Great Opera Moments
"Just a quick thank you for a great evenings entertainment and
congratulations
to all of the Company for the performance!
Despite the weather! I'm sure
everyone enjoyed
themselves and as we introduced a friend who had never "experienced" Opera Anywhere before we can vouch for another convert!"
Richard and Kim
Dunkley
"This dazzling collection of operatic cameos, spanning several centuries and
featuring familiar and not-so-familiar composers, adds up to a truly
exciting evening."
Nicola Lisle, August 2006, The Oxford Times (full review)
"Top Do last night - lots of really positive complimentary reaction from our guests
today - personally I think it could hardly have gone any better. Even those who
were a bit unsure of whether it would be to their taste have been very
enthusiastic - so many thanks to all your team who I thought were superb and
had obviously worked enormously hard"
Paddy Roche, Morgan Cole.
"Can't wait till your next performance, we so enjoyed Opera Moments!"
Lizzie Maisels, Oxford WIZO
"It was a fantastically imaginative programme, wonderfully executed"
Peter Schofield
Act I
Scene i Sur la rive en fleur Lakmé Bizet Opening Credits
Scene ii Where are your trousers? Flight Dove Comedy:
Carry on in the Airport
Scene iii Come to my arms Semele Handel Historical Docu-Drama:
Henry’s Anne: the woman who would be Queen.
Scene iv Who touched me? The Medium Menotti Black and white thriller:
The Troubled Birds.
Scene v I present Miss Despinetta Cosi Fan Tutte Mozart Sci Fi: Star Trek:
To Boldly Go
Scene vi Right Mate! Don Giovanni Mozart Contemporary Drama:
Bonfire of the Vain
Act 2
Scene i Au fond du Temple Les Pêcheurs de Perles Bizet Family Adventure:
Larry Totter: after Boarworts.
Scene ii I bought this Suitcase. Flight Dove Chat show: Girl Talk!
Scene iii Quanto? Tosca Puccini Historical drama: The Eagle
Scene iv May Queen Albert Herring Britten Costume Drama:
Herringbone Revisited
A note from the director
There are difficulties with staging a snippet from an Opera – ie how can the audience possibly understand all the relationships and power balances between, the respective personalities of, the characters when they are presented with them without the scene setting and introduction, the action and storyline, which have lead up to that point in the Opera. How can the audience fully feel the drama and significance of what is happening without that build up?
In order to get over this, I have set each scene in a scenario which might come from a well known film or film type. The film is chosen for its parallels to the situation in the Opera scene. This is so that the audience, who will generally be familiar with a contemporary film or a well known film genre, can instantly understand the significance of what is happening even if they are not familiar with the Opera the scene is from.
For example, Scarpia, from Puccini’s Tosca, becomes a Nazi SS officer. This is a fairly obvious choice, but it does have the advantage that an audience, who may not know the Opera, instantly know that this man is very bad, he has huge power and he might do anything to Tosca. They instantly know that Tosca, for all her bravado, must be terrified. The detail of the actual plot need not be explained therefore: the audience can appreciate the desperate extremity of Tosca’s situation, which leads her to commit this murder.
The fact that Opera, maybe written as much as 500 years ago, can be relocated into a familiar, modern setting, also demonstrates the universality of Opera: the character types, the dilemmas, the emotions, are eternally human, and therefore every bit as relevant now as when the Opera was written.
Opera in England, with its high prices and limited availability, has, to an extent, been “hijacked by the Establishment”. Once it was the film of its day: popular entertainment, enjoyed by all. No longer. Therefore it seems not to have the same relevance to people’s lives as it once did. The choice of film settings also makes the point that Opera still is or can be, an accessible and relevant entertainment. It is fun, for example, to set Cosi Fan Tutte in a Star Trek setting. Why not? It was written to be funny and enjoyable. Hopefully, the audience will have the fun of recognising familiar characters and scenarios and the incongruity of seeing those set to Opera will inspire a fresh look at a great art form.
Anna Pelly
About our sponsors
Morgan Cole is one of the UK's leading commercial law firms. With 50 partners and a total of 450 staff, the practice provides national and international clients with a comprehensive legal service from teams of highly qualified lawyers operating out of a string of major offices stretching from the Thames Valley to South Wales.
Morgan Cole covers every core area expected of a modern-day major legal practice, including corporate, commercial, health, finance, litigation, property, employment and intellectual property. Practice area growth has been coupled in recent years with significant investment in latest technology to create a comprehensive and highly-efficient client-focused firm.
Morgan Cole and Opera Anywhere have received an investment from Arts & Business New Partners to further develop their creative partnership. Arts & Business New Partners is funded by Arts Council England and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.
