council, the Lynn Foundation and the John Thaw Foundation. Since leaving studies with Lillian Watson. Operatic roles include Norina (Don Pasquale), the title role he has sung the roles of Mr Triquet () and Josef (Wiener Blut, J Strauss in Lucia di Lammermoor and Queen of the Night (Die Zauberflöte). She sang Princess II), both for ETO; covered Roberto (Roberto Devereux) at this year’s Buxton Festival Caraboo in Malcolm Williamson’s English Eccentrics and Donna Anna in BYO’s Don and covered Don Ramiro () for Scottish Opera Go Round. Last year, as Giovanni. Awards include the 2006 Mario Lanza Opera Prize, the St Clare Barfield a Britten–Pears Young Artist at Aldeburgh, he sang the title role in King Arthur. He has Memorial Bowl for Operatic Distinction, an award from the Simon Fletcher Charitable also sung Bertrando (L’Inganno Felice), Borsa (Rigoletto) and Acis (Acis and Galatea). Trust and the Hungarian State Eötvös Scholarship. Recent engagements include the He returns to Scotland to cover Don Ramiro for Scottish Opera on Tour in spring 2008. National Opera Studio Showcase and the George Solti Accademia di Bel Canto. Plans include First Lady in BYO’s Magic Flute and study with Thomas Allen on a Samling Foundation Masterclass. She is extremely grateful to Serena Fenwick for her assistance.

20 21 A A

r Anna Leese As a member of the Benjamin Britten International Opera School at the RCM, Anna’s Patricia is at the National Opera Studio and studies with Anne Mason. She read Patricia Orr r t t i Laura Yolande i s performances have included Britten’s and Mahler’s Symphony Law and French at the University of Glasgow, graduating with First Class Honours and s t Soprano No. 2; roles included Fiordiligi (Così fan tutte), Rosalinde (Die Fledermaus). In 2006 a distinction in French language. She received a postgraduate diploma in Advanced Mezzo-soprano t B B i she made her debut at the BBC Proms in an all-Mozart programme with the Scottish Opera Studies at the Benjamin Britten International Opera School at the RCM, where i o o g Chamber Orchestra and sang in Vaughan Williams’s Sea Symphony at the Royal she studied with Margaret Kingsley. Her operatic roles include the Sorceress (Dido g r r a Albert Hall. Last season she made her debut with the ROH as Musetta (La bohème) and Aeneas) and Orimeno (Cavalli’s Erismena), both for ETO; Enfant (L’enfant et les a p p h and returned as Micäela (). Future engagements include First Lady (Die sortileges), Bianca (The Rape of Lucretia) and Prince Orlovsky (Die Fledermaus) for h i i e Zauberflöte), Echo (Ariadne auf Naxos) and Musetta for the ROH. She makes her the Benjamin Britten International Opera School; and the title role in Handel’s e s North American debut as Musetta for the . Her debut recital Tolomeo, in association with the London Handel Society. Patricia sang with the s disc for EMI will be released later this year. Glyndebourne Chorus in the 2007 Festival.

Simon Lobelson Born in Sydney and raised in Brussels, Simon completed postgraduate opera studies at Louise studied at the Guildhall School and at the National Opera Studio. She made her Louise Poole Ensemble the RCM in 2006. In the past year he has worked as a soloist in Australia, the UK, operatic debut as Tina (The Aspern Papers) while at the Guildhall School, where she Julia Baritone France, Italy, Austria, New York, Switzerland and Spain. On the concert platform also sang Florence Pike (Albert Herring), Solokha (The Tsarina’s Shoes) and Euryclée Mezzo-soprano highlights have included Carmina Burana; Elija; Johannes-Passion; Rameau’s Les (Penelope). Subsequent appearances have included Second Witch (Dido and Aeneas) grands motets; requiems of Mozart, Brahms and Fauré; and Gubaidulina’s Jetzt immer for Opera North, the title role in Carmen with London City Opera, Ruggiero (Alcina) Schnee for the Lucerne Festival under Pierre Boulez. Past operatic roles have included for ETO, Olga (Eugene Onegin) at ENO and Nancy (Albert Herring) and Third Lady Nottingham (Roberto Devereux), Marcello (La bohème), Don Alfonso and Guglielmo (The Magic Flute), both with GTO. Concert engagements have included Handel’s Dixit (Così fan tutte), Papageno, Figaro (The Marriage of Figaro), Junius (The Rape of Dominus and Vivaldi’s Gloria at St John’s Smith Square and Stravinsky’s Le faune et Lucretia), Falke (Die Fledermaus), Dancaïro (Carmen), Plunkett (Martha), la Bergére, Mozart’s Requiem and Elgar’s The Apostles in Canterbury Cathedral. L’Horloge/Le Chat (L’enfant), Ramiro (L’heure espagnole), Gaoler (Carmélites), Future engagements include Messiah for the RPO, Beethoven Symphony No 9 at the Hildebrand (Princess Ida), Aeneas (Dido and Aeneas), Macheath (Beggar’s Opera), Barbican with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Nancy for Glyndebourne Festival Noye, Pirate King and Drunken Poet in The Fairy Queen. and title role of Carmen at the Royal Albert Hall.

Benedict Nelson Born in London, Benedict began his studies at the Guildhall School in 2002. He is Nicholas studied at the RNCM and the National Opera Studio. He made his Nicholas Sharratt Ensemble currently entering his second year on the Opera Course, under the tutelage of Robert Glyndebourne debut singing First Prisoner (Fidelio) for directed by Prince Dominic Baritone Dean. He has been generously supported in his studies by The Worshipful Company of Deborah Warner at the Châtelet Theatre Paris. He has also performed with Opera Tenor Gold and Silver Wyre Drawers, as well as receiving a Sybill Tutton award and a North, IVAI Tel Aviv, Grange Park Opera, Pimlico Opera, Birmingham Opera Countess of Munster Musical Trust Scholarship. In 2007 Benedict won second prize in Company, Bampton Classical Opera and Wexford Festival Opera. His Wexford both the awards and the Guildhall Gold Medal. Following this, he performances of Schwanda the Bagpiper and Maria del Carmen were recorded by sang in Brahms’ Requiem at the RAH and played Masetto in Thomas Allen’s NAXOS and BBC Radio 3. Recent performances include Hotel Porter (Death in production of Don Giovanni at the Sage in Gateshead, before taking the part of Sid in Venice) with Richard Hickox and the Philharmonia, Brigella (Ariadne auf Naxos) for BYO’s Albert Herring. Benedict’s operatic roles include Count Almaviva (Le nozze di Garsington Opera and Tobias (Tobias and the Angel) for Oundle Festival. Future plans Figaro), Don Giovanni, Marcello (La bohème), Demetrius (A Midsummer Night’s include A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Romeo and Juliet for Opera North. Dream) and Mr Gedge/Sid (Albert Herring). Plans include a Wigmore recital for the Samling Foundation and La vie Parisienne for the Guildhall School in early 2008.

Tom Oldham Tom studied at the Royal Northern College of Music and the Guildhall School, where Kate graduated from Cambridge University with a First Class degree in Music. Kate Symonds-Joy Ensemble he recently completed the Opera Course, studying with David Pollard. He has sung the She is undertaking postgraduate studies with Lillian Watson at the RCM, where she Ensemble Bass-baritone roles of Narumov (Queen of Spades), Junius (The Rape of Lucretia), King Tartaglia recently won the Michael Head Prize for English Song and the Edna Bralesford Prize. Mezzo-soprano (L’augellino belverde), Simone (La finta semplice) and Pistola (Falstaff ). He has just She has a particular interest in contemporary music, performing Errollyn Wallen’s completed a season at Glyndebourne Opera Chorus, where he understudied the role of Are you worried about the rising cost of funerals? for voice and string quartet, Judas in St Matthew Passion. He sings regularly with Polyphony and Exaudi, among Robin Holloway’s Author of Light and Crossing Brooklyn Ferry, a work for mezzo, other groups. He recently took part in a performance of Ferneyhough’s harp and double string orchestra written for her by Graham Ross. Her operatic roles for 12 solo singers at the Aldeburgh Festival that was broadcast on BBC Radio 3. include Mrs Sedley (Peter Grimes), Baba the Turk (The Rake’s Progress) and He sang the solo bass part in a concert version of Dusapin’s opera Niobe at the Queen Lapak/Woodpecker (Cunning Little Vixen). Future plans include Ravel’s Chansons Elizabeth Hall, which was broadcast on BBC Radio 3. madécasses at the Purcell Room, ’s Stabat Mater at St John’s, Smith Square and Handel arias with Capella Bydgosiensis in Warsaw.

22 23 A David began his musical career as Head Chorister of Exeter Cathedral and was later David Webb A r Josephine Thorpe Josephine graduated from the University of Kent with a First Class Honours degree in r t t i Dominic’s Grandmother a Choral Scholar at Truro Cathedral. Now in his third year at the Royal College of Ensemble i s Drama and English, going on to take an opera diploma and a postgraduate diploma in s t Mezzo-soprano voice at Trinity College. In 2006 she was awarded the Wagner Bayreuth Bursary and Music, David studies with Ryland Davies but has also worked alongside musicians Tenor t B B i chosen to participate in masterclasses with Christa Ludwig. In 2004 she covered the such as Roger Vignoles, and Maria Cleva. In concert, his performances i o o g role of Delilah for Kentish Opera and was in the chorus at Opera Holland Park. She have included Mozart’s Reqiuem at Rochester Cathedral, Bach’s B Minor Mass with g r r a sang her first leading role as Amneris in Kentish Opera’s 2005 production of Aida. She the London Mozart Players, Haydn’s Nelson Mass with the London Baroque Sinfonia a p p h has sung the title role in European Chamber Opera’s Carmen and Azucena (Il trovatore) at St. Johns, Smith Square, and Handel’s Judas Maccabeaus at New College Oxford. h i i e for Pavilion Opera. This year she sang Orlofsky for Alternative Opera and Olga for On stage, he has perfomed the roles of Damon (Acis and Galatea), Tamino (cover; e s Opera Project at Longborough Festival Opera, and gave a recital for the Wagner Society. The Magic Flute) for BYO and Count Almaviva (Il Barbiere de Sivilgia). Future s She has also sung the Princess (Sister Angelica), Janetta (The Miller and his Man), engagements include Orff’s Carmina Burana at Truro Cathedral, the Evangelist in Dritte Dame (Die Zauberflöte) and Alcibiades (Satie’s Socrate). Her oratorio work Bach’s St. John Passion and Mozart’s Requiem in Inverness. David is supported by the includes Vivaldi’s Gloria, in which she was the soloist at Monterosso Cathedral in Italy. Josephine Baker Trust and the Kathleen and Margery Elliot Scholarship Trust.

Sarah Tynan Sarah was born in London and studied at the RNCM and RAM, where she was Katrine studied music at King’s College, Cambridge, piano accompaniment at the Katrine Reimers Monique awarded the Queen’s Commendation for Excellence. She was a member and a company Guildhall School and trained as a répétiteur at the National Opera Studio. She was Répétiteur Soprano principal of the ENO Young Artist Programme. Her operatic roles at ENO have assistant conductor for Paddock Productions’ recent collaboration with Finnish included Tytania, Susanna, Woodbird, Iphis (Jephtha), Dalinda, Atalanta, Sister National Opera and was musical director of Vision Opera from 2001 to 2005. Constance (The Carmelites), Yum-Yum, Gianetta and Marsinah Kismet; her WNO She has been appointed as Acting Musical Director for Hampstead Garden Opera. roles have included Iphis, Melanto and Fortune (Il ritorno di Ulisse in patria) and currently Megan in James Macmillan’s Sacrifice. Concert performances include Born in Hertfordshire, Anna studied music at York University and at the RAM. Anna Tilbrook Mozart’s C minor Mass with Richard Hickox and the City of London Sinfonia, and She made her debut at the Wigmore Hall in 1999 and has since performed in major Répétiteur a programme of rare Mozart arias with the Academy of Ancient Music and Paul concert halls and festivals. She has collaborated with leading instrumentalists and Daniel. She has recorded the Dew Fairy (Hansel and Gretel) and Barbarina for singers, such as James Gilchrist with whom she recently recorded Vaughan Williams’s Chandos. Future engagements include Sophie (Der Rosenkavalier) at ENO, Giulietta On Wenlock Edge with the Fitzwilliam String Quartet. at Opera North and Dalinda for Opera de Oviedo.

George von Bergen George recently completed postgraduate opera studies at the RAM under David Edward Maxwell-Anderson and Audrey Hyland and has just started at the National Opera Baritone Studio. Awards include winner of the 2007 Royal Overseas League singing Orchestra Production Team Acknowledgements competition. Opera roles include the title role of Gianni Schicchi at RAO, the title role Violin Sara Trickey (leader); Katy Johns Production Manager Andrew Quick We wish to thank Nicola LeFanu, who has of Eugene Onegin for British Youth Opera and Germont père (La traviata) at Clonter Viola Emmanuella Reiter Assistant Production Manager generously offered her assistance and Stuart Relph insight, giving us a better understanding Opera. He has performed extensively on the recital and concert platform in the UK, Cello Rebecca Knight of Elizabeth Maconchy and her music. Germany and France. Oratorio performances include St John Passion, Puccini’s Messa Double Bass Lucy Shaw Stage Manager on the book Wendy Griffin-Reid We gratefully acknowledge the guidance di Gloria, Rossini’s Petite Messe Solenelle, Fauré’s Requiem, and Bach’s Nun Danket Flute Maxine Willis and encouragement offered by Alle Gott (with the OAE). Plans include the title role of Don Giovanni and Elijah with Assistant Stage Managers John Curry; Joseph Horovitz, who conducted the Clarinet Andrew Mason Robin Morgan the Aurelian Ensemble. 1967 performance of The Sofa at the Oboe Gwenllian Davies Costume Supervisor Estelle Butler Camden Festival and the BBC recording. Bassoon Matthew Orange Wigs and Make-up Alex Gillott Many thanks to Eva Jiricna for support and advice offered with regard to the set design. Trumpet Alex Caldon Wigs and Make-up Assistant / Horns Helen Shillito; Alice Kingham Assistant Wardrobe Mistress Louise Hunt; Håkan Vramsmo Born in Sweden, Håkan won a scholarship to the Guildhall School in 1999, Carla Ramsey We thank Garsington Opera, Open House Percussion Alasdair Kelly Mark and Out of Time for lending of props and having previously studied in Sweden, Amsterdam, France and Germany. He graduated Lighting Programmer Richard Godin Baritone Harp Angharad Wyn Jones production assistance. in 2001 with distinction and immediately went on to sing at the opening night of the Costume Maker Sue Long; Jane Temple BBC Proms in Vaughan Williams’s A Serenade to Music. He has performed extensively Piano Anna Tilbrook For archive material used in this Scenery Bowerwood Production Services programme, we wish to thank the archive on the concert platform, appearing at major venues throughout Europe including INDEPENDENT OPERA Scenic Artist Frances Waddington departments at St. Hilda’s College Wigmore Hall, Bridgewater Hall, Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Santiago de Compostela Oxford and , the Upholstery Karen Wood (with Roger Vignoles), Sibelius Academy and the Aldeburgh, Bath, Newbury Spring at Sadler’s Wells local history centre at Finsbury Library and Leamington festivals. He has appeared with the Gothenburg, Malmö and City Administrative Assistants and MJW Productions. Emma Smith Programme book credits Thanks are due to the British Library of Birmingham Symphony Orchestras, the Gabrieli Consort and Jerusalem Symphony Sarah Mennell Programme Editor Inge Kjemtrup National Sound Archive for help in Orchestra, and recorded for BBC Radio 3, Stockholm Radio and Swedish television. Chrissy Jay unearthing the only known recording of Operatic work over the last year has included the role of Aeneas for Nuremberg Programme Design Silk Pearce The Sofa. Festival Opera. Public Relations Photography Christopher Allerton; We wish to thank Malcolm Smith for Macbeth Media Relations Christopher Ridley guidance with Latin pronunciation. Programme Assistant Emma Smith 24 25 I I INDEPENDENT OPERA Artist Support, launched in October INDEPENDENT OPERA’s Maconchy’s Nigel Carrington, Eva Jiricna, Chrissy Sharp and Wilson Kerr (l to r): Katherine Manley, Madeleine Boyd, Alinka Kozari, Christopher Ainslie, Vena Ramphal, Alessandro Talevi N N double bill offers a thoroughly rehearsed D D 2007, is a broad effort designed to support young E E professionals at every level in the production of opera. showcase for some 20 talented young P P artists in an ideally intimate setting. E E The programme of scholarships and fellowships – available N N More than that, it belongs within a to singers, directors, designers, choreographers and D D carefully structured programme of E E conductors, and not dependent upon the artist being scholarships and fellowships, which N N T T involved with an Independent Opera performance – is an sustains links with the colleges through O O integral component of our long-term objective: to give to the early years of a professional P P those involved in the staging and production of opera the career. In an age that has seen the E E Matthew Rose, Wigmore Hall / IO Voice Fellow, with Bill Bollinger R R support they need at the outset of their careers. decline of the permanent opera company A A ensemble, Independent Opera’s thought A A through and practical initiative is more Independent Opera’s fellowships include one each for artistic r r t t than ever valuable. i i directors, designers, choreographers and conductors, along s s t t with fellowships for singing lessons/coaching sessions and Nicholas Payne, Director of Opera Europa S S u u two Sponsored Artist Voice Fellowships. For individuals p p still in formal training, Independent Opera provides one- p p o o year scholarships at six of the UK’s major music colleges. r r t t In addition, our partnerships with Wigmore Hall and Sadler’s Bill Bollinger, Anna Gustafson, Christopher Ainslie and Alessandro Talevi (photos from the Press Launch of INDEPENDENT OPERA Artist Support, October 2007) Wells lend a wider dimension to the Artist Support programme than would otherwise be possible. The WIGMORE HALL / INDEPENDENT OPERA Voice Fellowship offers the selected singer, with a commitment to both song and opera, a two-year programme of mentoring by the Wigmore Hall. The recipient sc of the SADLER’S WELLS / INDEPENDENT OPERA h o la Choreographer’s Fellowship is mentored by Sadler’s Wells in r s

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artistic and career development and in assembling a network p s of contacts.

Finally, with our patronage programme we reach out to other like-minded organisations, fostering cooperation and links fe llow with the common goal of young artist support. sh ip s Independent Opera was founded with the aim of building bridges between different stages and elements in opera – formal education and the first steps on the career ladder; productions on-stage and the support required off-stage;

singers and the creative team – each of which is supported erships rtn a by this network of scholarships and fellowships. p

We look forward to working closely with Independent Opera alumni and watching their careers flourish.

Anna Gustafson, Chief Executive, Artist Support e ag n o INDEPENDENT OPERA at Sadler’s Wells r t

a p Details about how to apply for the scholarships and fellowships can be found on our website: www.independentopera.com 26 27 DENT O EN PE EP R D A N a I t S a

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INDEPENDENT OPERA at Sadler’s Wells l e

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Telephone 020 7808 8580 s

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Email [email protected] e

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l www.independentopera.com s Registered Charity no. 1117559 28