In video: Toujours et Près de Moi

One of the more unusual events the Winter Festival is an opera with characters that aren’t really there. With a bit of Victorian stage magic Opera Erratica are bringing to life holographic figures to play out the story of Toujours et Près de Moi. As an it’s-almost-the-weekend treat, we thought we’d share a video of their production from The Print Room earlier in the year to give you a flavour of what’s in store.

You can see the show complete with live music from the wonderful EXAUDI on Monday 10 and Tuesday 11 December in the hidden Victorian gem that is Hoxton Hall.

Book you tickets online via our website.

Toujours et Près de Moi: A Holographic Opera
Monday 10 December, 7.00pm-8.00pm & 8.45pm-9.45pm
Tuesday 11 December, 7.00pm-8.00pm & 8.45pm-9.45pm
Hoxton Hall

What makes you think that you can sing?

Arlene Adair shares her experiences of being a singer, performing in Women sing East and rehearsing for the world premiere of our community opera We are Shadows:

“Do you honestly think that you can sing?” The words of my eldest, my first born, daughter pierced my brain bringing what I believed to be the “song of a nightingale” to an abrupt and premature end!  Children can be so cruel and, some may say, truthful!

I had always considered my singing voice to be, at least, worthy of airing at home.  Perhaps I was just a bit rusty!  Perhaps, on the other hand, my parents had been very loving, tolerant and tone-deaf!

“Join a choir, a women’s choir, Women sing East,” the kind words of a concerned colleague rang happily in my ears.  She knew that I had observed with nostalgic jealousy my youngest daughter, my fourth and last born, singing like an angel with the Hackney Borough Youth Choir.  Could it be that simple for me to join Women sing East?  What about my voice?

So, in September 2010 “stepping gaily arm-in-arm” with a fellow Scot (a bonnie wee lassie with blonde curls and an awfully good voice!) I tentatively approached the assembled throng of women confidently waiting in the foyer of the Brady Arts Centre.   We were “the new girls”.  Were there any other “new girls”?  Who knows?

The arrival of the director Laka D brought with it a big warm cosy welcome like a soft tartan blanket (not a horrible old scratchy one!).  “New girls” or not we were part of a 40-strong smiling, laughing, rocking, popping, madrigal women’s choir.   This all happened within two hours of leaving my six strong family at the kitchen table.  This was heaven!  Within eight months, we had performed two public performances and were feeling very happy.

Today, as I rehearse with the chorus of We are Shadows, an opera in pieces, I am reminded of a time when I could only dream of singing opera.   Twenty eight years ago, I was a costume maker in the wardrobe department of Scottish Opera. With a mouth full of dressmakers’ pins I could only hum along  as I listened  in awe to singers rehearsing pieces by Mozart, Puccini, Bizet and many other wonderful composers.

So, as I strive to reach the high notes of this world premiere opera, the words of my daughter haunt me “Do you honestly think you can sing?”  The simple answer is, “I really do not know but, so far, nobody has asked me to mime!”

Arlene Adair

Always wanted to sing? Why not join one of our community choirs! For more information click here. We are also looking for local people to perform as part of We are Shadows. Email cathy.birch@spitalfieldsmusic.org.uk or give us a call on 020 7377 0287 for more information.

Winter Festival Highlights

As we head in to the New Year, Acting Executive Director, Sarah Macnee shares with us the highlights of the remaining Winter Festival concerts.

In the New Year we have two more wonderful Monteverdi concerts as well as Paul Agnew’s exploration of Monteverdi, Opera & Beyond on Thursday 6 January. This event explores the idea of recitative, examines its spread throughout Europe, and the way in which it developed. Paul is not only a great tenor, but also a great interpreter of the baroque and pre-classical repertoire and his approach through a lecture-concert format will be very illuminating and engaging.

And finally, I’m really excited about the last of this year’s Winter Festival events on Friday 7 January. It’s our only ensemble concert and Retrospect’s debut at Spitalfields. The focus of the programme is on Monteverdi’s contemporaries. Don’t miss it.

If you would like to book for any of these events you can do so online or via the Box Office on 020 7377 1362 (Re-opens Jan 4 2011)

60 Seconds With…Matt Peacock

Today we have the next installation of our feature ’60 Seconds with…’! Over  the coming weeks we will be posting quick and quirky interviews with the people behind the music at the Winter Festival. There’s no hard and fast rule with what we ask – most questions come from members of the team – though if you’d like to contribute, leave your questions in the comments section. Enjoy!

This week, Streetwise Opera‘s Executive Director,  Matt Peacock discusses Blue Whales,  Britten’s operas and wanting to be a doctor!

Times or Guardian?
Guardian

Wine or Beer?
Both (especially real ale and white wine though not together obviously!)

What’s the most played track from your MP3 player/CD collection?
Video Killed the Radio Star, The Buggles (if I’m being honest, the most-played track is actually something from the BBC’s In the Night Garden but I decided to ignore that!)

What did you want to be when you grew up?
Doctor

Where’s your favourite place in London?
Natural History Museum. This is such a hard question – I love so many places in London: Kings Road at Christmas, the Southbank between the Royal Festival Hall and Tate Modern on a sunny day, the parks, St Christopher’s Place… But ultimately my first memory of London was looking at the Blue Whale in the Natural History Museum and now I’m taking my kids to do the same so it’s a special place for me

What’s the most memorable performance you’ve seen as an audience member?
Billy Budd at ENO with Simon Keenlyside in 2005. I was lucky enough to see a lot of opera in many different places when I worked for Opera Now magazine. For me it has to be a Britten opera because I love his music and he was at the top of his game when writing opera. This production stood out for me because the combination of the singing and the direction knocked me over.

Why did you want to work with Spitalfields Music?
The perfect integration between mainstream and community programming

What inspires you?
Surprising people with what they can achieve

Fables – A Film Opera premieres on Friday 17 December at Shoreditch Church (St Leonard’s) . For more information please visit www.spitalfieldsmusic.org.uk

Who is Monteverdi?

With this year’s Winter Festival showcasing the works of Claudio Monteverdi, we thought it would be a good idea to give a little insight into who Monteverdi was. Danielle Sutcliffe, Box Office Manager, takes you through the man, the music, the myth.

Lines drawn between periods of music are very blurry at best, and musicologists worldwide will argue until they are blue in the face about specific dates and important works. However, the debate over Claudio Monteverdi being a pivotal composer at the crux of developing the ‘baroque style’ is widely accepted as fact.

Monteverdi was born in 1567 in a north Italian town called Cremona to a barber-surgeon-chemist (Yes, that’s right, he cut your hair, took your tonsils out, and gave you some goats grease with saffron for your gout!) His musical talents were spotted at a young age while in Cremona’s cathedral choir under the watchful eye of Marcantonio Ingegneri.

“Artusi used Monteverdi’s works as unacceptable examples of music writing.”

Monteverdi’s first publication of madrigals was printed when he was just 15 years old and his first book of five-part madrigals helped establish his reputation and secured him a job in the court of the Duke of Mantua. However, his success didn’t come without criticism. An infamous conflict arose with musical theorist G.M. Artusi, who began the argument in a published essay which used Monteverdi’s works as unacceptable examples of music writing.

During his time in Mantua, Monteverdi wrote his first opera L’Orfeo which was an instant success and is now one of the oldest operas frequently performed on the modern stage. His second opera, L’Arianna, only built on this success. However, the score has not survived, and to this day the only fragment remaining is the soulful Lament of Arianna, which appears in Book Six of Madrigals.His successful career was halted by the death of his wife, which drove Monteverdi into depression and when the old Duke of Mantua died, Monteverdi was left with three children and no job. Later he was appointed Maestro di Cappella of St Mark’s Cathedral where he lived a comfortable life up until 1630, when plague and fighting struck the city of Venice.  During the last few years of his life, there was a resurgence of interest in his work, and his death in 1643 followed the restaging of the lost L’Arianna, and the commissioning of three new operas including L’incornonazione di Poppea.

Monteverdi was clearly a multi-faceted and very talented man; his catalogue of choral, chamber and vocal music, operas and ballets has stood the test of time to be appreciated by audiences around the world. If that isn’t deserving of a Festival dedicated to him, we don’t know what is!

To listen to some of the pieces we mentioned in this post check out our Spotify ‘Who is Monteverdi?‘ playlist!

For more information on the Monteverdi concerts on offer in the Winter Festival, click here.