Using the National Portrait Gallery’s collection, and working in collaboration with professional musicians from English Touring Opera, primary school children aged 7-11 are introduced to a portrait, and encouraged to create words and music to perform their own piece to the public in front of the chosen portrait.

Six years of collaboration!

2013 marks the sixth year of this remarkable collaboration between English Touring Opera and the National Portrait Gallery. Combining the visual arts, with history, literacy, and music this series of inspiring and creative workshops provides an opportunity for teachers of Key Stage 2 to deepen their pupils’ appreciation and understanding in these curriculum areas.

How does the day work?

Pictures in the collection serve as a jumping off point for new composition. The children are taken to one of the Gallery spaces, where they are introduced to a historical or contemporary portrait. Using their newfound knowledge of the portrayed character, the pupils then begin instant music-theatre composition, working with professional musicians in the workshop space to create their own original lyrics and music. The workshop lasts a full day and concludes with the children returning to the portrait in the main Gallery to perform their composition in public.

These workshops are run biannually at the National Portrait Gallery and are led by leading musicians and animateurs Paul Griffiths and Pete Latanka assisted by a range of other professional musicians.

Southbank International School, 31 May 2012

Contact and booking details

The workshop is suitable for all Key Stage 2 classes and lasts a full day.

For more details please email Tim Yealland or Talia Lash at ETO, or call 020 7833 2555.

English Touring Opera and the National Portrait Gallery would like to acknowledge the generous support of Sarah and Geoff Roberts for this project.

Laika the Spacedog is a brand new opera which tours the country this Spring (2013). After a preview for BBC Stargazing Live at the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich on 10th January, it opens with a sell-out week of performances at the Science Museum in London from the 22nd January. Written for children and family audiences, it is designed for Key Stage 2 in primary schools, and incorporates many areas of the curriculum, including science, history and literacy as well as music. The music is by Russell Hepplewhite, the design by Jude Munden, animation by Babis Alexiadis and words and direction by Tim Yealland.

Click here to read about Laika’s visit to Stibbard CEVA Primary School in Norfolk.

Click on the link to watch a recent BBC London News item: www.bbc.co.uk/news/laika

Laika was the Russian mongrel discovered in Gorky Park in Moscow in 1957, and destined to become the first animal in orbit. She is the most famous victim of the space race, and died like so many other animals sent up by both the Russians and the Americans. The story is a remarkable one, and touches on the true lives of the scientists involved (including the great Russian scientist Korolev), the relationship between men and animals, and the ethics of science and discovery.

The opera’s thrilling story is told in many diverse ways by 9 professional performers – with singing, playing, drama, archive film, animation (created with children) and puppetry. It features also such strange remnants of the mid-twentieth century as the theremin, one of the weirdest musical instruments ever conceived. The action takes us from an apartment in Moscow to Gorky Park, to the Kremlin (where we meet President Khrushchev), and finally to the Cosmodrome in Baikonur, brought to life with stunning design, and from where we launch the famous Sputnik rockets. The piece is highly interactive, and includes songs for everyone. A teachers’ pack and CD support the project.

How to book

Laika the Spacedog follows the ETO spring tour, and the dates the opera is available correspond to the dates that the company is in a particular area.

For information about how to book Laika for your school call Talia Lash at ETO on 020 7833 2555 or email her at talia.lash@englishtouringopera.org.uk

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We are deeply grateful for the scientific advice of Dan Hawkins, Head Teacher of Childs Hill School. Thanks also to Ronnie le Drew and Little Angel Theatre.

The opera is supported by the PRS Foundation, and has won the PRS David Bedford Music Education Award. We are deeply grateful also for the generous support of the Fidelio Charitable Trust, and the John Lyon’s Charity.

What does it mean to be a citizen? What is it that a citizen owes to his city, or country? This is the question posed by Donizetti’s rarely performed epic The Siege of Calais (L’assedio di Calais) – a ‘serious’ opera, sung in Italian, constructed of bel canto arias and ensembles of extraordinary quality.

It is the story of the burghers of Calais (depicted by Rodin in his famous sculpture outside the Houses of Parliament), citizens who offer up their lives to save their city from a besieging army. Their sacrifice is quiet, ordinary, sublime – and it culminates in one of the most moving ensembles in all of opera, the momentous O sacra polve, o suol natio (O Sacred Earth).

The opera also includes poignant, intimate scenes between the young couple at the heart of the drama (played by soprano Paula Sides and by mezzo Helen Sherman in a role originally written for a musico), and between the leader of the city (baritone Eddie Wade) and his anguished followers. Meanwhile, at the gates, the triumphant Edward III (played by extraordinary young baritone Cozmin Sime) shouts for blood.

ETO’s new production features designs by Faroese artist Samal Blak, inspired by the siege of Stalingrad.

New production, sung in Italian with English surtitles
Touring with a 26-piece live orchestra
Running time: 2 hours (incl. one 20 minute interval).

Click here to find out how you can become more involved in our new production of The Siege of Calais by joining our Production Syndicate

The story

Read the synopsis here.

Music playlist

ETO’s performers sing “O sacra polve, o suol natio” from the end of Act II of The Siege of Calais (recorded at Snape Maltings Concert Hall).

ETO’s first new Verdi production for several years is Simon Boccanegra – a mature masterpiece, and an intimate drama uniquely suited to English Touring Opera theatres.

The story comes from the history of Genoa, for centuries a great maritime republic, and from it Verdi creates an impassioned plea for Italian unity.

The composer’s musical depiction of the shimmering Mediterranean is wonderful; so too are the characters he creates, from the rough-hewn buccaneer-turned-ruler (the title role, played by Craig Smith) to his spiteful adversary and father-in-law (Fiesco, Keel Watson); from the embittered traitor (Paolo, Grant Doyle) to the idealistic Adorno (Charne Rochford).

This is a massive undertaking for English Touring Opera, with an unusually large chorus and orchestra – a personal ambition of ETO General Director James Conway and Music Director Michael Rosewell, supported with a special grant from the Peter Moores Foundation.

New production, sung in Italian with English surtitles
Touring with a 26-piece live orchestra
Running time: 2 hours and 35 minutes (incl. one 20 minute interval).

The story

Read the synopsis here.

Music playlist

Elizabeth Llewellyn sings Come in quest’ora bruna from Simon Boccanegra, Act 1

Reproduced by permission of Elizabeth Llewellyn. Recorded at The Warehouse, London – September 2012

Rehearsal photos

Così fan tutte is in many ways Mozart’s most perfect opera score, and Da Ponte’s most challenging script. It is a comedy of innocence and experience, funny and unnerving, touching and satirical. The delicate balance between recognizing the posturing of the four young lovers and loving them all the same is a challenge to each director and singer.

In one day fiancés are parted, and new fiancés found – or so it seems. Discovering they are not at all the people they thought they were is strange, exciting, and very embarrassing.

Director Paul Higgins, who has worked on many famous productions at the Royal Opera House, has a special love for this opera, with all its fun and folly, because of the warm, beating heart that pulses through the music.

His new, period production will be sung by a remarkable cast, including Laura Mitchell, Kitty Whately and Paula Sides (all firm ETO favourites), with tenor Anthony Gregory as the passionate Ferrando and Richard Mosley-Evans (Gianni Schicchi) as the man pulling the strings.

New production, sung in English
Touring with a 25-piece live orchestra
Running time: 2 hours and 50 minutes (incl. one 20 minute interval).

The story

Read the synopsis here.

Music playlist

Spin is a brand new opera for young people with severe learning difficulties, and continues our unique strand of this kind of work, supported by the Equitable Charitable Trust. This is our fourth such opera, the last two of which also travelled to the Philharmonie in Luxembourg.

The story of Spin follows the course of an extraordinary day, from breakfast to bedtime, with the events that happen in between at work and at play.

The opera is highly interactive, using sound, imagery, smell, touch and colour to engage and delight mixed audiences. It is performed to small audiences (maximum 30, including adults) to ensure maximum participation.

The music is by Rachel Leach, and is performed by four ETO artists from the Spring 2013 ensemble and orchestra. It is travelling to all of ETO’s touring venues, performing mainly in the halls of special schools, most of which are long-term ETO partners.

In 2013 we have ambitious creative projects in London, the South and the West. All the projects will lead to performance, and all will be created by the participants working alongside a professional team, typically including a composer, a director and a designer. For most of these projects we are joined by students from the Royal Academy of Music.

Hackney Empire, London

In the half-term week of the spring term we are working with some 30 young people from across Hackney to create a new opera in response to Simon Boccanegra. The participants, chosen through the participation scheme at the Empire, will create a new story, with new songs and lyrics, as well as design.
Dates: 18-22 February

Poole School and Victoria Education Centre

We are delighted to be collaborating with Poole High School and post-16 students from Victoria Education Centre in Poole in March 2013. A week-long residency will lead to a performance at the end of the week. This new initiative combines students of very different skills and abilities. A performance of the new work will take place on the 22nd March.
Dates: 18-22 March

Marlwood and New Siblands Schools, Bristol

We return to Marlwood in the summer with a residential week, working alongside some 70 students from this secondary school and from New Siblands Special School. Severn Stories in 2011 was a remarkable success, and this year we again return to the theme of the river, though in a darker form, as it becomes the equivalent of the River Styx. This project was workshopped in the autumn of 2012. The project is made possible by the incredible energy and enthusiasm of Becky Ferguson and the staff of both schools. Performances are on Friday 5th July in Marlwood School.
Dates: 1-5 July 2013

Chipping Sodbury School, near Bath

Under the Hill was a highpoint of ETO’s education work in 2012, representing a real integration of skills, abilities, talents and energy. We are delighted to be returning to the school, and to be working with students from the secondary school, together with pupils from a local primary and special school once again. As ever we are deeply indebted to Andrea Williams – and her team – for her unflagging support and enthusiasm. Performances are on Friday 12th July in Chipping Sodbury School.
Dates: 8-12 July 2013

Laika in Lambeth is a new opera written with the children of Reay Primary School, and premiered on the 11th June 2013 in the Grand Hall of Battersea Arts Centre.

Laika was the mongrel stray discovered in Gorky Park in Moscow and sent into space by the Russians in 1957. She was the first animal to orbit the earth, though in reality she was destined not to survive for long. In our new opera we have Laika returning to earth in 2013, and she descends in her capsule like a fireball from space to land in Brockwell Park.

The opera is written in partnership with Reay School, and has been devised over a series of workshops with five Key Stage 2 classes, involving the creation of the design, the words, the story and the music of the piece. Children from St Stephen’s, Wyvil and Vauxhall primary schools are also involved in the project. 175 children will perform in the final production.

We are working also with students from the Royal Academy of Music, and with mezzo soprano Susan Moore, cellist Rebecca Hewes and trombonist Miguel Tantos. Laika herself is played by the puppets (made by Jude Munden) from ETO’s own new opera Laika the Spacedog. The composer for Laika in Lambeth is Russell Hepplewhite, the director is Tim Yealland, the designer is Cathy Ryan, and the producer is Sarah Botchway (also Principal of Reay School).

The funding of this project is made possible by the generosity of

The Peter Minet Trust
Kinleigh Folkard & Hayward
Lambeth Council
Pride Catering
Friends of Reay

Synopsis

The story of Laika in Lambeth begins at the end of the summer term on the local streets. Some of the children have enrolled in the Reay Summer School for Space Cadets, where they learn about the stars and spaceships. They look out of the window at the strange light in the sky. Meanwhile the puppies in the Battersea Home for Dogs and Cats are looking for new owners to take them home, while other children are trying to get to sleep. Amidst all of this Valentina – a dog-hating Russian woman who used to work for the KGB – is trying to get temporary work in the area. At St Thomas’ Hospital the researchers are getting some bizarre data on their computer screens. At 10 Downing Street the Prime Minister’s children are begging him for a dog, but the Prime Minister is busy, and the politicians are making an election speech. The researchers interrupt them with the alarming news that there is a meteor heading for south London.

There is a flash in the night sky and the space cadets go out to look for where the meteor has landed. The children get out of their beds to explore the park where they find a crater in the ground. They find Laika in her capsule. No sooner have they rescued her than the scientists turn up and seal off the area, only for Valentina to kidnap the dog, seeing an opportunity to make a huge amount of money. She decides to hide her in the one place she stupidly assumes no one would think of looking – Battersea Dogs and Cats Home – and travels there via Brixton Market. Missing posters and flyers for Laika go out everywhere. The Prime Minister’s children arrive at the Home and of course they choose Laika out of all the others. No sooner do they get her home than Laika is recognised, sparking a major international incident. Valentina claims her as a Russian, the researchers demand her for scientific purposes, the children who found her want her, the space cadets demand her as a fellow space traveller, and the puppies want her as a dog. It is decided that Laika must make the choice – but who will she choose?

Love, power, morality, corruption… Monteverdi’s final masterpiece The Coronation of Poppea is often described as his greatest achievement, combining mythic and very human themes, and featuring some of his most glorious music.

One of the first operas to use historical events and people, it tells the story of Nero’s infatuation with the young and beautiful Poppea as she tries to make him divorce his wife Ottavia and take her as his new queen and empress of Rome.

Directed by James Conway and conducted by Michael Rosewell, The Coronation of Poppea is rich, complex and thoroughly modern work; a world populated by ruthless and all-too-human characters where lust and ambition ultimately triumph over virtue.

Please note: the order of performances outside London may be subject to change. Please check back over the next few months for further information or sign up to our mailing list to be notified of any additional dates and venues: eto.org.uk/mailing-list

Revival production, sung in English
Touring with a live period orchestra
Running time: 2 hours 40 minutes (incl. interval)

Music playlist

Loosely based on the story of Jason and the Golden Fleece, Cavalli’s Jason was a runaway hit when it premiered in Venice in 1649, and it proved one of the most popular operas of the 17th century.

Like many operas from this period, the story uses classical myth as a jumping off point. The opera opens after Jason has abandoned his wife, Isiphile, for the sorceress Medea. Cupid, protector of Isiphile, intervenes on her behalf, sending Jason and a motley cast of characters on a rocky journey back to his family in Lemnos.

Cavalli’s dazzling score careens fluidly between humour and pathos, intrigue and adventure. Witty, melodic and entertainingly decadent, this new production is directed by Ted Huffman (The Lighthouse) and stars Hannah Pedley as Medea and Clint Van Der Linde as Jason.

Please note: the order of performances outside London may be subject to change. Please check back over the next few months for further information or sign up to our mailing list to be notified of any additional dates and venues: eto.org.uk/mailing-list

New production, sung in English
Touring with a live period orchestra
Running time: approx. 2 hours 15 minutes (incl. interval)

Music playlist

Handel’s three year visit to Italy culminated in the premiere of his opera Agrippina in Venice in 1709. Composing at speed to a scandalously witty and ironic libretto by a Cardinal, Vincenzo Grimani, Handel drew on his experience of the Italian style, plundering his catalogue of cantatas written for the intelligentsia of Rome and producing a youthful masterpiece of dazzling invention and virtuosity.

Widely regarded as Handel’s first operatic masterpiece, Agrippina stands out for the quality of its music, full of freshness and musical invention.

Using many of the same characters as Monteverdi’s The Coronation of Poppea, the opera is in fact a prequel, as Agrippina, wife to the Emperor Claudius, schemes and manipulates to secure the succession to the imperial throne for her son, Nero.

ETO’s new production is conducted by Handel specialist Jonathan Peter Kenny; the cast includes Gillian Webster as the eponymous heroine, Andrew Slater as Claudius and Jake Arditti as Nero.

Please note: the order of performances outside London may be subject to change. Please check back over the next few months for further information or sign up to our mailing list to be notified of any additional dates and venues: eto.org.uk/mailing-list

New production, sung in English
Touring with a live period orchestra
Running time: approx. 3 hours (incl. interval)

Music playlist

As a hugely successful opera composer, Handel was commissioned by the grandest patrons of the day to bring his theatrical brilliance and flair to important ceremonial occasions – his four coronation anthems, used at the coronation of every monarch since 1727, are the most celebrated example.

ETO’s soloists and period instrument orchestra the Old Street Band team up with regional choirs for an evening of Handel’s Italian Vespers, staged in some of England’s finest cathedrals and churches. Written during his visit to Italy, when the supremely talented young composer caused a sensation among musicians, poets and Cardinals alike with his dazzling virtuosity, much of the music was written for the festival of the Madonna del Carmine at the Carmelite Church in Rome.

The concert includes Donna che in ciel, written to celebrate the deliverance of Rome from the earthquake of 1703, Il pianto di Maria, an exquisite meditation on the Virgin Mary at the foot of the cross, and the extravagant, virtuosic, extrovert and daring choral masterpiece, Dixit Dominus.

Running time: 2 hours 5 minutes (including interval)

Programme

1. Haec est Regina virginum [HWV 235]
2. Nisi Dominus [HWV 238]
3. Donna che in ciel [HWV 233]
4. Il pianto di Maria [HWV 234]
5. Te decus virgineum [HWV 243]
6. Dixit Dominus [HWV 232]

The music

The choirs

• Rochester: Rochester Cathedral Choir
• Newcastle: Cappella Novocastriensis and New Vocal Ensemble
• Sheffield: Sheffield Cathedral Choir
• Warwick: Warwick University Chamber Choir
• Exeter: Counterpoint, Isca Voices and Gentlemen of Exeter Cathedral’s Choir

This autumn, English Touring Opera presents a rare treat – Vivaldi’s beautiful sacred music in beautiful church settings.

ETO soloists and baroque orchestra the Old Street Band join forces with choirs across the UK for this atmospheric concert of music for the celebrated orphan musicians of the Ospedale della Pietà in Venice, where Vivaldi, nicknamed the ‘Red Priest’, worked for most of his life.

The programme features the Magnificat, whose arias in the original score were inscribed with the name of the orphan girl intended to perform, the exquisite Stabat Mater for solo voice and the exuberant Gloria – Jubilate o amoeni, an elaboration of Vivaldi’s celebrated Gloria in D major with additional text and arias.

Running time: 1 hour 50 minutes (including interval)

Programme

1. Magnificat [RV 611]
2. Stabat Mater [RV 621]
3. Excerpt from Vivaldi Gloria in D [RV 589]
4. Introduction and Gloria [RV 588]

The music

The choirs

• Crediton: Choir of the Collegiate Church of the Holy Cross
• Harrogate: Harrogate Vocalis

The Magic Flute has enchanted music and theatre lovers of all ages for hundreds of years. With charm and wit, it tells the story of a terrifying and joyful journey in pursuit of love, wisdom and happiness. From the stratospheric arias of the Queen of the Night, through the jolly folk tunes of Papageno the Birdcatcher, to the profound music of Sarastro, leader of the enlightened ones, it is a full expression of Mozart’s musical and dramatic genius. ETO is delighted to be reviving Liam Steel’s 2009 production of Mozart’s final masterpiece.

Revival, sung in English
Touring with a live orchestra
Running time: TBC

Please note: the order of performances may be subject to change. Please check back over the next few months for further information or sign up to our mailing list to be notified of any additional dates and venues: eto.org.uk/mailing-list

Music playlist

Paul Bunyan is probably Britten’s least performed opera, even though it is a remarkable collaboration with the poet W.H. Auden.
Musically charming, dreamlike, as surprising and innocent as a Chagall painting, this cross between an opera and a musical re-creates the great myth of the American frontier – peopled by a giant, an accountant, singing geese and cats, lumberjacks, and good and bad cooks.

New production, sung in English
Touring with a live orchestra
Running time: TBC

Please note: the order of performances may be subject to change. Please check back over the next few months for further information or sign up to our mailing list to be notified of any additional dates and venues: eto.org.uk/mailing-list

Music playlist

King Priam is a magnificent opera, and probably our most ambitious project to date. Tippett’s evocation of the last days of Troy, told from the perspective of the aging king, is a meditation on fatherhood and on the futility of war as powerful and searing as Euripides’ The Trojan Women. Those very women (Hecuba, Andromache and Helen) are strong presences in the opera, double cast as goddesses (Hera, Athena and Aphrodite), set against the heroes Hector, Achilles and Paris. This is British opera at its most eloquent and resonant.

New production, sung in English
Touring with a live orchestra
Running time: TBC

Please note: the order of performances may be subject to change. Please check back over the next few months for further information or sign up to our mailing list to be notified of any additional dates and venues: eto.org.uk/mailing-list

Music playlist