Opera Question Time January 12 2012

Start time: 7.00pm

Michael Volpe, General Manager, opened the evening, and introduced himself, and Producer James Clutton.

Discussed how both the past and future seasons will the topic of the evening, and questions will be taken after a recital in the middle.

JC, Producer, thanked the audience for coming, outlined his own role within the company and the team’s also. 2011 started very well. OHP won the "Best Company of 2010" - Hugh Canning, The Sunday Times. The award was announced to OHP on Boxing Day. Massive achievement and a great start to the year Don Pasquale – A balanced production team, made up of an older legendary conductor and one of the brightest young directors. Though it went well it perhaps didn’t quite have the zing that they’d hoped for. Despite this it was a good show, with some sublime direction. Slight aspects could have made it perfect. Great Tenor: Colin Lee, great to have him on board. Pleasing performance from Richard Burkhard as the Doctor. Close to sold out the whole run. Chorus supported by Angela Lascelles. L’amico Fritz – Initially performed at OHP in 2001, this time set in New York a la Mad Man. Joint winner with Rigoletto for the OHP Award for Best Production. Worked harder on the production this time. Delighted by Anna Leese’s performance as leading lady, Suzel, And also by New York Tenor, Eric Margiore’s too and the support from Angela Lascelles for chorus helped the office concept. Le nozze di Figaro – Difficult rehearsal process as the Susanna pulled out the week of the opening – the cast worried they wouldn’t pull it off. First performance didn’t quite pull off, and perhaps also never quite reached its perfect performance that I really believed it was capable of. Leading lady, Liz Llewellyn, who played the countess, went on to cover the role at ENO, and performed the role on the opening night, which had a great response. Great tribute to OHP. La rondine – Better reviews than expected. Lots of changes in the lead-up, but it hit the mark and the production team were very happy. OHP organised a La Rondine flashmob to take place in Tesco on Earl’s Court Road, which is now available on YouTube, many of whom had never experienced opera before. (Youtube link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bsLivg6byjM) Rigoletto – Big hit. Very difficult as everyone knows it and also tricky to update it, as Jonathan Miller’s updated version is so well known. Production team very pleased with the result she had a great success with it and we (and everyone) thought she was wonderful. Main part, Julia Sporsen took some convincing for her to take the part of Gilda as she did not think it was quite right for her - in her repertoire, but as a result of her finally accepting the part it has opened up many more opportunities for her career. Mentioned the What’s On Stage poll currently running online, which includes Rigoletto in the ‘Best New Production’ section for 2011. An honour for OHP to be mentioned within the category with ENO, the ROH and Glyndebourne as the other organisations. La Wally – Unusual opera to perform. How to stage the avalanche was often asked. Imagination played a large part in the show, and OHP very proud of the outcome. Fantastic Mr. Fox – Shown to 150 people at a time. Audience charged £5 and £2.50 as a nominal ticket charge – not about making money but more to encourage people who have tickets to turn up - if no charge, people less likely to turn up as no loss. Asks for active participation from the audience, which the kids enjoy. Production taken to a Pop festival. Set-up near a School of Rock tent, which was difficult but due to the positive attitude of the OHP company it pulled it off..This has since spurred on a desire to take it elsewhere, and to other festivals.

MV, took back the chair, and made a conscious effort to reassure the audience on OHP’s stability. Presented figures sheet, and proved that OHP are doing well, and there has actually been a growth. OHP proud of results in a difficult time. Ambassadors and Friends contribute around £1 million to OHP, which they are very grateful for. Also appreciate the grant at the end of season too. o Friends: £15 down on average friends’ booking. Possibly due to them taking the opportunity to get £12 INSPIRE tickets... o Ambassadors: Spent £330 more each. Incentive to bring more guests & help OHP. Aware the prices have gone up, and aware they have crept up over the years. Prices are going to be stable in 2012. Met all financial ticket sales predictions. New sponsors on board: Investec Wealth & Investment. Contract with IW&I for the next 2 years. IW&I are keen supporters of the arts. OHP achieved well in the recession, because they offer good value. Preview magazine to come out soon. Big chunky issue coming out in a fortnight’s time with ticket information, which incorporates the old Friends preview into new Scenario magazine. Box office service to Friends is changing. Law has intervened! The law states that Credit Card details along with the security code cannot appear in the same form, in case of interception in the post. Friends are invited to book: Online, on phone, and by form with a cheque, if they want to still. Introduction of a queuing room online. Online service is far more immediate than waiting 2 weeks for response by post. New Scenario magazine. Nostalgic name choice. Newsletter for the Friends. Marketing element as there are now 3000 friends. Recognition that Friends are an important part of OHP now. OHP is a big serious Opera company, and Friends are a big serious part of it. A want to engage their interest more. Facilities on site – Marquee supplier from last season had issues with water. Exacerbated by wet weather of last summer. New marquee supplier for this season. Ongoing toilet issues, new regime to improve facilities. OHP felt it was a better look on the inside of the marquee in 2011. OHP went greener with the expansion from 9 LED lights used in the interior, to 190. Building onsite begins on 7th March. OHP believe marquee will be better this year. Picnic system is good. Ambassadors and Envoys will see the introduction of their own members’ bar. Introduced to take traffic away from the other bars. 2011 great season for sales & support. Lots of commercial supporters. Reassurance that while Glyndebourne as 30-40% of the audience as corporate guests, at OHP the figure is only 2%.

Back to JC, who discussed the upcoming 2012 season. Monthly visits to 2 OAP centres, regular visits to Royal Hospital, Chelsea. Singing workshops for the young. This is all without funding from the Arts Council, not a box ticking exercise all carried out on own terms because the company and cast want to do it. Lucia di Lammermoor – Soprano came recommended by Richard Bonynge and Peter Robinson independently, and main tenor Aldo di Toro returning for another season. Stuart Stratford conducting. Glass harmonica being used in the orchestra, which is exciting. Così fan tutte – Elizabeth Llewellyn coming back. Made up of a young, creative team that will be exciting. Earlier start time to allow decent interval in the show. Logistically challenging due to length of Mozart – causes problems with audience, catching last trains if opera finishes too late, so we are starting earlier. Gianni Schicchi – Will be a recognisable cast from the past at OHP. One performance on the 14th July will be a Young Artist Scheme; casting the whole show with covers from young artists, except for main part of Schicchi. As part of this, there will be a price reduction on that date, for either £20 or £12 (Olympic theme) Zanetto – Only ever been 2 single performances in the UK before, over 100 years ago. Good piece, and a 2 hander. Yevgeny Onegin – Danny Slater directing. Model looks great, pitch was good before Christmas. Want to do more with the production this time round, last did Onegin in 2005. Falstaff – Big orchestra. Big challenge, OHP ready to do it, as it has a great cast and team.

At 7:53pm, we had a break for some singing from , who will be performing in Yevgeny Onegin this coming season. Two Arias performed, the first from Yevgeny Onegin (Onegin’s aria), and the second from Falstaff (Ford’s aria).

Q & A started at 8.04pm.

Q – The talks & lectures last year were great. Will there be any more talks taking place this season? A – JC – Yes, in a different way. We wanted to create an artistic hub around OHP. The events with Galton and Simpson, and Sir Thomas Allen were 2 separate nice events. We’re finalising a deal with ‘Way with Words’ about a literary festival for 3 days before the season, which will hopefully be the first of many. Will host an array of names: Jeremy Paxman, Maureen Lipman, Andrew Marr, PD James, Mary Quant, Bettany Hughes, Alain de Botton... Tickets for the talks will be available soon. MV - And there is also the cinema festival after our season showing classic films.

Q – 15 minutes for an interval is too short, will this be taken into consideration this year? A – JC – Intervals are only ever 15 minutes at OHP in a Mozart or other very long operas. Cosi will be starting 15 minutes earlier to accommodate a normal interval. Intervals are only ever 15 minutes at OHP. Also to aid filtering out at the end of the show. MV – We have to adhere to planning permission and the license we hold, which have strict regulations. Starting earlier should ensure a longer interval.

Q – I noticed there is one less production this season. Is that for artistic or logistical reasons? A – JC – There is a double bill this time round, so strictly speaking there are 6 productions still. Aware that recession could mean cuts so wanted to stay ‘step ahead’ – conscious decision to have 5 shows. We’re trying out a different system – the first three productions will run in repertory so it will be possible to see three different shows on consecutive nights. We feel it’s a good year to try this system out. We also want to avoid a direct clash with the Opening Ceremony of the Olympics so we will take that night off. And whilst I believe there will be many more people in because of the Olympics who want to go to the theatre/opera, it will be a step into the unknown, and we want to make sure we didn’t take too much of a risk. MV – All in all it’s a good time to experiment, but also to be careful. We want to remind everyone that there will be a 2 week period to see all 3 shows on consecutive nights. Observations from same question poser: 1. Entrance panels are hard to see from the inside of the marquee. MV - £8,000 has been spent of signage for the site. We always hope we cover it all. We will look over it again this year. 2. Cast lists. When the last show is on so there’s no need to buy a full programme. MV – The magazine is full of various other articles. We believe it’s cheap in our eyes for what you get inside. We always face the problem of potential littering, which looks worse in a park environment. There is also a green problem if we were to provide cast lists for everyone. There is a cast list on site, and also online. After all it is a festival! It would be the wrong thing for us to print off lots of copies of the cast list to hand out. JC - Too much paper would be wasted if we constantly printed cast lists throughout the season, approx 24,000 bits of paper if we printed for half the audience and it would cause a litter issue in the park. So this is a conscious decision and as accompany and a council e have responsibility to be green-aware! We do publish cast lists on the website, on boards within the theatre and in programmes.

Q – On the new online booking system, can you choose your own seats? A – MV – Yes, for some. It has cost OHP £8,000 for the new online booking system model and this year Ambassadors & Envoys will be able to choose their seats. Friends are acquiring a new box office system for future. What we have now is a system, and there is a strong need to ease users in whilst testing the capabilities of our servers. In our eyes the best seats are allocated from the middle and then outwards, but it’s a question of personal preference, which is what Friends currently get when booking online. Q- Also the price between Inspire tickets & 1st level pricing is significant. Is there a mid- point price that can be reached instead? A- MV – This is only a relatively big issue. A few years ago all the seats were the same price. It is important to remember that the Inspire tickets are not £12 because they are worse seats. We are victims of our own success. There are 3,000 Inspire tickets to buy. They exist through a grant system, subsidised thanks to Ambassadors & Envoys. They are an anomaly hard to avoid.

Q – Will there be brand new Operas in 2013? As in the upcoming season I noticed that there are 4 out of 6 operas that OHP have already done... A – JC – We always make repertoire decisions very carefully. We don’t want to be hubristic. Falstaff will be an interesting and exciting venture for us. Hopefully the newness of the productions will be the most exciting aspect. Zanetto is very rarely performed. It’s not so much worrying about what operas you may have seen, it’s about what we do with them, making them different making them memorable nights for you. If I had this meeting a year ago and said we were doing Rigoletto, you would have said it had been done before, but I know that you ended up seeing the opera four times! The questioner then said JC was wrong he had seen Rigoletto at OHP SIX times. Q- Is a DVD a logistical nightmare? A- It’s not out of the question, but it would be difficult.

Q – Some of us like our Operas to be performed in modern dress and against 'experimental' backgrounds, while others prefer the more traditional period dress. A simple statement as to the time and the background of each production would allow us to make our own judgements, if we could be given advance notice of what to expect in this regard for each production. Please could this be done in future? A – JC – Timescale can make this difficult and we often don’t know exactly what you will see when tickets go on sale. We would like our audience to trust us and I think over the years we’ve built up that trust with them, and I would hope the audience would know that our decisions on how we stage a production are made carefully. Please remember that 18 months of preparation goes into each one. We don’t feel its right to go into detail what will happen in the show. In terms of Onegin, for example, care has been taken, and the magazine will reveal more about it. Please keep an open-mind. Everyone has their opinion, and each show is done with great integrity.

Q – Is there a way of blacklisting buyers who buy Inspire tickets, and don’t turn up? A – MV – The holders of those seats could also be part of our free ticket scheme. We completely understand how frustrating it can be to see empty seats, and it is frustrating for us to see that people haven’t turned up to fill those seats. There will be a mention made for a tracking system, and it would be good to enforce a blacklist system, like they do at the Haymarket.

Q – Will it be possible to get Inspire tickets online? A – MV – Yes, we are trying to please phone and online users. Inspire tickets will be online for 3 days, after Friends booking has closed, and there will be limit on ticket purchase. Friends are invited to sponsor an Inspire seat. We are working with Kensington & Chelsea Social Council, which we see as a good new scheme. We are trying to increase the Inspire scheme further. Yes, Inspire tickets are only available online. Inspire ticket selling spread over a 3 day period, with two operas available per each day. This is open for general public after priority booking closes for Friends. Limits set on ticket purchases. Friends are invited to ‘Sponsor an INSPIRE seat’ by paying an amount to convert another seat in the house to £12. OHP working with Kensington & Chelsea Social Council to ensure the additional, sponsored seats are distributed and promoted amongst disadvantaged communities in the borough. A way of increasing the Inspire scheme further.

Q – Is there a way to enhance the view for viewers at the back, and latecomers? A – MV – We have HD Plasma screens already; it’s very hard to know what to do better! But we will look into this for next season.

The Q & A session finished at 8.38pm