After a string of comedy triumphs, Jacques Offenbach's last work was this strange opera fantastique from 1881, based on the writings of the German romantic poet E T A Hoffmann, and telling the story of his three failures in love.
We sang it in English, with piano accompaniment, in the Great Hall of Shaw House in Newbury.
Dates were 2nd and 3rd February (at 7 pm) and 4th February (at 2.30 pm).
We presented Mozart's Seraglio in the Great Hall in 2023. It proved just what was needed for a pasha's palace! This year, the Hall brought audiences to Nuremberg (Luther's tavern), to Paris in Spalanzani's hotel de ville, to Venice (Giulietta's palazzo) and to Crespel's town house in Munich.
We've just finished Offenbach's extraordinary 1881 final creation. Shaw House's Great Hall proved as fine a setting for dubious locations in four great European cities as it did last year for Pasha Selim's palace! Audiences for our two evening and one matinee performances were all we hoped for. More about The Tales…
We expect to start shaping our summer concert season after a few weeks' rest. Till then, if you're interested in singing or listening, or hosting a concert, watch this space and check below where we sang in the summer of 2023.
Our 2023 concert programme, outdoors and in, was a no-holds-barred tour of favourites from the length and breadth of opera. The show included the well-known and the rarely heard; the serious and the ridiculous; choruses, solos and everything in-between.
We played:
As one customer said: "A beautiful programme, and a really astonishing level of talent and performance – it's amazing what a great sound you made in Brimpton Church. It's lovely to have the church used for a concert, and we all enjoyed it and felt so proud of you! Some delicious cakes too."
Concerts in Brimpton Church (top) and on Shaw House lawns
This was our last pre-lockdown staged production. Together with Opera Unmasked, in January 2020 we presented 'Amahl and the Night Visitors', Menotti's beautiful one-act opera, AND a selection of Great American Songs, in St John's Church Newbury. All in one show!
They played:Amahl was marvellously sung and acted by 13-year old Edward Bennet, and the part of his mother, following illness in the company, was sung by Emily Kyte for two nights and Serenna Wagner for one. We were joined for the first time by members of Wantage Choral Society and Wantage Church Choir; and once again by dancers from the Karen Brind school of dance.
