SEEN AND HEARD INTERNATIONAL

No less than 24 operas all told, make a particularly busy season for The Royal Opera during 2008/9. There are eight new productions,  Antonio Pappano conducts concerts of both Verdi's Requiem and Britten's War Requiem and there is a summer Italian revival season.  A great deal is  also going on in the Linbury Studio Theatre as well as with OperaGenesis and the Jette Parker Young Artists Programme. The Royal Opera's collaborataion with the graduate orchestra the Southbank Sinfonia develops too.

New Productions

2008/09 will be Antonio Pappano’s seventh Season as Music Director of The Royal Opera. He will  conduct five productions this year : Don Giovanni, La fanciulla delWest, Les contes d’Hofmann, Lulu, La traviata and Il barbiere di Siviglia. In addition, he will conduct the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House and The Royal Opera Chorus, in concert performances of Britten’s War Requiem and Verdi’s Requiem at both the Royal Opera House and in Birmingham.

The new productions in the 2008/09 Season are La Calisto,  Matilde di Shabran,  Hänsel und Gretel, Die tote Stadt, Der Flegende Holländer, Dido and Aeneas/Acis and Galatea and Lulu.

This is the first time that The Royal Opera has ever staged a work by Francesco Cavalli. La Calisto is directed by David Alden and led by Sally Matthews, a former Young Artist, and conducted by Ivor Bolton with the soloists of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and Continuo Ensemble.

Juan Diego Flórez became an international sensation overnight when he took over the role of Corradino at the Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro in 1996. He returns to this rolel in the rarely heard opera, Matilde di Shabran, conducted by Carlo Rizzi with Aleksandra Kurzak in the title role.

Hänsel und Gretel was last seen in Covent Garden in 1937 so this new production is long overdue. Moshe Leiser and Patrice Caurier direct two exceptional casts with conductors Colin Davis and Robin Ticciati sharing the performances.

For the first time ever on a British stage, Korngold’s Die tote Stadt, from 1920, will be making its belated debut at the Royal Opera House. One of the major operatic hits of its time, it swept the operatic world within a few years with the exception of Britain. Willy Decker’s outstanding production is the perfect setting for this sumptuous score.

Der Fliegende Holländer sees the return of Bryn Terfel to star in this new production of the first of Wagner’s great operas. With Tim Albery directing, conductor Marc Albrecht makes his Covent Garden debut following performances of the work at the Bayreuth Festival.

In a unique programme, celebrating anniversaries of Purcell and Handel, both The Royal
Opera and The Royal Ballet are brought together in two Baroque masterpieces, Dido and Aeneas and Acis and Galatea. Wayne McGregor, Resident Choreographer of The Royal Ballet, directs both works with Baroque specialist Christopher Hogwood conducting the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and two outstanding casts.

Following the intensely powerful new production of Alban Berg’s Wozzeck conducted  by Antonio Pappano in 2002, Pappano now reintroduces Covent Garden audiences to Berg’s other great opera, Lulu. Christof Loy directs this new production.

Hugely popular when they first opened, both L’elisir d’amore and Il barbiere di Siviglia are revived for the first time for the Season end, with Diana Damrau and Giuseppe Filianoti leading the cast for L’elisir  and Simon Keenlyside, Joyce DiDonato,  and Juan Diego Flórez, making a starring trio in Il barbiere di Siviglia.

Other Royal Opera audience favourites are La traviata with Renée Fleming, Thomas Hampson and Joseph Calleja, Un ballo in maschera,with Ramón Vargas and Carlos Alvarez, and Tosca with Deborah Voigt, Marcelo Giordani and Bryn Terfel.

The Royal Opera in the Linbury Studio Theatre

Benjamin Britten’s 1948 version of The Beggar’s Opera receives its first Royal Opera  staging in the Linbury, under the baton of Britten specialist Richard Hickox directing the City of London Sinfonia. Justin Way directs with designs by Kim  Kovac and Andrew Hays.

The Linbury Studio Theatre also continues to play host to new opera productions by Britain’s leading chamber opera companies. ROH Associate Company, Music Theatre Wales brings its latest production, Michael Berkeley’s new opera For You for its London premiere. With a libretto by best-selling author Ian McEwan, the opera explores the venom that sexual jealousy inspires as the comfortable middle class household of a charismatic but ageing composer is torn apart by a woman prepared to go to any lengths in the name of love.

The Opera Group will present the London premiere of Varjak Paw,a new opera for families and children aged eight upwards. Based on the best-selling books of F S Said, it follows the adventures of a blue Mesopotamian cat. Music is by  Julian Philips and the libretto by Kit Hesketh-Harvey. This project was developed through OperaGenesis, an ROH2 initiative in association with the Genesis Foundation. Later in the season, ROH2 collaborates with The Opera Group and London Sinfonietta to present the London premiere of George Benjamin’s hugely successful opera Into the Little Hill, directed by John Fulljames. This is presented in a double bill with Harrison Birtwistle's  Down By The Greenwood Side (1969) to a libretto by Michael Nyman, another landmark in the development of contemporary music theatre. Both works will be conducted by George Benjamin.

The Royal Opera House will also collaborate with the Britten Sinfonia to present the premiere of the first fully staged version of James MacMillan’s Parthenogenesis. This ROH2 co-production will be conducted by the composer and directed by Katie Mitchell.

The Jette Parker Young Artists Programme

The Jette Parker Young Artists Programme is generously supported by Oak Foundation. Four singers will join the JPYAP in September 2008: Romanian soprano Simona Mihai, who trained at the RCM, Japanese soprano Eri Nakamura, who is currently at the Netherlands Opera Studio in Amsterdam, British tenor Robert Anthony Gardiner, who studied at the RNCM, and Korean baritone Changhan Lim who is currently studying at the CNIPAL in Marseile. In addition, three new music staff will join the Programme.

The six singers who joined the Programme in September 2007 remain on the Programme for a further year: South African soprano Pumeza Matshikiza, Australian soprano Anita Watson, Estonian mezzo-soprano Monika-Evelin Liiv, Korean tenor Ji-Min Park, Lithuanian bass-baritone Kostas Smoriginas and South African bass Vuyani Mlinde. British stage director Thomas Guthrie remains for his second year.

In addition to singing at least 39 roles in the 2008/09 Season, the singers will cover more than 31 other roles. The Young Artists will be involved in all 24 operas being presented in the Season.

Four singers, two music staff and a stage director will leave the Programme following the main stage concert on 20 July 2008 having completed their contracts with the JPYAP: Sri Lankan soprano Kishani Jayasinghe, Chinese tenor Haoyin Xue, South African baritone Jacques Imbrailo, Polish bass-baritone Krzysztof Szumanski, British conductor Andrew Griffiths, British répétiteur Catriona Beveridge and Bulgarian stage director Vera Petrova. Future engagements for these artists include: Haoyin Xue as Alfredo La traviata for Central Opera Company of China, Jacques Imbrailo Count Almaviva Le nozze di Figaro for L’Opéra de Marseile, Krzysztof Szumanski Father Frost The Snow Maiden for Wexford Opera, Vera Petrova director Dido and Aeneas in Cyprus,
Andrew Griffiths music staff Don Giovanni for The Royal Opera and Catriona Beveridge music staff Il trovatore for The Royal Opera.

The scheme allowing Artists who have left the Programme to return to work with the Director of Musical Preparation David Gowland and the Programme’s music, movement and language coaches has proved a huge success with 14 singers, a conductor and two stage directors returning to work on a wide range of operas.

Many former Young Artists will return to The Royal Opera next Season including sopranos Sally Matthews, Marina Poplavskaya and Katie Van Kooten, tenors Alfred Boe, Hubert Francis, Robert Murray and Haoyin Xue, basses Robert Gleadow and Matthew Rose, conductor Andrew Griffiths, répétiteur Catriona Beveridge and stage directors Harry Fehr and Vera Petrova.

This Season’s Meet the Young Artists Week will be held from 13 – 18 October 2008 in
the Linbury Studio Theatre and will include fully staged performances of William Walton’s chamber opera The Bear. The main stage Summer Concert will be on Sunday 20 July 2009. All of the singers can be heard throughout the 2008/09 season in the 1pm Monday Lunchtime recital series, accompanied by David Gowland.

OperaGenesis

The contemporary opera development work of ROH2’s OperaGenesis, in association with the Genesis Foundation, continues in 2008/09, with more than 20 projects at different stages of evolution, and new teams joining the programme.  Current artists include Joseph Phibbs, Ed Hughes, Yuko Katori and Arlene Sierra.

The world premiere of Varjak Paw, by Julian Philips and Kit Hesketh Harvey, will be seen at the Linbury Studio Theatre in September. The first link up with transatlantic  colleagues at American Opera Projects will be the workshop showing of Tarik O’Regan and Tom Phillip ’s opera Heart of Darkness in the Linbury in August. Will Todd and  Ben Dunwell’s political opera EDSA will be showcased in September, and Elena Langer and Tim Hopkins’ multi-media video opera Les Noces will be shown in the  Clore Studio Upstairs in February 2009.

The first results of the ten composers on the OperaGenesis’ innovative VOX – composing for the voice course, led by Dominic Muldowney, will be seen in work at the Guardian/London Sinfonietta festival in January 2009 to launch the Sinfonietta’s new  home at Kings Cross.

The first ever project from the very first intake of the OperaGenesis programme, Jean-Philippe Calvin’s opera The Bald Soprano (seen in workshops at the Linbury in  November 2006), receives its world premiere in Paris in May 2009. Misato Mochizuki’s  opera The Bakery Attacks is scheduled to be premiered at Lucerne, Linz and Vienna towards the end of the 2008/09 season.

Southbank Sinfonia

This Season sees the ongoing relationship between the Royal Opera House and the graduate orchestra, Southbank Sinfonia, strengthening further. The Royal Opera House has been a supporter of Southbank Sinfonia since its inception in 2002 recognising the importance of the intensive learning and performance experience for 32 outstanding young orchestral players.

The Royal Opera House continues to contribute to the programme in many ways
including:
- Holding mock auditions with the young instrumentalists playing to a panel of Royal Opera House musicians under real conditions, receiving feedback and  guidance as to how to improve this essential technique

- The Side by Side day, generously supported by the Archie Sherman Charitable Trust, gives the young players the unique opportunity to work alongside 10-12 members of the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, members of The Royal Ballet, The Royal Opera Chorus and Jette Parker Young Artists in a day of practical music making

-There have been a number of open rehearsals led by the Music Directors of The  Royal Opera and The Royal Ballet and talks on various aspects of the music profession by members of the artistic and administrative staff of the ROH

- Jette Parker Young Artists and members of The Royal Opera music staff have collaborated with the Sinfonia on a number of concert performances
 
- Southbank Sinfonia now performs with The Royal Ballet and The Royal Opera for some of the contemporary performance programme, and works with the  Education team on other projects

- Principal players from the Orchestra of the ROH are ‘loaned’ to coach and lead Southbank Musicians in rehearsal

If we add into this long list, the ROH Education Initiative Voices for the Future  which consists of working with children and 50 teachers across Kent to promote singing in schools during its first phase, it  is clear that 2008/9  should be an extremely rewarding  - but probably exhausting - period for the company. It's good to see so much going on.

Bill Kenny

Full details of the opera productions for the season are available from The Royal Opera's web site.

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