R.B.K.C. Corporate Templates
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Opera Holland Park 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 Opera 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 operas – 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 Mark Stone, 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.