With the premiere of Roxanna Panufnik’s People’s Opera Silver Birch taking place this weekend, Garsington Opera is pleased to announce a ground-breaking digital partnership with BBC Arts Digital and Pinewood Studios which will see sections of the performance captured by 360-degree cameras and ambisonic microphones in a project entitled Person 181.

With 180 community participants performing in Silver Birch, alongside professional singers and orchestra, this partnership project opens up the experience of participating in a live performance to the online viewer: the 181st participant.

For the first time ever, full access will be granted to backstage areas, warm up sessions with the cast and, ultimately, the live performance.

“Garsington Opera is excited to be working in partnership with BBC Arts Digital and Pinewood Studios on this amazing project. Person 181 will extend the reach of Roxanna Panufnik’s People’s Opera to the world, using cutting-edge technology and innovative digital story-telling. We hope that the project will reach those who are unable to take part in creative projects, giving them a first-person experience of the amazing journey each of the community participants has been on to perform in Silver Birch” commented Johnny Langridge, Director of Development & Communications.

Silver Birch world premiere performances take place at Garsington Opera on 28, 29 & 30 July 2017. Person 181 will be available online via BBC Arts Digital free of charge from the autumn this year.

Garsington Opera’s thrilling new commission, Silver Birch, will feature over 180 participants from the local community aged 8-80, including students from primary and secondary schools, members of the local military community, student Foley artists under the guidance of Pinewood Studios and members of Wycombe Women’s Aid. Appearing alongside top professional singers and orchestral players, they will perform as dancers, singers, actors and instrumentalists. Garsington Opera’s Artistic Director Douglas Boyd will conduct. This draws to a close Garsington Opera’s 2017 season which has enjoyed record attendances and was 98% sold out.

Today (Tuesday 27 June) Arts Council England (ACE) has confirmed that English National Opera (ENO) has re-entered ACE’s National Portfolio at its current funding level of £12.38million.

Dr Harry Brunjes, Chairman of ENO, commented

‘ENO is very pleased to share that we have been readmitted to Arts Council England’s National Portfolio. This decision reflects the hard work and sacrifice made by every single person across the organisation, including the senior team, led by Cressida Pollock. Their commitment has allowed us to build a sustainable business model, and one that I am confident will allow ENO to grow and prosper. A thriving, busy, competitive opera scene in the UK is vital if opera is going to continue to develop and flourish.

‘We are pleased that Arts Council England have recognised that ENO delivers public value not only through the productions that it puts on stage, but also through its education work, talent development, and artistic partnerships with other organisations and venues.

‘With a full artistic and executive team in place and many years of fantastic opera ahead of us, I am very confident and excited about the future.’

Cressida Pollock, ENO’s Chief Executive, said:

‘We are delighted to have been readmitted into ACE’s National Portfolio. This follows the huge amount of work that has gone into stabilising ENO and developing a sustainable platform from which we are able to grow. Only three years ago we were facing a very real risk of closure and it is hugely significant to see the work of the whole company celebrated through this show of confidence from ACE.

‘We employ over 350 people on stage and offstage, including our award-winning Chorus, Orchestra and technical teams. We appreciate the huge importance of our teams working and performing together regularly, with the security offered by a permanent position and this will ensure that we will remain the world leader in the development of British operatic talent.

‘We will invest more resource into ENO Baylis, our learning and participation programme, which enables people of all ages and backgrounds to engage with opera. We will keep our ticket prices affordable, with more than 500 tickets available for every single ENO performance for £20 or less alongside free tickets to dress rehearsals for young people and community groups.

‘By the 19/20 season we will have grown the number of London Coliseum operas we perform by 25% from the 2016/17 level – from 8 to 10. This is just one part of our wider mission, which is to deliver more opera of the very highest quality to as wide an audience as possible.’

Daniel Kramer, ENO‘s Artistic Director, said:

‘This wonderful news is a tribute to the hard work of our Company over the past two years. It is thanks to the dedication and commitment of every single one of my colleagues that we have been able to secure our future. We will now be able to develop more diverse and inclusive work, to support more British talent, to continue to work with the world’s most exciting artists, and to expand the definition and reach of opera to audiences across our nation.’

Dulwich Opera Company present a brand new production of Bizet’s Carmen

Dulwich Opera Company are bringing Bizet’s classic tale of love and revenge to the St Albans, Winchester, and Herne Hill this summer. This young and vibrant company have devised a brand new chamber adaptation of Bizet’s classic, which will be the company’s first touring production.

The performance will feature a cast of young professional singers making role debuts, and will besung in French with English surtitles, with international conductor, Jeremy Silver, directing the music from the piano.

The company is delighted to reunite the creative team behind their highly acclaimed production ofCosì fan tutte, which is headed by international opera director, Ptolemy Christie, and designer, Leah Sams. Between them, they bring a great deal of experience to the production, having worked for many of the major opera and theatre companies here in the UK and abroad.

Premièred in 1875, Bizet’s Carmen remains one of the most loved and performed of all operas around the world, and includes the famous Habanera, Toreador song, and Flower Song. Based on the novella by Prosper Mérimée, the opera tells the story of the fiery gypsy girl’s tragic love affair with the obsessive soldier, Don José.

Carmen – Phillipa Thomas
Don José – James Hutchings
Micaëla – Loretta Hopkins
Escamillo – David Fletcher
Frasquita – Claudia Haussmann
Mercedes – Urszula Bock
Zuniga – Caspar James
Le Remendado – Jeremy Vinogradov
Le Dancaïre – Caspar James

The Pilgrims’ School Chamber Choir
(Winchester performance only)

Tuesday 27^th June – St Saviour’s Church, St Albans

Thursday 29^th June – St Paul’s Church, Winchester

Tuesday 4^th July – Herne Hill School, London

Tickets are available in advance from www.dulwichoperacompany.org.uk/box-office – £21 / £19 Concesssions / £10 Under 16’s when accompanied by an adult.

Saturday 1 July at 7.30pm and Sunday 2 July at 3pm at Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall

English National Opera is proud to present a unique and visually striking version of one of Britain’s most-loved pieces of music. Two performances of Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius will take place as part of Southbank Centre’s Chorus festival.

With richly evocative design by the award-winning Lucy Carter, three of the UK’s most acclaimed singers will present an emotionally-charged rendition of John Henry Newman’s poem. Soloists Gwyn Hughes Jones, Patricia Bardon and Matthew Rose join ENO’s Olivier Award-winning Chorus and Orchestra, the BBC Singers, and Australian conductor Simone Young, who leads the ENO Chorus and Orchestra for the first time.

Elgar’s choral masterpiece The Dream of Gerontius tells the story of the passage of the soul of a dying man as he passes into the next world. One of the most popular choral pieces nationwide, this performance gives the rare opportunity to see it staged with design to match the sweeping power of the music.

Lucy Carter has been praised for her work in lighting design across theatre, ballet and opera, notably winning the 2015 Knight of Illumination Award for her work on the Royal Ballet’s Woolf Works. She received wide acclaim for her ‘beautifully nuanced’ (Time Out) lighting for 2016’s Oil at the Almeida Theatre and now brings her vision to Elgar’s oratorio. She comments:

‘The concept for the visual world of this performance is to create an immersive experience that heightens the emotional textures of the music with a light energy, creating visceral lighting environments that the audience feel and hear as well as see. It draws on religious imagery and symbolism connected to the themes of Elgar’s epic oratorio, and uses the idea of light as an elemental, evocative and ultimately cleansing force.’

The title role is taken by Welsh tenor Gwyn Hughes Jones. A singer frequently seen on the ENO stage, he was recently described as ‘everything you could want’ (The Times) for his Cavaradossi in 2016’s Tosca. His other performances for ENO include Walther in 2015’s Mastersingers of Nuremberg (a role he reprised earlier this year for the Royal Opera House) and Don Alvaro in 2015’s The Force of Destiny.

Irish mezzo-soprano Patricia Bardon sings the Angel. The youngest-ever prize-winner of the Cardiff Singer of the World Competition, she was much admired for her ‘magnificently sung’ (What’s On Stage) Arsace in 2017’s Partenope at ENO as well as her 2014 performances in The Gospel According to the Other Mary.

Bass Matthew Rose sings the dual role of Priest/Angel of Agony. Most recently seen with ENO as King Mark in Tristan and Isolde in an ‘impeccably sung’ (The Daily Telegraph) performance, he has sung this role on multiple occasions, including earlier this year at the Musikverein in Vienna.

Conducting the ENO Chorus and Orchestra will be Simone Young, former Intendant of the Hamburg State Opera and General Music Director of the Hamburg Philharmonic Orchestra, and before that Artistic Director and Chief Conductor of Opera Australia. Multi-award winning, including the Goethe Medal and the Brahms Prize, she is known as ‘one of the world’s most in-demand conductors’ (Sydney Morning Herald). This marks her first time performing with the ENO Orchestra and Chorus.

In 2018 Garsington Opera will present the world premiere of The Skating Rink by leading British composer David Sawer with a libretto by award-winning playwright Rory Mullarkey.  This new commission is based on the short novel by Chilean author Roberto Bolaño; Stewart Laing will direct and Garry Walker (The Cunning Little Vixen, 2014) conducts.

The Philharmonia Orchestra joins for Verdi’s Falstaff with Henry Waddington making his debut in the title role.  Richard Farnes will conduct and Bruno Ravella (Intermezzo, 2015) directs.

Garsington Opera’s first collaboration with Santa Fe Opera features Strauss’s Capriccio with Miah Persson as the Countess.  Tim Albery (Idomeneo, 2016) directs with Douglas Boyd, Artistic Director of Garsington Opera, conducting.

A new production of The Magic Flute opens the seven week season on 31 May with Christian Curnyn conducting and Netia Jones directing, both making their Garsington Opera debuts.

• Mirga Gražinyt?-Tyla to conduct an ambitious series of 26 concerts, working with the whole CBSO family, curating an internationally-significant Debussy Festival in March 2018, and conducting his opera Pelléas et Mélisande
• Clarinettist, composer and conductor Jörg Widmann is Artist in Residence for the season
• A strengthened commitment to new music with six premieres, including the world premiere of Gerald Barry’s Organ Concerto conducted by Thomas Adès
• The CBSO Chorus performs Haydn’s The Creation, Fauré’s Requiem and works by Lili Boulanger with Mirga Gražinyt?-Tyla
• BBC Young Musician 2016 Sheku Kanneh-Mason makes his CBSO debut conducted by Mirga Gražinyt?-Tyla
• Debut artists include Yeol Eum Son, Ning Feng, Rafal Blechacz, Xavier de Maistre, Jérémie Rhorer, Constantinos Carydis, Joana Mallwitz and Leo McFall.  
• Friday Night Classics concerts include the music of David Bowie, Abba, Star Wars, and the Best of Bollywood
• The CBSO continues to offer accessible world class music for all, with an additional 1700 tickets available under £25, and tickets for young audiences from just £6

The City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (CBSO) is delighted to announce its 2017-18 Concert Season at Symphony Hall, Birmingham. ‘One of Europe’s best orchestras’ (The Economist, 2016), the CBSO is a cultural flagship organisation for the Midlands and every year shares its world-class music-making with over 200,000 concertgoers in Birmingham, around the UK and worldwide. Led by Osborn Music Director Mirga Gražinyt?-Tyla(‘conducting’s next superstar’ The Telegraph) the CBSO’s 2017-18 season shares the talents and ambition of the entire CBSO family of ensembles with the widest possible audience.

Full season details can be found at www.cbso.co.uk

ENO’s 2017/18 season features four new productions and five revivals at the London Coliseum, supported by a number of projects in other venues

• Daniel Kramer directs his first opera as ENO Artistic Director, a new production of La traviata starring Claudia Boylein her role debut as Violetta
• Martyn Brabbins begins his first full season as ENO Music Director, conducting performances of Marnie and The Marriage of Figaro
• ENO presents the world premiere of Nico Muhly’s latest opera, Marnie, directed by Michael Mayer and conducted by Martyn Brabbins
• A new production of Verdi’s Aida opens the 17/18 season, conducted by Keri-Lynn Wilson. After sell-out performances of his Olivier Award-winning Akhnaten, Phelim McDermott returns to direct
• Cal McCrystal directs a new production of Gilbert and Sullivan’s Iolanthe, starring ENO Harewood Artist Samantha Price in the title role alongside ENO favourites Andrew Shore and Yvonne Howard
• Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre and ENO present a new production of The Turn of the Screw, directed by multiple Olivier Award-winner and Artistic Director of the Open Air Theatre, Timothy Sheader. ENO Mackerras Fellow Toby Purser conducts
• Revivals of audience favourites include Jonathan Miller’s The Barber of Seville, Richard Jones’s Rodelinda, Phelim McDermott’s Satyagraha, Robert Carsen’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Fiona Shaw’s The Marriage of Figaro
• A raft of exciting British conductors new to ENO includes Leo McFall, Alexander Soddy and Hilary Griffiths. Keri-Lynn Wilson and Karen Kamensek return after acclaimed debuts in the 2014/15 and 2015/16 seasons respectively
• Over 93% of cast and conductors in the 2017/18 season are British born, trained or resident. Rodelinda, Iolantheand Satyagraha all feature casts that are entirely British born, trained or resident
• More than 15 principal roles across the 17/18 season will be taken by current or former ENO Harewood Artists.
• Over 39,500 tickets are available for £20 or less across the 17/18 season (500 for every performance)

Today (27 April 2017) ENO has announced its 2017/18 season, comprising four new productions and five revivals at the London Coliseum alongside performances at other venues during the summer. In the 2017/18 season ENO will present nine fully-staged productions at the London Coliseum (following eight in the 2016/17 season). This will increase to 10 fully-staged productions at the London Coliseum by 2019/20.