News bits

Our next production will be Iernin by George Lloyd (1913–1998) in Croydon in October 2013. Note that there is a web site devoted to the work of George Lloyd.

Read Jonathan Butcher's speech at the unveiling of a new plaque commemorating Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (last December 30th).

We have now added a little gallery of photos (taken by Peter Marr) from our production of Thelma

Listen (again) to the excellent Music Feature Sumptuous was the Feast about Hiawatha's Wedding Feast broadcast on BBC Radio 3 on Saturday, October 27th.

See some photographs from the Minack theatre and a review of our recent production of Die Fledermaus in "The Cornishman".

Thelma by Samuel Coleridge-Taylor

Surrey Opera staged the World Première of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor's long-thought lost opera Thelma at The Ashcroft Theatre in Croydon, where the composer lived and worked for his entire life, as part of a year-long Festival in the Centenary year of his death.

New web site

Welcome to the new Surrey Opera web site. It isn't complete yet but, if you are looking for older information, you may well find it on our previous web site or even on the one before.
See if you like the navigation, look at the Bartered Bride photo gallery. And come and see our performance of Thelma in February.
Please send comments to mailto:webmaster@surreyopera.org

Albert Herring

Surrey Opera made its Barn Theatre debut this September, with an exciting new professional production of Benjamin Britten's comic opera, Albert Herring.

JONATHAN BUTCHER’S SPEECH AT PLAQUE UNVEILING

Samuel Coleridge-Taylor lived here – at 6 St. Leonards Road, formally known as Aldwick, for the last few years of his all too short life. He and his family had apparently moved here from their previous home, Hillcrest, on the London Road in Norbury, because it was too noisy for his composing. Incidentally – it was at Hillcrest, now demolished, that SC-T composed Thelma, his only large-scale opera of which we, Surrey Opera, gave the World Première at the start of this, the Centenary year of his death.
It is said that Aldwick was C-T’s favourite house as it was quiet and, more or less, in the country. It’s hard to believe this now, but back then there was a good number of fields about including I suspect one immediately behind the house, where the Parish Church Junior School now stands.
There were no extra houses squeezed in here and there, in fact you were in the country. SC-T would take walks into the lanes around here, reading poetry and visiting the villages of Beddington and the like. Yes – rural Croydon.

Iernin

…and gradually one of the stones became a woman!

An Opera in Three Acts

Music by George Lloyd 1913–1998

Libretto by William A. C. Lloyd

Die Fledermaus

Surrey Opera presented a brand new production of Johann Strauss’s famous operetta Die Fledermaus, with a contemporary twist devised by Director Alexander Hargreaves and English National Opera translation by Leonard Hancock and David Pountney.

THELMA - A MAELSTROM FOR SURREY OPERA

With only a score and a few scribed margin notes for guidance, Christopher Cowell (Director) and Bridget Kimak (Designer) have had the delight of defining the focus and look of the new Opera.
The centre of the plot is occupied by the Maelstrom – a Viking word, coined to describe the treacherous whirlpool which lies between the Norwegian mainland and the Lofoten Islands. The word was well known to the Victorian public, following the publication of Edgar Allen Poe's poem “A descent into the Maelstrom”.
Inspired by the mystical world of the Norwegian artist Odd Nerdrum, Bridget Kimak's set consists of a series of simple lines suggesting the constant swirling of water, around and in which characters move. The costumes have also been conceived in a visionary style because, apart from a few archaeological remains, nobody really knows how the Vikings actually dressed.
Samuel Coleridge-Taylor had obviously done some research about the Viking culture and myths before he wrote the Opera. However, there are a few incongruous details, like the devil Djaevelen sniffing snuff, which has been retained in a desire to remain faithful to the original text.

THELMA - THE NORSE SAGA THAT ATTRACTED AN INTERNATIONAL CAST

As Alberto Sousa our Portuguese tenor soloist – playing the part of the hero Eric – has discovered,

The joy of this work is the fact that Samuel Coleridge-Taylor clearly understood the voice and how to use it to greatest effect.

THELMA - THE JOURNEY FROM PAGE TO STAGE

As Music Director Jonathan Butcher has commented, “We are explorers without sat nav, maps, or compass”. The excitement of a totally new opera is discovering the melodic paths and interpreting the composer's hints and signs.
Yet what emerges is a vivid and carefully crafted musical work, fully accessible to a modern audience. Living in the early twentieth century, it is easy to see why Samuel Coleridge-Taylor was Stanford's star pupil at the Royal College of Music. His orchestrations are stylish whilst supporting the action and singers. Jonathan Butcher also believes that Coleridge-Taylor was strongly influenced by the music of Dvorak whom he greatly admired.
When the production was first mooted, whilst the Company was on tour in Cornwall, Stephen Anthony-Brown bravely offered to undertake the transcription from Samuel Coleridge-Taylor's “spidery” original hand written text – yet 600 hours later he is still enthusiastic about the work and will be appearing as the Neck King. Surrey Opera is very much in his debt.

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