Wednesday 16 January 2013

An opportunity to get inside opera at Opera Coast

In recent times there has been a lot of attention given to encouraging people to take up singing.  BBCTV programmes such as Gareth Malone’s BAFTA winning The Choir have drawn together people of all ages and backgrounds in order to show them the enjoyment of singing in a choirwww.garethmalone.com

Gareth Malone’s musical interests are wide, including opera and he has previously co-presented an open-air relay in London's Trafalgar Square of Verdi's Don Carlo with Deborah Bull for the Royal Opera House.

There is still a need for an event that gives both professionals and amateurs the opportunity, not only to sing in opera, but to learn more about the production of opera. This is where an event like OperaCoast www.operacoast.co.uk  is invaluable.

Held in the new performing arts centre, the Birley Centre, in the heart of Eastbourne on the south coast of East Sussex, England, this event is for singers passionate about operatic music. OperaCoast gives a privileged hands-on experience of operatic singing with a weekend operatic workshop that takes place in the height of summer.

Following a successful launch of OperaCoast in 2012, this year’s event will take place during the weekend of 19th - 21st July 2013.

Participants will be led by acclaimed professional music and theatrical directors with experience of working with major opera houses. Working around scenes from Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress, there will be an opportunity to explore the psychology of opera, different approaches to the characters, various ensembles, the connections between words and music and much more.

There will be auditions for principal roles but anyone with some experience of singing and the ability to learn music independently is welcome to join the chorus. What makes this event even more attractive is that you don’t even have to be a singer to get involved. Non-singing partners and friends are invited to go along for the weekend as observers and then come along and watch the performance, making OperaCoast effectively an operatic holiday.

The Music Director of Opera Coast is Gregory Rose www.gregoryrose.org who has a wide international experience of orchestral, operatic and choral conducting. He is Music Director of the Jupiter Orchestra, Jupiter Singers and Singcircle, and has conducted the London Philharmonic, St Petersburg Symphony, Finnish Radio Symphony and the National Polish Radio Symphony Orchestras, and orchestras and ensembles throughout Eastern and Western Europe. He has appeared in festivals throughout Europe, including two BBC Promenade concerts and has made recordings for Chandos, Hyperion, Wergo, Continuum, Naxos, Da Capo and October Music.

The Director of Opera Coast will be Susannah Waters https://twitter.com/tolhag who for twelve years worked as an opera singer, performing principal roles in many of the world’s leading opera houses, including the Royal Opera House, Glyndebourne Festival Opera, Welsh National Opera, Scottish Opera, New York City Opera, Santa Fe Opera Festival, LA Opera, Seattle Opera, Theatre du Chatelet, and Royal Swedish Opera. In 2002, she left singing to become a writer and stage director. Her first music theatre piece, the regina monologues, was commissioned by the Covent Garden Festival in 2001.

The pianist for Opera Coast will be Nigel Foster www.pianistprofiles.com/profile-nigel-foster  who is an Associate of the Royal Academy of Music. Nigel enjoys a busy schedule performing on the concert platform, playing for singers including Sergei Leiferkus, the late Philip Langridge, Sarah Walker, Yvonne Kenny, Roderick Williams, Louise Winter, Ian Partridge, Neil Jenkins, James Gilchrist, Jeremy Huw Williams, Katherine Broderick, Stephan Loges, Stephen Varcoe and Jane Manning, and instrumentalists including violinist Madeleine Mitchell. He has performed at major UK and has made a number of recordings.

OperaCoast also holds a midseason concert in association with Eastbourne Festival. OperaCoast Interlude is intended to bring opera to the local people and to involve them in an intimate conversation about the important things in life. This year OperaCoast Interlude will be held at the Birley Centre on Saturday 6th April. www.operacoast.co.uk

#operacoast
@OperaCoast

1 comment:

  1. Opera Coast is such a great project for Eastbourne and I'm really excited to hear their new work in April :-)

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