9th May 2012
Outgoing, supportive and organised?
English Touring Opera is looking for an outgoing and supportive Administrator (maternity cover), with excellent communication and organisation skills, to join our vibrant team.
The role will provide administrative support across the whole company and to the education department specifically.
If you value the work that ETO does and you meet the requirements, please download the job description and person specification and apply here: englishtouringopera.org.uk/vacancies.
4th May 2012
ETO’s General Director James Conway has been invited to speak at HowTheLightGetsIn, the philosophy and music festival happening at Hay-on-Wye on 31st May to 10th June 2012.
James Conway will join Radio 3’s Katie Derham, composer Gabriel Prokofiev, producer Raffertie and music theorist Adam Harper on the panel of Roll Over Beethoven, a philosophy session which will explore how contemporary classical music is being changed by the influence of new musical forms.
HowTheLightGetsIn is the world’s largest philosophy and music festival, offering a programme of 410 events over 10 days, with over 165 speakers and 150 bands taking part.
The Roll Over Beethoven panel will take place on Friday 8 June 2012 at 2:30pm. To find out more about this session, please click here. For more information on HowTheLightGetsIn, the festival programme, and to book your ticket, please visit the festival’s website.
4th May 2012
Miracle Theatre is producing a feature film based on its recent sell-out show Tin, made in collaboration with English Touring Opera.
Filmmaker and writer Bill Scott (Dressing Granite, Cheap Rate Gravity) will transport Tin from the stage to the big screen. The lost world of 19th century Cornish tin mining will be re-animated using a mix of ‘low-tech’ model-making and hi-tech special effects to give the film a uniquely stylized feel.
“This film has been in development for about 15 years – quite long enough for any project!” said Bill. “The script has been through several drafts, rehearsed readings and live performances at venues across Cornwall. Now we have assembled a wonderful cast and highly skilled local crew to tell the film version of this very Cornish story that I’m sure will have huge international appeal.”
The film will feature the original cast of the theatre production, which includes opera icon Ben Luxon. They will be joined by other actors, including Jenny Agutter (The Railway Children, Call the Midwife, Outside Bet) and Dudley Sutton (Lovejoy, Weekend Retreat) who will play Abraham Bennett, one of the devious bankers.
Miracle Theatre is looking for additional support and sponsors to fund the creation of the models and the post-production process. You can help make this happen and be part of the action by becoming a Tin Adventurer. This support will be the final piece in the puzzle for the Tin project and will help Miracle bring the film to a screen near you by spring 2013!
Find out more at indiegogo.com/Tin.
1st May 2012
Maestro contestants Craig Revel Horwood and Marcus du Sautoy
Two of ETO’s conductors are to appear as expert mentors on BBC Two’s new conducting competition Maestro at the Opera, which starts on BBC Two on Friday 4 May at 9pm (watch the trailer online here).
Paul McGrath, who is currently conducting The Barber of Seville, has been chosen to mentor prominent mathematician Marcus du Sautoy in the television series.
ETO’s Music Director Michael Rosewell, currently conducting Eugene Onegin, will mentor the dancer and choreographer Craig Revel Horwood.
As highly experienced professional opera conductors, Paul and Michael will be responsible for teaching and guiding the contestants through the world of opera with all its pitfalls and high drama on and off stage.
Maestro at the Opera, which starts on BBC Two on Friday 4th May, is a creative collaboration between the BBC and the Royal Opera House, and sees four well-known personalities facing possibly the greatest challenge in their careers and in classical music as they pick up the baton and become apprentice conductors.
The brave trainees will compete to conduct a complete Act of a legendary opera performed on the hallowed main stage of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, with a cast of exciting international young artists and the ROH’s world class orchestra and chorus.
Paul McGrath said: ‘It was very interesting to be able to participate in a series which shows what opera conductors actually do. It’s been great working with my fabulous celeb student Marcus du Sautoy. I hope the series will be both fun and informative’.
Michael Rosewell said: ‘This is an honest attempt to explore the whole process of opera. I’m very pleased to be involved with a programme that helps to open up opera to new audiences – something at the forefront of ETO’s thinking and the work we do across the country’
18th April 2012
Peter Maxwell Davies. Image by Richard Hubert Smith
English Touring Opera’s second collaboration with the award-winning Aurora Orchestra is surprising, risky, exciting and entertaining.
This season of three very different, highly theatrical operas written in the middle of the 20th century is sure to appeal to opera-goers who are interested in theatre, and theatre-goers who would like to try opera. Two of them will also have a special appeal to young people – and all three will have arresting designs by the team responsible for ETO’s Il tabarro and Gianni Schicchi, Neil Irish and Guy Hoare.
Best known is Britten’s sophisticated comedy of village life, Albert Herring – for which ETO has a sterling cast of worthies and ingénues, acting singers from the top drawer of British artists. Director Christopher Rolls will set it in period, so that the comedy of class and sexual mores will have full effect, and conductor Michael Rosewell will bring to it his deep knowledge of (and love for) Britten’s score.
Far from a village comedy is Peter Maxwell Davies’ opera thriller The Lighthouse – a taut, psychological drama treating the true story of the three Flannan Isles lighthouse keepers who disappeared over Christmas, 1900. Davies’ score pulsates with energy, and conjures perfectly the claustrophobia of the fogbound island and the lighthouse itself.
The Emperor of Atlantis is most famous for the circumstances of its composition: the composer, librettist, and all the original performers were inmates of a ‘model’ concentration camp, paraded before Red Cross authorities before being sent to their deaths at Auschwitz. The opera is a black comedy, innovative in musical style and dramatic presentation. Paired by director James Conway with Bach’s haunting cantata Christ lag in Todesbanden, it promises to be an unforgettable evening.
For more information and a full list of dates and locations, please visit the tour dates page of our website.
Want to find out more about the three productions? Then read this blog post by ETO’s general director James Conway.
2nd March 2012
In The Belly of the Horse at Jubilee Hall, Aldeburgh
ETO is staging a one-off ticketed performance of In the Belly of the Horse, our opera for children aged 6 – 12 and their families, at Jubilee Hall in Aldeburgh at 2pm on Saturday 14th April.
Fresh from four sell-out shows at the British Museum, In the Belly of the Horse is an interactive performance with music and animation by Rachel Leach. It explores the fantastic story that leads the Greeks to build the wooden Trojan horse, told in many different and engaging ways including acting, singing, instrumental music, dance, animated film and puppetry.
The opera is performed by a multi-skilled cast of four professional singers and players, who also appear in The Barber of Seville and Eugene Onegin on our current Spring tour. It is the third of three new operas based on classical myths, including Crossing the Styx, performed at Jubilee Hall a few years ago.
The show lasts about an hour and a quarter. Tickets cost just £4.50 (both adults and children) and are available by calling the Aldeburgh Music box office on 01728 687110 or booking online here.
2nd March 2012
Following last autumn’s festival of Baroque music, English Touring Opera returns to St Nicholas Church in Lincoln on Tuesday 13th March with a recital of 18th- and 19th century operatic favourites and Russian songs.
ETO soloists Lorna Bridge (soprano), Helen Johnson (mezzo soprano), and Adam Tunnicliffe (tenor) will perform music from Cosi fan tutte (Mozart), La traviata and Il trovatore (Verdi), and Madama Butterfly (Puccini), accompanied by Jonathan Gooing (piano) and by the Lincoln Minster School Chamber Choir.
The singers will also perform music from Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin, which English Touring Opera is performing across the UK as part of its 2012 spring tour. The Lincoln Minster School Chamber Choir will accompany ETO’s soloists for the famous Peasants’ Chorus from Eugene Onegin.
Aric Prentice, Director of Music at the Minster School and at Lincoln Cathedral, said: “The Lincoln Minster School Chamber Choir is delighted to have been invited to participate once again in a performance with ETO, after singing in a concert of Bach cantatas with them last October. What a tremendous opportunity for our young singers!”
The recital starts at 7.30pm on Tuesday 13th March; tickets are £7.50 on the door, and are free for children up to 18 years old. Tickets can be reserved by calling ETO on 020 7833 2555 or by signing up online here (simply add your name and the number of tickets you would like to reserve).
3rd February 2012
The Cornish Mining World Heritage Site, which has commissioned ETO’s new collaboration with Miracle Theatre, Tin, has announced that the production has been granted the Inspire Mark by the London 2012 Inspire programme.
The London 2012 Inspire programme recognises innovative projects that are directly inspired by the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. Today’s announcement from the London 2012 Organising Committee (LOCOG) and the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) confirms that Tin is now part of the Cultural Olympiad – a huge national sporting and cultural celebration – as it was inspired by the shared Olympic and World Heritage values of respect, excellence and friendship.
Seb Coe, Chair of the London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games said: ‘ Tin is encouraging Miracle Theatre, English Touring Opera , and all of the partners and community groups involved, to fulfil their potential. I am proud that with the help of partners such as the Cornish Mining World Heritage Site, we are delivering our vision to use the power of the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games to boost participation in the invaluable support and education programmes for Tin and in the productions themselves.”
A first of its kind for a UK World Heritage Site, the collaboration around Tin revives the story of a banking disgrace from the 19th Century, set within the mining industry in the St Just area. Through a theatre tour (in March and April 2012), followed by the creation of a film, Miracle Theatre’s Director, Bill Scott has reworked the story and used it as the basis for his production.
Operatic legend Benjamin Luxon, who has Cornish mining ancestry, will be joining the acting cast. Schoolchildren and community groups from across Cornwall and West Devon will make up the ‘village chorus’, following an extensive outreach and education programme led by English Touring Opera.
Julian German, Chairman of the Cornish Mining World Heritage Site, added: ‘The way to bring World Heritage Sites to life is to tell the stories of the people who created these globally important places. Tin will enable people today to identify with our ancestors and gain insights into their role in creating the Cornwall we live in. We could see the powerful potential in the Tin project from the beginning. Receiving the Olympic Inspire mark will help ensure that the significance of this work is felt right across Cornwall and west Devon.’
Tickets are on sale now. Click here for booking details on Miracle Theatre’s website.
20th January 2012
ETO is organising a coach trip from Oxford and High Wycombe to our opening nights of The Barber of Seville on Thursday 8 March and Eugene Onegin on Friday 9 March at London’s Hackney Empire.
The trip includes return coach travel from Oxford or High Wycombe and high-quality seats at Hackney Empire. Coaches will depart at 3.30pm from Oxford (Redbridge Park and Ride) and 4.15pm from High Wycombe (Cressex Park and Ride) on both days, with intended arrival to Hackney Empire of 5.30pm. This gives 2 hours before the performance to enjoy a meal at The Old Ship (not included in the ticket price), a nice pub behind the theatre, or to get coffee in the Empire Cafe. Coaches will depart Hackney straight after the performance with a return to High Wycombe for 11.30pm and Oxford at 00.10am at the latest.
The cost of the trip is £45 per person, per production (payable by cheque in advance). The cost, per person, includes return travel from Oxford or High Wycombe and a high-quality seat at Hackney Empire.
The trips are open to all to attend – a downloadable booking form can be found on the menu on the left-hand side of this page. If you’d like further information, please call Chris Calvert, Press & Marketing Officer on 020 7833 2555 or email: chris.calvert@englishtouringopera.org.uk.
6th January 2012
English Touring Opera is teaming up with one of Cornwall’s best-loved theatre companies, Miracle Theatre, on a brand new production which tours the South West this Spring, supported by a Youth Music award.
Tin is a play with a strong musical element, telling the story of a bedraggled touring theatre group as they visit a Cornish mining town in the winter of 1890.
Famous Cornish baritone Ben Luxon, who gave up performing opera due to hearing loss, returns to the stage in an acting role. The musical element, led by ETO, includes large sections from Beethoven’s only opera, Fidelio.
ETO’s Education Associate, Tim Yealland, is excited by the opportunity to develop ETO’s already strong links in Cornwall. “For ETO this partnership is perfect from every point of view, not least because it allows us to work alongside Cornwall’s most vibrant theatre company,” he says. “It also lets us tap into the deep roots of Cornwall’s powerful singing tradition, and to develop the links we forged with the community opera One Day, Two Dawns at Hall for Cornwall a few years ago.”
The tour takes in a number of unusual venues. These include Heartlands, a new visitor attraction based around a disused mine shaft, and in a beautiful tent in front of the historic Count House, Botallack, St Just In Penwith, the most westerly town in mainland Britain.
Tickets are now on sale. Click here for booking details from Miracle Theatre’s website.
