Production: Die Fledermaus, 2011
Kennet Opera is a local amateur opera company formed in 1993 by a group of friends who wanted to perform the music they loved in their home town. Over the years, this ever-widening group has remained dedicated to bringing opera and concert song to to the West Berkshire area.
We perform one large-scale production at the Newbury Corn Exchange each year, with other concerts and recitals at various times.
As well as these staged productions we do outreach work, especially among young people, and so we consider our work benefits the community as well as the longevity of the art itself. In everything we do we strive for high professional standards, while always remembering that the point of our existence is to give pleasure to our audience, and in doing so to have a really good time ourselves.
We are a registered charity, number 1110637.
In 2010 Kennet Opera welcomed Rebecca Berkley as musical director. Rebecca is a conductor and vocal animateur, and has published books and articles on music education. She works for Berkshire Maestros, the Berkshire Young Musicians' Trust.
Kennet Opera is pleased to announce that the exciting young Australian director Greg Eldridge has been appointed as stage director for our 2012 production of Verdi's Macbeth.
Greg has worked on over 30 productions in Australia, the UK and Europe and has just finished working with the Royal Opera on their production of Don Giovanni at Covent Garden.
After training as a stage actor, Greg directed prose theatre before completing specialist study in opera directing at the European Academy of Florence in Italy. Greg has previously worked with young singers at undergraduate level (as a sessional tutor at the Victorian College of the Arts) and at postgraduate level (as resident assistant director at The Opera Studio Melbourne), as well as professionally with Young Artists (members of the 2010 Victorian Opera Developing Artist Program).
In 2012, Greg will also direct productions of Carmen, The Play of Daniel and the world premiere of In The Garden, and will assist on a production of Götterdämmerung.
