June News
Summer began with some lovely performances here at Opera Prelude! We had two performances of our two-act, narrated concert Storace and Soane: Icons and Influencers at the turn of the 19th-century. The first was at the Garrison Chapel in Chelsea, and the second at a private home in Fawley. We were delighted with how well Shafali Jalota, soprano, and Brenton Spiteri, tenor communicated the story of the friendship between two British icons, Nancy Storace and Sir John Soane, through their wonderful singing and narration. It was fabulous to work once again with the wonderful Lewis Gaston, conductor, and pianist Thomas Ang.
Later in the month, our children’s opera, The King’s Pants, had another outing at the Barnes Children’s Literature Festival. We were so happy to see so many young families in the audience, who seemed to really enjoy following this hilarious show! A huge thanks to all at Barnes Children’s Literature Festival for having us and for organising such a lovely day. And another big thanks to our singers (Hugo Herman-Wilson, Brenton Spiteri and Grace Nyandoro), composer (Georgia Barnes), music director (Florence Price) and stage director (Emily Beech).
Elsewhere, we saw some wonderful updates from our Young Artists. Catherine Hooper, soprano, gave a recital tour of China over the end of May and beginning of June alongside pianist Aleksandra Myslek. They performed across the country in cities including Shenzhen, Dalian, Xi'an and Wuhan. Catherine kept all of us up-to-date on her travels via the amazing photos and videos she posted to Instagram – we wish we could have seen her perform in person!
Dan D’Souza, baritone, appeared as Scarpia in the Discover Opera performance of Tosca at the Grange Festival, and as Angelotti in the rest of the run. He was described by Seen and Heard International as a “true and touching” Angelotti, and the production itself was warmly received by reviewers and audience members alike.
Baritone, Michael Temporal Darrell, appeared as Aeneas in Dido and Aeneas at the United Reform Church in Saffron Waldon, before appearing as Donald in Billy Budd with New Palace Opera the following day! He also shared photos from Clonter Opera’s Spring Showcase, in which he appeared at the end of May. It’s good to see our artists are keeping busy!