Jenni Balow wrote in The Cornishman :

My ears are ringing and singing with sheer ecstasy and my head is still spinning with delight, after watching one of the Minack’s most exhilarating musical productions.

Review by Simon Ames of the Surrey Advertiser

Just about all the usual marker points that constitute modern opera were shaken and stirred in this amazing composition by Sir Benjamin Britten. He and Peter Pears together evolved the libretto by cutting William Shakespeare’s play in half and re-allocating some of the words to other characters. Britten insisted at the time that they had remained faithful to the original story, but there may yet be a continuing debate on the subject.

Camelot is a fictional castle somewhere in Great Britain where the Court is linked to the legendary (and equally ficticious) King Arthur. The Knights of his Round Table were said to have seen a vision of the Holy Grail and committed themselves to finding it. For more than 500 years, this story has been regaled down the generations – until one day early in 1960 a libretto written by Alan J Lerner, set to music by his composer partner Frederick Loewe, was brought to the London stage as musical theatre. It was simply called Camelot. First performance was in October 1960. It was an instant success with Richard Burton as King Arthur and Julie Andrews as Guenevere.

Jenni Balow wrote in The Cornishman :

This Tosca deserves an opera Oscar for a cast that acts as powerfully as it sings in an updated classic story of jealousy, desire, hate and betrayal, as well as loyalty and overwhelming love.

Review by Oliver Tims in Opera magazine

Surrey Opera at Trinity School, Croydon, October 24, 2013

In recent years Surrey Opera has begun boxing above its weight artistically - its première of Coleridge-Taylor’s Thelma in 2011 was a coup that marked the company out as one to watch for appealing and artistically visionary planning. George Lloyd’s Iernin is a similarly bold choice, mounted in commemoration of the composer’s centenary. When lernin was premiered in 1934, it established Lloyd as one of Britain’s brightest young talents and was admired by Beecham and Vaughan Williams. Yet a subsequent London production in 1935 was the last time the piece was seen, and Lloyd’s refusal to forsake lush late Romanticism for modish atonalism ensured his neglect by the post-war musical establishment. Good for Surrey Opera, then, for enabling this centennial reassessment. While Lloyd is no Benjamin Britten, there is enough in Iernin’s score to suggest that, but for his deeply traumatic war service and the subsequent contempt in which his lyricism was held by programmers and commissioning bodies (but not, one suspects, by audiences), he might have made a significant contribution to English opera.

Great introduction to opera with Strauss update

I WOULD suggest that for anyone who has not been to an opera before that Surrey Opera’s take on Die Fledermaus at the Minack Theatre is not a bad way to start.

Review by George Hall in The Stage

In the year marking the centenary of his death, Croydon, where Samuel Coleridge-Taylor lived for nearly the whole of his life, is commemorating him in style with a substantial festival, one of whose major events is the world première of his only opera.

Surrey Opera at the Barn Theatre, Oxted, September 23

Surrey Opera’s choice of venue for its production of Albert Herring gave it a head start even before the first note was struck: the Barn Theatre, with its half-timbered charm, intimate scale and village-hall ambience, could have been transplanted from Albert Herring’s Loxford itself. Britten’s gallery of village worthies looked quite at home, and one wondered whether the good people of Oxted – a well-heeled and determinedly pretty town in Surrey’s rural commuter belt – recognized any of their own neighbours in the line-up.

The Gondoliers is a joyous opera, happy, energetic and exuberant. The opening sequence (a continuous cascade of music, unbroken by dialogue) confirmed within the first five minutes that Surrey Opera had stamped their considerable authority on the production with a seamless and powerful delivery of full measure.

Review by Peter Townsend of Words and Music

Highly Professional Singers

I heard the performance of The Bartered Bride on the final evening and, as with the rest of the audience, was thoroughly entertained.

A Review by Simon Ames of the Surrey Mirror

Surrey Opera’s staging of Lerner and Loewe’s hugely successful musical theatre, launched in the 1950s, ticked all the boxes for good casting, convincing sets, excellent direction, memorable portrayals by the principal characters and fine overall performances from the chorus and orchestra.

The opening curtain revealed an impressive set, appreciated by the East Grinstead audience, for the shenanigans that are about to take place in the Spanish south. As events took their amusing and tangled course in that orange-laden city of Seville, so the vibrant colours of the architecture were reflected in the effective costumes of the tuneful chorus and the capable cast.

Some say that Gioacchino Rossini’s Barber of Seville (first performance in 1816) is the best comic opera ever written.

Review by “Barry Tone” from the E. M. Forster Theatre:

I was delighted to be able to attend Surrey Opera’s Madama Butterfly – a most unexpected pleasure, as I was expecting to spend the evening somewhere else entirely. I had of course read about the production in Hairy McMungo’s (p)review – which, as always, proved frighteningly accurate. Violetta had volunteered to review this production, but she very kindly insisted that I write the review instead, although I must gratefully acknowledge the considerable assistance Violetta provided.

Simon Ames in the Surrey Mirror, 21 July

Surrey Opera has a reputation for high standards coupled with innovation and their latest production is a multifold confirmation of their ability.

The following is an abridged review by Andrew Godbold of the performance on 29 September and is taken from The Operatalent website.

The production had a very simple staging: free-standing doors were used to good effect to suggest different rooms, and later as arbours in the garden. The lack of walls added greatly to the clarity of action in Act Two, when Cherubino is hidden in the closet (!), and also in the Act Two Finale.

Simon Ames in The Surrey Mirror, The Guide, 1 March 2007

FRANK RUHRMUND in The Cornishman

THE BEGGAR’S OPERA at The Minack Theatre, 31 August 2006

As the highwayman and anti-hero “Captain” Macheath might say in Surrey Opera’s presentation of John Gay’s The Beggar’s Opera, may my pistols misfire if, thanks to its design by Prav Menon-Johansson and lighting by Simon Hutchings, this is not one of the prettiest productions of the season. Realised from the original airs by Benjamin Britten and directed with considerable style by Mark Hathaway, a man with nerves of steel who has the courage and the good humour to recruit some of his “Ladies of the Town” from the hamlet of Buryas Bridge - more than one member of his audience will be looking out for them on their way home from the Minack - from its prologue, an impressive introduction of its white-wigged and capped cast to its gripping finale - will the audience grant the accused a reprieve or will he hang? - and with its singers and orchestra conducted by Jonathan Butcher in fine form, it is a treat for eyes and ears.

A MASKED BALL, Surrey Opera at The Playhouse, Sevenoaks, Saturday 4 March, 2006

An abridged review taken from The Operatalent website.

THE ABDUCTION FROM THE SERAGLIO, Surrey Opera at The Ashcroft Theatre, Croydon, Friday 10th June, 2005

An abridged review taken from The Operatalent website

The stage at the Ashcroft didn’t seem to let the singing voices through very well unless the performers were near to the front of the stage. Pasha Selim (William Brand, in the non-singing role) had an excellent speaking voice that carried well and a commanding stage presence. Konstanze (Anya Szreter) sang beautifully although rather quietly: “Tortures Unabating” with runs up to and from top Cs and the opening aria (“But the happy days were fleeting”) also technically difficult including top Ds showed off a fine command of her voice, although she could do with using more chest.

Peter Grimes at The Harlequin Theatre, Redhill

Simon Ames in the Surrey Mirror

Benjamin Britten’s Peter Grimes is regarded as one of the masterpieces of post-WWII opera. The libretto (by Montagu Slater) is based on a poem written in 1810 by the Suffolk poet George Crabbe. It features a sadistic fisherman accused of murdering his apprentice and the story evokes an essentially pessimistic view of humanity.

John Frayn Turner in the Surrey Advertiser, June 17 2004

Leatherhead was lucky to be included in Surrey Opera’s current tour of this magical masterpiece.

Surrey Opera takes to the Roof

Tony Flook in the Surrey Mirror, 4 March 2004

Surrey Opera’s production, at The Harlequin Theatre, Redhill, last week, drew the audience in right from the start as the sleepy community of Anatevka slowly came to life and the inhabitants gathered to explain their way of life in Tradition.

Roger Bing in The Croydon Advertiser, 4 July 2003

Macbeth, one of Verdi’s earlier operas, is perhaps not as well-known as some of the others, and Surrey Opera’s initiative in performing it is to be applauded.

Surrey Opera at the Harlequin Theatre, Redhill, February 14

Elizabeth Millard in Opera Magazine, April 2003

The old adage of ‘never work with children or animals’ was utterly refuted in Surrey Opera’s Cunning Little Vixen. From the opening, the children and most of their adult counterparts were captivating. The designer (Roy Bell) set the wood as a posh children’s playground that wouldn’t look out of place in a Ground Force makeover, and was thoroughly successful.

Frank Ruhrmund in The Cornishman, 5 September 2002

Decommissioning, if “The Pearl Fishers” is anything to go by, was even more rife in 19th century Ceylon (Sri Lanka to those born since 1972) than it is in 21st century Cornwall.

Behind the Scenes – Surrey Mirror, 31 January 2002

Orpheus gets 21st century Treatment

It must be the season for Orpheus In the Underworld. Not only has Leatherhead Operatic just performed this hilarious production but now Surrey Opera is taking to the stage with the same show. Not quite, though.

Roger Bing in The Croydon Advertiser – June 2001, Ashcroft Theatre

Puccini’s great opera is so popular that it can present a bit of a problem to perform. While it is a crowd-puller, it is also well enough known for an audience to be more critical than with other, less familiar works.

Derrick Graham of the Surrey Mirror wrote:

SURREY Opera’s production of Verdi’s La Traviata had a few surprises, not the least that it was sung in Italian - a fact not evident from the advance publicity.

Gordon Bull wrote for Words and Music:

Central to the show was the impressive massive oak tree around which most of the activity took place, under the spreading and prolific foliage high above the stage.

From West Sussex County Times:

Margot Campbell in the title role of Floria Tosca was outstanding. She is an operatic soprano of the highest calibre with a beautifully produced voice and a wonderful sense of phrasing, surely a prima donna in the making. As Calvaradossi the painter, John McGregor Murray with his fine tenor voice gave a musically persuasive performance in a carefully considered portrayal. The chief of police, Scarpia, offered Craig Smith a splendid opportunity to demonstrate both the eveil and corrupt as well as the tender, in his dealings with Tosca. With a fine stage presence coupled with his attractive singing voice, this was a well characterised performance. Andrew Thody gave a thoughtful performance as the political prisoner Angelotti and Lawrence Reed was an engaging Sacristan. The chorus, assisted by the Children’s Chorus from the Emerald Music School in Sutton, produced a good tone quality. The orchestral playing was of a high standard and the conductor, Jonathan Butcher, gave a well paced reading of the score.

Familiar old favourites share the Heathfield pleasures

OLD warhorses or heavenly twins? Call them what you will, Pietro Masagni’s and Ruggero Leoncavallo’s respective exercises in the art of verismo have for more than a century been indissolubly linked in countless double bills of Cav and Pag. And so they appeared last weekend in the delightful setting of Heathfield Walled Garden, Croydon, both directed and conducted by Jonathan Butcher.

Frank Ruhrmund wrote for The Cornishman:

FULL marks to Minack manager Philip Jackson - who must know something about the weather that we don’t know - for deciding to go ahead with Monday’s performance. Amazingly, against all odds, on a night which bore a closer resemblance to January than July, it did not rain.

Anne Slatford wrote for the Croydon Advertiser:

SURREY OPERA’S compelling production of the Stephen Sondheim musical thriller grabbed my attention from the moment the curtain rose on a set of swirling river mist, as a small boat glided across the stage bringing Sweeney Todd back to London after 15 years enforced exile.

Graham Powner wrote in the Theatreworld Internet Magazine:

The story of the Barber seeking revenge for the rape of his wife, the abduction of his daughter and his transportation to Australia by a ruthless Judge (aided and abetted by his unscrupulous Beadle) is well known. The characters are stark and clear - no understanding needed on the part of the audience. The other main character is not so easily understood. Mrs Lovett - whose idea it is to turn Todd’s victims' into meat pies - is laughable; but under the skilful direction of DANIEL CAREY's darker’ direction to the character, we are left in no doubt that Mrs Lovett is real!! The way the two of them come toward the audience with rolling pin and razor (respectively) raised `asking’ for clients is extremely dramatic and totally, scarily believable.

Theo Spring of the Croydon Advertiser wrote:

Giuseppe Verdi’s Aida is one of the most popular operas. The plot plays the gamut of a love triangle, intrigue, bravery, treachery, pathos, finding long lost family, war, armies, high royals and finally, since this is opera, death.

Chris Argent of the Wagner Society, wrote:

It was with increasing incredulity that we watched and listened to a performance of Der Fliegende Höllander by Surrey Opera, … this was an outstanding performance, … it is just a pity that the production won’t be seen in other parts of the country.