Gareth Malone’s musical interests are wide, including opera
and he has previously co-presented an open-air relay in London's Trafalgar
Square of Verdi's Don Carlo with Deborah Bull for the Royal Opera House.
There is still a need for an event that gives both
professionals and amateurs the opportunity, not only to sing in opera, but to
learn more about the production of opera. This is where an event like OperaCoast www.operacoast.co.uk is invaluable.
Held in the new performing arts centre, the Birley Centre,
in the heart of Eastbourne on the south coast of East Sussex, England, this
event is for singers passionate about operatic music. OperaCoast gives a privileged hands-on experience of operatic
singing with a weekend operatic workshop that takes place in the height of
summer.
Following a
successful launch of OperaCoast in 2012, this year’s event will take place during
the weekend of 19th - 21st July 2013.
Participants will be led by acclaimed professional music and
theatrical directors with experience of working with major opera houses.
Working around scenes from Stravinsky’s The
Rake’s Progress, there will be an opportunity to explore the psychology of
opera, different approaches to the characters, various ensembles, the
connections between words and music and much more.
There will be auditions for principal roles but anyone with
some experience of singing and the ability to learn music independently is
welcome to join the chorus. What makes this event even more attractive is that
you don’t even have to be a singer to get involved. Non-singing partners and
friends are invited to go along for the weekend as observers and then come along
and watch the performance, making OperaCoast effectively an operatic holiday.
The Music Director of
Opera Coast is Gregory Rose www.gregoryrose.org
who has a wide international experience of orchestral, operatic and choral
conducting. He is Music Director of the Jupiter Orchestra, Jupiter Singers and
Singcircle, and has conducted the London Philharmonic, St Petersburg Symphony,
Finnish Radio Symphony and the National Polish Radio Symphony Orchestras, and
orchestras and ensembles throughout Eastern and Western Europe. He has appeared
in festivals throughout Europe, including two BBC Promenade concerts and has
made recordings for Chandos, Hyperion, Wergo, Continuum, Naxos, Da Capo and
October Music.
The Director of Opera
Coast will be Susannah Waters https://twitter.com/tolhag who for twelve years worked as an opera
singer, performing principal roles in many of the world’s leading opera houses,
including the Royal Opera House, Glyndebourne Festival Opera, Welsh National
Opera, Scottish Opera, New York City Opera, Santa Fe Opera Festival, LA Opera,
Seattle Opera, Theatre du Chatelet, and Royal Swedish Opera. In 2002, she left
singing to become a writer and stage director. Her first music theatre piece, the regina
monologues, was commissioned by the Covent Garden Festival in 2001.
The pianist for Opera
Coast will be Nigel Foster www.pianistprofiles.com/profile-nigel-foster who is an Associate of the Royal Academy of
Music. Nigel enjoys a busy schedule performing on the concert platform, playing
for singers including Sergei Leiferkus, the late Philip Langridge, Sarah
Walker, Yvonne Kenny, Roderick Williams, Louise Winter, Ian Partridge, Neil
Jenkins, James Gilchrist, Jeremy Huw Williams, Katherine Broderick, Stephan
Loges, Stephen Varcoe and Jane Manning, and instrumentalists including violinist
Madeleine Mitchell. He has performed at major UK and has made a number of
recordings.
OperaCoast also
holds a midseason concert in association with Eastbourne Festival. OperaCoast Interlude is intended to bring opera to the local people and to
involve them in an intimate conversation about the important things in life. This
year OperaCoast Interlude will be held at the Birley Centre on Saturday 6th
April. www.operacoast.co.uk
#operacoast
@OperaCoast
Opera Coast is such a great project for Eastbourne and I'm really excited to hear their new work in April :-)
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