Grange Park Opera 2008 Programme

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2008

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4 June – 20 July 2008 the 11th festival the 6th festival

at THE GRANGE, HAMPSHIRE

at NEVILL HOLT, LEICESTERSHIRE SPONSORED BY THE KIER GROUP

G R AN G E PARK O PER A •

SPONSORED BY A ICAP PLC

JACQUE S OFFENBACH

BLUEBEARD

SPONSORED BY TULCHAN COMMUNICATIONS

ANTONIN DVOR AK

RUSALKA

SUPPORTED BY A SYNDICATE LED BY REDLEAF COMMUNICATIONS

& OTHER FRIENDS OF THE MINING INDUSTRY

Robin Herbert • Anthony Dorey • David Challen • Brian Spiby • Morfydd Evans

G IACOMO PUCCINI

LA FANCIULLA DEL WEST

SPONSORED BY BEE BEE DEVELOPMENTS

G IUSEPPE VERDI

FALSTAFF

SPONSORED BY KROLL

HENRY PURCELL

DIDO & AENEAS

JOHN ECCLE S

THE JUDGEMENT OF PARIS

A CONCERT PERFORMANCE ON PERIOD INSTRUMENTS

SPONSORED AT GRANGE PARK BY AN ANONYMOUS DONOR

SPONSORED AT NEVILL HOLT BY A PAIR OF ANONYMOUS DONORS

AN E VENING WITH

SUPPORTED BY SUE BUTCHER & FAMILY

BRYN TERFEL WITH IAIN BURNSIDE

AN E VENING WITH

MARA GALEAZZI WITH FRIENDS FROM THE ROYAL BALLET

A NE W MOVIE

BRIDESHEAD REVISITED

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American Swallow–tailed Kite ELANOIDES FORFICATUS 1821 from The Birds of America

by John James Audubon (1785–1851) In Audobon's day bred as far north as Minnesota, Virginia and Kentucky. Now breeds only locally in open woods and wetlands in extreme southern states and along Gulf Coast

Patron's Foreword •

IN FEBRUARY EACH YEAR, when I am wondering, as usual, about whether or not I like Spring, Wasfi telephones and says “Is your Foreword ready?” and I realise that GPO’s new season may still be four months away but has me yet again in its grip.

Last year’s foreword was very long because I had decided to celebrate the 10th season by looking back at what I had written each preceding year. So this year I can be briefer.

2007 was certainly a worthy high point in honour of the 10th anniversary, but I am happy that the programme for 2008 is really enticing too. Bryn Terfel is a rare treat and we are lucky to have him. But another very happy appearance is Philip Langridge as Bluebeard. He was involved with Wasfi at the very beginning of GPO in 1998 so as one of the originals we are very pleased to see him here. Our first evening of dance is I suppose the biggest experiment this year and I personally hope that dance may be enough of a success to become a regular, if minor, feature of future festivals.

It is sad, not to say depressing, that the authorities at HMP Kingston cancelled the Pimlico Opera production of Sweeney Todd in March at the last moment. They certainly had reason to be upset when cannabis was found in the bag of one of our electrical contractors. But the bag had been left at the gatehouse, was never intended to be taken into the prison and the police when called let the owner, who had been immediately dismissed by us, leave with an admonitory caution.

We perfectly understand on occasions like this when quick decisions are vital, how very difficult it is. But I think we are entitled to ask whether this was not a case where the prison authority’s decision was inappropriate. The inmates, who this year were apparently of high enough ability to play more parts than usual, are the people who have

suffered most by the cancellation and a great deal of effort and expenditure by others was wasted. The reputation of Pimlico Operas prison visits is growing constantly and the evidence from prisoners’ families of the wonderful effect that being involved in an artistic endeavour has on their offspring is touching.

Enough of Kingston Prison and back to the 2008 season.

Sitting on the terrace at home in full warm March sunshine, I think of the extraordinary beauty of the landscape which enfolds the Grange and one of the uncovenanted pleasures I get on evenings when I am not actually in the theatre.

Sitting outside having a drink and hearing the occasional sound of applause inside while waiting for supper takes a lot of beating. And the visits I make to rehearsals once the shows are at the Grange rather than in London and the sets can begin to be seen are a real treat – and very necessary this year for an operatic ingénue like me who has never heard performances of either Rusalka or Bluebeard.

We all have to have our fingers crossed about the weather, though you are very forgiving of what cannot be helped.

And of course about things like Foot and Mouth disease which in 2001 threatened to come close enough to have prevented travel to the Grange. Had it done so, the Festival would have had to be cancelled – a financial catastrophe when so many of the costs are contractually inevitable.

Other than the new fencing along the avenue and the tidying up of the limes which you will see completed in 2009, I do not think I want to call attention to anything else.

Except that Sally and I look forward to seeing you and are confident that whatever crises arise, Wasfi, Michael and their amazing team will once again confirm a remarkable achievement, proving that – as I sang very briefly one evening last year – GPO goes marching on.

ASHBURTON 10 March 2008

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Sponsors 2008 •

ICAP plc • Tulchan Communications Marriott Construction a division of The Kier Group plc A SYNDICATE WITH CONNECTIONS TO THE MINING INDUSTRY

Redleaf Communications Robin Herbert • Anthony Dorey David Challen • Brian Spiby • Morfydd Evans Citigate Dewe Rogerson Clemmow Hornby Inge • The Carphone Warehouse 4 •

JPMorgan Private Bank • Bee Bee Developments Kleinwort Benson • Edeus Kroll • Grohe • SBJ Group Limited The Learning Point Presentations School Baring Asset Management Allied Irish Bank plc • ING • Clyde & Co • Reed Elsevier Barclays Wealth GAM (UK) Ltd • Hiscox • Rolls–Royce • Royal Bank of Scotland AND HELP FROM

Deutsche Bank • Hubert Laeng-Danner • The Dyers Company David Laing Foundation • Linbury Trust • The Chase-Gardener family Shelagh Beresford West

ADVERTISERS •

Hotel du Vin Bentley & Skinner Catalyst Investments Clifford Chance Euromoney J O Hambro Investment Management Elite Hotels John Armit Wines LetsSubscribe.com Laurent–Perrier Champagne Greenhill Thornhill Investment Management Stanlake Park Vineyard William Bartholomew Party Organising The Goldsmiths Company Chase Erwin of Chelsea Harbour Pickett Fine Leathers Patrice Lombardi artist

Greater Flamingo PHOENICOPTERUS RUBER c 1830 from The Birds of America by John James Audubon (1785–1851)

The Flamingo's Bottom •

IT’S SNOWING OUTSIDE – ideal for an opera festival staging La Fanciulla.

But worse than the idea of snow during the festival was moving office. Helen, Jan, Rachel, Caroline, Annabel, Lucy and a couple of tramps that hang out near Winchester Cathedral, packed up the entire operation into boxes, moved it, and unpacked it. For a week there was no internet but opposite the new office in Broad Street, Alresford, is a bar which has a machine that makes brilliant coffee and provides a perfect wireless connection. Those Italians know how to live.

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And so did Puccini’s men of the Wild West. My modest reading about America around Gold Rush time took me to John James Audubon (d 1851) whose Great Idea was to paint all the birds of America. He was the illegitimate son of a Creole chambermaid and French merchant and after a half–hearted attempt at running a General Store in Kentucky, he decided to concentrate on his Birds and the life–and–death struggle that goes on in the natural world.

A couple of pages back, with Lord Ashburton’s Foreword, is one of his earlier paintings. Alas he had to kill his birds to paint them. Eventually J J Audubon gathered around him enough subscribers for his project to break even but he still felt the urge in 1849, just two years before he died, to set off with his sons for California, looking for gold.

Gold fever seemed to get to everyone.

Rachel and I have spent the year fundraising in the spirit of the Wild West; we swing open saloon doors, twirling a pair of pistols and drawing attention to the support we need for all our marvellous artists. Last year seven of you reached for your cheque books before we opened fire and this year 28 singers are sponsored. Please inspect the list of artists available in 2009 on page 10 and we will approach you with chilled champagne rather than weaponry.

Michael Spencer has, for the fifth time, handed over a substantial bag of gold – this time for our 007 Bond take on Bluebeard. We welcome new sponsor, Redleaf Communications, who is leading a mining syndicate of extremely kind individuals (named on the previous page) in support of Fanciulla. We have three other new major sponsors: The Kier Group, Citigate Dewe Rogerson and Bee Bee Developments. Thank you.

In their second year of sponsorship Tulchan Communications are generously supporting Rusalka, a dumb water nymph whose limited powers of communication cause problems.

The generosity of our sponsors and members is staggering.

In 1626 the Dutch bought Manhattan Island for $24 but things are pricier now and we rely on your help.

There have been very sad times in the year and some of our most loyal members are no longer with us. Christopher Reeves died last November after a short illness. He was a kind of superman – and I thought staggeringly handsome.

Timothy Landon and Nigel Perfect didn’t know each other but generous entertaining was common to both – and a beaming smile. Tim was always at The Grange with a great gang of friends and the picnic of picnics. Nigel embodied the living of life for the moment to the exclusion of all cares of tomorrow.

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This summer we aim to distinguish ourselves from other country house opera festivals not just with the size of our classical porticos but with our off–piste offerings. At Nevill Holt we offer more choice: a staged Falstaff, a concert performance of two early English operas and an evening with Bryn Terfel.

He also comes to Grange Park. As far as I know, lovers of dance have never before been offered their artistic tipple of choice in the country house context – a relaxed afternoon, parking in pastoral tranquillity and a leisurely intermission for dinner.

So Mara Galeazzi’s visit to Grange Park is a first. It sold out very quickly.

Rachel, Jan and Helen are increasingly responsible for the shaping of the operation. Jan has taken control of the Grange Shop which now lives in a log cabin. Please visit her.

It was Rachel who suggested that our members should be offered some musical delicacies in the autumn. Rather than cook up our own we’ve joined forces with the prestigious Rosenblatt Recitals. Ian Rosenblatt has told me that he is only a lawyer in order to fund his musical habit. His particular predilection is for bel canto and one of his early recitals presented the then unknown Juan Diego Florez. We have cast one of Ian’s “finds”, Juan Carlos Valls, as the hunky Roman pro–consul in Norma next year. The details of these recitals are on our website and Grange Park members are welcomed.

OTHER NEWS FROM THE GRANGE PARK BULLETIN BOARD

• we are jubilant that the English Chamber Orchestra are playing for all three operas at The Grange

• the Endowment Fund has given Scholarships to various of our singers and to a few young directors, designers and conductors

• Mark Baring has joined the Board • in 2007 Geoff & Fiona Squire electrified the theatre flying bars and the chandeliers. This year Michael Moody has brought even more electricity on to the site – probably more than the whole of Manhattan. In 2009 he plans to put back the main staircase in The Grange. More about that on page 26

• there will be a performance of Handel's Messiah on original instruments in the chapel of Winchester College: Saturday 6th December 2008 – to get you in the mood for Christmas and our Cavalli opera Eliogabalo the 4th century cross–dressing Roman Emporer.

As well as the Cavalli, 2009 will bring you other Romans (Norma), furry animals (The Cunning Little Vixen), the London Symphony Orchestra, a concert performance of Flying Dutchman with the orchestra of Welsh National Opera and – god willing – Ray Davies the lead singer of The Kinks. Well how else do you follow on from Bryn Terfel?

For no particular reason, I want to flag up my favourite movie of 2007 Ratatouille about a masterchef French rat. It was the lanky restaurant critic Anton Ego who struck a chord. His review of the Rat's rataouille goes like this: “In many ways the work of a critic is easy. We risk very little yet enjoy a position over those who offer up their work and themselves to our judgement. We thrive on negative criticism which is fun to write and to read. But . . . in the grand scheme of things the average piece of junk is probably more meaningful than our criticism designating it so.” In the end Ego shows that his heart and his ego is in the right place by wearing a beret and eating alot of modest food in modest cafés. There must be a lesson there to be learned.

My penultimate paragraph is the most important and dedicated to praise and thanksgiving to John & Sally Ashburton.

And the final paragraph must thank the audience. Your generous support astonishes me and drives me to dish up ever more scrumptious offerings. I hope you enjoy this summer’s (sunny) festival and look forward to seeing you all looking glamorous.

Wasfi Kani March 16 2008

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Individuals who have sponsored Artists 2008 •

An anonymous donor • Bryn Terfel at Grange Park Two anonymous donors • Bryn Terfel at Nevill Holt An anonymous donor • Scholarships for Rising Stars Charles & Amanda Haddon–Cave • Stephen Barlow An anonymous donor • Philip Langridge Anthony & Carolyn Townsend • Jeffrey Lloyd Roberts James Hudleston • The Five Dead Wives of Bluebeard Mrs Peter Cadbury • Tim Dawkins Jim Dale • Clive Bayley Michael Bolton • Janis Kelly in two operas Elizabeth Morison • Mara Galeazzi Sir David & Lady Plastow • Richard Coxon David & Amanda Leathers • Quentin Hayes Halldora Blair • Olafur Sigurdarson The John Wates Charitable Trust • Elena Ferrari Malcolm Herring • Anne Marie Owens Mr & Mrs Richard Morse • Dong Jun Wang Johnny & Marie Veeder • Anne Sophie Duprels Nicholas Baring • George Mosley Wiliam & Kathy Charnley • Robert Poulton

Mr & Mrs W Friedrich • Karina Lucas Mrs Ian Jay • Joanne Thome The Wolves • the dance in Rusalka Chris & Amanda Ward • James McCoran Campbell Peter & Manina Dicks • James Cleverton Mike Hall & Shuna Mackillop • English surtitles in Bluebeard Alun & Bridget Evans • Yvette Bonner Dr Jonathan Holliday & Dr Gwen Lewis • Anna Grevelius

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Sponsor an artist in 2009 •

GEORGEOUS GIRLS Norma a priestess CLAIRE RUTTER Adalgisa a virgin of the temple SARA FULGONI Senta ANNALENA PERSSON Eritea loved by the Emporer CLAIRE BOOTH

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Flavia in love with Alessandro SINEAD CAMPBELL Atilia also in love with Alessandro YVETTE BONNER

FURRY ANIMALS The Vixen AILISH TYNAN The Fox FRANCES BOURNE The Badger TIM MIRFIN

HUNKY ROMANS Pollione Roman pro窶田onsul JUAN CARLOS VALLS Oroveso Norma's father MARKUS SCHWARTZ Eliogabalo Emporer MICHAEL MINIACI Alessandro a nobleman ANNA STEPHANY Giuliano prefect of the Pretorian Guard JAMES LAING Lenia a nurse ANDREW STAPLES Nerbulone a jester JOAO FERNANDES OTHER HUNKY MEN The Dutchman ROBERT HAYWARD Eric a hunter JEFFREY LLOYD ROBERTS The Forester ROBERT POULTON

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So – tell me more about yourself

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The Gambler Grange Park Opera 2007 Director & designer David Fielding Kat Rohrer (Pauline) and Jeffrey Lloyd–Roberts (Alexei, the gambler)

I am a dynamic figure, often seen scaling walls and crushing ice. I have been known to remodel train stations in my lunch breaks, making them more efficient in the area of heat return. I translate ethnic slurs for Cuban refugees, I write award–winning operas, I manage time efficiently.

Occasionally I tread water for 3 days in row.

I woo women with my sensuous and god–like trombone playing. I can pilot a bicycle up severe inclines with unflagging speed and I cook 30 minute flapjacks in 20 minutes. I am an expert in stucco, a veteran in love and an outlaw In Peru.

Using only a hoe and a large glass of water I once single–handed defended a small village in the Amazon basin from a horde of ferocious army ants. I play bluegrass cello. I am the subject of numerous documentaries. When I am bored I build large suspension bridges in my back garden. I enjoy urban hang gliding. On Wednesdays, after rehearsals, I repair electrical appliances free of charge.

I am an abstract artist, a concrete analyst and ruthless bookie. Critics worldwide swoon over my original line of corduroy evening wear. I don’t perspire. I am a private citizen yet I receive fan mail. Last summer I toured New Jersey with a travelling centrifugal force demonstration. My golf handicap is 1.

My deft floral arrangements have earned me fame in international botany circles. Children trust me.

I can hurl tennis rackets at small moving objects with deadly accuracy. I once read Paradise Lost, Moby Dick and David Copperfield in one day and still had time to refurbish an entire dining room that evening. I know the exact location of every food item in the supermarket. I have performed several covert operations with MI5.

I sleep once a week; when I do sleep, I sleep in a chair. Whilst on holiday in Canada I successfully negotiated with a group of terrorists who had seized a small bakery.

The laws of physics do not apply to me.

I balance, I weave, I dodge, I frolic and my bills are all paid.

On weekends to let off steam I participate in full contact Taekwondo.

Years ago I discovered the meaning of life but forgot to write it down.

I have made extraordinary four course meals using only a mouli and a toaster.

I breed prize–winning clams. I have won bullfights in San Juan, cliff–diving competitions in Sri Lanka and was a code-breaker at Bletchley Park. I have played Peter Grimes for Opera North, have performed open heart surgery and have spoken to Elvis . . .

. . . but – do you support Grange Park Opera ?

Without the donations of the people listed on the following pages, the festivals at The Grange & Nevill Holt simply could not happen – ticket revenues alone cannot meet our costs.

If you are able to help, please use the form at the back of this programme or contact Rachel Pearson 01962 73 73 63 rachel@grangeparkopera.co.uk stolen from a Christmas Cracker belonging to Viscount Norwich

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Donors to the new theatre 2001 •

Donald Kahn & family Ronnie Frost & family • The Geoff & Fiona Squire Foundation Lydia & Miles d’Arcy-Irvine • The Carphone Warehouse The Clore Duffield Foundation • Lord Harris of Peckham John & Anya Sainsbury • Simon & Virginia Robertson Anonymous • James Cave • David & Amanda Leathers Sir David & Lady Davies • EFG Private Bank • William Garrett • Corus

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Mark Andrews • Mr & Dr J Beechey • David & Elizabeth Challen Mr & Mrs William Charnley • Mr & Mrs Peter Dicks • Simon Freakley David Gilgrist & Bobbie du Bois • Philip Gwyn • Mrs Ian Jay James & Béatrice Lupton • Donald & Jill Mackenzie Nigel & Anna McNair Scott • P F Charitable Trust The Hon & Mrs Richard Sharp • Mrs Timothy Syder Richard & Cynthia Thompson • Anne Veeder • The Band Trust Mr & Mrs Gerald Acher Mr & Mrs David Anderson Mr & Mrs R Atkinson–Willes Anonymous Tom & Gay Bartlam Rupert T Bentley Bernard Cayser Trust Kevin & Corinne Bespolka William & Judith Bollinger Douglas Guest Bollinger James Philip Bollinger Sarah & Tony Bolton Mr & Mrs Paul Brewer Rory & Elizabeth Brooks Mr & Mrs Tony Bugg The Bulldog Trust Sir Euan Calthorpe Bt Christopher & Katie Cardona Nigel & Elisabeth Carrington Sir Peter & Lady Cazalet Mr & Mrs Bernard Cazenove The Chase–Gardener family Pam Clarke Alastair & Tiana Collett Oliver & Cynthia Colman Michael Cuthbert Peter & Annette Dart Mr & Mrs Geoffrey de Jager

Sandra & Damon de Laszlo Mr & Mrs Lionel de Rothschild Anonymous Alun & Bridget Evans Iain R Evans Mr & Mrs James fforde Mr & Mrs T Floyd Hamish & Sophie Forsyth The Misses Ismay, Ottilie & Cecilia Forsyth Peter & Judith Foy Mr Mark N Franks Reita Gadkari Janet & John Gaymer Jacqueline & Michael Gee Trust Enrique Biel Gleeson Lady Shauna Gosling Mr & Mrs George Goulding Anonymous Sir Ronald Grierson Nigel & Diana Grimwood William Gronow Davis Barbara & Michael Gwinnell Mr & Mrs Charles Haddon–Cave QC Hayden Trust Mr & Mrs R A Henley Malcolm Herring Mr & Mrs John Hewett John & Catherine Hickman

Dr Jonathan Holliday

& Dr Gwen Lewis George & Janette Hollingbery The Holmes Family Hugh & Tamara Hudleston Nicholas & Jeremy Hunter Mr & Mrs David Hunter Mr & Mrs M J Isaac Hannah Jacobs Harriet Jervis Mr & Mrs J Jervoise Neil & Elizabeth Johnson Andrew & Caroline Joy Mr & Mrs Colin Keogh Dr R Hubert Laeng–Danner Rufford Foundation Mrs T Landon Barbara Yu Larsson Mr & Mrs Malcolm Le May Peter Leaver & Thomas Sharpe Mr & Mrs Adam Lee Jeremy Gardner Lewis Susie Lintott & Louisa Church David & Linda Lloyd Jones Joe & Minnie MacHale Charles & Ann–Marie Mackay Mr & Mrs Michael Mackenzie Tessa & John Manser

J P Marland Charitable Trust Wendy & Michael Max Anonymous Mr & Mrs Peter May Harvey McGregor QC Thomas Monk Martin & Caroline Moore Elizabeth Morison Dr & Mrs Julian Muir The Nawrocki family The O’Hea family Sue & Peter Paice

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Alexia Paterson Mark & Rachel Pearson Nigel Perfect & Peter Tilley The Lord & Lady Phillimore Sir David & Lady Plastow Jan & Michael Potter Bruce & Lizzie Powell Mark & Veronica Powell Benjamin Pritchett–Brown Mr & Mrs Gary Ralfe Mrs Christopher Reeves David & Alex Rhodes

Ros & Ken Rokison Mrs Faanya Rose Mrs Antony Rowe Mr & Mrs John Salkeld Mr & Mrs Anthony Salz Christopher & Anne Saul Mr & Mrs Richard Scopes Mr & Mrs Roderick Selkirk Mrs Christopher Sheridan Lord & Lady Simon of Highbury Edward M Siskind Paul & Rita Skinner

Mr & Mrs Martin St Quinton Nicholas Stanley Donald & Rachael Stearns The Steel Charitable Trust The Stevenson CharitableTrust John & Lesley Stuttard Mr & Mrs R H Sutton Anonymous Mr & Mrs Bernard Taylor Gordon & Sue Thorburn The Titchmarsh Family Mr & Mrs Anthony Townsend

Wendy & John Trueman Adair Turner & Orna Ni–Chionna The Hon Lucy & Michael Vaughan Lady Jane Wallop John & Carol Wates Miss Clare Williams Hamish & Elisabeth Williams Mark & Jane Williams The Hon Geoffrey & Mrs Wilson Mr & Mrs C H R Wunderly Caroline Wyld

Opera at Nevill Holt •

If you've not been to the opera at Nevill Holt, you should. On the following pages there are pictures of the 2007 season's production of Bellini's version of Romeo & Juliet – I Montecchi e I Capuleti. The people below have made generous gifts that have helped bridge the gap between the cost of the artistic programme and ticket sales. To join them, use the form on page 127

The Captain's Table 2008 Mr Philip Bland Mr and Mrs Robin Bowie Peter Crisp and Jeremy Crouch Denis Dunstone Mr Michael C A Eaton

The Hardingham Trust Nigel & Diana Grimwood Andrew Haigh Keith Hann Arthur and Shan Hazlerigg

Mr and Mrs Michael Heaton David and Mary Laing Jane and Chris Lucas June Lumbard Ian and Clare Maurice

The Clipper Class 2008

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Mr & Mrs J D Abell Mr & Mrs Charles Bennion Anthony Bunker Adrian Cole Kate & Philip Douglas Mr & Mrs Richard Foulkes Michael Godbee

Dr Richard Godwin-Austen Jinx Grafftey-Smith Mr & Mrs James Lowther Stefan Marston Ian & Caroline McAlpine Ian & Murie Ronald Hugh & Angela Sinclair

C Stopford Sackville Mr John Swallow Mrs Joan M Tice Mr & Mrs James Saunders Watson Mr Richard & the Hon Mrs Wheeler-Bennett Mr & Mrs E G Wignall

The Stowaways 2008 Mrs Robin Abbott David Barker QC Stanley Bates Brian & Catherine Beardsall Victoria Joel & Steven Bobasch Mrs M J Bowen Richard Bowker CBE Tom Cross Brown Mr & Mrs Barry Burles Mr & Mrs Kit Burrows Michael Butterfield Andrew Butterworth Denis & Ronda Cassidy Mr & Mrs Richard Cazenove Michael Cazenove Mrs Margaret Charnock

Mr & Mrs N Cheatle Dr & Mrs E Craven Mr Dirk Fitzhugh Mrs Stephen Fleet Simon Godfrey Mr & Mrs Victor Green Mr & Mrs Richard Hill Jonathan Hill Dr & Mrs D Hinton Anonymous Tim Hutton Mr Paul Hyde-Thomson CBE J Denys Johnson Anonymous Mr Per Jonsson Philip & Emer Kirwan

Robert Lancaster Mrs Caroline Lawson-Dick Mr & Mrs Jeremy Lea Mr W H Baker & Miss S G Mahaffy Anonymous Mrs Timothy Milward Peter & Patricia Mommersteeg Mr Christopher Morris John & Dianne Norton Sir John Parsons Ian Pasley-Tyler Admiral Sir James Perowne OBE Mr J Perree Anonymous Charles & Mary Richardson Barry & Nikki Rivers

Robert & Monica Rust Mr & Mrs Brian Spoor David & Liz Staveley Mr Terry Stone OBE Pru Tatham David & Janet Thomas Mrs Alison J Thorman Mr Roger Twidale Robert & Patricia Wakeford Sir Timothy & Lady Walker Heather & Andrew Wallis Dexter Mr & Mrs J R Whitehead Mr & Mrs Matthew Williams Bill Wood Anonymous

The Cunards 2004 Mr & Mrs Robin Bowie Patrick & Julia Carter Anonymous Dr & Mrs Mark Cecil Anonymous Mr Peter Fenwick OBE Hamish & Sophie Forsyth Colin & Sarah Forsyth

Mr Martin George The Hardingham Trust Mr William Guinness Ron Haylock Richard & Victoria Heyman Mr & Mrs Michael Learoyd Mrs Sam Lloyd Sir Bruce & Lady MacPhail

Sir Richard & Lady Morris Mr & Mrs Robin

Murray-Philipson Mr & Mrs E H D Peppiatt Jim & Anne Peschek Mr & Mrs Roger Sharpley Mark & Lesley Shaw Mr & Mrs Raymond

I Skilling Sir James & Lady Spooner Mr Maurice Thompson Mike Thrower & Gill Lungley Fred Vinton The Hon Mrs Louise Ward R W B Williams Colin Williams

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I Montecchi e I Capuleti Nevill Holt Rising Stars 2007 Director Dominic Cooke Revival Director Ptolemy Christie Designer Robert Innes Hopkins Revival Designer Louie Whitemore Sinead Campbell (Giulietta) prepares for her wedding

The Glass Ceiling Society 2008 •

These are our highest level of annual donors who contribute towards projects to improve various technical aspects of the theatre. We are most grateful to them for their generosity

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Mrs Michael Beresford-West

Roger Gifford & Clare Taylor

Stephen & Isobel Parkinson

Tom & Ann Black

Anonymous

The Lord & Lady Phillimore

Mrs J Blackwell

Mr & Mrs R A Henley

Anonymous

Mrs Jenny Bland

Mr & Mrs Robin Herbert

Jan & Michael Potter

Mr & Mrs Michael Bolton

Liz Hewitt

Dominic & Katherine Powell

Anonymous

Caspar & Cathy Ingrams

David & Hilary Riddle

Lady Brown

Rowan Jarvis

Tim & Barbara Roberts

Mr & Mrs D Caukill

Anthony Johnson

Mr David Russell & Dr Angela Gallop

Sir Peter & Lady Cazalet

Anonymous

Mr & Mrs David Salisbury

The Chase-Gardener family

Timothy Jones & Martin Mason

Lord & Lady Sharman

Hayden Trust

Mr & Mrs Patrick Ker

Dominic Shorthouse

The Hon Sir Christopher Clarke

Richard Leonard

Jeremy Sillem

Ian Clarkson & Richard Morris

David & Sue Lovett

Brigitte & Martin Skan

Mr & Mrs John Dear

Mike Hall & Shuna Mackillop

Mrs Marveen A L Smith

Kate Donaghy

Ian & Clare Maurice

Alastair Storey

Anonymous

Dena McCallum

Camerata Taipei

Liann Eden

Ian & Debrah McIsaac

Mr David Taylor

Martin & Eugenis Ephson

Roger & Jackie Morris

The Countess of Portsmouth

Niall & Ingrid Fitzgerald

Cameron & Heike Munro

John & Louise Verrill

Ian & Margaret Frost

Pierre & Beatrice Natural

Mr & Mrs Kevan Watts

Steve & Linda Garnett

Mr Charles Outhwaite

John & Jan Whiter

Ian & Nicky Gatt

James & Nicky Palmer

Mr & Mrs C H R Wunderly

Susie Gaunt

Nick & Julie Parker

The School of Hippocrates 2008 •

Robin Allen QC & Gay Moon The Allenby Family Camilla Baldwin Mr & Mrs J Balfour Mrs Isla Baring Mr & Mrs Julian Benson Mr Roger Birtles Anthony Boswood Adrian Bott Mr & Mrs Roy Brown Anthony Bunker Anonymous Mr & Mrs Peter Clarke Oliver & Cynthia Colman Mrs Carolyn Conlan Stephen & Julia Crompton Carl Cullingford Mrs Geoffrey Daughtrey Peter & Meg Davidson Kathrine Davies The Lawrance Messer

Charitable Trust Mr & Mrs Simon de Zoete Mr Patrick Despard His Hon George Dobry QC Miss Helen Dorey FSA T V Drastik Mr Michael C A Eaton Jenni & Robert Enslow Stuart Errington CBE DL

Jeremy & Rosemary Farr Mr & Mrs Simon P Fisher Mr & Mrs Mark Fleming Mr & Mrs John Foster Mr & Mrs Geoffrey Fuller Lindsey Gardener Mr & Mrs Wyatt Gates David & Margaret Gawler Mr Martin George Richard & Kara Gnodde Mr & Mrs Grant Gordon Suzanne & Anthony Graham-Dixon Ian Grant Mrs Manuela Granziol Marcus & Susan Grubb Wendell & Andrea Harris Mr Christopher Holdsworth Hunt Lord & Lady Holme Simon & Mellie Holmes Lucy Holmes & Alexandra Wood Professor & Mrs Richard Holmes Mr & Mrs Richard Howorth Mr Charles & Lady Iona Ind Judith & Peter Iredale Ian & Noelle Irvine Mrs Harriet Jackson John Jarvis QC Mike & Margi Jennings Keith & Lucy Jones Hilary Jones

Dr Arno Kitts Dr Ingo Klocker Anonymous Roger & Liz Kramers David & Mary Laing Mr & Mrs Andrew E Law Peter Leaver Mr Gerald Levin Jamie & Laura Lonsdale Alistair & Sara Mackintosh Sarah B Mason William & Felicity Mather Richard & Patricia Millett Mr & Mrs B B Money-Coutts Mr & Mrs Peter Morgan Ian & Jane Morrison Colin Murray Mr & Mrs P Nahajski Guy & Sarah Norrie Princess Paul Odescalchi Mr & the Hon Mrs

J Ogilvie Thompson Mr Robert Linn Ottley Tim & Therese Parker Nigel & Liz Peace Anonymous Mr Charles Pike Sir Desmond & Lady Pitcher Mr & Mrs John Platt Hugh & Caroline Priestley

Charles & Virginia Purle John & Victoria Raymond Marian & Martin Read Nigel & Elizabeth Reavley Tineke Dales Mr & Mrs Michael Rice Nigel & Viv Robson Barry & Anne Rourke Sir James & Lady Scott Nigel Silby Mr & Mrs Andrew Soundy Geoff Squire OBE Marcus J G Stanton Johnny & Jane Stonborough Mr & Mrs Nigel Teare Mr & Mrs Hugh Tidbury Denis K Tinsley Mrs Mary Vernon Mr Anthony Vlasto Mr Hady Wakefield Chris & Miranda Ward Mr & Mrs Philip Warner Johanna Waterous & Roger Parry Kevin & Sonia Watson Anonymous Mr & Mrs Edward Weston Nigel Williams Nicholas & Penny Wilson Mr & Mrs R J Woolnough Mr & Mrs David Wootton

I Montecchi e IThe Capuleti Nevill Holt Rising Stars 2007 Mikado 2000 Director Dominic Cooke Revival Director Ptolemy Christie Alfred Boe (Nanki-Poo, son of the Mikado) and Designer Robert Innes Hopkins Revival Designer Louie Whitemore Nicholas Garrett (Pish-Tush, Noble Lord) The death of Giulietta

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The School of Archimedes 2008 •

20 •

Etienne d’Arenberg Anonymous Robin Aisher OBE Mr & Mrs Christopher Aldous John & Jackie Alexander Mrs Rosemary Alexander Lady Allan Anonymous The Lady Armstrong of Ilminster Roger & Lisa Backhouse Mr Peter Bell Christina Benn Mr & Mrs Mark Benson Mr & Mrs Richard Bernays Anonymous Adrian Berrill–Cox The Hon Mrs Julian Berry Richard Murray Bett Mr & Mrs Peter Bevan Mike & Alison Biden Anthony Bird Admirer of Charles Wallach Mr David Blackburn Mr & Mrs Simon Bladon Halldora Blair Mrs Simon Boadle Mrs Margaret Bolam George & Donna Bompas Ernest & Laurence Boost John & Lillie Boumphrey Mr & Mrs Graham Bourne Mr Jan Bowlus Mr & Mrs Barry Bramley Andrew & Fiona Brannon Viscount & Viscountess Bridgeman Dr & Mrs Douglas Bridgewater Mr & Mrs John Britton Robin & Jill Broadley Mr & Mrs James Bromhead Dorothy & John Brook Consuelo & Anthony Brooke Mr & Mrs Antony Brooking Mr & Mrs Hugh Brown Mr & Mrs Nicholas Browne Mr David Bruce Mr & Mrs Robin Buchanan Mr & Mrs Thomas Buckley Nick & Helen Buckworth Mr & Mrs D M Bullough Richard Butler Adams Mark & Rosemary Carawan Mr & Mrs Peter Carden Russ & Linda Carr Anonymous Max & Karina Casini Graham Cawsey & Virginia Korda Mr & Mrs Jason Chaffer Nabil Chartouni Mr Shane Chichester Tim & Maria Church Ann Clarke Mr & Mrs Henry Clay Michael & Angela Clayton Sir Anthony Cleaver Paul & Susie Clegg

Michelle Cockayne Mr & Mrs R Collin Dr Neville Conway Mr Andrew Cooper CMG Mike & Liz Cooper–Mitchell Stuart Corbyn Anonymous Matthew & Bianca Cosans Richard & Corin Cotton Alan & Heather Craft Mr & Mrs John Curtis Mrs Susan Davenport Anonymous Douglas & Pru de Lavison Mr & Mrs John de Trafford Mr Robert Dean Krystyna Deuss Christine Douse Noreen Doyle His Hon Mark Dyer Mrs James Eadie Mr & Mrs K S Eckett Mr & Mrs Walton L Eddlestone Mr & Mrs S D Elliott Mr & Mrs P J Ellis Hilary Reid Evans Anonymous Mr Peter Evans Martin & Maureen Farr The Kilfinan Trust Mairi Eastwood & Richard Findlater Ms Sian Fisher Mr & Mrs James Fisher Mr & Mrs Harry Fitzalan Howard Dr T H & Dr J M Foley Anne & Michael Forrest Michael & Margaret Fowle Mr & Mrs Robin Fox Robert Francis QC & Alison Meek Francois Freyeisen & Shunicho Kubo Mr & Mrs David Gamble Mark & Vicki Garthwaite Mr J F George Mr & Mrs Michael Gibbons North Street Trust David & Anne Giles Ian & Edwina Gilroy Mr & Mrs Bruce Ginsberg Cassandra Goad Mr B D Goater Michael Godbee Mr Kenneth Grange Mr & Mrs P A Grant Mr & Mrs Richard Grant The Hon Mrs Jane Green Mr Robin & The Hon Mrs Greenwood Alistair & Sally Gregory–Smith Kingsley Griffiths RIBA Mr Peter Grindrod Mr & Mrs Alistair Groom Max & Catherine Hadfield Mrs Peter Hall Nigel & Jane Halsey Mr Eben Hamilton QC John & Janet Hammond

Mr & Mrs Richard Hardman Benjamin Hargreaves Mr & Mrs David Harris Timothy C Harris CBE Jamie & Victoria Heath Mr & Mrs J E Heath Paul & Kay Henderson Basil Henley & Caro Barton Mr & Mrs Michael Hewett Valerie & Peter Hewett Michael & Genevieve Higgin Mr & Mrs Patrick Higham William & Janine Hillary Mr & Mrs Christopher Hills Mr & Mrs Herman C Hintzen Frank Hitchman Mr & Mrs Hansgeorg B Hofmann Mr David Holland Roger & Kate Holmes Mr Charles Holroyd Mr & Mrs Bart Homan David & Mal Hope–Mason Bernard & Clare Horn Gabrielle Howatson Mrs Richard Hughes Mrs Marie–Josee Hunter Robin & Judy Hutson Mrs Madeleine F Hyde Howard & Anne Hyman Mr & Mrs J Illingworth Mr Charles Irby Mr & Mrs Peter James Martin Jay Mr & Mrs Michael Jodrell Mr & Mrs Duncan Johnson Sally & Scot Johnston M & C M Jonas Owen & Jane Jonathan Alan & Judi Jones Mr & Mrs Edward Jones Anonymous Mr & Mrs Pierre Jungels Vincent & Amanda Keaveny Judith Kelley Dr John Kelynack Tim & Ginny Kempster Andrew Kennedy & Lindsay Cornish Mrs D Kennedy Michael & Julia Kerby Mr & Mrs James Kiernan Kevin Kissane Anonymous Stephen & Miriam Kramer Diana & Terence Kyle Mr Brian Lanaghan Mr & Mrs Bill Lawes Sarah Leader Belinda Leathes James & Hilary Leek Mrs Brian Levy Sonya Leydecker Mrs Roger Liddiard The Viscount Lifford Mr & Mrs Anthony Littlejohn

Mr Dieter Losse Mr & Mrs Henry Lumley Mr P M Luttman–Johnson Mr Robin Mackenzie Mr & Hon Mrs Ian MacNabb J J Macnamara Esq Mr & Mrs David Maitland Anonymous Anonymous Tim Martin Brian & Penelope Matthews Wendy & Michael Max Mr & Mrs A Mayhook–Walker Mr & Mrs Douglas McGregor Michael McLaren QC & Caroline McLaren Mrs Jane McVittie William Middleton–Smith Mr D & Dr J Mitchell Mr Patrick Mitford Slade Brigid Monkhouse Mrs Jonathan Moore Mr John Moreton Anonymous Anonymous Edward & Susannah Moss David & Angela Moss Brian & Claudine Muirhead Douglas Munro–Faure Mr & Mrs W Neville Bowen John & Camilla Newbegin Chris & Annie Newell Mr & Mrs Michael Nicholson Pamela & Bruce Noble Mr & Mrs Peter Nutting Barry & Sue O’Brien Mrs Daye Offer Victoria O’Keeffe Mr & Bernard Oppetit Mr & Mrs Robert Orr Janet & Michael Orr Nick & Lavinia Owen Nicola Ozanne Mrs V Pakenham Mrs Charles Parker Sir Michael & Lady Parker Mr & Mrs Jonathan Patrick Anonymous Mr Michael Pearl Mr & Mrs Donald Pearse Mr & Mrs Tim Peat Peter & Charlotte Peddie Ron & Lyn Peet Mr & Mrs Peter Peirse–Duncombe Mr & Mrs Erik Penser Mr & Mrs R Pertwee Mr & Mrs Robin Petherick Jonathan & Gillian Pickering Roger Pincham CBE Matthew Pintus David & Christina Pitman Anthony Pitt–Rivers Mr Alex Popplewell Sally Posgate David & Jill Potter Jane Poulter

21 •

I Montecchi e I Capuleti Nevill Holt Rising Stars 2007 Director Dominic Cooke Revival Director Ptolemy Christie Designer Robert Innes Hopkins Revival Designer Louie Whitemore Andrew Conley (Lorenzo) and Matthew Waldren consider the day's news

Mrs Rosemary Sandars Mr David Pritchard Peter & Carolyn Scoble Mr Anthony Pullinger Mr & Mrs Gordon Scutt Mrs Rosalind Quaife Mr & Mrs G Seligman Dr Shirley Radcliffe Jonathan & Elizabeth Selzer Peter Ralls QC John & Tita Shakeshaft Mike & Jessamy Reynolds Tony Shead Mr Clive Richards OBE DL Mr & Mrs Anthony Richmond–Watson Tony & Pam Shearer Robert & Felicity Shepherd Caroline Roboh Sir David & Lady Sieff Alex & Caroline Roe Anthony Skyrme MA (Cantab) Mr Nicolas Rogerson Richard & Amanda Slowe Martyn Rose Dr Anthony Smoker Emma Rose & Quentin Williams Joe & Lucy Smouha Lionel & Sue Rosenblatt Peter & Sue Sonksen Peter Rosenthal Crispin & Jo Southgate David Rosier Mr & Mrs C D Spooner Mr & Mrs E J M Ross Brian Stevens Pierre & Anna Rostand David & Debbie Stileman Mr & Mrs James Roundell Lisa Stone Zsalya

Rosy & David Walker Charles & Sian Stonehill Mrs Denise Wallace Mr J Strachan Mr & Mrs Tim Watkins Mr & Mrs Tom Sweet–Escott Dr Kenneth Watters Caroline & Phillip Sykes Christian Wells Mrs Patricia Taylor Mr & Mrs Graham J West Jeremy & Marika Taylor Richard & Susan Westcott The Hon Louis & Kate Taylor Jane & Ian White Mr & Mrs Max Thum Mr & Mrs Howard Wilkinson W P M Tops Mr & Mrs Owain Williams Mr & Mrs Brian Trafford Isobel Williams Mr & Mrs John Tremlett Mr & Mrs Patrick J d’A Willis Joanna Trollope Anonymous Sir Thomas & Lady Troubridge Mr & Mrs Strachan Mike & Tracey Turner Mr & Mrs Craig Wilson Sir Michael & Lady Turner Lady Muir Wood Mr & Mrs James Turner David & Vivienne Woolf X N C Villers Mr & Mrs O Winkler von Stiernhielm Mr & Mrs Richard Worthington Peter & Bridget Wrangham C v Unruh Richard Youell Anonymous

The School of Plato 2008 •

22 •

Mr & Mrs S R Barrow Mrs Nicky Brown Rick & Susie Abbott Caroline Barton Mr & Mrs Charles H Brown Tim & Philippa Abell Val & Christopher Bateman Tom Cross Brown Mr William Abrahams Stanley Bates Mr Chris Brown Mrs Tikki Adorian Richard Bayley Finn Bruce Mrs Peter Ainsley Mr Geoffrey Budd Pam Alexander & Roger Booker Anonymous Anne Beckwith–Smith Mr & Mrs Geoffrey Burnand Mr & Mrs Jeremy Amos Mr & Mrs James Beery Mrs E V Burridge Angela Anderson John & Anne Bevan Chris & Clare Burrows Phillip Arnold & Mr Robert Bickerdike Mr & Mrs Martin Burton

John Reuben Davies Roger W Binns Clive Butler Mr & Mrs David Ashcroft Katherine Ashton & Brian Young The Hon Mrs Diana Birtwistle Peter Byrne Mr & Mrs Murray Bywater The Hon Mrs Nicholas Assheton Mr & Mrs Carey Blake Elisabeth & Bob Boas Dr Bella Caiger Robert & Janice Atkin Mr & Mrs Anthony Bodie Malcolm Campbell Mark & Priscilla Austen Annabel & Alverne Bolitho Mr A J Carruthers Jane & Robert Avery Mr & Mrs Nicholas Carter Mr & Mrs Nicholas Backhouse David & Margaret Bonsall Felicity Bagenal Mr & Mrs Edward Booth–Clibborn Mr & Mrs H B Carter Andrew & Jacquie Cartwright Mrs N Bagshawe Mr & Mrs Julian Bower Mr & Mrs Charles Cassels Mrs Andrew Bailey Mr & Mrs David Bowyer Denis & Ronda Cassidy Anonymous The Hon Robert Boyle The Hon Mrs A R Cecil Margaret Bailey Mr & Mrs David Brewer The Lord Chesham Jean & Richard Baldwin Mr & Mrs David Briggs I H Chisholm Caroline J Barber Charles & Patricia Brims Mr & Mrs Andrew Christie Anonymous Robin & Penny Broadhurst Julia Chute Mr & Mrs J Barlow & Adam & Sarah Broke Trevor & Ann Clarke

Miss K & G Barlow Mr Charles Bromfield Mrs Joy Howe Clarke Mr James & Lady Emma Barnard Mr Andrew Brooke

Diana Clarkson Mr & Mrs Adam Cleal Bruce Cleave Mrs Janice Coates Dr John Cobb Mrs Sandra Cockram John Coke & Suzanne Lemieux Mrs Laurence Colchester Mrs John Colwell Dr Peter Constable Dr Mavis Conway Mr Hugh Cookson Robert & Morella Cottam Anonymous Mrs Katrina Craig Mr & Mrs Christopher Crouch Mr David Crowe Mr Andrew D Cummins Lady Curtis Elizabeth & Rene Dalucas Dr & Mrs C Davenport–Jones Mike & Suzette Davis Toby de Lotbiniere Count Michel de Selys Baron Wencelas de Traux de Wardin B Dean Mr & Mrs Michael Del Mar

Mr Adrian C Dewey Mr & Mrs Lindsay Dibden Michael Dingle Mr & Mrs Robert Dixon Mr & Mrs Matthew Dobbs Mrs S Dodson Anonymous Dr Barbara Domayne–Hayman Professor T A & Mrs B Downes Mr & Mrs Reg Drury Mrs Cathy Dumelow Jamie Dundas Mrs Dickie Dutton Mr J M Dyson Mr & Mrs Neil Edmonstone Malcolm & Yvonne Edwards Michael & Wendy Evans Roger Facer Steven F G Fachada Barry Fearn Esq TD Mr & Mrs Graham Ferguson Clare M Ferguson Mr Michael Fitzgerald Mr & Mrs Brian Fitzpatrick Mr & Mrs Andrew Fleming Gillian & Leslie Fletcher Mr Jonathan Flory J A Floyd Charitable Settlement

Nicholette MacDonald–Brown R B Petre Mr David Hopkinson CBE Mrs Andrea Frears Stephen Hopwood & Nicky Road Mr & Mrs Peter Macfarlane Mr & Mrs Tom Pigott James & Diana Freeland Bruce & Maggie Macfarlane Elaine & Nigel Horder Anthony & Clare Pinsent Dr Hugh Freeman Derek Mackay Mr & Mrs W R Horne Ann & Richard Plummer Mrs Joyce Fuller Mr James Mackintosh Mr & Mrs Michael Pragnell Bamber & Christina Gascoigne Mrs A Hosie Mr Alastair MacPherson Barbara Hosking Mr & Mrs Robert Gayner Judith Prickett & Raymond Sutton Sir Nevil Macready BT CBE Mr & Mrs David Hossack Mrs Thryza Gaynor Edward Priday Mr & Mrs T Maier Jacqueline & Jonathan Gestetner Mr & Mrs W N J Howard Mrs D E Priestley Bill & Sue Main Kate Howles Mr & Mrs Tim Gibbons Jennifer Priestley David & Mary Male Mr & Mrs William Hughes Brett & Caroline Gill David & Judith Pritchard Tom & Sarah Manners Iain & Claudia Hughes Dr & Mrs John Gilmurray Peter & Sally Procopis Robert Hugill & David Hughes Mr & Mrs Jonathan Marks Anonymous Mr & Mrs Stephen Proctor Philip & Valerie Marsden Ms Siu Fun Hui Dr Richard Godwin–Austen Penny Proudlock Mr & Mrs Bruce Mauleverer Duncan & Jennie Goldie–Scot Mrs Sue Humphrey Mr & Mrs Michael Pullan Mrs A P Mayne Mrs C J Hunt Dr & Mrs Goodison Robin Purchas Mr John Mayne Mrs Andrew Huntley Colin & Letts Goodwin Gill & Clive Purkiss Christopher & Clare McCann Mrs Elizabeth Hyde John Gordon Libby Purves Rosalind McCarthy Peter Ingram Sir Alexander & Lady Graham Lady Rebecca Purves Anonymous Mr & Mrs Timothy Ingram Peter Granger Mrs Chris Quayle Ramsay Ismail & David Crellin Madeline McGill Anonymous Mr & Mrs Gerald Raingold Mrs Caroline McNeil Mrs Rachel James Mr Robert B Gray Sir Peter & Lady Ramsbotham Mr Paul Megson Mr & Mrs Charles Jamieson Mr & Mrs Anthony Green Anonymous Mr & Mrs Nigel Melville Mrs Eileen Jamieson Mick & Denise Green The Hon.Philip Remnant Dr & Mrs Patrick Mill Mrs Karin Jardine–Brown Hugh & Sarah Green Mrs Antony Rimell & Mrs Dr John Millbank Mr Simon Jeffreys David & Barbara Greggains Grenfell Bailey Peter Miller & Hilary Kingsley Sir Peter & Lady Job Mrs A Grenfell–Bailey Lady Ritblat Diana & Edward Mocatta Mr Nigel Johnson–Hill Mr & Mrs David A Grenier Sir Miles & Lady Rivett–Carnac Peter & Patricia Mommersteeg Zofia & Christopher Road Mr & Mrs Nicholas Jonas John & Ann Grieves Mr Douglas Jones Mr & Mrs Tom Grillo Mr & Mrs Martin Monier–Williams Mr & Mrs James Roberts Mr & Mrs S Crawshay Jones Pamela Gross Miles & Vivian Roberts Vivienne Alexandra Monk Avril Jones Carol & Edmund Grower Mrs Denise Roberts Mr & Mrs Richard Moore Russell Jones FCIM Mrs Gerard Guerrini James & Catharine Robertson Mrs David Moore–Gwyn Prof D L & Mrs S Russell–Jones Evelyn Morgner & Ian G L Hogg Anonymous Nerissa Guest Dr Alan Jordan Anonymous Mr Michael Rogerson TD Dr Chris Morley Prof Heather Joshi OBE The Hon F B Guinness Mr John Ross Sara Morton Professor Michael Joy OBE Mr & Mrs Paul Gunn Tom & Kate Rossiter Mr J Andrew Morton Lord & Lady Judd Richard & Judy Haes Mrs John Nangle Margaret Rowe & John Schlesinger Mr & Mrs Leprince Jungbluth Mrs David Hagan Sir Paul & Lady Neave Mr Alan Roxburgh Jonathan & Clarinda Kane Allyson Hall Jeremy & Elizabeth Nicholson Joan & Lewis Rudd George Nissen Richard & Susie Saville Mr & Mrs Philippe & Jane Hallauer Anonymous Mr & Mrs Oliver Kinsey Sir Edwin & Lady Nixon Mr John Schofield Tim & Jenny Hamilton Mr & Mrs Martin Knight Hon Michael & Mrs Nolan Mr & Mrs Alistair Scott Richard & Janet Hanna Mr & Mrs Nadim Korban John & Dianne Norton Mr & Mrs Colin Scott–Malden Mrs Valerie Hardwick Jerry & Adele Kuehl Francis & Amanda Norton Rupert Sebag–Montefiore Miss Lorna Harper Zarrina Kurtz Lt Col & Mrs Richard Norton James & Karin Sehmer Mr & Mrs G T Harrap Mr & Mrs Gerald Lambert Mr & Mrs D Novakovic Sue & Gerry Sharp Jocelin & Cherry Harris Toby Landau & Nudrat Majeed The Hon Michael & Mrs O’Brien Mrs Simon Shaw Dr Fred Haslam Anonymous Dr & Mrs Robin Odgers Michael & Jackie Shipster Mr & Mrs Brian Haughton Rear Admiral & Mrs John Lang Mr Preben Oeye & Mr John Derrick Caroline & Mark Silver Helen & Kevin Hayes Patricia Latham Professor David & Mrs Gillian Mrs Linda Haysey Anthony & Lorraine Ogden Jane & Andrew Lax Silverman Mr James Hayward Mr John Older John Learmonth Mr & Mrs Peter Simor Mrs Maggie Heath Dr Cecily O’Neill Professor Natalie Lee Mr & Mrs Mark Simpson N G Hebditch John A Paine Mrs Jane Leefe Ian Skeet Mr & Mrs Nigel Henley George & Christine Palmer John & Jill Leek Sir Jock Slater Alan & Ann Herring Mr C A Palmer Tomkinson Jan Leigh & Jan Rynkiewicz Mrs Michael Smart Mr John Heywood Anonymous Dr C Lester Russell & Julia Smart Mr Adam Hiddleston Mrs Blake Parker Gareth R Lewis Mr & Mrs Robin Smeeton Mrs Patricia Hingston Clive & Deborah Parritt Stuart & Bridget Lewis Lisa Bolgar Smith Mrs S A Hinton Mr & Mrs Derek Patrick Mr & Mrs Eric Leyns Barry & Gill Smith Marianne Hinton Mr & Mrs Paul Pattinson Mr & Mrs Adrian Lightfoot Dr Stewart Smith Mr & Mrs Peter Hobbs Mr & Mrs Donald Payne James & Susie Long Stephen Smyth Mr & Mrs Mark Hodgkinson John & Jacqui Pearson Anne Longden Pippa & Ian Southward Mr & Mrs I F Hodgson Ann & Nigel Pearson Brigadier Desmond Longfield Mr & Mrs J P Spencer Mr & Mrs Daniel Hodson Mr & Mrs Alexander Pease Mr Peter Lord Mr J G Stanford Mr R E Hofer Mr & Mrs Anthony Peck Mrs Simon Loup Anonymous Sophie & Guy Holborn Claudia Pendred Sarah & Bertrand Louveaux Heather Stewart Mr Robin Holmes Mr J Perree Mr & Mrs Alan Lovell Christopher & Tineke Stewart Mrs M Lucille Holroyd Mr & Mrs Nicholas Perry Mr Joseph Lulham The Hon Henry & Mrs Stewart Peter & Marianne Hooley Mrs Keith Grant Peterkin Donald Campbell Mrs Anne Stoneham Mr Christopher Hopkinson Mr Charles Petre

G J Stranks Ian & Jenny Streat Toby & Fiona Stubbs Major John Sturgis MC Liliane Sutton Mrs Suzi Swete Anonymous Mr & Mrs John Taylor Mrs Fleur Taylor Mrs M Tesolin Mr & Mrs P M Thomas Mr Anthony John Thompson Anonymous Mr & Mrs R Tickner Mrs Colin Tillie Mr & Mrs G W Tindley Prof & Mrs G M Tonge Dr Michael Toseland Veronique & Alexander Trotter Dr & Mrs James A Turtle Mr & Mrs J Vale L C Varnavides Dr Raman Verma Rosemary Vernon Mrs H R W Vernon Peter Verstage Mr & Mrs Hugo Vickers Nick Viner & Victoria Boyarsky Baron C von Bechtolsheim David von Simson Mr Anthony Walker Mr & Mrs Andrew Walker Sir Timothy & Lady Walker Mrs Jane Wallace George & Pat Wallace Mr & Mrs Guy Waller Janet & Roger Wallhouse Dr Sarah Wallis Mrs Anjali Walton Richard & Kristina Walton Mr Donald Birts Ian & Victoria Watson Katherine Watts Colin & Suzy Webster Mr Niels Weise Roger Westcott Mrs Joy M Weston Kay & Graham Westwell Tony & Fiona White Harvey & Diana White Sue Whitley Sue Whitley Mr & Mrs I J Whitting Mrs Sarah Wilkinson Christopher & Emma Will Prof Roger Williams CBE &

Mrs Williams Mrs Philip Williams Anonymous Anonymous Simon & Lucinda Williams Peter Wilmot–Sitwell Christopher Wilson Mr W S Witts Abu Khamis Mr R Wodehouse David & Vicky Wormsley Mr Martin S N Wright Anonymous

23 •

The Founding Donors 1998 – 9 •

24 •

Mr Mark Andrews

Professor Ian Craft

Mr William Gronow Davis

Mr & Mrs Charles Mackay

Mr & Mrs Anthony Townsend

Mr Felix Appelbe BSc FRSA

Lydia & Miles d’Arcy-Irvine

Mr Michael Hoare

Mr Harvey McGregor QC

Mr & Mrs Max Ulfane

Mr Peter Arengo-Jones OBE

Sir David & Lady Davies

Mr & Mrs Donald Kahn

Greg & Gail Melgaard

Mrs Marie Veeder

Mr David Buchler

Mr Peter Foy

Mr T Landon

Mr & Mrs Hugh Peppiatt

Mr & Mrs Graham John West

Mr William F Charnley

Mr Simon Freakley

James & Béatrice Lupton

Mrs Lucinda Stevens

Systems Union Group Ltd – Ashe Park Mineral Water – Baring Asset Management – British Steel Distribution – BT Alex Brown – Hays plc – Wilde Sapte Barclays Private Banking – Catering & Allied – Coutts & Co – Biddle – Denton Hall – Houston & Church – Knight Frank Leopold de Rothschild Trust – Well Marine Reinsurance Brokers Mr & Mrs James Airy

Mr & Mrs M Cooper-Mitchell

Mr & Mrs Wyatt Gates

Mrs Julian Jeffs

Mr Laurence O’Mara

Mr David F M Stileman

John & Jackie Alexander

Mr & Mrs R G Cottam

Lt Col David R Gilbert

Mrs Lynette G Joly JP

Mrs Deidre Pegg

Mr & Mrs Ian Streat

Mr & Mrs R Atkinson-Willes

Mr David Crowe

His Honour Judge

Mrs Z L Kelton

Miss Mahtab Pouria

Mr R H Sutton

Miss Anne Beckwith-Smith

Mr Nicholas de Zoete

Mr John Learmonth

Mrs C H Powell

Mr Peter Tilley

Mr & Dr J Beechey

Ms K Deuss

Mr Robert B Gray

Mr Gerald Levin

Mrs Joan L Prior

The Hon Mrs W Tufnell

Sheila Lady Bernard

Gillian Devas

Mr & Mrs J C Green

Mr & Mrs Mark Lomas

Mrs Thomas Redfern

K Sandberg & T Watkins

Mr Robert Bickerdike

Mr Anthony Doggart

Mr John Hammond

Mr & Mrs David Maitland

Mr John A Rickards

Mr & Mrs T Wightman

Mrs M R Bonsall

Robyn Durie

Mr & Mrs Peter Hobbs

Anonymous

Dr Janet Ritterman

Andrew & Emma Wilson

Mrs Cherida Cannon

Mr & Mrs W L Eddlestone

Mr & Mrs G Hollingbery

Gordon & Julia Medcalf

Mrs Martin St Quinton

Olivia Winterton

Mr Patrick Carter

Stuart & Anne Fowler

Mr Charles Irby

Lord Montagu of Beaulieu

Mr Anthony Salz

Dr Nicholas Wright

Mr & Mrs Bernard Cazenove

Archie & Henrietta Fraser

Mr & Mrs Malcolm Isaac

Mrs Jonathan Moore

Anne Lady Scott

Mr Tim Wright

Mrs Justin Clark

Gen Sir David Fraser GCB OBE

Mr Barry Jackson

Mr Barry O’Brien

Mr & Mrs Philip Snuggs

Mrs Paul Zisman

Mr & Mrs Gerald Acher

Mr Oliver Colman

Mr & Mrs Philip Hallett

David & Linda Lloyd Jones

Mr & Mrs Michael Orr

Mr & Mrs Mark Silver

Richard & Delia Baker

Cynthia Colman

Mr Clifford Hampton

Mr Simon Lofthouse

Major General & Mrs Simon Pack

Mr Paul Skinner

Mr & Mrs Nicholas Baring

Dr P M de Z Cooke

Mr Alan H Harrison

Dr Peter Lyndon-Skeggs

Mark & Rachel Pearson

Mrs David Smith

Mr & Mrs Tom Bartlam

Mr & Mrs Brian Cornish

Angela & David Harvey

Mrs Stuart Macnaghten

Ron & Lyn Peet

The Hon & Mrs Jeremy Soames

Dori Bateson

Mr Peter Davidson

The Bulldog Trust

The Hon Dwight Makins

Mr & Mrs Nicholas Phelps-Brown

Mr J G Stanford

Mr Peter Bedford

Guy Boney & Bente Dawkins

Dr & Mrs James F Hill

Mr & Mrs Charles Marriott

The Countess of Portsmouth

Mrs Donald Stearns

Mr & Mrs Robin Behar

Mr Peter Dicks

Mr & Mrs Hansgeorg Hofmann

Mr John Marden

Mr & Mrs David Potter

Mr R Kirk Stephenson

Mr Alan Bell

Mr & Mrs Malcolm Edwards

Mr Peter Holland

Mr William Mather

Bruce & Lizzie Powell

Mr & Mrs Richard H Sykes

Mr Keith Benham

Austin & Ragna Erwin

Dr Jonathan Holliday

Wendy & Michael Max

Mark & Veronica Powell

Mr Anthony John Thompson

Mrs M Bennett

Mr T Alun Evans CMG

Mr J P Hungerford

Mr & Mrs P N J May

Mr & Mrs Richard Priestley

Professor & Mrs G M Tonge

Sir Christopher & Lady Bland

Alastair & Robina Farley

Robin & Pat Ilbert

Mr & Mrs T McMaddy

Mrs Barbara Rait

Adair Turner & Orna Ni-Chionna

Mrs Gerald Bland

Mr & Mrs J fforde

The Countess of Iveagh

Mr Nigel McNair Scott

Sir Peter & Lady Ramsbotham

Bill Tustin

Mr & Mrs Simon Borrows

Mr & Mrs Roger Fidgen

Mr & Mrs Evan James

Mr & Mrs A S McWhirter

Mr Myrddin Rees MS FRCS

Mr & Mrs David Vaughan

Mr Graham Bourne

Hamish & Sophie Forsyth

Mr Martin Jay

Mr James Meade

Mr David Reid Scott

The Hon Mrs Lucy Vaughan

Mr Peter Braunwalder

Mr & Mrs Robin Fox

Mr & Mrs David Jervis

Leni Lady Miller

David & Alex Rhodes

Mrs Peter Vey

Mr & Mrs Keith Bromley

Mr Andrew Frost

Mr J T L Jervoise

Mr & Mrs Patrick Mitford Slade

Anonymous

Caroline Vroom

Mr Robin W T Buchanan

Mr Stephen Frost

Neil & Elizabeth Johnson

Miss Charlotte Moore

Mrs Eric Robinson

Mr Hady Wakefield

Mr & Mrs Mark Burch

Mr Nicholas R Gold

Mr & Mrs A N Joy

Elizabeth Morison

Clare Rowland

Lady Jane Wallop

Mrs James Butler

Lady Shauna Gosling

Ms Walia Kani

Mr Michael J Morley

Mr & Mrs James Sabben-Clare

Dr & Mrs Oliver Wethered

Sir Euan Calthorpe Bt

Mr & Mrs George Goulding

Mr Vincent Keaveny

Dr & Mrs Julian Muir

Sir Timothy Sainsbury

M Whalley & K Goldie-Morrison

Mr & Mrs Michael Campbell

Mr Verne Grinstead

Maureen & Jim Kelly

Lord Neill of Bladen QC

Mrs John Salkeld

Mr F E B Witts

Mr Maximilian Carter

Mr Michael Gwinnell

Peter Kerfack & Russell Townend

Sir Charles Nicholson Bt

Lady Salomon

Mr Charles Young

Sir Peter & Lady Cazalet

Mr Philip Gwyn

Mr & Mrs David Leathers

John & Dianne Norton

Mr Richard Scopes

David & Elizabeth Challen

Mr & Mrs Charles Haddon-Cave QC

Mr & Mrs Adam Lee

John Julius Norwich

The Countess of Selborne

Martin Graham QC

BEAT THE CONGESTION CHARGE

FOR SALE ICE CREAM VAN Converted Mini, no petrol engine, battery–powered One careful owner £ 5,000 contact Rachel Pearson 01962 73 73 63

25 •

26 •

A Staircase for all seasons •

IN 1972 THE DOORS panelling, flooring and other important elements of the interior of The Grange were removed and sold.

The main staircase and various items were bought by Donald Insall, a conservation architect who hoped that one day they might be re–instated. Over 20 years later, Mr Insall sold the staircase to English Heritage, guardians of the property, who stored it at Fort Brockhurst near Gosport. And that is where it is today.

The staircase bought by Insall dated to around 1870 when the architect John Cox gave the interior of The Grange a Victorian makeover. However, a staircase of the same format – a single central flight of stairs that splits right and left sweeping you up to the floor above – existed in the 17th century red brick house. When, in the early 1800s William Wilkins transformed the house into a Greek temple, he retained the interior layout of the house and this staircase.

Much information relating to the house was lost when Baring's offices received a direct hit during the War. Of the remaining handful of images of the staircase the earliest is a watercolour thought to date from around 1825. On the newel posts are elaborate baskets of fruit and flowers. Such images should be treated with caution. The proportion of the newel posts appear slightly wider than expected and we shall never know whether or not the baskets actually existed.

There is a 1870 photograph of the John Cox staircase. He removed most of the earlier staircase but retained the original newel posts and he fitted over them a Palladian style sleeve.

Cox' design is in the spirit of the earlier staircase but uses a mechanical form of neatly cut repetition (opposite 4).

One cold February day I was fortunate enough to visit Fort Brockhurst where elements of this once–grand staircase were scattered around a number of casemates: a piece of newel post in one casemate, a handrail in another, a tread, the string . . .

A casemate is vaulted brick structure (opposite top left) for the storage of munitions. Now fitted with shelves, they store a vast array of treasures from The Grange and other buildings: marble skirtings, plaster cornices, door frames and the staircase.

It was like a giant jigsaw puzzle without the picture on the lid of the box. We didn't know if there were pieces missing, or pieces from another jigsaw. The only way to figure it out was to try to piece together the elements and in laying out the collection of timbers it has become evident that much of the oak remains.

The stripping out of the house in the 1970’s has preserved many original features which might otherwise have been lost. Re– uniting the house with its staircase will be exciting.

Simon Goddard of The Goddard Partnership LLP Historic Buildings, Design and Conservation Consultants

opposite from top L to R: 1 The vaulted casemates at Fort Brockhurst 2 The brick formwork over which the staircase was built 3 The elements are laid out 4 The "mechanical form of neatly cut repetition" 5 – 8 More laying out below from L to R: 1 Treads 2 Three parts of the jigsaw are fitted together 3 Chris Morgan of The Goddard Partnership and Michael Smith, Master Carpenter of R J Smith & Co fit the John Cox sleeve over the earlier newel post

27 •

GRANGE PARK OPERA’S PORTFOLIO of DISTINCTIVE DESTINATIONS

Have you a hideaway abroad that you would let to other Grange Park supporters?

Rachel Pearson is assembling a portfolio for our members 01962 73 73 63 rachel@grangeparkopera.co.uk

Riad Wasfi in the middle of Marrakech photo credit Tania Fallon

28 •

A few words on Surtitles •

THE USE OF SURTITLES BEGAN AROUND 1983 and has revolutionized opera–going, Only very few argue against them either on the grounds that they are distracting or that understanding the text is secondary to the enjoyment of the music and the production in general. Prima Ia musica e doppo le parole.

A standard surtitle display comprises two lines each of about 40 characters. Rarely will a word–for–word translation fit on the display and so the editing begins. There is no room for self– indulgence. Discretion and information are the watchwords.

PACE The surtitles need to be presented at a steady pace allowing a minimum of four seconds to read the two lines. A quick succession of titles is tiring and prevents the audience engaging with the actor as the words tumble from his mouth. If there is a long gap between two titles, the display must be blanked at a suitable point. If text is left on the display for a long time, the audience reads it, shifts its attention back to the stage, then glances back only to have to re–read the old title.

TONE Should the tone of the titles directly reflect the production or be of a more neutral tone? Take, for example, Massenet's Thais.

Anatole France’s story is set around 400 AD but David Fielding’s production at Grange Park in 2006 was contemporary. In this situation the surtitles must contradict neither what is being spoken on stage (that is, the words of the libretto) nor what the audience is seeing.

AN IDEA AT A SINGLE GLANCE A single idea must not be split over two sets of surtitles.

PUNCTUATION Striving for visual clarity and economy, the normal rules of punctuation are abandoned. Full stops are not needed and a dash is more visible than a comma. If two characters are speaking on the same surtitle, each is preceded by a dash.

JOKES The display must not anticipate either spoken or visual jokes. So the actors make the audience laugh and not the machine.

SURTITLES WHEN PERFORMING IN ENGLISH The starting point is always to perform an opera in its own language. In 2005 Grange Park presented The Enchantress by Tchaikowsky and because it was felt the Russian language was an essential part of the opera’s sound world, it was performed in Russian. The Gambler is a very different kettle of fish. It has very little lyrical music and a great deal of text – so much so that, performed in Russian, with even heavily edited surtitles, the audience would have spent the evening looking at the display and not the stage. So it was performed in English but much of the text was, unfortunately, not audible and so many people said they wished it had been given surtitles.

THE CUSTOMER IS ALWAYS RIGHT This year's Bluebeard will be performed in English with surtitles kindly sponsored by Mike Hall and Shuna Mackillop.

29 •

30 •

Grange Park Opera 2008 •

PATRON The Rt Hon Lord Ashburton KG { BOARD William Garrett (Chairman) The Hon Mark Baring { Iain Burnside { Simon Freakley { Wasfi Kani OBE { The Hon Mary-Ann Sheehy { CHIEF EXECUTIVE Wasfi Kani OBE { EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR Michael Moody { ALRESFORD OFFICE Rachel Pearson {

Membership & development Helen Sennett Company Manager Jan Tuffield Box Office / Press Annabel Ross Finance Caroline Sheahan Administration Lucy Stewart–Roberts Administration Emma Kjellin Administration Richard Loader { PRODUCTION MGT Alison Ritchie THE RESTAURANT Anthony Lane & Heidi Coles Food Kaye Thompson Creative Catering, Hampshire Champagne Laurent–Perrier { Wine John Armit Wines { Festival Programme EARLE & LUDLOW Phil Ellis {

{ associated with Grange Park since its inception in 1998 ENDOWMENT FUND BOARD Mark Andrews (Chairman) { Hamish Forsyth { William Garrett Wasfi Kani OBE { Mark Lacey { Marie Veeder { THERMOI Penny Akroyd Jean Amos Jane Barber Nikki Barker Judith Becher Sue Bristow Sue Brown Lorna Clive { Virginia Collett Henrietta Cooke Louise Cox Pru & Douglas de Lavison Gill Dockray Andrea Harris Inge Hunter Peter & Moira Jackson Charmian Jones Penelope Kellie Sue Kent Angela Larard Susie Lintott Sue Paice { Lucy Pease Caroline Perry Carolyn Ranald Jo Seligman

ADVISORY COUNCIL Sir David Davies (Chairman) { Gerry Acher CBE { Miles d'Arcy Irvine { Dame Vivien Duffield CBE Jacob Grierson { Donald Kahn {

Katharine Sellon Ann Smart Di Threlfall The Hon Gina Tufnell Clare Whitfield Barbara Woods MUSIC CONSULTANT Anthony Legge Assisted by Audrey Hyland RÉPÉTITEURS Jeremy Cooke { (Bluebeard / Falstaff) Suzanna Stranders (Fanciulla) Krystian Belliere (Rusalka) LANGUAGE COACH Patrizia Dina (Fanciulla) Jarmila Karas (Rusalka) Diletta Neri (Falstaff) YOUNG ASSISTANTS Omar Shahryar Bluebeard Richard Jones Rusalka Vali Mahlouji Rusalka Andrew Gourlay Asst chorus master

James Lupton { Viscount Norwich { David Ross Victoria Sharp The Hon Jeremy Soames {

TECHNICAL STAGE MANAGER Declan Costello DEPUTIES Frank Crossley Jim Plumridge STAGE TECHNICIANS Mark Lovell Chris Taylor Nigel White Tom Finden SOUND CONSULTANT Tom Lishman LIGHTING PROGRAMMER Warren Letton

STAGE MANAGERS Marius Ronning (Bluebeard) Chrissie Chandler (Fanciulla) Judith Cound (Rusalka) Linsey Hall (Falstaff) DEP'TY STAGE MANAGERS Iain Mackenzie-Humphreys (Bluebeard) Linsey Hall (Fanciulla) Samantha Kerrison (Rusalka) Jen Raith (Falstaff) ASM Karen Havercan (Fanciulla) Jacqueline Carden (Rusalka)

CHIEF ELECTRICIAN Dan Last DEPUTIES Peter Mous Wesley Hiscock Andy Turner SETS Bowerwood (Fanciulla) Visual Scene (Falstaff & Rusalka) LIGHTING Whitelight

31 •

COSTUME SUPERVISORS Sarah Bowern

(Bluebeard / Fanciulla) Gabrielle Dalton (Rusalka) Yvonne Milnes (Falstaff)

SUPERVISOR OF LONG MARQUEE Lizzie Holmes

ORCHESTRA MANAGER

FRONT OF HOUSE Jill Hardy

PRODUCTION MGT

DEPUTY Harriet Balsom

CHAMPAGNE BAR Jack Gardener Tom Monk

Guy C Ongley

SITE & HOUSEKEEPING Sue Paice Karen Wheeler Matthew Barrett Jack Barrett Mike Biehn John Clarkson Anya Clarkson Ben Cross teamleader Harry Dudgeon James Jenner Charlie Perrott Henrietta Plint Kim Pullinger JJ Pullinger Sophie Smith Emma Stevens Laura Stevens Michael Walker

Nigel Vincent

WIGS Campbell Young WIG MISTRESS Helen Keelan WARDROBE MISTRESS Alyson Fielden { Assisted by Rebecca Hopkins.

COSTUME/PROP/DRESSER Chloe Simcox WARDROBE ASSISTANT Amanda Brothwell COSTUME MAKERS Elisa Threadgold Bluebeard Judith Ward Bluebeard Jane Gonin Fanciulla Janet Christmas Rusalka Karen Crichton Rusalka Leigh Cranston Rusalka Jane Gill Rusalka Suzanne Parkinson Rusalka Kathy Pedersen Rusalka Student placements Eva Plumb Hester Woodward COSTUME HIRE Angels

32 •

Solicitor Bircham Dyson Bell LLP Alistair Collett { Accountant WILKINSON LATHAM Sophie Holborn Planning Consultant Nathaniel Lichfield Iain Rhind {

TENT KEEPER Peter Paice Derek Lintott (assistant) ROSES & MORE John & Victoria Salkeld {

at Nevill Holt

Mark Lacey at Nevill Holt

HEAD OF STAGE at Nevill Holt

SITE MANAGER at Nevill Holt

Fi Smith-Bingham { THERMOI at Nevill Holt

Gillian Horrocks Clare Pearce-Smith Eric & Flick Craven Geraldine Henson Chris & Helen Roberts Richard Mansfield Valerie Mansfield Frances Fray Colin & Sarah Forsyth Judy Bennion Tor & Richard Heyman

ENGLISH CHAMBER ORCHESTRA Violins Paul Willey John Mills George Hlawiczka Ruth Ehrlich Maxim Kosinov Susan Brisccoe Richard Milone Elizabeth Wexler Matthew Elston Natalia Bonner Edward Bale Catherine Schofield Jeremy Morris Jeremy Isaac Kate Robinson Imogen Richards Violas Jonathan Barritt Ian Rathbone Erin Nolan Martin Humbey Nancy Johnson Cellos Jesper Svedburg Lionel Handy Julia Graham Richard Birchall Alexandra McKensie Basses Paul Sherman Beverley Jones Anita Langridge Flutes Kate Hill Robert Manasse Nicholas Bricht

Oboes Philip Harmer Adrian Rowlands Ruth Contractor Clarinets Marie Lloyd Rachel Brown Alan Andrews Bassoons Paul Boyes Robin Kennard Horns Richard Berry Andrew Sutton Jonathan Eddie Richard Bayliss Trumpets Michael Laird Neil Brough Trombones Colin Sheen Ian Moffat David Vines Tuba Steve Wick Timpani Henry Baldwin Percussion Tim Barry Harp Thelma Owen General Management Pauline Gilbertson Charlotte Templeman Marilyn Groves Ben Gould

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The Vegetable Garden at Nevill Holt photo Alastair Muir

This evening of 17th century English opera 62 •

is generously sponsored by

KROLL

The festival at Nevill Holt is sponsored by THE KIER GROUP

TR AG IC OPER A IN THREE AC TS Text by Nahum Tate after his own play Brutus of Alba and Virgil’s Aeneid First known performance at a girl’s school in Chelsea, before December 1689 A concert performance on period instruments at Nevill Holt July 18 2008

Dido & Aeneas BELINDA SISTER OF DIDO DIDO QUEEN OF CARTHAGE SECOND WOMAN LADY OF THE COURT AENEAS PRINCE OF TROY A SORCERESS

HENRY PURCELL

1659 1695

Claire Booth Susan Bickley Lucy Crowe Eamonn Dougan Hilary Summer

TWO WITCHES

Alexandra Tiffin Alison Dunne

A SPIRIT

Laurie Ashworth

63

A SAILOR

Nicholas Watts

•

pastoral masque IN one AC T Text by William Congreve First performance Dorset Garden Theatre, London, 21 March 1701

JOHN ECCLE S

c1688 1735

The Judgement of Paris MERCURY MESSENGER OF THE GODS

Christian Curnyn Conductor

early opera company

PARIS A SHEPHERD JUNO QUEEN OF HEAVEN

Eamonn Dougan Nicholas Watts Susan Bickley

PALLAS GODDESS OF WAR

Claire Booth

VENUS GODDESS OF LOVE

Lucy Crowe

Synopses •

DIDO & AENEAS Carthage following the Trojan War ACT ONE The Queen's Palace One of Queen Dido's court attendants, Belinda, believes the cause of Dido's grief to be the Trojan Aeneas. She suggests that Carthage’s troubles could be resolved if the two were to marry. Aeneas arrives and Dido accepts his proposal of marriage.

ACT TWO A cave A sorceress is plotting the destruction of Carthage and its Queen. Disguised as Mercury she will tempt Aeneas to leave Dido and head back to Troy. Her fellow conspirators are delighted and conjure up a storm.

A grove Dido and Aeneas are together attending a hunt.

Dido hears thunder and goes for shelter leaving Aeneas alone.

"Mercury" appears announcing that Jove commands Aeneas to create a new Troy. Aeneas is unhappy that he will have to leave Dido.

64 •

ACT THREE The harbour Sailors from the Trojan fleet are about to depart. Pleased with their success so far, the sorceress and her companions now plot to drown Aeneas at sea.

The palace Aeneas arrives to break the news to Dido. She derides his reasoning. Aeneas decides to defy the gods and stay but Dido rejects him for having even thought of leaving her. She realises that, having lost her lover, death is inevitable.

DINNER INTERVAL THE JUDGEMENT OF PARIS An Arcadian landscape of meadows and murmuring brooks in a quiet time before cars planes and country house opera Paris, a shepherd, is minding his own business and practising his recorder. Unaccustomed to much more than just sheep, he is surprised when the heavens open, and a rather nattily dressed gentlemen in gold floats down towards him, saying he has a message from Jove. Paris had clearly concentrated in his divinity lessons and so recognises his visitor as Mercury, messenger of the gods. Paris asks him what on earth Jove should want from a lowly shepherd.

Mercury produces a golden apple, and informs Paris he has been chosen to judge a celestial beauty contest, in which he must award the apple to the most alluring of three goddesses.

At that moment, the heavens open again and a majestical chariot, more splendid even than David Ross’ helicopter, descends carrying the said three goddesses.

They land, unbuckle – safety is paramount – and climb out.

Paris, whose only plans for the day had been to learn C sharp on his recorder, finally loses it and faints, but not before singing a very beautiful song. Mercury assures him he is in no danger and Paris comes round so they settle back and the competition begins.

ROUND ONE: General deportment & introductions The first entrant is Juno, wife of Jove, Goddess of Marriage and Queen of Heaven. Next we have Pallas, Goddess of War and protector of Heroes, and last, but certainly not least, Venus, Goddess of Love.

Paris is equally entranced by all three contestants and suggests that for Round Two he should see them all separately, and that since couture can hide a multitude of sins, would they all mind singing the next round naked?

At this point Congreve and Eccles don’t make it clear if the goddesses take his advice. We respectfully leave the audience to decide upon its own mental picture.

ROUND TWO: Intelligence – Contestants may bring their own speciality musical instruments and backing singers In Round Two, the goddesses tell Paris what they each can offer him. Juno promises infinite power – nearly killing her poor violinists with semiquavers in the process. Pallas brings on her heavies in the form of trumpeters and a drummer – and promises glory on the battlefield. Finally, Venus promises the love of the most beautiful woman in the world, the original ‘it’ girl, Helen of Troy. Her aria is accompanied by two rather expert recorder players, who she could well throw in to give Paris a couple of free lessons.

Paris, whose previous sexual conquests were probably limited to the odd inbred shepherdess at a quiz night, jumps at the chance to get shacked up with a celebrity, and hands over the apple to Venus, without even waiting to hear if the contestants wanted to work for charity or with children or wished for world peace. The Goddesses pack up, board the aerial machine and zoom back to heaven – Venus munching all the way.

The chorus have to wait for the minibus to take them home, so fill the time with a rousing ditty.

The theatre scene of Purcell & Eccles •

In 1668 Pepys writes "To the Queen's chapel and there did hear the Italians sing; and indeed their music did appear most admirable to me, beyond anything of ours". By 1710 the Italians were clear winners and John Eccles (c1688–1735) had withdrawn from the theatre scene and retired to fish in Hampton Wick.

WITH PURCELL DEAD it seemed, around 1700, that John Eccles was the man most likely to transform the English semiopera / masque into a fully–sung evening that could compete with what the Italians had on offer.

Compared to their Continental counterparts, the English gentry had never been that keen on music and theatre – they preferred outdoor pursuits – and political turbulence is never a friend to the arts. However, as Charles II settled in, he seemed keen to replace the old, rough suburban playhouses with Continental elegance. In 1661 the new king gave permission to the Duke's Company to convert an old tennis court in Lincoln's Inn Fields (the site now occupied by the Royal College of Surgeons) into a theatre capable of scene changes.

He attended the première – and no fewer than six other public performances that autumn alone.

Within 10 years, the Duke's Company had abandoned the Lincoln's Inn tennis court and were building the lavish Dorset Garden Theatre on the river's edge bordering Salisbury Court off Fleet Street. Though it was designed with scenic spectacle and operatic extravaganzas in mind, 90% of the repertoire was plays and this multi-purpose building gave semi-operas as a special treat. All the major semi–operas of Henry Purcell (1659–1695) received their premières here: Dioclesian 1690, King Arthur 1691 and The Fairy Queen 1692.

Purcell's stage career occupied only the last five years of his life. Before that his fingers were in many pies: tuning the organ at Westminster Abbey, then organist there, then Keeper of the King's instruments. At the coronations of James II and William III he provided not only music but a second organ. On the second occasion he was involved in a dispute with the dean and chapter of Westminster Abbey over the money that he had received for places in the main organ loft.

In the 1690's Eccles in his early twenties, and Purcell, ten years his senior, were both writing for the Theatre Royal Drury Lane. Eccles was probably more popular as a theatre composer, assisted by his association with the actress–singer Anne Bracegirdle (known as The Celebrated Virgin). Famously abducted in 1692, when she returned to the stage she would only perform Eccles music. For her he wrote deceptively simple but highly dramatic songs (of the mad–song genre) which overshadowed Purcell's more sophistiatated music for professional singers.

In 1695 Eccles, with a group of actors including Mrs Bracegirldle, left Drury Lane to establish a rival playhouse. They found refuge in that abandoned tennis court and now Eccles was in direct competition with Purcell. But in November of that year Purcell died. It was at the Lincoln's Inn Fields Theatre that Purcell's Dido received its first public performance interpolated between acts of Measure for Measure.

With all–sung opera flourishing on the continent, Eccles realised its importation into London could only be a matter of time. Besides writing a steady supply of songs for various plays, he composed two 'all–sung' masques for Mrs Bracegirdle.

London theatres began offering novelties in the form of Italian singers, French dancers, rope dancers, contortionists and, in 1701, in an attempt to restore some dignity, a group of noblemen calling themselves the Kit Kat Club devised a competition. They commissioned William Congreve to write a libretto for a masque on The Judgement of Paris, and invited composers to submit settings. There were four finalists: Eccles, Godfrey Finger, Daniel Purcell (son of Henry) and John Weldon and their offerings were presented at the Dorset Garden Theatre – which had by now fallen into disuse. Eccles, by far the most experienced theatre composer, was tipped to win but first prize went to Weldon.

When Vanbrugh built the Queen's Theatre in the Haymarket in 1705, he invited Eccles and his colleagues to join him and the theatre in Lincoln's Inn once again became a tennis court.

Eccles was appointed music director and it was here that the first Italian opera was heard in London, Bononcini's Camilla. In an attempt to embrace the Italian vogue and win some kind of following, Eccles set Congreve's libretto Semele but it was not performed.

Eccles took early retirement to his birthplace Hampton Wick where he fished and, as Master of the King’s Musick, wrote the occasional Royal Birthday Ode which he sent up to London by courier.

When the Lord Chamberlain legislated in 1710 that opera would be performed at Haymarket and plays at Drury Lane, the English masque / semi–opera was homeless. The next year Handel arrived in London with Rinaldo and some time later Benjamin Britten.

(overleaf) Frost Fair on the Thames, with Old London Bridge in the Distance c1685 formerly attributed to Jan Wyck (1640-1700) Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection / Bridgeman Art Library

65 •

66 •

1652 February the 15th. This is the first Sunday I had been at church since my return, for it was now a very rare thing to find a priest of the church of England in a parish pulpit, most of which were now filled with independents and fanatics.

1653 On August the 13th, I first began a course of yearly washing my head with warm water mingled with a decoction of sweet herbs, and then immediately with cold spring water. This refreshed me much, and succeeded very well with me for divers years.

The 19th. Invited by my Lady Garrard, I went to London, where we had a great supper. All the vessels, which were inumerable,were of porcelain – which was very extraordinary – she having the most ample, and richest, collection of that curiosity in England.

1658 February This has been the severest winter that any man alive had known in England . The crows feet were frozen to their prey, islands of ice enclosed both fish and fowl, and some persons were frozen in their boats.

(This is amongst the earliest references to the use of porcelain for the table)

On June the 3rd, twixt my land abutting on the Thames and Greenwich, a large whale was taken, which drew an infinite concourse to see it by water, horse, coach, and on foot from London and all parts. First it appeared below Greenwich at low water, for at high water it would have destroyed all the boats.

Lying now in shallow water and encompassed with boats after a long conflict it was killed with harpoons stuck in the head, out of which spouted blood and water like smoke from a

chimney, and after a horrid groan it ran quite on shore and died. Its length was 58 ft, it was 16 feet in height and black–skinned like coach leather.

1661 November 26th, I saw Hamlet, the Prince of Denmark, played: but now the old play began to displease this refined age.

1662 On the 31st July, I sat with the commissioners for reforming the buildings and streets of London, and we ordered the paving of the way from St James’s north – which was a quagmire – and also of the Haymarket about Piccadilly. And we agreed upon the instructions to be printed and published for the better keeping the streets clean.

December 21st One of his majesties chaplains preached : after which, instead of the ancient, grave and solemn wind music accompanying the organ, there was introduced a consort of 24 violins, after the fantastical light way of the French – better suiting a tavern or playhouse than a church.

1685 January 25th I saw this evening such a scene of profuse gaming and luxurious dallying and prophaneness – the king in the midst of his three concubines – as I had never seen before.

1696 On April the 23rd I went to Eton, and dined with the Dr Godolphin, the provost.

The schoolmaster assured me that in 20 years there had not been a more pregnant youth in that place than my grandson.

67 from

John Evelyn's diary

•

FA L S TA F F is the first production sponsored by 68 •

BEE BEE DEVELOPMENTS

to whom we are most grateful

The festival at Nevill Holt is sponsored by THE KIER GROUP

OPER A IN THREE AC TS Text by Arrigo Boito after William Shakespeare First performance Teatro alla Scala, Milan 9 February 1893 Performances at Nevill Holt on July 12, 13, 17, 19, 20 Sung in Italian with surtitles

G IUSEPPE VERDI

Falstaff

1813 1901

69

Alice Farnham

SIR JOHN FALSTAFF

Conductor

Daniel Slater

ORIGINAL DIRECTOR

BARDOLPH a friend of Falstaff's PISTOL another friend of Falstaff's

Hazel Gould

DR CAIUS

REVIVAL DIRECTOR

Angela Davies

FORD a wealthy man

ALICE his wife

Emma & Giuseppe Belli Diletta Neri

ITALIAN COACH

James Scarlett Hyalmar Mitrotti Gareth Morris James Cleverton

supported by Peter & Minina Dicks

ORIGINAL DESIGNER

REVIVAL DESIGNER

David–Alexandre Borloz

NANNETTA their daughter who is in love with FENTON MEG PAGE a friend of Alice's QUICKLY another friend of Alice's

TH E O RCH ESTR A O F NE VILL H O LT

Rebecca Cooper Verity Parker Patrick Ashcroft Margaret Rapaccioli Emma Carrington

•

Synopsis Falstaff •

Falstaff remembers the good old days and decides to test his powers of seduction on two women: Alice and Meg. They lead him a merry dance which culminates in his humiliation. The characters and story are derived from The Merry Wives of Windsor and from several passages in Henry IV ACT 1 THE GARTER INN Dr Caius bursts in on Sir John Falstaff, who has just finished supper. Sir John stands accused of beating Caius’ servants; he pleads guilty to the charge. Then the doctor accuses Falstaff’s henchmen, Bardolph and Pistol, of robbing him; Falstaff presides over a mock trial and pronounces them innocent.

Caius duly dispatched, Falstaff rounds on his henchmen: stealing is fine, but it mustn’t be clumsy. What’s more, he continues, unable to pay the supper bill, they cost him too much money. But he has a job for them. He is in love with two married women, Alice and Meg, and has written romantic missives to both. He wants Bardolph and Pistol to carry the letters to the ladies, but the henchmen refuse. Falstaff sends a young boy, Robin, in their stead then mocks them for their pretence to honour before chasing them from the inn.

70 •

WINDSOR PLACE Alice and Meg have extraordinary news to share with Nannetta and Mistress Quickly: they have both received love letters. In fact, it turns out, they have received the same love letter from the same man. Far from amused with the situation, they decide to take revenge for Falstaff’s presumption. The women withdraw as Ford, Fenton, Dr Caius, Bardolph and Pistol appear. Falstaff’s henchmen announce they’ve left Sir John’s employ and reveal the plot to woo Alice. Ford expresses his fear of being cuckolded. The men depart, leaving Fenton free for a spot of flirtation and kissing with his beloved Nannetta.

But their canoodling is cut short, as she is called back to help plan the women’s revenge. They agree to send Quickly to Falstaff, baiting him with the prospect of a secret tryst with Alice. Spying Fenton, the women once more depart, leaving the young lovers alone again. But all too soon the men return to set up their own trap for Falstaff: his henchmen shall announce Ford at the Garter Inn under a false name. Two intrigues have been set in motion, but will they collide?

ACT 2 THE GARTER INN Bardolph and Pistol fake contrition, begging Falstaff ’s forgiveness. Mistress Quickly arrives, wishing to speak to Sir John alone. On behalf of Alice, she chides Falstaff for his seductive powers and informs him that Ford is out every afternoon from two until three. No sooner does she depart than another arrives: a certain Mr Brook (Ford in disguise). He has a financial proposal: Sir John will be handsomely rewarded

if he can win Alice for Brook. Falstaff promises instant success, explaining that he himself expects to be in that lady’s arms in a matter of minutes. Left alone while Falstaff changes his clothes, Ford pours forth the jealousy that is eating at his soul.

Falstaff returns, dressed to kill, and the two depart together.

FORD’S APARTMENT Quickly announces to Alice and Meg the success of her mission. Falstaff is due any minute, so the women excitedly prepare to put their plan into action. Only Nannetta is not part of the general merriment: Ford wants her to marry Caius.

Falstaff arrives and sets about wooing Alice. On cue, Meg enters and Sir John, hidden behind the screen, hears her warn Alice that a furious Ford is on his way. But when Quickly follows her with the same news, Alice is confused: is this part of the joke? Ford runs in, prepared to search high and low. He rifles through the laundry basket but is disappointed to find only soiled clothes. As he hurries to look elsewhere, the women swiftly hide Falstaff in the basket. Meanwhile, Nannetta and Fenton sneak behind the screen. The men return, still engaged on their fruitless search. Hearing a kiss behind the screen, Ford thinks he has found his target. While the women pretend to be working on the washing, and Falstaff protests that he is suffocating, the men prepare to attack. The screen is removed and Ford discovers, to his double-dismay, not Falstaff but his daughter with Fenton. The young lovers race out and the hunt for Sir John resumes. Alice tells the servants to tip the basket into the Thames.

DINNER INTERVAL ACT 3 THE GARTER INN A distressed Falstaff is washed-up at the door of his pub.

But a glass of wine revives his spirits. Quickly enters, protests Alice’s innocence and proffers a letter while Alice, Ford (now up to speed with his wife’s plan), Meg, Nannetta and Caius spy on him. The missive invites Falstaff to meet her at Herne’s Oak, at midnight, disguised as the Black Huntsman (whose spirit haunts the spot where he was hanged). While Quickly relates the frightening story to Falstaff, Alice explains it to the others. They plan the rest of the masquerade, which will include a large party in demonic and devilish costumes. As all depart, Quickly overhears Ford reassuring Caius that he shall marry Nannetta.

71 •

Falstaff Grange Park Opera 2007 Director Daniel Slater Designer Angela Davies Stewart Kale (Dr Caius), Frank Egerton (Bardolph) and David Alexandre Borloz (Pistol)

HERNE'S OAK Fenton serenades Nannetta in the darkness. She arrives, accompanied by Alice, Meg and Quickly, who dress Fenton as a monk. Falstaff appears, precisely as midnight chimes. But his wooing of Alice is interrupted by a cry from Meg: the goblins are coming! Alice flees and Falstaff hides. Nannetta and a group of disguised girls advance on the “Black Huntsman”. All the masked men now enter, tailed by townspeople in fantastic costumes, and proceed to pounce on Falstaff. He’s accused of being corrupt, impure, devilish, then they torture him. Ignoring his cries of pain, they force him to repent and call on God

to punish and purify him. Just as matters threaten to get increasingly out of hand, Bardolph’s disguise slips. All take this opportunity to unmask and Falstaff discovers the extent of the trick played upon him. Ford, flushed with success, proposes they crown the masquerade with a wedding. Yet now it is his turn to be duped by others’ disguises: Nannetta marries Fenton, Caius weds Bardolph. In the end Ford and Caius prove as foolish as Falstaff. All decide to dine with Sir John, as he leads them in a concluding chorus celebrating the fact that man is born a fool (Tutto nel mondo è burla).

A Magnificent Theatrical Presence

by René Weis •

René Weis teaches Shakespeare at UCL and is the author of Shakespeare Revealed: a biography (John Murray, 2007). His book The Yellow Cross (Penguin, 2001) has been translated into many languages.

He is currently editing Romeo & Juliet for the Arden Shakespeare. This article first appeared in the programme of the Royal Opera House in 1999 FALSTAFF No, my good lord, banish Peto, banish Bardolph, banish Poins but for sweet Jack Falstaff, kind Jack Falstaff, true Jack Falstaff, valiant Jack Falstaff, and therefore more valiant being as he is old Jack Falstaff, banish not him thy Harry’s company; banish plump Jack, and banish all the world.

HAL I do, I will.

(Henry IV Part 1, Act II scene 4)

72 •

Falstaff is Shakespeare’s most memorable comic creation. He appears in three plays: Henry IV Part 1, its sequel Henry IV Part 2, and The Merry Wives of Windsor. This latter provided the immediate source for Verdi’s Falstaff, but the Falstaff of Merry Wives is a much reduced figure compared to the towering presence of the same character in the two Henry IV plays.

Ever since Falstaff First stepped on to the English stage in the second scene of Henry IV Part 1 he has been one of the best– loved reprobates in the English theatre. In the 18th century Samuel Johnson spoke for many when he apostrophized Falstaff as an ‘unimitated, unimitable Falstaff, how shall I describe thee? Thou compound of sense and vice; of sense which may be admired but not esteemed, of vice which may be despised, but hardly detested’. A century and a half later A.C. Bradley, one of the seminal writers on Shakespeare in the early years of the 20th century, noted that ‘our sympathetic delight in Falstaff is his humorous superiority to everything serious, and the freedom of soul enjoyed in it’. More recently Orson Welles, who famously played Falstaff in Chimes at Midnight, called the character ‘the greatest conception of a good man, the most completely good man, in all drama’.

All three of them take Falstaff at his own sentimental valuation as a benign ‘Lord of Misrule’ whose role it is to deflate official pomposity and to act as chorus to the dramatic action. They see him as a larger–than–life figure cheerfully shadowing the Prince of Wales, who is cruelly repaid in the end when Hal, as Henry V, rejects Falstaff after the coronation on the steps of Westminster Abbey and banishes him from the royal presence.

The future England of Henry V, we are told, will be the poorer for the absence of Falstaff, whose only sin was to have loved the Prince of Wales not wisely but too well, allowing himself to be hoodwinked by the younger man’s Machiavellian side.

It is a measure of Falstaff’s seductiveness that he has bounced so many audiences into indulging his misdemeanours. He is after all a thief, a coward, a liar, a cheat, a gross abuser of the corpse of the noble Hotspur, a manipulator of widows, an extortionist who betrays the king’s trust by abusing his levying powers, and a fleecer of foolish old friends. He moreover takes off for the coronation of Henry V with the ominous claim that ‘the laws of England are at my commandment’. What stands between a sound commonwealth and the chaos that is Falstaff is the embracing of Henry V of the Lord Chief Justice as his surrogate father, and his dismissing of Falstaff with: I know thee not, old man, fall to thy prayers.

How ill white hairs becomes a fool and jester!

I have long dreamt of such a kind of man, So surfeit–swelled, so old, and so profane, But being awaked I do despise my dream.

Make less thy body hence, and more thy grace Leave gormandizing, know the grave doth gape For thee thrice wider than for other men.

(Henry IV Part 2, Act V scene 5) This is the royal voice of Henry speaking, not that of the brawler Hal who was once committed to prison by the same Lord Chief Justice.

And yet, whatever the moral and political case against Falstaff may be, we love him for his energy, his bulk, his sardonic observations, his resourcefulness and his rhetorical pyrotechnics. He is quite simply a magnificent theatrical presence. At his entry in Henry IV Part 2 he tells us ‘I am not only witty in myself, but the cause that wit is in other men’, and he proudly walks before his page ‘like a sow that hath overwhelmed all her litter but one’. In the Henry IV plays Falstaff favours an ironically homiletic style, and peppers it with literary allusiveness. His biblical learning and sophistry were probably inspired by the Morality play tradition, with Falstaff corresponding to the old Vice figure.

The same scene which first introduced Falstaff to London audiences in the spring or summer of 1596 concludes with Hal telling us in a soliloquy that he is using Falstaff and his cronies in Eastcheap to set in relief his own greater glory.

73 •

Falstaff Grange Park Opera 2007 Claire Ormshaw (Nanetta), Victoria Simmonds (Meg), Janis Kelly (Alice), Anne–Marie Owens (Quickly) comparing love letters

He will, he promises us, indulge their riotous behaviour for a limited period, and in this he will imitate the sun: his loutish companions may temporarily hide his royal luminosity the way ‘the base contagious clouds’ sometimes shroud the sun in foul mists, but in the end he will dramatically emerge as a reformed character to the general consternation of all.

Shakespeare is keen to let his audience know early on in Henry IV Part 1 that the royal nature of the Prince of Wales will not be contaminated by Falstaff. He wants us to enjoy the comedy and farce generated from Falstaff’s intimacy with the future king. Both the Henry IV plays contain low–life tavern scenes set in Eastcheap. These rank among the most powerful passages of English dramatic prose, but the very presence of such unbridled anarchy close to Westminster sounds a warning bell; and the implications of it are spelt out when in Henry IV Part 1 Falstaff assumes the role of king and father in a mock interrogation of Hal. Civil strife is a major issue in the

Henry IV plays, and this is powerfully echoed in the father–son relationships in the plays. The fact, moreover, that England is at war with itself is relentlessly seen in the Henry IV plays as a consequence of Bolingbroke’s deposing the rightful, albeit ineffectual king, Richard II. This act of usurpation resonates throughout the four plays of the second tetralogy which starts with Richard II, evolves through the Henry IV plays, and ends with Henry V. Even on the night before Agincourt Henry V prays to the God of battle that his army should not be made to pay the penalty for his father’s sin. Falstaff’s questioning and parodying of established power are partly the product of a world in which rightful authority has been abused.

In Henry IV Part 1 Falstaff is close to the epicentre of political power in the land. There are no fewer than eight scenes during which he and the Prince of Wales interact on the stage in a parody of a father and Prodigal Son relationship. Whereas Hal is young, Falstaff claims to be ‘some fifty, or by’r Lady, inclining

threescore’, although he seems to be over 70 in Henry IV Part 2.

It is sometimes said that the Falstaff of the sequel is a severely diminished figure, and that this is signalled by the fact that he is unwell at the opening of the play. His ‘water’ has been taken to the doctor’s for analysing, and in the same scene Falstaff is roundly defeated in a tense encounter with the Lord Chief Justice. His vistas in Henry IV Part 2 have contracted, certainly, since Falstaff and the Prince of Wales meet in only two scenes, the second of which marks the famous rejection in Act V. In this play he is the kingpin of only the tavern and brothel.

But rather than taking away from him, the separation of the Prince and Falstaff liberates Falstaff as a dramatic character.

Whereas earlier his energy focussed on parasitic gravitations around Hal and royal power, in Henry IV Part 2 he comes into his own as a Gargantuan comic figure who lords it over a carnivalesque world of down–and–outs. His role in Henry IV Part 2 is longer than those of the Prince of Wales and Henry IV added together. Indeed, such is his dominance in Henry IV Part 2 that the play was listed under the title of ‘Sir John Falstaffe’ in the Chamber Accounts for the 1612–13 festive season. Henry IV Part 1, on the other hand, was referred to in the period as ‘The Hotspur’.

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In Henry IV Part 2 we are no longer given Falstaff in a perpetual present. Rather, his background and past life are now explored

by Shallow and by Falstaff himself in a series of unforgettable vignettes. We learn that 55 years earlier Falstaff and Shallow had been students at Clement’s Inn in London so that the period of Falstaff’s youth is dated back to the 1350s or 1360s, the time of the long rule of Edward III. When Shakespeare’s Falstaff was a young man sowing his wild oats to the ‘chimes at midnight’, Henry IV, the titular king of the plays, was not yet born.

The diachronic construction of Falstaff in Henry IV Part 2 helps to distance the character from the realities of English history, and this is a matter of some urgency, because Shakespeare’s Falstaff was originally not called Falstaff at all, but Sir John Oldcastle. As late as 1610–11 Nathaniel Field, for example, alluded to Falstaff’s lines on honour in Henry IV Part 1 by attributing them to ‘the fat knight Oldcastle’.

Sir John Oldcastle (1378–1417) had been a companion of Henry V before becoming a Lollard (a militant Protestant) and taking up arms against the king. He was eventually burnt to death in chains at St Giles’s Field at the age of 39. He was Hal’s senior by nine years only, and he enjoyed a reputation for courage rather than for carousing and corpulence. By lampooning a personage from real life in the two Henry IV plays Shakespeare, unusually perhaps, ran the gauntlet of official disapproval, the more so since Oldcastle had been prominently written up in Foxe’s influential Acts and Monuments (popularly known as Foxe’s Book of Martyrs) as

‘The Trouble and Persecution of the most valiant and worthy Martyr of Christ, Sir John Oldcastle, Knight, Lord Cobham’.

From both Foxe and Holinshed Shakespeare would have known of a close lineal connection between Oldcastle and the powerful Brooke–Cobhams of his own day.

What he could hardly have anticipated was that in the summer of 1596, after completion of Henry IV Part 1 and while he was writing the sequel, a direct descendent of the Brooke–Cobhams would become Lord Chamberlain, and would thus be invested with the ultimate authority to censor plays. The situation could not have been more fraught: by the autumn and winter of 1596 the two latest plays by the foremost dramatist of the age featured the ancestor of the queen’s chief censor, Sir William Brooke, as a drunken rogue. No degree of fictional distancing of the character from his real–life counterpart could disguise the slight to the Cobham family so long as the illustrious name of Oldcastle remained attached to the part that we now know as Falstaff. The consequent change to the nomenclature of Shakespeare’s plays has become the most celebrated act of Elizabethan censorship.

At the end of Henry IV Part 2 the Epilogue pledges that the audience will be treated to more of Falstaff in the future: If you be not too much cloyed with fat meat, our humble author will continue the story with Sir John in it, and make you merry with fair Katharine of France where, for anything I know, Falstaff shall die of a sweat, unless already ‘a be killed with your hard opinions; for Oldcastle died martyr, and this is not the man.

The apology for the offence caused to the Oldcastle family and the promise of good behaviour in the future could hardly be more explicit.

But the Falstaff of Henry V that we were promised did not materialize. Instead, Falstaff’s only appearance in that play is in the report of his death by the former Mistress Quickly. The king, we learn from Mistress Quickly (now Mrs Pistol), ‘has killed his heart’. Why Shakespeare decided not to introduce Falstaff to Henry V is a matter for debate. Perhaps he thought that Falstaff’s powerful comic presence would detract from the martial tone of Henry V, or even steal the limelight from King Henry V; or perhaps he felt that he had already delivered on his promise of more Falstaff by writing Merry Wives.

This play is now generally (but not universally) accepted to have been performed at the Garter Feast on St George’s Day, 23 April 1597, a month before the formal installation of the Knights of the Garter at Windsor. It would therefore have received its premiere in little over four months after Henry IV Part 2. That the two plays may be closely connected is suggested by the presence of words, phrases, and characters (Shallow, Falstaff)

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Falstaff Grange Park Opera 2007 Janis Kelly (Alice) is seduced by Robert Poulton (Falstaff)

uniquely shared between them. Tantalizingly, Merry Wives also echoes the Cobham–Brooke business, since the needlessly jealous and ridiculous Ford’s assumed name in disguise is ‘Brooke’; and this alias is used by Verdi whose Ford appears in Act II as ‘Fontana’, which means ‘brook’ or ‘fountain’.

The Falstaff of Merry Wives is a domesticated and shrunken figure. From being the robust mischief–maker of the early years of the 15th century, where he consorted and crossed swords with peers of the realm, he has been transported to the contemporary middle–class world of Elizabethan Windsor.

Here he dedicates himself to the ineffectual pursuit of two local married women. The play is an innocent romp, and Falstaff pays for his sins by various humiliations which include a ducking in the Thames, beating and pinching. He has no memory of his earlier identity in the Henry IV plays, and Merry Wives ends happily because he, the self–styled monarch of wit,

is outmanoeuvred by a pair of resourceful housewives.

Merry Wives sits apart from the other Shakespearian comedies by virtue of its contemporary English location and the use, in Falstaff, of a central character from a generically different cycle of plays. It is possible that a comedy with Falstaff in it was specifically commissioned for the Garter ceremony of 1597, because it included the elevation of George Carey to the office of Lord Chamberlain. After the brief and troubled Cobham interregnum Carey succeeded his father in this office, and perhaps the voluntary use of Falstaff rather than Oldcastle was a gesture of submission on the company’s part. After a disastrous run–in with their former patron a few months earlier the Lord Chamberlain’s Men would probably have been eager to start with a clean slate, and Merry Wives was the first of the three Falstaff plays in which the character was launched as Falstaff from the start.

our first evening of ballet Performance at The Grange on June 8 Prima Ballerina Mara Galeazzi led a project in Africa in summer 2007 Dancing for the Children.

She presents an evening at The Grange with fellow artists from the Royal Ballet in a programme that includes Winter Dream, La Sylphide, Qualia, Deux Pigeons, The Sleeping Beauty, a classical Pas de Deux, a new work by Liam Scarlett and Elite Syncopations

Mara Galeazzi

AND FRIENDS

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Edward Watson Zenaida Yanowsky Sarah Lamb Sergei Polunin Viacheslav Samodurov Zachary Faruque Laura McCulloch Leanne Cope Paul Kay Ernst Meisner James Wilkie Romany Padjak Yuhui Choe Rupert Pennefather Mara is supported by ELIZABETH MORISON

The evening is generously supported by S U E B U T C H E R & F A M I LY

two E VENINGS WITH one of the world's great voices Performance at The Grange on June 6 Performance at Nevill Holt on July 11

Bryn Terfel

WITH PIANIS T IAIN BURNSIDE & FRIENDS

The evening at Grange Park is generously supported by AN ANONYMOUS DONOR

The evening at Nevill Holt is generously supported by TWO ANONYMOUS DONORS

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L A FA N CI U L L A D EL W E S T has been generously supported by a syndicate with connections to the mining industry

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Robin Herbert • Anthony Dorey David Challen • Brian Spiby • Morfydd Evans

led by REDLEAF COMMUNICATIONS

OPER A IN THREE AC TS Text by Carlo Zangarini after David Belasco’s play The Girl of the Golden West First performance Metropolitan Opera, New York, 10 December 1910 Performances at Grange Park on June 4, 6, 13, 19, 21, 25, July 2, 4 Sung in Italian with surtitles

G IACOMO PUCCINI

1858 1924

La Fanciulla del West Rory Macdonald

MINNIE

Conductor

JACK RANCE sheriff

supported by Halldora Blair

Stephen Medcalf DIRECTOR

DICK JOHNSON (Ramerrez) a bandit NICK barman

Francis O’Connor

John Hudson Richard Coxon

supported by Sir David & Lady Plastow

DESIGNER

SONORA a miner

Chris Davey

Quentin Hayes

supported by David & Amanda Leathers

LIGHTING DESIGN

JAKE WALLACE a minstrel

Dong Jun Wang

supported by Mr & Mrs Richard Morse

Dan O'Neill MOVEMENT

Cynthia Makris Olafur Sigurdarson

ASHBY of the Wells Fargo Transport Company

Tim Dawkins

supported by Mrs Peter Cadbury

Patrizia Dina

HANDSOME a miner

language coach

James McCoran Campbell supported by Chris & Amanda Ward

LARKENS a miner

James Cleverton

supported by Peter & Manina Dicks HARRY a miner

english chamber orchestra

HAPPY a miner JOE a miner TRIM a miner

JOSE CASTRO a member of the bandit's gang PONY EXPRESS RIDER SID a miner | JACKRABBIT a Red Indian WOWKLE Minnie's Red Indian servant

Wynne Evans Fran Garcia Andrew Bain Andrew Sritheran Hyalmar Mitrotti Mark Chaundy Peter Willcocks Karina Lucas

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Synopsis La Fanciulla del West •

The action takes place at the foot of the Cloudy Mountains during the Californian gold rush 1849–50.

Minnie's saloon is a home from home and the sheriff Jack Rance assumes that one day she will be his wife. A stranger arrives in town and Minnie falls in love.

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Minnie comes in and snatches the gun. She begins her regular Bible class but it is interrupted by the Pony Express arriving with letters. Rance tells Minnie he loves her but she seems indifferent and tells him of her childhood.

A stranger, Dick Johnson, appears and Rance is immediately both jealous and suspicious. Minnie diffuses the situation, vouching for Johnson. The two dance a waltz.

One of Ramerrez’ gang, Castro, has been captured and pretends he will lead Rance to the bandit’s hiding–place.

Castro manages to whisper to Johnson that there will be a signal – a whistle – which Johnson should answer. Then the gang will attack the saloon and steal the miners’ gold.

Minnie and Johnson are alone. They talk about their lives and Minnie explains she would protect with her life the gold the miners have left in her trust. Johnson is in love Nick interrupts and a whistle is heard but Johnson ignores it.

Minnie invites him to her log–cabin.

DINNER INTERVAL ACT 2 MINNIE'S LOG CABIN Minnie is with her servant Wowkle and Billy Jackrabbit waiting for Johnson to arrive. Johnson appears and asks her why she lives in such solitude. She explains her pleasures of the life she

There is a knock at the door and Minnie urges Johnson to hide.

Rance, Ashby, Nick and Sonora have followed Ramerrez’s trail to the cabin. Rance tells Minnie that Johnson is the bandit Ramerrez, whose photograph he was shown by Ramerrez’s mistress, Nina Micheltorena. Minnie sends the men away.

Hurt and enraged, Minnie turns on Ramerrez/Johnson. He tries to explain why he became a criminal. God may forgive him for being a bandit, she says, but she will not forgive him for deceiving her. She tells him to leave.

Wh

A group settle down to a game of cards and Sid is caught cheating. The others want to lynch him but the sheriff intervenes and pins a card on Sid’s chest as a warning never to play again. Ashby, of the Wells Fargo Trading Company, arrives and tells Rance that for three months he has been on the trail of a robber and outlaw, Ramerrez. A quarrel breaks out between Rance and Sonora about who will become Minnie’s husband. Sonora shoots, but another miner deflects his aim.

can lead here and they fall into each others’ arms. It is snowing so heavily that Minnie persuades Johnson not to leave.

Immediately Ramerrez is outside, he is shot by Rance.

Overcome, Minnie drags him back inside and helps him to hide. Rance has a hunch that the criminal is here and Minnie mockingly tells him to search the place. In a fit of jealously he tries to embrace her and swears she will never have her new lover. Blood drips from the ceiling: Rance knows that Johnson is in the loft.

Knowing Rance’s passion for gambling, Minnie despairingly proposes a game of poker. If Rance wins, he can take Minnie for himself and can turn Ramerrez in. If he loses, he must let the lovers go free. Rance agrees. By brazen cheating, Minnie triumphs and Rance leaves.

ACT 3 THE FOREST Under Minnie’s care, Ramerrez has recovered and left. It is dawn and Rance and Nick sadly discuss Minnie’s love for Ramerrez. The bandit is caught and the miners decide to string him up there and then. Ramerrez begs them never to reveal to Minnie the way he died but to let her think he has gone away to make a fresh start.

At the last moment Minnie appears. She pleads with the miners to spare her lover, reminding them of all the years she has cared for them. There is no sinner in the world who cannot find redemption. Ramerrez is set free and the couple leave for a new life.

u t ti

ACT 1 THE POLKA SALOON It is evening and the miners are arriving at Minnie's saloon to drink and gamble. From afar we hear a strolling minstrel, Jake Wallace, singing of the miners’ homesickness. Larkens breaks down, unable to take any more of the harsh mining life. The others give him money to go home.

hisk

81 •

y pe r

Woman's Faith colour lithograph, 19th century American School Private Collection / Barbara Singer / Bridgeman Art Library

The Gold Diggers •

Gold was first discovered in California on 24th January 1848. Word got out and by February 1850 San Francisco's population had risen to 50,000 and was increasing by 1,500 a day. By winter 1850 the time for making fortunes was running out. This first article by Arthur Hammond first appeared in the programme of the Royal Opera House in 2005.

82 •

THE NEWS THAT GOLD WAS LYING ABOUT in the soil of California, to be had for the labour of mining it, caused men of all sorts and conditions to set off for that sparsely inhabited land. There were Americans from the Atlantic Coast who had travelled via Panama, Mexicans, Chileans, Australians, Russians, Scandinavians, other Europeans – even Chinamen.

More than 7,000 sailed from Australia and New Zealand.

They included a proportion of desperadoes and ex–convicts transported from England, bankrupts and absconders who had suffered from a recent severe fall in the price of wool, and more responsible citizens who had wound up their businesses in the hope of becoming rich quickly.

harbour from all parts of the world brought immigrants and cargoes of provisions as the community grew. No sooner were they anchored than their crews deserted to join the miners.

By February 1850 San Francisco had become a large town extending over three miles. Its population had risen to 50,000 and was increasing by 1,500 a day. In May, 400 vessels ‘lay in the harbour;’ by September there were 700. The population of Sacramento grew from 100 in April 1849 to 10,000 in October 1850.

Most were doomed to disappointment, though some would be lucky and prosper. Accommodation and the necessities of life were scarce and expensive, profitable deposits of gold became increasingly difficult to find, and the rigours of the climate brought disease.

There is good news from Trinity River; gold is very plenty and provisions scarce. We shall make a great raise on the goods I have sent there

In 1850 a letter was published from a merchant in Sacramento to his partner. He writes,

He goes on to speak of various other finds of gold and of fortunes made in speculation. He continues,

An Australian butcher writes to his wife in Sydney:

Dear Elspeth I am very sorry to inform you that I arrived in a very bad time of the year, when mountains are covered in snow and rain falling in torrents; and what is worse than all, nothing to cover our heads but a cold canvas tent, with ground for the floor; therefore you that are in a comfortable house need not envy our comforts in the gold regions of California.

About half of those who tried the mines left them in a month.

Those who persevered were men for whom digging had all the attraction of a lottery, men who were naturally addicted to a life of drinking, gambling and fighting, or who simply liked to be their own master and had no better prospects at home.

Gold was first discovered in California on 24th January 1848 at Sutter’s Mill on American Fork River, when James W. Marshall had the curiosity to examine some quartz rock lying in the mill race after the water had been shut off. A company of 150 Mormons employed on construction work

by Marshall and Sutter began prospecting further afield and then the news spread rapidly. Ships arriving in San Francisco

A case was told me of a young man who, last fall, borrowed money to pay his passage from the Sandwich Islands to San Francisco, and who is now on his way home $80,000 made in this manner. A friend of mine who shipped lumber from New York to the amount of $1,000 sold it here for $14,000.

Houses that cost $300 sell readily for $3,000; and the demand is constantly increasing. At least 75 houses have been imported from Canton, and are put up by Chinese carpenters. Nearly all the chairs in private families are of Chinese manufacture; and there are two restaurants in town kept by Kang–sung and Wang–tong, were every palatable chow–chow, curry and tarts are served up by the Celestials. San Francisco is, in fact, more metropolitan in its character than any port in the world. Vessels continue to arrive at San Francisco from the United States. When I left two weeks ago, 102 vessels had arrived out of the 250 which sailed from different ports in the United States during the winter and spring. The harbour presents for miles an unbroken forest of masts; ships from every nation and country lie here idle and worthless, with no prospect of ever leaving, for there are not men enough unemployed to work the 20th part of

EXCITEMENT AND ENTHUSIASM OF GOLD WASHING STILL CONTINUES – AND INCREASES California Star Saturday, June 10, 1848

It is quite unnecessary to remind our readers of the “prospects of California” at this time, as the effects of this gold washing enthusiasm, upon the country, through every branch of business are unmistakably apparent to everyone. Suffice it that there is no abatement, and that active measures will probably be taken to prevent really serious and alarming consequences. . . .

There are at this time over one thousand souls busied in washing gold, and the yield per diem may be safely estimated at from fifteen to twenty dollars, each individual. . . .

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The gold region, so called, thus far explored, is about one hundred miles in length and twenty in width.

The probable amount taken from these mountains since 1st May, we are informed is $100,000. . . .

There is an area explored, within which a body of 50,000 men can advantageously labor. Without maliciously interfering with each other, then, there need be no cause for contention and discord, where as yet, we are gratified to know, there is harmony and good feeling existing. We really hope no unpleasant occurrences will grow out of this enthusiasm, and that our apprehensions may be quieted by continued patience and goodwill among the washers.

An early photograph of gold prospectors using a ‘Long Tom’ sluice at Spanish Flat, California, 1852 Private Collection / Bridgeman Art Library

them. The men will leave; there is no way of detaining them for duty on board; the naval force has been weakened be desertion. Commander Jones had barely force enough on board to form a crew, much less to tender assistance to merchantmen. We have many converted into storehouses, hotels, lodging–houses and hospitals. This is the only place in the world where Jack forgets the sanctity of the forecastle.

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It was usual for small parties of men to set out in search of a likely spot with provisions, firearms, pick and shovel and pans for washing specimens of earth. When a ‘good prospect’ had been found, they staked their claim and set up apparatus for washing large quantities of ‘dirt’, as the ore–bearing soil and stone was called. In the evening a pick left in the ground was enough to retain their claim, and each man returned to camp or to the mining village with his bag of gold slung round his neck and carrying the pan in which he had washed his gold, to be used for washing clothes, mixing flour or feeding the mule.

Drink and gambling were the favourite pastimes for most. The Mexicans played Monte, a Spanish game with 48 cards. The Americans preferred Faro. A week’s earnings might be spent in one day’s gambling and drinking.

The homesickness that oppressed most of the miners was expressed in nostalgic songs. Dancing was popular, too, even when there were none but men to take part. Firearms were always carried, for there were organized gangs of marauding criminals around, the most notorious being the Sydney Ducks and the Australian Hounds, ex–convicts and ruffians who, though they were joined by Mexicans and Europeans, gave their fellow countrymen a bad name in California. In the camps there was crowd or lynch law to deal speedily and severely with any thieving or murder. California had only been made part of the USA in 1848; there was no machinery of law yet, and the sheriff or the Alcade might himself be corrupt.

Vigilance committees began to be organized in 1851; their administration of justice too was simple swift and certain.

By winter 1850 the time for making fortunes was running out.

The land had been thoroughly explored, merchants had over speculated; unnatural excitement gave way to fear and doubt as the rains came on too early. The New York Herald reported:

Our advices from San Francisco are to the 1st of October. The digging season at this time was nearly over; and the miners were flocking into San Francisco in large numbers on their way to the Atlantic ports.

We learn that steamers for Panama, which are to leave California during the next four months, have been already filled up, and that tickets command a large premium. It appears by this, that there is as much anxiety to get away from as to get to San Francisco.

The miners have not made out so well this season as they did last, or as they expected. It is estimated that about 100,000 have gone in the mines this season, and that the average product of gold–dust had not been more than $4 per head.

The author of California Sketches, published in Albany in 1850:

Such a man seldom thinks upon the future. If, in the midst of his rioting, he lays aside a few pieces for the purchase of a new shirt or a small bag of flour, he looks with complacency upon his own extraordinary providence. As long as he has the slightest, meanest stock of clothing, and a little coarse food, he is contented. He considers the mines an inexhaustible store, which, if not very yielding, will at least manage to support him, and he resolves to pass his life there – a merry, if a short one. The consequence is that some dysentery of scurvy, the curses of the mines, attacks him; He has no money left to pay doctors. The friends upon whom he has spent his money miss him at their revels, but hardly enquire about him; for the great characteristic of the mines is a dreadful, heartless selfishness, which seems to attach itself to the souls of all. He dies unnoticed in his tent.

One of the Australian miners found traces of gold in the soil of his own country after his return there. Men came in from far and wide, and the story of expectations and disappointments was repeated.

.

85 •

Colour lithograph published by Rand McNally & Co, c1870 after the gold had become scarce Collection of the New York Historical Society / Bridgeman Art Library

Puccini & Belasco by Michael Fontes •

In those strange days, people, coming from God knows where, joined forces in that far Western land, and, according to the rude custom of the camp, their very names were soon lost and unrecorded, and here they struggled, laughed, gambled, cursed, killed, loved and worked out their strange destinies in a manner incredible to us of to–day. Of one thing only are we sure—they lived! EARLY HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA OPERA–LOVERS know the name Belasco because two of Puccini’s mature operas, Madama Butterfly and La Fanciulla del West, are derived from Belasco plays. Who was David Belasco? And what was the appeal of his plays to Puccini?

Son of a Jewish clown from London who had emigrated to the Far West at the time of the gold rush, David Belasco was born in San Francisco in 1854. His Roman Catholic mother organized an excellent education for him, but he ran away with a travelling circus and became a bareback rider and clown. By the age of twelve, completely stage–struck, he was writing plays. An acquaintance of this time said of him: “I have not encountered a person more downright daft, more completely saturated in every fibre of his being, with passion for the Stage and things dramatical than was young David Belasco.”

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The stage proved to be a lasting passion: he wrote and rewrote plays; he acted roles of all kinds – Hamlet, Mercutio, Uncle Tom, Fagin. He directed plays in San Francisco and Virginia City, Nevada, where he worked with Dion Boucicault. He took plays to the mining camps. By the age of 29 when he set off for New York he had acted more than 170 roles and written around 100 plays.

In 1890 he was established as an independent producer in New York. He rapidly became well known and successful, despite the theatre wars of the 1890s. He turned unknown actors into stars. Two New York theatres were named after him. The second of these, the current Belasco Theatre on West 44th Street, is still in operation as a Broadway theatre, with much of the original decoration as he designed it.

He was a master of scenic devices, particularly lighting, and devoted to naturalism. His settings were as true to life as he could make them; if a scene called for washing up, the sink would be fitted with taps which worked, and water would splash over the stage. Once he even bought a restaurant, so that he could use all the furniture and decorations in a play. He was said to put scents into the theatre’s ventilation system. The actors’ dressing rooms had many–coloured lights, so that they could judge the effect of their make–up against the lighting systems being used in the play. People went to the Belasco Theatre as much for the effects as for the plays themselves.

Alongside Chekov, Strindberg, and Ibsen’s realistic dramas, Belasco’s 400 plays seem sentimental and often maudlin. They have mostly not survived, unless set to music by Puccini. His gift was really for the mechanics of the theatre, the accuracy of a setting, and the immense care he took over detail. He died in New York on 14 May, 1931.

Puccini’s first encounter with the American dramatist was in 1900, when, in London for the première of Tosca at Covent Garden, and totally unable to speak or even understand English, he went to Belasco’s play Madam Butterfly on the opening night of its London run. In 1898, John Luther Long, a Philadelphia lawyer, had published a long short story, Madame Butterfly, more or less based on Pierre Loti’s popular novel, Madame Chrysanthème. The exoticism of Long’s American version of the French story appealed to the public. David Belasco acquired the rights and adapted Butterfly for the stage. He borrowed freely from Long’s story and much of the dialogue is lifted unaltered from it. The play had only one act and, on its Broadway run, formed part of a double bill following a farce called Naughty Anthony, also by Belasco.

The entire play takes place two years after Pinkerton has left Japan. The action centres on Butterfly and her maid. Pinkerton returns towards the end and witnesses Butterfly’s suicide.

Belasco’s tragic ending was not the only detail which impressed Puccini: he could see the musical potential of the long build–up of tension, as Butterfly silently awaits Pinkerton’s return; Belasco vividly evoked the oriental night, taking a great theatrical risk by trying to hold the audience in silence, with lighting changes alone, for a whole quarter of an hour. Both the public and Puccini were impressed.

Puccini felt the piece united the elements he was looking for, drama, love and exoticism. He bought the rights and set his librettists to work: Illica who worked out the dramatic structure, and Giacosa, responsible for the versification. Puccini set himself to study Japanese music and customs, to add authenticity to the setting, even asking the wife of the Japanese ambassador to Italy for Japanese folk–songs and advice on names and gestures.

Two interruptions held up the progress of the work on Butterfly: the death of Verdi on 27 January 1901, in response to which

Puccini wrote a Requiem, and the car accident he suffered on 25 February 1902. Puccini’s leg was broken and then badly set. It had to be rebroken and put back in plaster. This made him bed–bound and unable to reach the piano for eight months.

The opening night of Butterfly at La Scala in 1904 was a famous operatic disaster, but Puccini had faith in his work. Later in the year, he released a revised version in Brescia. The revision split the long second act in two. In its new form the Japanese opera was a tremendous success.

Now inevitably Puccini was looking for a subject for his next opera, energetically reading novels and plays, searching for a new and, buzz– word, ‘original’ subject. He had once made a joke about being ‘sick to death of being inoperaio’ – the word taken to mean both out of work and with no opera to work on. He was attracted to avant–garde literature, and considered Oscar Wilde and Maxim Gorki. He wondered about a trilogy.

Ricordi, his publisher, suggested Romeo and Juliet, and his librettists a story by Edgar Allan Poe. Puccini’s favourite plan was to set Pierre Louÿs novel La femme et le pantin, a story of the fascination a beautiful and independent woman holds over a rich admirer. Puccini abandoned this idea finally, though Turandot shows some of the traits of the heroine, Conchita.

Zandonai took up the theme in his opera Conchita (1911), and three great films have been derived from it: Joseph von Sternberg’s The Devil is a Woman (1935), with Marlene Dietrich, Julien Duvivier’s La femme et le pantin (1959) with Bardot, and, most memorably, Cet obscur objet du désir (1977) by Luis Buñuel with Carole Bouquet.

Puccini finally found the inspiration for Fanciulla in 1907 on a visit to New York to supervise productions of Bohème, Tosca, Manon Lescaut and Butterfly. He didn’t like the city, but he bought a big boat for his wife Elvira, for their house at

Torre del Lago, spent some time with Thomas Edison, and, remembering the circumstances in which he had discovered Butterfly, went to three Belasco plays: The Music Master, The Rose of the Rancho, and The Girl of the Golden West. He was fascinated by the stage effects in this third play, an original work, set in the mining camps of Belasco’s childhood. It had moving panoramic backcloths and realistic saloons serving beer. Puccini saw California as ‘the land of opportunity’ and imagined ‘a magnificent scenario, a clearing in the great Californian forest, with some colossal trees’. He saw Fanciulla becoming a second Bohème, but ‘more vigorous, more daring, and on an altogether larger scale’. He could now set to work, researching American songs of the frontier times, and authentic Red Indian chants.

Work on the opera was held up by a dreadful family drama. Elvira became suspicious of Doria Manfredi, a 16–year–old girl from the village, who had been employed to help while Puccini was bed–bound. Elvira now threw Puccini out of the house, accusing him of having an affair with Doria, whom she sacked. The poor girl, disgraced in the village, committed suicide. She was found to be a virgin. The family sued and the court held against Elvira, though Puccini managed to buy a way out of her prison sentence. The recent discovery of 600 of Puccini’s letters in an old suitcase has shown that Elvira was right to be jealous, but picked the wrong girl; Puccini’s affair, which continued long after the scandal, was with Doria’s cousin, Guilia. Doria simply carried the messages between them. Guilia had a son, probably by Puccini, called Alfredo, who died aged 75 in 1998.

The première of Fanciulla was arranged for the Metropolitan Opera House in 1910. This was to be the first time that America had seen an operatic première of world significance. The Americans paid lavishly: Puccini was delighted with the gold taps in his bathroom on the transatlantic liner. Toscanini was

87 •

to conduct and Caruso to sing Johnson. Minnie was the great Czech diva, Emmy Destinn, who had made her New York début in Aida two years earlier.

88 •

La Fanciulla del West broke with tradition, the tradition Puccini had himself successfully created, from Manon Lescaut through to Madam Butterfly, of lyrical tragedies punctuated with show–stopping arias. As a result, perhaps, Fanciulla, with its uncomplicated story, happy end, and relatively restrained emotions, is not Puccini’s most popular opera. Ravel commented that in Fanciulla for the first time Puccini had put the orchestra centre stage. Debussy had written that he couldn’t forgive Puccini for his Italianization of Mürger’s novel in Bohème, but Puccini admired Debussy: Fanciulla shows the influence of Pelléas in its use of the whole–tone scale and, for instance, in the love duet at the end of Act One, where passionate feelings are for once held in check. The extraordinary end of this duet – Minnie’s sigh over an unresolved chord – must have astonished the audience at the early performances.

Fanciulla is remarkable for its breadth of allusion. The opening illustrates the point well: after the repeated wide–ranging whole–tone orchestral chords, evocative of the great spaces of the West, we get the lyrical melody of Minnie’s love for the outlaw, which moves seamlessly into a jazzy cakewalk, and then, the balladeer’s song, which is developed in important ways in the course of the opera. Puccini was conscious of America’s astonishing mixture of styles, and this eclecticism is part of the exotic mix of the opera.

The New York Times of 5 Dec 1910 published a vivid account of the rehearsals for Fanciulla, revealing their pride in the role played by the American Belasco alongside Toscanini, Caruso and Destinn. The headline was: TEACHING THE WEST TO SINGERS OF IT David Belasco Showing the Opera Folk How Life Did Go On Out There The stage is set with a gigantic redwood forest contrived for the last act. The chorus are about to hang Johnson–Caruso.

Miss Emmy Destinn, who presently is to have a flying entrance, may be seen walking about in the distance, getting mountain atmosphere.

Somewhere in the darkened hall sits the man who is really responsible for every movement, every situation in the play. He is the stage director to whom everybody comes – Toscanini, Speck, Caruso, Amato, Destinn, even Puccini. This man, dressed in black, with flowing white hair, has given up every other duty for the time being. You may find David Belasco only at the Metropolitan Opera House these days.

‘What does the Sheriff do while Johnson sings?’ asks Maestro Puccini of the author of the play.

Mr Belasco goes through the dumb show of smoking a cigar in silent scorn. This leads to further questions about the action going on at present, and to suggestions by Mr Belasco about certain points in the action of previous acts, which have just occurred to him.

Mr Puccini speaks in Italian and so does Mr Toscanini. Mr Belasco speaks in English, and yet there very seldom is any need for an interpreter. They understand each other, these men. Maestro Puccini and Maestro Toscanini lean forward to catch every word which falls from the lips of the ‘Wizard of the Theatre’.

‘You mustn’t let the Indian tie Johnson,’ cries Mr Belasco, suddenly.

‘All these men hate Johnson and want to see him hanged, but there is such a thing as caste in the West, and if the Indian bound him, they would all let him go’.

He shows Mr Amato how to strike Johnson–Caruso across the face, and then he sets them to glare at each other. He shows Caruso–Johnson how to take in with one last despairing glance the whole range of mountains and forest as far as his eye can reach. One thing he cannot show to anybody, and that is how to throw a lasso so that it will knot on a tree limb. It is probable that this will not be done by an Italian on the opening night.

The lasso knotted on the tree limb. La Fanciulla del West triumphed at its opening night on 10 December 1910, with Toscanini in the pit, Enrico Caruso, Emmy Destinn, and eight live horses on stage; David Belasco was in the audience. It took 14 curtain calls.

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May Lillie American Photographer, 20th century Peter Newark American Pictures / Bridgeman Art Library

90 •

RUSALK A is the second production to have been generously sponsored by TULCHAN COMMUNICATIONS

LYRIC FAIRY TALE IN THREE AC TS Text by Jaroslav Kvapil after Friedrich de la Motte Fouqué’s Undine First performance National Theatre, Prague, 31 March 1901 Performances at Grange Park on June 22, 24, 27, 29, July 1, 5, 7, 9 Sung in Czech with surtitles

ANTONIN DVOR AK

Rusalka Stephen Barlow

RUSALKA A MERMAID

Conductor

Anne–Sophie Duprels

supported by Johnny & Marie Veeder

Antony McDonald

HER FATHER A MERMAN

Wolfgang Goebbel

THE PRINCE

DIRECTOR & DESIGNER

Clive Bayley

supported by Jim Dale

LIGHTING DESIGN

Jeffrey Lloyd–Roberts

supported by Anthony & Carolyn Townsend

Lucy Burge

JEZIBABA A WITCH

MOVEMENT Dance supported by The Wolves

Gabrielle Dalton

1841 1904

Anne–Marie Owens supported by Malcolm Herring

A FOREIGN PRINCESS

supported by Michael Bolton

ASSOCIATE COSTUME DESIGN

Chiara Vinci Patricia Hinds Joanna Meredith Lia Rogers Katherine Kingston Caroline Lynn David John Paul Chantry George Adams Luke Owen Craig Ashley english chamber orchestr A

Janis Kelly

THE GAMEKEEPER

James McOran–Campbell supported by Chris & Amanda Ward

A KITCHEN HAND THREE NYMPHS

Arlene Rolph Joanne Thome

supported by Mrs Ian Jay

Anna Grevelius

supported by Dr Jonathan Holliday & Dr Gwen Lewis

Karina Lucas

supported by Mr & Mrs W Friedrich

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W hite a

Synopsis Rusalka •

Rusalka has fallen in love with a prince who bathes in the lake she inhabits. So that she can embrace her beloved, the witch Jezibaba will grant her a human body – but without the power of speech.

Nevertheless, the prince and Rusalka fall in love. At their wedding celebrations the prince is seduced by a Foreign Princess.

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Rusalka confesses her secret to the Merman. When he tries to warn her, he realises that nothing can hold her back. He tells her that Jezibaba, the witch, can perform the necessary spells to make her a woman. Jezibaba agrees, but the price and conditions are severe. Rusalka will have all the attributes of womanhood except speech. She will be dumb to all other humans. Furthermore, if she is rejected by her lover, then she will be an outcast – for ever caught between earth and water – and her lover will be condemned to eternal damnation. Rusalka blindly accepts everything and, once the spell is pronounced, prepares to meet the Prince.

Once again, a mysterious and elusive prey has drawn the Prince to the lakeside. He dismisses his huntsmen and waits by the waterside. Rusalka appears and, although she cannot speak to him, he is confident that his love will conquer all difficulties.

He leads her to his palace.

MAIN DINNER INTERVAL 70 minutes ACT TWO At the palace, preparations are under way for the wedding feast. The kitchen boy and game–keeper gossip and criticise the Prince’s silent and mysterious bride. They fear that he has been bewitched. Yet it is still possible that the ‘real’ princess visiting the palace may rescue him from this unsuitable marriage.

SECOND SHORT INTERVAL ACT THREE Rusalka returns to the lake, desperate for its dark oblivion, but her sisters reject her, She is now an outcast from land and water. Jezibaba tells her that she could redeem herself by murdering the Prince; Rusalka cannot bring herself to do this.

The gamekeeper and the kitchen boy also seek out Jezibaba to ask for a spell to heal the Prince, who since Rusalka’s departure, has fallen into a sickness. At the suggestion that the blame lies with Rusalka, the Merman appears and denounces the dishonesty of mankind. And when the nymphs return to play beside the lake, he warns them of Rusalka’s fate.

.

But Rusalka is no longer happy. A young Prince has visited the lake and unknown to him, Rusalka has fallen in love with him.

Now she longs to leave the water, to become visible, to acquire human form and feeling.

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At the lakeside, the nymphs play their childish games. Rusalka and her sisters also used to play happily in the dark waters of the lake, watched over by their benign but awesome Water Spirit – a Merman.

The prince is indeed already growing weary of Rusalka’s silence and timidity. The Princess loses no opportunity to emphasise Rusalka’s lack of savoir faire, and as the party progresses the Prince spends more and more time in her company. Ignored and humiliated, Rusalka seeks the Merman’s help. He urges her to persist with the Prince, who is now openly courting the Princess. When Rusalka attempts to come between them, the Prince brutally rejects her. Now the conditions of Jezibaba’s spell begin to do their work.

r ide he’s me t he b eti

ACT ONE

The Prince is inexorably drawn back to the lake in search of Rusalka. She warns him that she is now a spirit whose kiss would be fatal to a mortal. He begs her to kiss him and bring him peace. So Rusalka achieves with the kiss what she would not do with the knife. Yet, although it assures her of his love, his death is in vain.

Even this sacrifice cannot wipe from Rusalka’s heart the memory that her first love was betrayed.

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Winter Tale, 1904 by Ferdynand Ruszczyc (1870-1936) National Museum, Cracow/ Bridgeman Art Library

Man only reaches man's estate when he has murdered his brothers Jezibaba Rusalka Act 3 translation Rodney Blumer

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Nymph–meets–boy •

Goddesses, devils, temptresses, innocents: sea nymphs have captured – and broken – men’s hearts since the beginning of time. But they themselves rarely get off lightly. Charlotte Higgins is the art's correspondent of The Guardian and author of Latin Love Lessons: Put a Little Ovid in Your Life.

AS WESTERN LITERATURE takes its very first breaths, so water nymphs are already splashing around seas and riverbeds.

Hesiod is, arguably, the oldest Greek poet; his work Theogony, probably dating from the late 8th century BC, tells the story of the origins of the gods – including “the three thousand graceful–ankled Oceanids”, (that is, daughters of Ocean) who “haunt the earth and the depths of the waters everywhere alike, shining goddess children.” And Nereus, the old man of the sea, we are told, was the father of “numerous goddess–children in the undraining sea”.

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One of these goddess–children was Thetis, who is more than a bit–part player in later literature. For she is the mother of Achilles in the Iliad (played by a luminous Julie Christie in the rather absurd film Troy). The backstory, how she came to be the mother of a mortal man, is that she fell in love with Peleus, one of the company of heroes who set out with Jason in search of the Golden Fleece. The lightning–flash of love at first sight was conjured up centuries later by the Roman poet Catullus, in his poem often called The Wedding of Peleus and Thetis: he describes how the Nereids bob curiously around the Argo – the first–ever ship – breasts sexily exposed above the grey–white foam. Some versions of the myth tell how Peleus, in order to win her, had to grab hold of her firmly, as she changed her shape, quick as you like: snake one minute, lion the next. But he got her in the end.

Back to the Iliad: when Achilles is dishonoured by the Greek commander–in–chief Agamemnon (provoking the “wrath” which is the motor of the story), he prays to his mother Thetis for revenge, and he gets it: destruction is rained down upon the other Greeks while he sulks in his tent. The hero only rejoins the fighting when his beloved companion Patroclus has been killed. In his overwhelming, immense grief, he cries out and, far away on the ocean bed his mother hears him and weeps in turn: for she knows that soon he will too die. It’s the awful pain of the love of an immortal for a mortal: a theme that will, in different ways, resurface throughout the history of water nymphs and their dealings with men.

These Nereids could be a help in a crisis, if they take a shine to you: in the Odyssey, a sea–nymph disguised as a shearwater gives the hero help when a storm, sent by the vengeful god Poseidon, threatens to kill him. But he also very nearly comes a cropper in his encounter with Scylla, a multi–headed monster

who snatches passing sailors and eats them alive. In Ovid’s Metmorphoses, Scylla had once been a a pretty girl, a favourite friend of the sea–nymphs, particularly of Galatea, who tells her her story: she was caught in a love triangle with the beautiful Acis, whom she loved, and the grotesque Cyclops Polyphemus, who loved her: the monster’s comically galumphing love song was reimagined by John Gay in the 18th century and set to music by Handel by way of the famous aria “O ruddier than the cherry”. This pretty pastoral ends badly when Polyphemus kills Acis with a rock he hurls: but Galatea turns him into a river–god.

It takes the Christian world to make water–nymphs demonic.

The French 14th–century Histoire de Mélusine, by Jean d’Arras, tells of the eponymous nymph, guardian of a fountain. One day a young nobleman, Raymond, appeared and the two fell in love. Mélusine agreed to marry him on condition he never saw her on a Saturday; he agreed. She brought him great success: towns, great monuments, churches were built literally overnight, as if by magic. They had 10 children, each with a curious deformity: one had a lion’s foot growing from his cheek; another a red eye. But what did Mélusine do Saturdays? One day Raymond squinted through a crack in her door, and spied her in her bath. From the waist down, he was horrified to see, she had a serpent’s tail. Raymond later revealed he had broken his promise to her and Mélusine turned into a 15ft serpent and flew away. This is fertile material for A S Byatt in her novel Possession, in which her 19th century poet, Christabel LaMotte, writes an epic based on the legend. Christabel remarks that Mélusine has “two aspects — an Unnatural Monster — and a most proud and loving and handy woman”. For her, Mélusine is a metaphor for the woman artist. Just don’t disturb her on a Saturday.

A S Byatt, who leaves codes and clues in her characters’ names, is doubtless recalling, in her Christabel, the German writer Friedrich de la Motte Fouqué (1777–1843). His story Undine is perhaps the ultimate nymph–meets–boy story, and one of the great literary achievements of the Hochromantik (High Romanticism). The story concerns the curious girl Undine, the child of humble fisherfolk living beside a great lake. One day a handsome knight, Huldbrand, appears in this out–of–the–way spot. He has forged his way through the terrifying forest – where who–knows–what wraiths and spirits lurk – that separates the

lake from the city; a challenge, it turns out, from Bertalda, the woman who has been courting him. Floods conspire to cut him off and force him to remain at the fisherman’s cottage. This is no great hardship, for he is fascinated by Undine. She is a peculiar creature, wilful, somehow childlike, but compelling.

Fortuitously, a priest also appears at the cottage, by sheer coincidence (or is it?) carried by the floods to the cottage where the fisherman’s family and guest are sitting out the bad weather. What could be better? The couple are married. The next morning, Undine is, oddly, rather different: calmer, less skittish and thoughtless, more attentive to her parents and

new husband. That evening, she told Huldbrand a story.

“You should know, my love, that there are living creatures among the elements that look quite like mortals but are seldom seen by them.

Wondrous salamanders glitter and play in the flames, withered, bad–tempered gnomes live deep in the earth; treefolk who belong to the air inhabit the forests; a multitude of water spirits reside in the lakes and rivers and streams… Many a fisherman has been lucky enough to overhear a mermaid as she rose above the tide to sing. The creatures’ beauty became known far and wide and the people gave them the name Undines. And, indeed, you have a true Undine before you now, dear friend.” (translation: Carol Tully)

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The Fisherman and the Siren Knut Ekvall (1843-1912) Private collection / Bridgeman Art Library

When Undines die, they simply cease to be. But by marrying her, Huldbrand has given her something she longs for – an immortal soul. It is, specifically, the wedding night deflowering that transforms Undine from wild “child of nature” into the calm, collected, fully moral woman of her married life.

But the happily–ever–after does not quite pan out. The couple return to the city, enduring some disquieting appearances from the strange Kühleborn, Undine’s uncle, a powerful spirit of the sea. There they meet Bertalda, who comes to live with them in Huldebrand’s castle. This is a bad idea. Something seems to change in Huldebrand, and he and Bertalda gradually fall in love, though at times he seems caught between love for the two women. Undine is very sad but remarkably patient.

Continued appearances from members of her watery family – who seem to threaten ill–will to her faithless husband and Bertalda – lead her to seal up the well in the castle. But one day Huldebrand makes a fateful error: he flies into a rage with Undine as the three of them are sailing down the river towards Vienna. Undine slips away into the waves, but not before unhappily warning Huldebrand to stay true to her, or else expect terrible consequences.

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So much for her warning. After a time, Huldebrand and Bertalda decide to marry, and on the night of the wedding feast Bertalda, mistress of the castle at last, orders the great stone to be rolled away from the wellhead. Undine appears from it and makes her way to Huldebrand’s chamber, where she kisses him. He dies bathed in her tears, she having become the unwilling, vengeance–seeking instrument of her elemental family.

Undine was hugely popular when it was published.

E T A Hoffmann, more famous for his own fairytales than for his music, wrote an opera based on the story, which was given its premiere in 1816. In 1843 Jules Perrot created a ballet on the tale for Fanny Cerrito. With an ethereal spirit–girl at its heart, Undine was ideal for romantic–balletic treatment – a form so very much at home with Sylphs and Wilis and other such supernatural, wispy, flyaway creatures. In 1958 Frederick Ashton made his last three–act ballet, for Margot Fonteyn and with a score by Hans Werner Henze: it was called Ondine.

When Henze met Ashton on the Italian island of Ischia to plan the work, he read Fouqué’s Undine on the beach; every day the book got sandier and saltier. Undine was the book Wagner was reading when he died, no stranger he to the curious nature of water–nymphs: what else are the Rhinemaidens? With their mischievous flirtatiousness they are perfectly in line with tradition.

Talking of tradition, Europe abounds with local water–nymphs in all manner of guises. There are the German and Polish nixes, who, beware, might tempt you into a pond or lake, where you’ll surely drown. In Scotland, your heart and lungs might be ripped out by an unfriendly river–demon. In Yorkshire, Jenny Green–teeth or Peg–o’–the–Well will drown any child who

approaches too near. From the Shetlands, comes the tale of the man who saw a group of mermaids and mermen dancing one night. As he approached, they each picked up a sealskin and with it plunged into the sea. But the man quickly quickly grabbed one too, and hid it. Going back to the shore, he met a beautiful young woman. She implored him to return her sealskin. He refused – but offered her shelter as his wife. She stayed with him, reluctantly, and bore his children – until one day she found her sealskin and dived right back into the sea, never to be seen again, not caring a hoot for her children. She wanted her freedom.

The libretto of Dvo˘rák’s Rusalka (premiered in 1901), is by Jaroslav Kapil, based on fairytales by Jaromir Erben and Božena Ne˘ mcová. The story not only draws on La Motte’s Fouqué’s novella, but also Hans Christian Andersen’s disturbing tale The Little Mermaid. Throughout her childhood, the Little Mermaid has longed to swim to the surface of the sea. When she does so, on her 15th birthday, she spies a beautiful young prince and falls in love with him. If he loves her back, she might be rewarded with an immortal soul, she is told… She saves his life when his ship is wrecked, and lovingly conveys him to the seashore, slipping back into the waves as soon as she has delivered him. He regains consciousness in the arms not of the Little Mermaid, but of a passing human girl. The Little Mermaid is obsessed by longing. One day she visits a witch, who promises to help her – at the ghastly price of her beautiful voice. She swims to the shore and swallows the witch’s potion.

All at once she feels a terrible pain as if a sword were going through her. She falls into a dead faint. When she wakes she has two beautiful legs – but with every step she takes it is as if she is treading on sharp knives. She meets the prince, who is so fond of her he lets her sleep on a cushion outside his door; but because she is now dumb, she can neither declare her love nor explain that she is the one who saved his life. The prince is to be married – reluctantly, for his is so very fond of the Little Mermaid – but when he sees his bride–to–be, the reluctance falls away, for she is none other than the girl in whose arms he woke up after his near–drowning, and the woman to whom he feels he owes his life.

On the night of the wedding, the Little Mermaid’s sisters appear above the water’s surface. They have cut off their beautiful hair and given it to the witch, in return for a way of helping their sister. All she must do is kill the prince with the knife they have brought, and she can become a Mermaid again.

But she cannot do it: she throws herself despairingly into the sea, and is transformed into a spirit of the air. The story is wretchedly dark: full of deep longing for transformation and acceptance; throbbing with a sense of loathing of self, of an inability to communicate one’s true desires. Sea nymphs seem never quite content with their own watery element. They want more: they hanker after humanity. And humanity – the fall from that blissfully pre–lapsarian state as “children of nature” – brings them nothing but terrible pain.

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Light of my Nights illustrated handwritten poem, 27th November 1932 by Robert Desnos (1900-45) Bibliotheque Litteraire Jacques Doucet, Paris / Archives Charmet / Bridgeman Art Library

'. . . the most suitable form for the nation' •

Do you know how it feels when someone else it taking the words from your mouth? That is how Dvo˘rák’s has taken his melodies from my heart' Janácek. Dvo˘rák greatly influenced the nation both through his melody and his extensive operatic output. Jan Smaczny, Professor of Music at Belfast University, explains his journey from viola player to national legend.

THE INTERVIEW WHICH DVORAK GAVE to a Viennese newspaper in 1904 was not only his last but also his most surprising. To modern admirers of Dvo˘rák’s music it seems perverse that a renowned composer of symphonies and chamber music should have been happy to state that he had refused several requests from his publisher Simrock for such works and announce calmly to the world that '. . . long years ago I proved that my main leaning was towards dramatic music.’ Admittedly Dvo˘rák had only been concerned exclusively with opera since completing his last symphonic poem in 1896, but operatic projects of various kinds were a constant factor throughout his composing life, and when Brahms had originally recommended the young composer to Simrock in 1877 he mentioned opera as one of his accomplishments.

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From the start of Dvo˘rák’s career he was associated with the theatre. As a viola player in Karel Komzak’s dance band he was called in to play in the orchestra of the provisional Theatre in Prague, established in 1862 for the performance of plays and opera in Czech. Dvo˘rák remained with the theatre orchestra until July 1871 when he opted to support himself by teaching.

These nine years came at an important time for Czech opera and had a decisive effect on the young composer. A basis for a national opera materialised with the appearance of Smetana’s formative masterpieces The Brandenburgers in Bohemia (1866), The Bartered Bride (1866), and Dalibor (1868). Throughout these heady days Dvo˘rák, in his rather obscure position as first viola, absorbed a large range of non–Czech opera including Verdi, Rossini, Bellini, Mozart, Weber, French Grand Opera and a large dose of Offenbach; doubtless he greeted each new Czech offering with interest if not always approval. For the younger generation of Czech composers opera was becoming the natural means of expression, and the way in which they could best serve the burgeoning musical needs of the nation.

The stimulus for Dvo˘rák’s own first attempt at opera, Alfred, may have come from his student friend Karel Bendl whose grand opera Lejla was given in the Provisional Theatre in 1868. Quite why Dvo˘rák chose an early 19th–century libretto about Britons and Danes remains a mystery. One reason for the choice of a German text, however, may have been his uncertainty with the musical treatment of his own language. In 1865 he had composed eighteen settings of poetry by Gustav Pfleger–Moravsky entitled Cypresses which, although full of fine

melody (so fine that Dvo˘rák revised several of them as Op. 83, used them in operas and arranged twelve for string quartet), contained Czech accentuation which Bendl pointed out was ‘… bad in many places’. Apart from two songs composed later in 1865 Dvo˘rák avoided setting Czech for some years. He was not the only composer at the time to encounter difficulties in setting his own language; Smetana was taken to task by some of his greatest admirers for his treatment of accent and stress in his first three operas. The task of evolving a natural means of setting Czech was as taxing for the young Dvo˘rák as it was for the older Smetana, whose first language was German.

Dvo˘rák may have felt encouraged to embark on setting Czech again by a magazine article by the poetess Eliska Krasnohorska in which she outlined a number of suggestions for the suitable operatic treatment of the language. When he began his first Czech opera, The King & the Charcoal–burner (1871), some two weeks after the appearance of this article, he produced a much more assured effort compared with the early song–cycle. The opera, however, foundered in rehearsal because the singers complained of the unduly complicated vocal writing and it was handed back with regret to the composer. Taking his lead from Lortzing (with whose Czaar und Zimmermann he was familiar from his days in the theatre), and borrowing a fair measure of ‘woodland atmosphere’ from Weber, he then produced a lighter and much more effective setting of the same text, which ran for four performances. While this was in production he had completed a one–act comic opera The Stubborn Lovers consolidating his experience of the genre, before making a bold move to tackle the open spaces of Vanda, a five act Grand Opera.

Part of the problem with the work was the poor quality of the libretto in general and the verse in particular. Given in 1876, and then (slightly cut and revised) in 1880, it made no real impact on the repertoire despite some glorious music. Dvo˘rák then returned to comedy with The Peasant a Rogue (1877) and he achieved his greatest success so far, notwithstanding criticism that it was rather too similar to Smetana’s The Kiss.

His next opera Dimitrij (1881–82) – the story begins where Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov finishes – may be regarded as the first of his mature operatic endeavours, enthusiastically begun in 1880 after the D major Symphony. By the time the work was premiered in the New Czech Theatre in October 1882, Fibich had been at work on his Wagnerian music–drama The Bride of

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The Bride by Catherine McCrickard (b 1974) Private Collection / Bridgeman Art Library

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Messina for some five months. Although Fibich’s opera may be considered much more avant–garde, Dimitrij is a far superior composition. His treatment of this score shows him to have been an almost compulsive reviser of his theatre works – as late as 1894 he was making sweeping changes. The result was far less positive than the original; the harmony veers towards Wagner, the word–setting towards greater realism and the bold ostinato which had introduced the last act is replaced by a hesitant prelude. All these features looked forward to the shape of things to come. Between the first and last versions of Dimitrij Dvo˘rák had composed his most lovable opera The Jacobin (1887–88) which gave him ample opportunity to exploit his lyrical genius.

The element of conflict in the opera is important but secondary to the story of the homecoming of a prodigal and the picture of village music–making to which Dvo˘rák turned most of his attention. Dvo˘rák’s picture of the village schoolmaster shows his considerable powers of characterisation, put to similar good use with the character of the Water Spirit/Merman in Rusalka.

Skilful and successful though The Jacobin was, it did not escape revision and a touch of Wagnerising in 1897 when Dvo˘rák did much to rationalise the untidy final act.

Apart from his revision of Dimitrij, opera remained a good intention rather than a concrete reality during Dvo˘rák’s stay in New York (1892–5). Although sketches for an operatic setting of Longfellow’s Hiawatha exist, Dvo˘rák did not make a firm return to opera until 1898 when he embarked on Kate and the Devil. But his time in America had a lasting effect on his attitude to opera. His conversations with the committed Wagnerian Anton Seidl, the conductor of the Metropolitan Opera, may well have encouraged him towards an interest in the operatic methods of the Bayreuth Wizard as distinct from the musical language of Wagner which had fascinated him as a young composer. Whatever the reason, there is a perceptible increase in Wagnerian tendencies in the operas composed after Dvo˘rák’s return to Bohemia. He seems to have abandoned his allegiance to abstract forms – apart from composing and completing two string quartets – to devote himself to palpably national works in the shape of symphonic poems and opera. Four of the symphonic poems (The Water Goblin, The Noon Witch, The Wild Dove, The Spinning Wheel) were based on ballads by Erben and the story of his next (hugely successful) opera, Kate and the Devil, is from Bozena Nemcova’s fairytale collection of 1845.

The characterisation of Kate and, improbably, the devil was an

important signpost towards his next operas, a work which in many ways represented the synthesis of all Dvo˘rák had learnt in the operas of him maturity.

A glance at the repertoire of the National Theatre in the 1890s is sufficient to indicate the Rusalka was not a fashionable subject.

This might account for the fact that Kvapil’s libretto first fell on stony ground with refusals from a number of younger composers. Dvo˘rák’s decision to set a fairy–tale when many of his contemporaries were turning to verismo subjects may account for its uniqueness in the Czech repertoire; yet the work is also unique in the composer’s own output because Dvo˘rák allows his instinct as a symphonist full range to provide a greater sense of unity than in any of his other operas. Paradoxically, while Rusalka is Dvo˘rák’s closest approach to Wagnerian music–drama in overall construction – and even in a few of the musical details – it is also his most individual opera. The declamation is particularly remarkable in that Dvo˘rák manages in idiomatic style a word–setting which nowhere compromises the lyricism of his melodic invention. The occasional set numbers – in particular Rusalka’s celebrated song to the moon in the first act – do nothing to fragment the texture. There is none of the hesitancy which marks the introductions to the action in Kate and the Devil and Armida; Dvo˘rák was secure in capturing the atmosphere of both palace and woodland. Especially effective is the gossiping of the gamekeeper and kitchen boy at the beginning of the second act set in the style of a bagpipe song.

Much of the power of the writing is derived from Dvo˘rák’s sure– handed way of constructing broad paragraphs; both the ends of the first and third acts gain from a symphonic treatment. The Prince’s declaration of love to the mute Rusalka in the first act is remarkable; where a duet would be expected, Dvo˘rák writes a passionate and exhilarating solo that gradually builds to a conclusion of enormous strength. Even with moments such as these, however, the most lasting impression is that of the sheer beauty of Dvo˘rák’s sound–world in which orchestral subtlety and melodic invention of the highest order are combined. Dvo˘rák’s last opera Armida (1902–3) seems a strangely unsatisfactory tail–piece to his career as an opera composer. The setting of an almost Baroque libretto was in part a retreat from the advances made in Rusalka, and elements of the Wagnerian lingua franca jostle with old–fashioned recitative. There are moments of considerable beauty and occasional startling modernisms – particularly in the third act – but the whole is far less of a unity

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Glass Calypso Bowl by Rene Jules Lalique (1860-1945) Private Collection / Bridgeman Art Library

than Rusalka and Dvo˘rák might well have considered revising the work had he lived.

Despite the rather ambiguous reception of Armida Dvo˘rák showed no signs of giving up opera composition. Having decided that opera was 'the most suitable form for the nation’ he had in hand three texts in 1904 and, if Janacek’s rather

explosive contribution to a commemorative issue of Hedubni Revue (Music Review) in 1911 is to be believed, then he may even have been considering setting a verismo libretto. Whatever his intentions, Dvo˘rák’s mature operas, chief amongst them Rusalka, offer ample evidence that his feeling that his ‘. . .main leaning was towards dramatic music’ was by no means a delusion of his old age.

BLUEBE ARD is the fifth production to have been sponsored by

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ICAP plc

OPER A BOUFFE IN THREE AC TS Text by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy First performance Théâtre des Variétés, Paris 5 February 1866 A CO–PRODUCTION WITH THE BREGENZ FESTIVAL AND ST POLTEN FESTIVAL Performances at Grange Park on June 5, 7, 14, 20, 26, 28, July 3 Sung in an English version by Kit Hesketh–Harvey with surtitles

JACQUE S OFFENBACH

Bluebeard Richard Balcombe

BLUEBEARD

Conductor

Philip Langridge

supported by an anonymous donor

Stephen Langridge

POPOLANI scientist

DIRECTOR

Robert Poulton

supported by William & Kathy Charnley

George Souglides

COUNT OSCAR

DESIGNER

George Mosley

supported by Nicholas Baring

Chris Davey

BOULOTTE a tart

Will Tuckett

KING BOBECHE

LIGHTING DESIGN

Elena Ferrari

supported by The John Wates Charitable Trust

MOVEMENT

Katherine Kingston Caroline Lynn David John Paul Chantry George Adams

1819 1880

QUEEN CLEMENTINE

Rob Burt Janis Kelly

supported by Michael Bolton PRINCESS HERMIA their daughter pretending to be a simple country girl Fleurette THE PRINCE SAPHIR her beloved pretending to be a simple shepherd Daphnis FIVE FORMER WIVES suppported by James Hudleston

english chamber orchestra

Yvette Bonner

supported by Bridget & Alun Evans

Eamonn Mulhall Merryn Gamba Alexandra Tiffin Louise Woodgate Anna Byczkiewicz Alison Dunne

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Synopsis Bluebeard •

Eighteen years ago King Bobeche and Queen Clementine’s first child was born. Unfortunately it was a girl. Three years later their second child arrived – a boy. Naturally, the King wanted his son to take the reigns of power and so to avoid constitutional difficulties he got rid of the girl. He floated her off down the river in a basket. Alas, their son is an idiot and Count Oscar must find the long lost daughter.

Popolani, Bluebeard’s top scientist, and Count Oscar, the King's chief courtier are old friends. Each are on a bizarre mission.

Popolani must find for Bluebeard the most virtuous virgin and crown her the Rose Queen. Bobeche has given Count Oscar 24 hours to find his long lost daughter. Impossible tasks. Popolani will hold a lottery and if Oscar can’t find the girl, he’ll select one at random and pass her off as the Princess.

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The names of the village girls are placed in a handy basket on Fleurette’s window sill. Boulotte is selected as the Rose Queen and – extraordinary – Oscar recognises the handy basket! It is the one in which 18 years back he placed the lost princess and floated her down the river. Fleurette is actually Princess Hermia. She is whisked off to the Palace.

Bluebeard arrives. He has been married five times in the last three years but each wife has, sadly, died. So he is looking for the sixth Mrs Bluebeard. He identifies the departing Fleurette/ Hermia as a suitable candidate but for now Bluebeard is happy with Popolani’s choice of Boulotte and he proposes marriage.

Despite Popolani’s warning, she agrees.

ACT TWO King Bobeche’s Palace Under the tutelage of Count Oscar, the King’s courtiers hone sycophancy and obsequiousness. Bobeche is delighted at the bowing depth of everyone except Alvarez.

Today Bluebeard will present his new wife at court and declare the marriage of Princess Hermia to Prince Saphir. Bobeche decides to execute Alvarez because he was seen in the garden with the Queen. In a loveless marriage, the Queen is prone to such indiscretions and her lover is always killed.

Queen Clementine informs the King that his Hermia will not be getting married today. She must save her daughter from the kind of miserable marriage she herself has. Hermia rushes in and smashes up the palace. Bobeche tries to reason with her.

Prince Saphir turns out to be her beloved shepherd Daphnis from paragraph one! The wedding will go ahead. This presents a problem for Bluebeard. If he is to catch Princess Hermia, his current wife Boulotte must be a gonner by midnight.

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ACT ONE A village, close to the King's Palace and to the luxury island fortress of the mysterious Bluebeard.

Daphnis, a shepherd boy is serenading his beloved Fleurette outside her humble dwelling. They sing of their love. Marriage is mentioned and Daphnis hints at difficulties with his parents.

Another simple village girl, Boulotte, frightens Daphnis with her amorous attentions.

The formal presentation of Boulotte involves the Ceremony of the Kissing of Hands. Boulotte is not familiar with Courtly Love and first snogs Prince Saphir and then the King himself.

DINNER INTERVAL

ACT THREE Scene 1 Popolani’s laboratory in the bowels of Bluebeard’s island headquarters Popolani is waiting for Bluebeard. He has decided he will not commit any more crimes for him. The newly–weds arrive.

Bluebeard shows Boulotte the tombs of his previous wives and she realises she is about to join them. She concedes that she isn't a virgin but that she doesn’t deserve this. Popolani brings poison and tricks Boulotte into drinking it. Bluebeard returns, briefly celebrates his singleton status and prepares to round–up wife number seven: Princess Hermia.

Popolani uses his wizardry to revive Boulotte and introduces her to the other ex–wives – all alive. They all plan revenge.

ACT THREE Scene 2 King Bobeche’s Palace, midnight The wedding of Saphir and Hermia is interrupted by Bluebeard.

He grieves the loss of his Boulotte. But what can you do? He asks for Hermia’s hand in marriage. Saphir challenges him to a duel – the winner to have the lovely Princess. Bluebeard agrees, plays dirty, kills Saphir and so the wedding can resume.

Popolani is dressed as a gypsy and tells Oscar that Bluebeard's former wives are all alive. Oscar confesses that he too has been faking the deaths of the courtiers with whom Clementine liaised. They shall all be disguised as gypsies. The numbers of men and women aren't even but luckily Saphir recovers.

The “gypsies” are here to cheer up the miserable marriage party. Boulotte reads the palms of Bluebeard and Bobeche and the gypsies unmask.

Disobedience (of Popolani and Oscar) has saved the day.

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– s i h n a i t k e r

105 •

Sean Connery as 007, James Bond From Russia With Love United Artists/AKG

Philip Langridge CBE plays Bluebeard. He talks about being directed by his son, Stephen Langridge "I suppose it must be strange for a father to work with and obey their sons, but for Stephen and me it comes naturally.

Of course most fathers hail their sons as geniuses – and I am no exception – but our relationship is different in one main respect: our mutual love of our work, of theatre and music.

Our first professional collaboration was The Bells in the early 90s and we later admitted to a last minute panic about our relationship: how would I, the father, react to being bossed around by my son? That didn’t happen and we just got on in the normal way as singer and director.

We have since worked together on Turn of the Screw.

I have sung the part many times and hold strong views so this was a true test of our ability to collaborate. This was Stephen's production and I found his ideas gave me a deeper understanding of the character.

By the time we get to Grange Park we will have also notched up another opera at ROH, Birtwistle’s The Minotaur.

For both these operas Stephen jokingly threatened to audition me, but relented at the last minute!

Bluebeard will be our first comedy together and it is a genre in which Stephen is exceedingly accomplished. I shall certainly need a lot of help on this one, and I hope I can come up to his high standards!"

The Real James Bond •

The super smooth martini–drinking Bond has become a national treasure. Whilst John Pearson worked at the Sunday Times alongside Bond’s creator, Ian Fleming, there was a steady stream of letters identifying the real James Bond. Pearson grew to believe that Bond was Fleming’s alter ego – they had much in common: their Eton education, their work with the Intelligence Services and a love for women and adventure. After Fleming’s death Pearson realised that this was far from the truth and wrote ‘James Bond - The Authorised Biography’ from which these extracts are taken.

106 •

The young parentless James Bond was brought up by Aunt Charmian who coached him for the Eton entrance examination. He got in by the skin of his teeth • He had a few carefully picked friends, all of them outside his house. They were all members of what he called ‘the unregenerate element’ in the school, and most of them had a reputation, like James, for being ‘flash’.

Bond’s favourite crony was a boy called Brinton, nicknamed ‘Burglar’. He was a year older, embarrasingly handsome, with the cool, mondaine sophistication of the cosmopolitan rich. During the holidays, James was invited to his father’s place in Paris. Here, with his looks and his command of French, Bond impressed Burglar’s father. It was this rich old rake who discovered the boy’s natural talent for cards and love of gambling.

After all this, Eton seemed doubly boring. In his second year, James Bond did less work than in his first. He also started to antagonize his house master who saw him as a pernicious influence. Soon it was clear that Bond’s days at Eton were becoming numbered. Despite this, he is still irritated by what he considers the poor taste of Ian Fleming’s so–called joke about the reason why he was finally asked to leave, the coy reference to ‘some alleged trouble with one of the boys’ maids’. Bond says that Fleming knew quite well that the girl was not a housemaid, but Burglar's illegitimate half–sister, a very beautiful half–French girl of seventeen he was in love with. She had been staying with her father at the Dorchester. James Bond, aged fifteen, borrowed £5 and a motor cycle from Burglar, rode up to London and took the girl out to dinner before riding back to college. It was exactly the incident the house master had been waiting for.

How the young James Bond deals with his first true love, the rich and glamorous courtesan Marthe de Brandt, after British Intelligence inform him she is spying for the Germans • Maddox, Head of British Intelligence in France, outlined the damage caused already by the leakage of the documents to Berlin.

Once war came, as come it would, this woman’s action could cost 50,000 British lives, more still if she were permitted to continue.

Bond was silent.

‘What do I have to do?’ asked Bond.

‘I am afraid she has to die,’ said Maddox. ‘The only question that remains is how to do it. I don’t want you involved or hurt, but I must know that I can count on your discretion — if not exactly your cooperation.’

‘How soon must this happen?’

‘As soon as possible.’

There was a long silence then Maddox puffed softly at a large cigar. Finally James Bond said, ‘I’ll do it — personally.. I don’t want anyone else to touch her!’

‘I hardly thought you would,’ said Maddox.

The next day was a Saturday. The day after was to be Marthe de Brandt’s 30th birthday. She dreaded being 30. To make her happy, Bond had arranged a long weekend with her and some old friends at a small hotel beside the Seine where they had often enjoyed each other in the past. The place was called Les Andelys.

It has a famous castle built by Richard the Lionheart and Monet painted here along the river.

Bond felt curiously cold and self–possessed and, from the moment that he woke, he treated Marthe de Brandt with exceptional affection. He had spent all his money on a ring for her — an amethyst and diamond which she loved — and put red roses on her breakfast tray. They made love and Marthe de Brandt seemed happy at the idea of their weekend in the country. All the way down in the Bentley she chattered gaily. Bond thought that she had never been more beautiful.

Just after midday they reached the long road from Les Thilliers.

The Seine was on their left, its waters shining through the leafless poplars. The road was empty On the far hill stood the ruin of the Norman fort. The Bentley sang at something over eighty.

‘Darling,’ said Marthe de Brandt, ‘I do hate being thirty It’s so old. I can’t bear being old’ ‘You never will be’ said James Bond. He jammed his foot down to the floor–boards as the bend approached. The great car lifted, kicked like a jumping horse against the verge, then somersaulted slowly into the lilac–tinted river.

In which James Bond destroys the Roumanian syndicate which has been cheating at the Casino in Monte Carlo • The casino was crowded, with the rich elbowing the would– be rich for places at roulette; in the Grande Salle the croupiers were

performing miracles of speed as they kept the cards and the counters on the move. There was that unique excitement of high gambling in a great casino where fortunes and human lives are desperately at risk. The heavy money seemed to be originating from a group of South Americans — sallow men with diamond— covered wives. Bond wondered how they would react to the Roumanians when midnight came.

But the Roumanians were late. For the first time since Bond had been there, there was no sign of them at 12.15. Had the girl been seen? Had Vlacek’s suspicions been aroused by some difference in his spectacles? Suddenly Bond realized that if he had failed, it was the end of his career. Maddox would somehow manage to explain away the money he had spent to Whitehall but there could be no explanation for himself. In his business, failure was the only sin against the Holy Ghost.

Then suddenly the Roumanians had come. The usual rigmarole began. Vlacek took his customary place. There was a hush. The dealing started. Bond watched him carefully. Vlacek picked up his cards and, for the first time, Bond saw him falter. Instead of that mechanical inhuman play, Vlacek was pausing. And, for the first time since Bond had watched him, Vlacek lost.

There was a buzz of interest. People were watching now The croupier, a white–faced, elegant man gathered the cards, replaced them in the shoe, then dealt again. As Vlacek held his cards this time his hand was shaking, but he kept his self—control and bet high as he always did. Bond noticed two small beads of oily sweat trickling down his cheek. He turned up his cards — a seven. The banker had a ‘natural’. It was the third hand that seemed to crack Vlacek. He was sweating freely now and placed an even higher stake on his cards. Again he lost. Then something unexpected happened. The Roumanian clutched at his dark glasses and pulled them off. For the first time Bond saw his eyes. They were staring straight at him and they were full of fear. Vlacek tried to rise, but Maths was behind him.

‘Sit, monsieur’ he said, ‘the game goes on.’

Then Bond produced his own dark glasses. Duverger had made them up for him with Vlacek’s original lenses. Bond put them on. The cards were shuffled from the shoe and Bond could finally see the trick which had come so near to ruining the casino.

On the back of every card were clear luminous signs — dots for numbers, crosses for kings, circles for queens and so on. This was the famous ‘Luminous Reader’ — with these extraordinary dark glasses, Bond could tell everybody’s hand, even the banker’s. He could see now how the Rournanians had always won.

For the next half hour James Bond played — the game of a lifetime. Mathis kept Vlacek at the table and James Bond destroyed him. He had some £50,000 in chips before him. Bond took it all and only then did Mathis let Vlacek rise.

The final act took place that night on the second floor of the casino in de Lesseps’ office. All four Roumanians were there. So was Bond along with Maths, de Lesseps and top–security officials from the casino. As a policeman, Maths had been in favour of making the whole case public but de Lesseps had argued him out of this. This was Monaco — not France. The publicity of a big trial would be unwelcome and the outcome could be uncertain.

Instead the Rounnnians had agreed to refund most of their winnings and had signed an undertaking never to enter a casino again. Mathis could ensure that they never entered France either.

So they agreed and Bond saw them walk down the grand staircase and across the foyer for the last time. It was a moment not without its pathos. The big limousine was waiting.

Bond went to send Esposito a cable — ‘Luminous reader triumphant’ and as he came back from the desk to have a drink with Mathis, a tall, blonde girl brushed against his arm.

The drink had to wait.

How Bond assassinates Shingushi, one of the world’s greatest cipher experts. He has been sending messages to enemy intelligence from the Japanese Consulate in New York • It was a bright autumn day; the Park was crowded, but Bond had never felt so much alone. He strolled out and down Fifth Avenue.

New York no longer seemed exciting, but he ate a good lunch at Flanagan’s Restaurant in Lower Manhattan and then rang Stephenson. There were still certain things he had to know.

That afternoon James Bond got down to work. First he met a man called Dolan, a fat Southerner with bright blue eyes.

Dolan showed no surprise at what Bond wanted. All that he seemed concerned with was to double the $500 a day which Bond was offering. Rather than argue, Bond agreed.

Then Bond took a taxi to the building on Third Avenue where Stephenson had hired him an empty office on the 40th floor Here he made sure of the view from the windows. Some 60 yards away stood the building containing the Consulate General of Japan — almost directly opposite were the windows of the 36th floor.

That evening Bond and Dolan took possession of their office.

The long wait started.

It was a very simple operation. The main requisite was patience and Bond remembered how, as a boy in Kent, he had waited all afternoon with his air rifle for a rat to emerge from its hole in a barn. Now he and Dolan both had snipers’ rifles and were waiting for Shingushi.

It was an endless business and Bond began to wonder whether it would work. Not that Dolan minded; every day that passed earned him another thousand dollars. He rarely spoke, drank endless cans of beer and belched in place of conversation.

Bond soon detested him, but he was said to know his job. Bond hoped he did.

It was surprising how soon Bond picked up the routine in the Consulate — also the faces in that office opposite. Only on two occasions did he see Shingushi. both around nine o’clock at night when he suddenly walked into the main office, chatted with someone at a desk, then walked away. Bond understood how difficult he would be to kill. There could be no mistakes — only one shot, one chance. Another problem was that the windows of the building were all double–glazed and strong enough to deflect a bullet. This had to be allowed for.

Wednesday, a second telegram arrived from London — less polite this time. Thursday, Shingushi failed to appear. And by Friday even Bond’s young nerves were beginning to fray. As usual,

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108 •

he and Dolan took their places in the room with the window open and the lights off. Bond had worked out that they were quite invisible to the Japanese. And, as usual, the two men sat in silence.

Afternoon merged into evening. The lights went on in all the sky– scrapers and soon New York was shimmering around them like a phosphorescent anthill. It was nearly nine and the traffic below was thinning down Third Avenue when Dolan nudged him.

‘Here he comes, the little bastard. Here comes our boy’ Shingushi had come waddling in. Through his telescopic sight, Bond could see him blinking as he turned to a filing cabinet. This was the moment.

‘Now,’ barked Bond.

It was an eerie noise within the darkened room — Bond’s voice and then the strangled thud of two silenced rifles firing almost simultaneously. Dolan fired first as arranged, for his shot had to break the double glass in the Consulate window. A split second later, Bond’s shot sped through the hole straight to its target. Bond paused to watch the little Japanese keel over, then collapse. At this distance he barely seemed a man at all — more like a target on a range.

Everything went smoothly then, for Bond had rehearsed it many times — the swift dismantling and packing of the rifles, the locking of the office door and in the street the car was waiting where Bond had left it. They drove towards the Park, then stopped the car. Bond had Dolan’s money ready in assorted bills and as he paid him, Dolan’s blue eyes smiled.

‘Good shooting, Mr Bond. It’s been a pleasure working with you’.

How Bond is persuaded to rejoin the Secret Service over lunch at Blades Club in St James' • Whatever qualms Bond had at meeting M. again were lulled by that splendid room. Here Robert Adam had approached perfection.

His architecture still embodied an ideal of 18th century calm and certainty. Against such a background the grimy subterfuges of the secret—service world appeared unthinkable. It was even hard for Bond to think of this solid gentlemanly figure in the dark blue suit as the antagonist of cruel and dedicated men in Moscow and Peking waging a war that never ceased.

M. was genial. The eyes were twinkling now. Reluctantly, Bond had to admit that he had a certain charm; he talked about his recent salmon fishing on the Test.

‘A Scot like you must know more about salmon than I do’ said M. ‘Haven’t fished for years,’ said Bond.

‘Oh no, of course. Golf’s your game?’

Bond nodded. Somebody, probably the Chief of Staff had been giving M. a swift run–down on his hobbies. Bond wondered how much else he knew. They chatted briefly about golf; although M’s ignorance about the game was evident. Bond thought that, after all, he had a kindly face: if there was such a thing as a typical old—fashioned sailor’s face, M. had it.

M. scanned the menu (without spectacles) and ordered soup and steak–and–kidney pie. After the talk of fishing on the Test, Bond was ready for the Club smoked salmon, but at the last

moment something told him that it wouldn’t be appreciated.

He had the same as M. ‘And how about a little wine? I’m sure you have some preference.’

But Bond said, no, he’d rather have. Sir Miles’s choice. M., positively beaming now, ordered the wine waiter to bring out a carafe of his favourite Algerian, ‘the old Infuriator of the Fleet, you know’. (Bond wondered briefly who else at Blades could possibly have drunk it).

When it arrived M. brushed aside the wine waiter’s suggestion that he ought to taste it. Instead, he filled their glasses and then drank with gusto.

‘I think’ said M, ‘it’s time that you rejoined us’.

James Bond gets his perfect car • For some time now his old grey 4 1/4 litre Bentley with the Anthurst Villiers supercharger had been giving trouble. He had owned the car for more than twenty years. Marthe de Brandt had given it him before the war and he had been hanging on to it for sentimental reasons. He told himself that this was stupid — especially now that it was needing a new engine and regularly costing more each year to run. Wakeford, the former Bentley mechanic who looked after it for him had obviously grown tired of it and it was Wakeford who told him about the Bentley Continental which, in Fleming’s graphic phrase, ‘some rich idiot had married to a telegraph pole on the Great West Road’. Wakeford convinced him that the car could be restored and Bond finally paid £1,500 for the whole wreck as it stood.

Bond had always dreamed of building his ideal car. This was his chance. Rolls straightened out the chassis and fitted the new engine Bond had set his heart on — a six cylinder with 8.1 compression. Then came the biggest luxury of all — the body built to Bond’s own private specification by Mulliners. It cost £3,000 which, as Fleming has revealed, was exactly half of Bond’s remaining capital. It.was the sort of body Bond had always wanted on a car — two bucket seats in black English hide (not morocco leather as Fleming said), big convex Triple x windscreeen, power operated steering and the, paintwork once more the old ‘elephant’s breath grey’ that Bond had made his private livery. It was both simple and luxurious and Bond loved it.

How Bond decides to settle old scores and leaves Honeychile on the morning of what should have been their marriage • A big white Rolls Corniche approached the runway. Honey was driving. Bond was beside her, with his old pigskin case, his lightweight blue suit, black knotted tie — his uniform for an assignment.

He seemed quite breezy quite unruffled and gave no explanation why he had come.

‘Morning, Bill. Good to see you. Are we all ready?’

He saw me and nodded.

‘I’ve enjoyed our little chats’ he said. ‘Hope that you didn’t find them all too tedious. There’s a lot I left out and a great deal more

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Diamonds are Forever United Artists/AKG

to come, if you’re still interested. When I get back we’ll meet and I’ll do my best to finish off the story’ Bond turned to Honeychile who was still sitting in the car. Her face seemed pale beneath its sun–tan, her eyes unnaturally bright.

Bond kissed her and I heard him saying, ‘Soon, darling, soon. I’ll soon be back.’

How many times, I wondered, had he whispered that before?

Then he turned. I could see the pilot beckoning from the cockpit and Bond hurried off across the runway, clutching his case. He turned and waved, then hauled himself up through the entrance.

The door was slammed behind him and the engines whined impatiently Then the brakes were off, the engines thundered and as the bomber turned the dust was whipping up around us and I

could smell the sudden stench of kerosene, the universal scent of modern man’s departure.

Honey had left the car and was standing all alone, watching as the bomber gathered speed. She didn’t wave, but when she saw me she said flatly, ‘I was the one who made him go. He said he wouldn’t but I knew he’d always blame me if he didn’t Just the same, I never thought…’

The plane had turned and, as it passed above us, her voice was drowned in the departing roar of its engines. As it sailed off into the dawn it dipped its wings. Honey smiled and watched as it receded to a small dot in the sky.

‘Well, that’s that’ she said as she turned back to the Rolls, ‘the bastard’s gone.’

The many guises of Bluebeard •

In early folk tales Bluebeard was a murderer of children and young women. Offenbach gave him a lighthearted treatment attacking Napoleon III not only through the womanising joke, but through the joke about arbitrary power and vanity. Michael Fontes presents Bluebeard's diverse incarnations.

IF YOU GO DOWN to the woods today, I shall be extremely surprised. Our culture has become depressingly sedentary and our children welded to their computers. The worlds we know most intimately are the artificial environments of house, street, airport and train station, and the fantastical lands of our imaginations where no real ogres rage, and where we are kept physically warm and comfortable when we go exploring.

Our folk stories however reflect other times, when the wind blew cold under the door, and the walls were damp; when life held many threats: starvation, illness, wild animals, soldiers, and rapacious noblemen; when a wood meant darkness, uncertainty and nameless spooks, erlkings, goblins, and witches in houses full of gingerbread children.

Bluebeard was a primitive horror, in the early folk tales a murderer of children and young women. His story takes many forms, which share certain features:

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I. THE MURDERER AND HIS VICTIMS In many versions the murderer is a lord called Bluebeard; in some he is an ogre or a giant. The victims are young children or women, often his wives.

II. THE ONE FORBIDDEN THING The victim is told there is one thing she mustn’t do, usually enter a secret chamber to which she is left the key. Like Adam and Eve she succumbs, finds something dreadful (typically the decapitated bodies of former victims) and drops the key in a pool of blood. As the victim, despairing, tries to remove the blood from the key, Bluebeard returns; he denounces her for doing the one forbidden thing, and starts sharpening his knives. Often the same thing happens to more than one wife or child, establishing the pattern.

III. SALVATION BY THE THIRD SISTER The third wife or child sees through Bluebeard’s ruse, manages to clean the blood from the key, restores her fellows to life, and dupes Bluebeard into removing all of them from the castle (often in large trunks).

Salvation by brothers or by other members of the family: here the victim usually adopts delaying tactics, like going to an upper room to pray, or removing or putting on clothing, usually her wedding dress. She sends a message, often by a dog or a bird, to beg for help. The ogre continues to sharpen his knives and to demand if she is ready; the victim tells him there’s still just one more very last little remaining item of clothing to deal

with, while secretly asking someone on watch if help is near.

Finally dust is seen in the distance, and the longed–for help arrives, breathless.

IV. THE SAVING OF THE VICTIM AND THE PUNISHMENT OF BLUEBEARD At the arrival of the rescue party, Bluebeard hides, but he is quickly caught and put to death. In several versions he proves difficult to dismember – his different sections rejoin his body as soon as they are lopped off. Usually this part of the story is particularly gory and cruel: peasants showed fertile imaginations when it came to killing ogres. The victim often inherits the chateau and its riches, makes a spectacular marriage, and lives happily ever after.

The version most familiar to us is that of Charles Perrault’s Tales of Mother Goose or Stories from Past Times, which dates from 1697, and was first translated into English by Charles Samber in 1729. Bluebeard also appears in the Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm (early 19th century) and in many of the other sanitized collections of the old European folk tales.

Some have alleged that the original Bluebeard was a Breton nobleman, Gilles de Rais (1404 – 1440), a companion in arms of Joan of Arc. Rais was latterly more often spelt Retz – the famous 17th century Cardinal de Retz was of the same Breton family. On retiring to his estates in 1435, Gilles is said to have taken up witchcraft and sodomy. During his trial it was alleged that after sexually abusing children – he preferred boys – he would decapitate them and ask his friends to judge which was the most beautiful. The graves of as many as 120 children were said to have been found in the vicinity of his chateau. Gilles de Rais was executed (hanged and burned) on 25 October 1440, and controversy still rages over how guilty he was, and of what. He certainly seems to have dabbled in alchemy, but many historians find it hard to believe most of the other allegations, and we should be wary of believing admissions of guilt given under torture or its threat.

I think the story goes back well before Gilles de Rais. Perrault drew a moral about the dangers of curiosity, but parents have always guarded their pretty daughters’ chastity, and Bluebeard probably originated in cautionary tales about the dangers of sex and the sexual threat posed by men. We don’t need Freud to nudge us into drawing conclusions about young girls trying to wipe blood off keys, or understanding the message of the room which mustn’t be entered, and steps which once taken cannot be retraced. Marriage in the story is seen as entrapment, one

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French mass–murderer Henri Désiré Landru (1869-1922) with three policemen Musée de la Préfecture de Police, Paris / Bridgeman Art Library

Landru was a modern day Bluebeard. Swindled by a fraudulent employer, he himself turned to fraud usually involving widows. He was sentenced to two years imprisonment in 1900 – the first of several such convictions.

By 1914, Landru began to put advertisements in the lonely hearts sections in Paris newspapers. He would seduce the women who came to his Parisian villa and, after he been given access to their assets, he would kill them and burn their bodies in his oven.

Between 1914 and 1918, Landru killed 10 women plus the teenage son of one of his victims. With no bodies, the victims were just listed as missing. Landru kept a ledger

listing all the women with whom he corresponded and which particular alias he used for each woman.

In 1919, the sister of one of Landru’s victims attempted to track down her missing sibling. She did not know Landru’s real name but she knew his appearance and where he lived. She eventually persuaded the police to arrest him. With no bodies – police dug up his garden, but with no results – there was seemingly not enough evidence to charge him with murder. Eventually the ledgers and other paperwork formed the basis of the evidence.

Landru stood trial on in November 1921. He was convicted and guillotined three months later.

of those irrevocable steps; it also very clearly removed the girl from one house and shut her into another, from which escape seemed impossible, with, for company, a hairy ogre insisting on nightly intimacy. The beard, at this level, clearly represents rampant male sexuality and the strange colour, blue, adds to the horror and the unfamiliarity of the physical person.

The story was popular in the 18th century and became the archetype of gothic horror fantasies, like Ann Radcliffe’s The Mysteries of Udolpho, and such things as the German Schauerroman (“shudder novel”). Many English novels bear its imprint – Jane Eyre, which makes explicit reference to Bluebeard, and Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca with its blood– red rhododendrons in the drive and West Wing which must not be entered, for instance.

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If you think, like the original cast of Offenbach’s opera, that this horrible story is an unsuitable topic for light–hearted fun, talk to the authors of the highly successful Haunted Britain: A Guide to Supernatural Sites Frequented by Ghosts, Witches, Poltergeists and Other Mysteries, or browse through Harry Graham’s Ruthless Rhymes for Heartless Homes (1898), where you’ll come across, among other terrible thoughts: Billy, in one of his nice new sashes, Fell in the fire and was burnt to ashes; Now, although the room grows chilly, I haven’t the heart to poke poor Billy.

Little Willie, mean as hell, Threw his sister down a well, Mother sighed while drawing water, Gosh it’s tough to raise a daughter.

Bluebeard himself has come in for satirical treatment in English poetry in Guy Wetmore Carryl’s How the Helpmate of Blue–Beard Made Free with a Door, from his memorably–titled collection Grimm Tales Made Gay. Here’s the end, which is more terrible even than the folk tale.

Perceiving she was fated to Be soon decapitated, too, She telegraphed her brothers And some others What she feared.

And Sister Anne looked out for them, In readiness to shout for them Whenever in the distance With assistance They appeared.But only from her battlement She saw some dust that cattle meant.

The ordinary story Isn’t gory, But a jest.

But here ‘s the truth unqualified.

The husband wasn’t mollified Her head is in his bloody Little study With the rest!

Offenbach was a born joker, the Groucho Marx of French operetta. He was a German Jew, born at a very early age seventh son of a violinist who was also Cantor of a Cologne synagogue.

Jacques, an infant prodigy, became the leading cellist of his time, settled in France and took French nationality. He liked to amuse the salons with birdsong imitations played in harmonics on his cello. He described his collaboration with his librettists, Meilhac and Halévy, as ‘a trinity in which I am certainly the father, but each one is a son to me and full of spirit’ – esprit in French means lively intelligence, verve.

He couldn’t resist having a crack at almost any authority figure, with all the vigour of an inspired chahuteur. Napoleon III was famous for his womanizing, so Jupiter and Bluebeard were natural subjects for an Offenbach opera. Bluebeard (1866) comes straight after La Belle Hélène (1864) in the middle of the richest years of the composer’s parodies of the Second Empire, the regime which provided him with both the material for his satire and the freedom to exercise it. As an ultimate irony, Offenbach himself fell with Napoleon III. France’s defeat in the Franco–Prussian war put an end to the Second Empire and to Offenbach’s success. Attacked in the German press as a traitor and accused by the French of being an agent of Bismarck, he was forced to flee to Spain. Napoleon III, imprisoned in the Wilhelmshöhe after the defeat of his armies at Sedan, talked of hearing from his cell the German military band, on the parade– ground outside, playing a selection from Offenbach’s Les Brigands.

Offenbach spent his last years on The Tales of Hoffmann.

Offenbach said he was pleased that people thought his music light, because that meant it would never come down to earth.

He pastiched the great composers of his time, Meyerbeer, Rossini, Auber, Verdi, and even Wagner, perhaps, in his grand romantic opera The Rhine Nymphs of 1864 – five years before the première of Rheingold. Wagner’s view of Offenbach may have been darkened by this, for it declined from ‘Offenbach has all the gifts of the divine Mozart’ to ‘Offenbach’s music gave off a smell of manure in which all the pigs of Europe came to wallow’.

Wagner even commented, when 384 of the audience were burned to death in a fire which destroyed Vienna’s Ring theatre during a performance of The Tales of Hoffmann : ‘It leaves me cold and barely moved when members of an audience perish while listening to an Offenbach operetta, which contains not one jot of moral worth.’ Bernard Shaw agreed: ’Offenbach’s music is wicked.

It is abandoned stuff; every accent is a snap of the fingers in the face of moral responsibility’. Other contemporaries thought better of Offenbach: Tolstoy described him as ‘a comedian at once so amiable and so spontaneous that people forgive him anything’ and Nietzsche thought him ‘The embodiment of spirituality’. Because his operas are funny and his usual tone satirical he is often underrated, particularly by the British, who most readily associate greatness with lugubriousness, but he has extraordinary verve, twinkling melodic invention, and worked with inspired librettists: Meilhac and Halévy wrote the libretto of Carmen for Bizet.

set in Roman Gaul: a sort of erotic Asterix – how Offenbach would have loved the idea! Bussy–Rabutin spent the rest of his life in his beautiful Burgundian chateau where you can see today how he battled the dreadful ennui of life in the country by designing such things as little fantasy decorations for his inside shutters.

In Bluebeard, an incredible gallimaufry of the folk tale and the Princess–marries–Shepherd story, the satire was obscure to many Parisians of the time, so we shouldn’t worry if it sometimes escapes us too: Henri Allain–Targé, a political opponent of the regime, claimed to have spotted a whole series of allusions, but most of the audience greatly enjoyed the tumultuous nonsense without bothering with the details.

Age is not a particularly interesting subject. Anyone can get old.

All you have to do is live long enough. Offenbach died in 1881 when his gout reached his heart. He left The Tales of Hoffmann incomplete. I doubt if he would have minded if the doctor checking his pulse had said, in the words of Dr Hackenbush: ‘Either this man’s dead or my watch has stopped’.

Offenbach attacks Napoleon III not only through the womanising joke, but through the joke about arbitrary power and vanity: Bobèche has melted down all his cannon to make his equestrian statue, and insists on his courtiers bowing lower every day. The French have long been snobbish about the countryside. One of the worst punishments for a courtier at the court of Louis XIV was banishment to his estates. This fate befell the Comte de Bussy–Rabutin, who was foolish enough to circulate in the court his disgracefully funny Histoire Amoureuse des Gaules, the story of Louis XIV and his mistresses

Parisians like to sneer at provincials and Offenbach caters to this taste – these days certainly, the sneering is vigorously reciprocated, as anyone who has sat in a provincial café when a car with a 75 number plate drives by will know. Boulotte’s name means Tubby. In the original, she talks in the Parisian idea of country speech, often a strange mixture of mooing and baaing, characterised by wildly elided language: y a p’t–être des berger’s dans l’village for il y a peut–être des bergers dans le village. Her passion for Saphir at the beginning is gross and is grossly expressed. She makes a fitting sixth wife for Bluebeard, and, as she points out, she has had as many previous lovers as he has – the wonder is that she hasn’t had more and eaten them all.

Bobèche the name borrowed from a famous 19th century clown – is only less horrific than Bluebeard because he is more ridiculous: his executions of the men who have looked longingly at the Queen provide a point of symmetry with Bluebeard’s poisoning of his wives.

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Biographies •

PATRICK ASHCROFT Fenton Falstaff / miner Fanciulla completed a PhD in Cosmology at Cambridge before studying at GSMD. Roles includ Triquet Onegin and Josef Wiener Blut (ETO), Suitor in Elizabeth Maconchy’s The Sofa (Independent Opera). Recently, he covered Ramiro for Scottish Opera on Tour. He has sung with the CBSO at Symphony Hall in Carmina Burana, appeared as a Britten-Pears Young Artist singing King Arthur at Snape Maltings and has sung Bertrando (L’Inganno Felice, Rossini), Borsa (Rigoletto), Acis (Acis & Galatea)

orchestras and opera companies in the UK and Europe. His International career started in Vancouver and has taken him all over the world, especially throughout Australasia and the USA. Recent recordings include Joseph James’ Requiem with Sumi Jo and his own children’s composition Rainbow Bear with his wife Joanna Lumley as narrator. Most recent / current projects include Rake’s Progress (Reisopera, Netherlands), Faust, Nabucco (Australia), Bluebeard’s Castle (Auckland Philharmonia), the première of his own opera King in Canterbury Cathedral, Sweeney Todd (Royal Festival Hall). At Grange Park Stephen has conducted Bohème and Falstaff.

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CLIVE BAYLEY Merman Rusalka Supported

by Jim Dale made his début with Royal Opera in the world première of Birtwistle’s Gawain and subsequently appeared as Colline Bohème, Hans Foltz Meistersinger, Castro Fanciulla del West, Carbon in Alfano’s Cyrano de Bergerac, and most recently Thoas Iphigenie en Tauride and Hunding Walküre. With Opera North his appearances include Sparafucile Rigoletto, Ebn Hakia Yolanta, the Monk Don Carlos, Raleigh Gloriana, (recorded on CD and for television), Referee in Benedict Mason’s Playing Away, Ferrando Trovatore, Arkel Pelléas & Mélisande, Wurm Luisa Miller, the title-role Le Nozze di Figaro, Doctor Wozzeck, Biterolf/Tannhäuser and Antinous/Il ritorno d’Ulisse in Patria; with ENO appearances include Cadmus Semele, four Villains Contes d’Hoffmann, Ferrando Trovatore, Collatinus Rape of Lucretia (also shown on BBC2 TV), Pistol Falstaff, Sparafucile Rigoletto, War & Peace, Snug Midsummer Night’s Dream, Narbal Les Troyens and Sarastro Magic Flute; with WNO Doctor Wozzeck and Antinous/Time/Neptune Ulisse; with Glyndebourne Festival Calchas Iphigénie en Aulide and Louis VII Euryanthe. Clive has sung with Geneva Opera, Netherlands Opera, Seattle Opera, San Francisco Opera, Bregenz Festival, in Lisbon, Lausanne, Toulouse, Munich, Copenhagen and Bayerische Staatsoper. Last season he made his debut with the Opera National du Rhin, Strasbourg, as Fasolt in David McVicar’s new production of Das Rheingold. Engagements in 2008 include his début with Frankfurt Opera as Claggart Billy Budd, Hunding Die Walkure (Strasbourg), Raimondo Lucia di Lammermoor (ENO).

LAURIE ASHWORTH Sprite Dido / ensemble is from Wigan and studies at the RCM. At RNCM she was awarded the Gold Medal for performance. Her solo opera career to date has taken her to Switzerland, and she made her Royal Liverpool Philharmonic and Royal Albert Hall debuts last year.

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ANDREW BAIN Joe Fanciulla / ensemble Credits include Ferrando Cosi (Opera by Definition), Pierre The Wandering Scholar (St Johns, Smiths Square), Eisenstein Fledermaus (Alternative Opera), Triquet Onegin (Longborough Festival) Ensemble Falstaff and L’Elisir d’Amore (Grange Park Opera). He has credits in various other forms of theatre; the title role in Terje Vigen (San Francisco and Norway Tour), Les Misérables (UK Tour), Whistle Down The Wind (UK Tour), MacHeath in Beggars Opera (Cochrane), Beauty and the Beast (Watermill) and City of Angels (Landor).

RICHARD BALCOMBE Conductor Bluebeard Opera includes Gondoliers (ENO), Barber (Castleward Opera), Rigoletto (ETO), Butterfly, Magic Flute (Central Festival Opera), Fledermaus, Merry Widow (Carl Rosa), Bohème (London City Opera) and HMS Pinafore and Mikado (D’Oyly Carte – UK and America).

Previously at Grange Park he conducted Wonderful Town (2004) and South Pacific (2005) Magic Flute (2007) and at Nevill Holt Barber (2006).

He has worked with many orchestras including Gothenburg Symphony, Orchestre National de Lille, Stavanger Symphony, Estonian Symphony, Stockholm Sinfonietta and Prague Chamber Orchestra.In the UK, London Philharmonic, Royal Philharmonic, Royal Scottish National, Halle, Ulster, and BBC Concert Orchestra. He has conducted for Bryn Terfel, Jose Carreras and Alagna and Gheorgiu on BBC TV. STEPHEN BARLOW Conductor Rusalka Supported by Charles & Amanda Haddon–Cave.

Organ Scholar at Trinity College, Cambridge, and founder of the University Bach Choir.

After a period at Guildhall School of Music, studying under Vilem Tausky he made his debut conducting The Rake’s Progress for Glyndebourne Touring Opera. He has since conducted most of the major

GIUSEPPI & EMMA BELLI Revival Designers Falstaff Giuseppe studied at Birmingham Polytechnic & The Slade School of Fine Art. Emma studied at Bretton Hall College. Credits for joint designs include Traviata (Opera Holland Park), Fabula (Cochraine Theatre). Sweet Charity, (Oldham Coliseum), Touching Zulu (Scottish Dance Theatre), The Merchant of Venice, Antigone, Henry V, A Woman Killed with Kindness, Comedy of Errors and Sweet William by Alan Plater (Northern Broadsides national tour), Poetry or Bust, written and directed by Tony Harrison, Salts Mill. Once Upon a Time in Wigan (Contact Theatre Manchester, The West Yorkshire Playhouse & tours), Star Cross’d Lovers, (Welsh National Opera).

YVETTE BONNER Fleurette Bluebeard Supported by Bridget & Alun Evans studied at the Royal Academy of Music and made her début with The Royal Opera as Hermione in Strauss’ Die Aegyptische Helena, followed

by Esmeralda Bartered Bride. International engagements include Vixen

The Cunning Little Vixen (Aix-en-Provence Festival), Alice in Alexander Knaifel’s Alice in Wonderland and Sarah in Michel Van Der Aa’s After Life (Netherlands), Clarine in Rameau’s Platée (Megaron, Athens), Tina Flight (Vlaamse Opera), Jennie Hildebrand Street Scene (Houston Grand Opera). In UK roles include Elinore in Martinu’s The Knife’s Tears (Second Movement), Eurydice Orfeo (English Bach Festival), title role Rusalka (Iford Festival), Oscar Ballo in Maschera (Castleward Opera), Gretel Hansel & Gretel (Cork Opera), Semele Liebe der Danae, First Maid Aegyptische Helena and Emmie Albert Herring (Garsington), Susanna and Barbarina Figaro (Savoy Opera). Yniold Pelléas & Mélisande (ENO), Shepherd Boy Tannhäuser (Opera North), Flora Turn of the Screw (WNO). Forthcoming engagements include Dorinda Orlando in Paris and on tour with Jean-Claude Malgoire.

DAVID–ALEXANDRE BORLOZ Falstaff was born in Switzerland and studied at GSMD. After winning various competitions, in 2006 he joined Lausanne Opera’s ensemble appearing in Menotti’s Amelia al Ballo, Figaro and Britten’s Little Sweep. Recent work include Amonasro in Aida (Avenches Arena), Franck Fledermaus (Lausanne Opera), Pistola Falstaff, Nicias’ servant Thais (Grange Park), Orff’s Carmina Burana (Montreux) and Puccini’s Messa di Gloria (Lausanne Cathedral). Other roles include Papageno Zauberflöte, Junius Rape of Lucretia, Lothario Mignon, Ramiro L’heure espagnole and Truffaldino in Jonathan Dove’s Little Green Swallow. Plans include Traviata (Lausanne Opera) and Masetto Don Giovanni (Monaco). David-Alexandre is currently supported by the Swiss Global Artistic Foundation.

• RECIPIENT OF A GRANGE PARK ENDOWMENT FUND SCHOLARSHIP

LUCY BURGE Choreographer Rusalka Whilst principal dancer with Ballet Rambert 1970–1985 Lucy danced the role of Colombine with Nureyev as Pierrot. On retiring she joined Second Stride and has danced for The Royal Opera, WNO, Opera North and Scottish Opera.

She choreographed for Christine Edzard’s film The Nutcracker. With Richard Jones she choreographed Billy Budd (Oper Frankfurt), and L’Heure Espagnole / Gianni Schicchi (Royal Opera), and with Antony McDonald, Manon (Nationale Reisopera), Tsarevitch (South Bavarian Theatre). Lucy will collaborate again with Antony McDonald on the Ring Cycle for the Nationale Reisopera 2009–2012. The wedding ballet is supported by The Wolves.

ROB BURT King Bobeche Bluebeard studied at GSAMD. He has appeared as Iro in Monteverdi’s Il Ritorno d’Ulisse in Patria at Opera North, Dusseldorf, Geneva, Chicago, in New York and Aix-en-Provence. Other roles include Snout Midsummer Night’s Dream (ENO), L’Incredibile Andreas Chenier (Opera Holland Park), Ximenez Arms and the Cow (Opera North) and Bob Boles Peter Grimes (Nationale Reisopera). Other recent productions include world premières of Snow White (Reisopera), Family Matters (Tete–a–Tete)

and Stephen Barlow’s King. As an actor he was a member of the National Theatre and has appeared as Host Merry Wives, The Musical and Father Christmas The Lion, the Witch & the Wardrobe (RSC). Plans include Iro and Arnalta L’incoronazione di Poppea (Madrid).

ANNA BYCZKIEWICZ dead wife Eleanore & ensemble Bluebeard Supported by James Hudleston was born in Poland training at the Music Academy in Poznan. Stage appearances include Zerlina Giovanni, Musetta Bohème, Carolina Matrimonio Segreto (Polish Young Artist Programme), Mose (Bayreuth Staats Oper). This is her second season at Grange Park.

EMMA CARRINGTON Quickly Falstaff is currently studying on the Royal Academy Opera course where she has appeared in Marcellina The Marriage of Figaro () conducted

by Sir Colin Davis, Bianca Rape of Lucretia and Tchaikovsky’s Iolanta. Scenes include Musetta in Leoncavello’s La Boheme (), Tisbe Cenerentola (Tisbe), and Suzy Rondine (Suzy). Emma has performed Clorinda in Monteverdi’s Tancredi e Clorinda () and in Amadigi (Batignano Festival).

Other appearances include Diary of one who Disappeared (Wigmore Hall) and Third Lady Magic Flute (British Youth Opera) and Marcellina Marriage of Figaro (English Chamber Opera).

DAMIAN CARTER ensemble Since completing postgraduate studies at Birmingham Conservatoire Damian has performed two seasons with British Youth Opera and Swansea City Opera. In 2006 he took the role of Aronte Armide (Buxton Festival) and sung with Carl Rosa Opera for their 2007 season. This is his second season at Grange Park.

MARK CHAUNDY Alvarez Bluebeard / ensemble studied at RCM, Tanglewood and was an Associate Artist with WNO where he understudied Lenski Eugene Onegin, Duke Rigoletto, Kudrjas Kata Kabanova and Ottavio Giovanni and sang Roderigo Otello in the Wales Millennium Centre opening gala. Recent / future highlights include Giussepe Traviata (Glyndebourne tour), Pedrolino in Mozart’s Jewel Box and Romeo in Benda’s Romeo & Juliet (Bampton Classical Opera), cover Kudrjash Kata Kabanova (Opera North), Don Jose Carmen (Opera Project), Berlioz Te Deum in Birmingham Symphony Hall.

JAMES CLEVERTON Ford Falstaff / Larkens Fanciulla Supported by Peter & Manina Dicks was born in Kent and studied at RSAMD and Zürich Opera’s International Opera Studio.

He made his international opera début as Escamillo (Spier Festival, South Africa). Other roles include Pirate King (D’Oyly Carte, Savoy), title role Eugene Onegin (Opera by Definition), Silvio Pagliacci (Vietnam and

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ETO), Enrico Lucia di Lammermoor (Iford Festival) and Count Asdrubale La Pietra del Paragone (Opera de Rennes). Recent work include Captain Corcoran (Zürich Pocket Opera), cover Giuseppe Gondoliers (ENO), Schaunard Bohème (Mid-Wales Opera), Bunthorne Patience (Buxton) and title role Sweeney Todd (Pimlico Opera).

• RECIPIENT OF A GRANGE PARK ENDOWMENT FUND SCHOLARSHIP

REBECCA COOPER Alice Ford Falstaff trained at RAM. Recent roles include Countess Le Nozze di Figaro, Elvira Giovanni and Madame Herz The Impresario (English Chamber Opera / Taunton Festival), Tatyana Eugene Onegin (St John’s Smith Square), Violetta Traviata (European Chamber Opera), Elvira (Chipping Norton) and covered the title role in Gluck’s Armide (Buxton Festival). She has sung Fox The Cunning Little Vixen (Opera East) and Konstanze Abduction from the Seraglio (Surrey Opera). In concert platform she has sung Haydn Nelson Mass, Mozart Requiem (Southwark and Bristol Cathedrals and St Martin-in-the-Fields) and Beethoven Ninth Symphony (The Anvil).

116 •

RICHARD COXON Nick Fanciulla Supported

by Sir David & Lady Plastow Opera includes Squeak Billy Budd, Mr By-Ends Pilgrim’s Progress and Gastone Traviata (Royal Opera), Painter Lulu, Young Convict From the House of the Dead, Nick Handmaid’s Tale, Brighella Ariadne auf Naxos, Squeak Billy Budd, Fenton Falstaff, Painter Lulu (ENO), Italian Tenor Rosenkavalier, Worker Vida Breve and Songseller Tabarro (Opera North), Jaquino Fidelio, Nemorino L’elisir d’amore, Ottavio Giovanni, Narraboth Salome, Alfredo Traviata, Flavio Norma and Sailor Tristan und Isolde (Scottish Opera), Bill Flight (Glyndebourne / Nationale Reisoper), Nemorino (Opera Zuid), Vanya Kudrjash Katya Kabanova (Florida Grand / Opéra de Montréal), Gastone traviata (Nationale Reisoper / Opera North), Tom Rakewell Rake’s Progress (New Israeli Opera), Piquillo Périchole and Edoardo Un giorno di regno (Buxton), Bonnet War & Peace, Italian Tenor Rosenkavalier (Spoleto), Ralph Rackstraw HMS Pinafore (Carl Rosa / Hallé) and Troilus Troilus & Cressida (Endellion). Other engagements include Peter Simple Sir John in Love (ENO), Vain Man Little Prince (BBC TV), Flute Dream (Theatre de la Monnaie), Monostatos Zauberflöte (Grange Park and Florida Grand Opera) and Steersman Der Fliegende Holländer (Opera Ireland).

GABRIELLE DALTON Assoc costume designer Rusalka Recent costume designs include: Les Noces and Dido and Aeneas (Opera North), Barber of Seville (Savoy Opera), both directed by Aletta Collins, Turandot (Nationale Reisopera), Three Water Plays (Almeida Opera) both with director. Charles Edwards; Le Nozze di Figaro (Bordeaux, Genova, Barcelona, Tel Aviv, Theatre de la Champs Elysees, Paris) directed by . Robert Carsen; A Chain Play (Almeida Theatre) directed

by Tom Cairns. Whilst living in America Gabrielle worked as Costume Director on five productions by Opera Pacific California and as Costume Assistant on Otello and Don Pasquale for Los Angeles Opera. As Associate Costume Designer, she is working on The Ring at Nationale Reisopera with Antony McDonald from 2009 – 2012.

CHRIS DAVEY Lighting Design Fanciulla & Bluebeard has designed six seasons for Grange Park. Recent opera credits include Aida (Houston Grand Opera / ENO), Bird of Night (Linbury Studio, ROH), Bluebeard (Bregenz), Jephtha (ENO / WNO), Magic Flute (WNO), Rake’s Progress (Aldeburgh Festival), Picture of Dorian Gray (Monte Carlo), A Night at the Chinese Opera (RAM,), Traviata (Castleward Opera Belfast), Gli Equivoci (Batignano Opera). For RSC his credits include Winter’s Tale, Pericles, Cymbeline, Alice in Wonderland, Night of the Soul, Romeo & Juliet, Midsummer Night`s Dream, Everyman (both also in New York), Month in the Country, Troilus & Cressida, Comedy of Errors (world tour) Mysteria, and Easter. For the RNT credits include Seagull, Pillars of the Community, A Dream Play, Iphiginia at Aulis, War & Peace, Baby Doll. Recent designs include Six Characters in Search of an Author (National Theatre of Scotland), War and Peace (Shared Experience).

TIMOTHY DAWKINS Ashby Fanciulla Supported by Mrs Peter Cadbury won a scholarship to the RCM and then joined Glyndebourne Festival Opera where he sang roles in Eugene Onegin and Arabella. His roles include Leporello Giovanni (Batignano), Speaker Zauberflote (Columbia Artists USA tour), title role Figaro (Diva Opera in France and Switzerland), Le Spectre in Thomas’ Hamlet (Chelsea Opera Group/QEH), Sparafucile Rigoletto (Longborough Festival), Budd Albert Herring (Aldeburgh Festival), Tom Un Ballo in Maschera, Don Ferrando Fidelio, Jake Wallace Fanciulla, and Colline Bohème (Opera Holland Park), Mephistopheles in Gounod’s Faust (Festival Theatre Edinburgh).

ALISON DUNNE dead wife Rosalinde Bluebeard Supported by James Hudleston roles include Dorabella Cosi, Carmen, Orlofsky Fledermaus and 3rd Lady Flute. with Opera Ireland, Anna Livia Opera Company, Opera Theatre Company, Welsh Youth Opera and Castleward Opera. In January 2008 Alison was offered a place at the Cardiff International Academy of Voice which will commence in September 2008.

ANNE-SOPHIE DUPRELS Rusalka Rusalka Supported by Marie & Johnny Veeder A native of Paris, roles include Violetta Traviata (New York City Opera), Amanda Le Grand Macabre (San Francisco), Madam Butterfly and Violetta (Opera North), Thaïs (Grange Park), Marguerite Faust (Opera New Zealand), Salud Vida Breve (Greek National Opera), Jenufa, Violetta, Magda La Rondine, Lucia di Lammermoor and Luisa Miller (Opera Holland Park), Mimi (Grange Park, Scottish Opera), Oksana Tcherevichki (Garsington), Fiordiligi Cosi fan tutte (Glimmerglass and Strasbourg), Theresa Benvenuto Cellini (Strasbourg), La Voix Humaine, Thérèse Les Mamelles de Tiresias, Susanna Nozze di Figaro, Despina Cosi fan Tutte, Naïade Ariadne auf Naxos (Lyon/ Châtelet) and Marzellina Fidelio (Nantes/Angers). Plans include Jenufa (Opera New Zealand) and Manon (Scottish Opera).

WYNNE EVANS Harry Fanciulla studied at the GSMD and the National Opera Studio.

For WNO roles have included Duca Rigoletto, Rodolfo La Bohème, Alfredo La Traviata, Le Chevalier Dialogue of the Carmelites, Tamino The Magic Flute; for Opera North, Prunier La Rondine, Fenton Falstaff and for ENO, Alfredo Traviata and Cavaradossi Tosca. He has appeared with Scottish Opera, Chelsea Opera Group, Castleward Opera, the Classical Opera Company, Almeida Opera and Opera Northern Ireland. In 2004 Wynne replied on behalf of the Welsh Rugby team to the New Zealand Haka at the Millennium Stadium and is now a regular at Wales Internationals. Future operatic engagements include Cassio and Narraboth for WNO. ALICE FARNHAM Conductor Falstaff was an Organ Scholar at Oxford University, and St. Thomas Church, Fifth Avenue, New York.

She studied conducting at the St. Petersburg Conservatory with Ilya Musin and Leonid Korchmar. She has guest conducted at English National Ballet, Rambert Dance Company. She was Assistant Conductor with London City Opera (USA Tour), ETO, and European Chamber Opera. From 2001–2005 Alice was Chorus Master / Assistant Conductor at Gothenburg Opera and 2004-2007 Artistic Director of the Borås Symphony Orchestra. She will make her début at Covent Garden in 2009 conducting Giselle.

ELENA FERRARI Boulotte Bluebeard Supported by The John Wates Charitable Trust studied at the National Opera Studio after acting in classical theatre and music theatre. Her opera début was Musetta Bohème at Opera North where she also sang Fiordiligi

Cosi, Violetta Traviata, Bice Violanta, Miss Wordsworth Albert Herring and Elvira Giovanni. For ENO she has appeared as Lauretta Gianni Schicchi and Sister Genevieve Suor Angelica. Other roles include Concepcion L’heure Espagnole, Gianetta Elisir, Musetta Bohème (Grange Park), Lusya Cheryomuski (Pimlico Opera), Cinna Lucia Silla (Garsington), Rosalinde Fledermaus (Opera Holland Park), Elsie The Triumph of Spirit over Matter by Wim Henderickx (La Monnaie / Transparent, Antwerp), Tamiri Re Pastore, Anna Giovanni, Antonia Hoffmann, Eltrude Alfred (Arne), Mary Hugh the Drover, Lillian Happy End, Polly Peachum Threepenny Opera, Cunegonde Candide and Madame Silberklang Schauspieldirektor (Lisbon).

JACK FOLEY ensemble lived in the north–east of England for 25 years and left his job as a tree surgeon to pursue a career on the stage. He studied at Morley College and became a semi– finalist in Channel 4s award–winning reality TV show Operatunity. He has since appeared in HMS Pinafore (Carl Rosa Company, dir. Timothy West) and various productions at the Royal Opera inc Arabella (dir. Peter Mussbach), Peter Grimes (dir. Willy Decker), Forza del Destino (dir. Patrizia Frini) and Gotterdammerung (dir. Keith Warner).

MERRYN GAMBA dead wife Heloise Bluebeard Supported by James Hudleston studied at RNCM. Recent roles include Leonora Forza del Destino (White Horse Opera), Frasquita (Opera Brava), First Lady (Longborough), Jenny Beggar’s Opera and Scat Girl Trouble in Tahiti (Opera Project), Miss Jessell Turn of the Screw (RNCM), Frasquinella Perichole (Buxton). Her contemporary opera roles include Hallgrimmson’s Die Wält der Zwischefälle (Iceland Symphony Orchestra), Magd Sancta Susanna (BBC Philharmonic) and Riot Woman in Turnage’s Greek.

The Gambler Grange Park Opera 2007 Director & designer David Fielding The unexpected arrival at the hotel of Babulenka the grandmother (Carol Rowlands)

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FRAN GARCIA Happy Fanciulla was born in Spain and studied at the Academia VillaLobos, Juventudes Musicales and RSAMD where he appeared as Pinelino Gianni Schicchi.

He has appeared as Colas Bastien e Bastienne (Centro de Arte Lirico), Figaro Le Nozze di Figaro, as a soloist with the Joven Orquesta del Norte de Portugal and the Royal Scottish Opera Orchestra.

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companies of Paris, Berlin, Tokyo, San Francisco, Houston, New York City, Dallas, London, Genève, Barcelona, Moscau, Athens, Rome, Milano, Torino, Munich, Frankfurt, Stuttgart, Hamburg. Plans include Die Soldaten (New York), Ring (Hamburg), Lucia di Lammermoor (Brussels), Karl V (Bregenz), Tote Stadt (San Francisco and London), Rusalka (Brussels and Graz).

VIOLETTA GAWARA ensemble was born and studied in Poland. At the Warsaw Autumn Festival she appeared with every major Polish orchestra and recorded for Polish Radio. Roles include includes Cherubino, Hansel, Maddalena, Xerxes, and Proserpina L’Orfeo (English Bach Festival / Banqueting House, London).

HAZEL GOULD Revival Director Falstaff trained at Manchester University and Central School of Speech and Drama. As an assistant director she has worked at Grange Park (Nozze di Figaro, Magic Flute, Falstaff), Royal Opera House (Minotaur), Opera North (Figaro), Glyndebourne Tour (Tangier Tattoo) and Lincoln Center, New York (Renaissance Muse). Her work as a director includes Still Water (Glyndebourne Education) and L’Amico Fritz (Opera Omnibus).

NATHANIEL GIBBS ensemble Appearances for Grange Park Opera / Pimlico Opera include Stewpot South Pacific, Billy Flynn Chicago (HMP Bronzefield), Caylus Roi Malgré Lui, Tour Guide Wonderful Town, Tea Man Elixir of Love, Nicely-Nicely Guys & Dolls (Wormwood Scrubs), The Balladeer and Proprietor in Sondheim’s Assassins (HMP Ashwell, Leicestershire and HMP Coldingley, Bisley). TV credits include Emmerdale, Hollyoaks and Blue Murder.

ANNA GREVELIUS 2nd Nymph Rusalka Supported by Dr Jonathan Holliday / Dr Gwen Lewis studied at National Opera Studio and GSMD. Roles include Onoria in Handel’s Ezio (London Handel Festival), Witch Dido & Aeneas (Aix-en-Provence), Dorabella, Cecilio Lucio Silla (Classical Opera Co), Proserpina Orfeo (Drottningholm), Nerone Poppea (ENO). Future/current engagements include Rosina Il Barbiere, Cherubino Figaro (both ENO).

WOLFGANG GOEBBEL Lighting Design Rusalka has worked throughout the world in theatre, dance and opera with artists from diverse disciplines and backgrounds. He has worked on opera productions with major

QUENTIN HAYES Sonora Fanciulla Supported by David & Amanda Leathers studied at GSMD and the National Opera Studio. For five years he was a principal artist at the Royal Opera where roles included Ping Turandot, Herald Lohengrin, Ned Keene Grimes, Novice Friend Billy Budd and Schaunard Bohème. Previously for Grange Park Quentin has sung

The Gambler Grange Park Opera 2007 Director & designer David Fielding Jeffrey Lloyd–Roberts (Alexei, the gambler) wins

MILES HORNER ensemble was born in Lichfield. and recently completed a music degree at Leeds College of Music. Whilst there his roles included Ottone in Montiverdi’s Coronation of Poppea, Kaspar Freischutz and title role Figaro.

Almaviva Figaro, Figaro Barber, Clavaroche Fortunio ,Cecil Maria Stuarda, and Belcore L’Elisir. Recent engagements include Yamadori Butterfly (ROH), Enrico Lucia (Dublin), Achileus Scenes de la Chasse (Montpellier).

Plans include Fanciulla (ROH) and Tempest (Amsterdam Concertgebouw).

KIT HESKETH-HARVEY English version Bluebeard was born in Nyasaland, East Africa, where his father was District Commissioner.

He was a Choral Scholar at Clare College, Cambridge where he was a member of Footlights. After a six year stint at BBC-TV Music & Arts, he left to write for Merchant Ivory, including Maurice. Subsequent screenwriting has included Full Throttle and Vicar Of Dibley (Tiger-Aspect), and Hans Christian Andersen (Hallmark). His play Five O’Clock Angel was performed at the Hampstead Theatre. In 1982, he began at the Comedy Store with ‘Kit and the Widow’, a two-man satirical cabaret which has thrice been nominated in the West End for Olivier Awards. As a librettist/lyricist, Kit won the Vivian Ellis award for Writing Orlando, and did a post-graduate course at Oxford under Stephen Sondheim. Since then his work has included Yusupov (Bridewell), Caribbean Tempest (Sydney, Barbados and Edinburgh) and opera translations including Daughter of the Regiment (ETO), Turk In Italy’ and Belle Helene (ENO), Bartered Bride (ROH), and Fledermaus and Magic Flute (Scottish Opera), Marriage of Figaro (Armonico Consort) and Le Roi Malgre Lui (Grange Park). His libretto for Varjak Paw to music by Julian Philips, will be premiered at Basingstoke in September before going on to Covent Garden and the Aldeburgh Festival. He presents programmes on antiques, cabaret, chanson and domestic architecture, and is a regular panellist on Radio 4’s Just A Minute.

JOHN HUDSON Dick Johnson Fanciulla studied at GSMD and was a company principal at ENO 1993–2004 where roles included Macduff Macbeth, Rodolfo Bohème, Ottavio Giovanni, Alfredo Traviata, des Grieux Manon, Leicester Mary Stuart, Nadir Pearl Fishers, Ernesto Pasquale, Steersman Flying Dutchman, Tamino Magic Flute, Duke Rigoletto, title role Ernani (also Nationale Reisopera, Netherlands), Pinkerton Butterfly, Turiddu Cavalleria Rusticana, Cavaradossi Tosca and returned in 2007 for Radames Aida. For WNO he has sung Alfredo and Don José Carmen (also West Australian Opera), for Scottish Opera, Rodolfo, Don José, Manrico Il Trovatore, Duke Rigoletto, Radames, Cavaradossi and Pinkerton. For Opera Holland Park he sang the title role Andrea Chénier and at Reisopera, Jacapo Foscari I due foscari.

Recent engagements include Cavaradossi (Gubbay/Royal Albert Hall).

Jeffrey Lloyd–Roberts (Alexei, the gambler) takes his winnings to his beloved

RICHARD IMMERGLUCK ensemble has recently finished his BMus at the GSMD. Recent roles include Figaro Barber of Seville and Frank in Die Fledermaus, chorus for Grange Park Opera's Falstaff and Magic Flute and Holland Parks’ Traviata and L’Amore dei Tre Re.

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Andrew Shore (the General) rails against his family and the world

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SALLY JOHNSON ensemble trained at RNCM and has worked with leading opera houses including Glyndebourne and Scottish Opera. Roles include Musetta, Donna Elvira and Tatiana. She has had her Bridgewater Hall Debut and has performed for the BBC Proms.

conductors and his extensive discography includes two Grammy Awards (Moses und Aron, Peter Grimes) and a Gramophone Award (War Requiem). His recent recording of Death in Venice has a Grammy nomination.

JANIS KELLY Queen Clementine Bluebeard / Foreign Princess Rusalka Supported by Michael Bolton studied at RSAMD in her native Glasgow and RCM. Roles include Alice Ford Falstaff, Governess Turn of the Screw and Kuma Enchantress (Grange Park Opera, where she also directed Cosi fan tutte and Iolanthe), Pat Nixon Nixon in China (Athens), title role Alcina, Despina, Pat Nixon, Romilda Xerxes, Mrs Naidoo Satyagraha, Yum-Yum Mikado, Iris Semele, title role Belle Vivette (ENO), Countess, Violetta, Vixen, Magda La Rondine, Marschallin (Opera North), Rosalinde Fledermaus (Scottish Opera, Opera Ireland), Iris (Vlaamse Opera, Aix Festival, Proms), Dorabella (Garsington).

She has recorded A Little Night Music, Street Scene (TER Records), Inspector Morse soundtracks (Virgin) and films of Figaro, Così, Don Giovanni and The Knot Garden (Opera Factory/Channel 4). Plans include Lania in a new Opera North commission from David Sawer, directed by Richard Jones.

STEPHEN LANGRIDGE Director Bluebeard This season Stephen also directs The Minotaur, world première by Sir Harrison Birtwistle (Royal Opera), Otello (Salzburger Festspiele and Rome), Salome (Malmo Opera). Previous work for Grange Park includes Marriage of Figaro and Maria Stuarda and in the 1990s Stephen directed several shows for Pimlico Opera. Recent work includes Orphee et Euridice (Greek National Opera), Turn of the Screw (National Reisopera), Tangier Tattoo (Glyndebourne Touring Opera). Other credits include The Passion of IO by Sir Harrison Birtwistle, world première (Aldeburgh, then Almeida, Bregenz, Huddersfield Festivals), Semele (Buxton Festival), Orfeo (Japanese tour).

REBECCA KELLY ensemble studied at the Birmingham Conservatoire where roles include Orfeo Orfeo ed Euridice, Octavian Rosenkavalier, Cornelia Julius Caesar, Edimione Calisto She has appeared as chorus in Pecheurs des Perles and Daughter of the Regiment (Swansea City Opera) Falstaff and Magic Flute (Grange Park).

PETER KENT ensemble began singing professionally in 1999. Recent work includes Opera North chorus Grimes /Rigoletto, Parpignol Boheme, 1st Prisoner Fidelio, Giuseppe Traviata, Notary Sonambula (Holland Park), Marco / Francesco Gondoliers (Carl Rosa), Remendado Carmen, and Kromov Merry Widow. As a chorus member Peter appeared in Mikado, Gondoliers, Pirates of Penzance, Iolanthe, Yeoman of the Guard and Fledermaus (Carl Rosa) and Aida, Carmen, Madam Butterfly, Cav and Pag (Raymond Gubbay at Royal Albert Hall).

JEFFREY LLOYD-ROBERTS Prince Rusalka Supported by Anthony & Carolyn Townsend Born in Wales, Jeffrey studied at Lancaster University and RNCM. Recent appearances were title role Peter Grimes (Opera North – winning the Royal Philharmonic Society Opera Award and South Bank Show Award) and Gherardo Gianni Schicchi (Royal Opera House). At Grange Park: Alexei Gambler, Nicias Thais, Yuri Enchantress, Husband Breasts of Tiresias, Quint Turn of the Screw, Lenski Onegin. Other roles include Andres Wozzeck, Laca Jenufa, Rodolfo Bohème, Paolo Francesca da Rimini, Jenik Bartered Bride, Weill’s Love Life and One Touch of Venus (Opera North), Florestan Fidelio, Don José Carmen (ETO), Janek Makropulos Case (WNO), Sir Morosus Schweigsame Frau and Matteo Arabella (Garsington), Genoveva, Fledermaus, Max Der Freischütz (Zwingenberg), Lawyer Punch & Judy (Music Theatre Wales), Henri Smith Fair Maid of Perth (Buxton), Alwa Lulu (ENO). Other recent appearances include title role in a concert performance of Oedipus Rex (Edinburgh Festival), Molqui Death of Klinghoffer (BBC SO).

AURORE LACABE ensemble currently completing a postgraduate diploma at Trinity College of Music. Her recent roles include Rosina Barber of Savile Row, Olga Onegin, Mercedes Carmen, Mère Marie Dialogues des Carmélites, Siebel Faust and Dido Dido & Aeneas. Plans include Dorabella Cosi at Greenwich Theatre.

KARINA LUCAS Nymph Rusalka & Wowkle Fanciulla Supported by Mr & Mrs W Friedrich trained at the Royal Northern College of Music and the National Opera Studio, Recent appearances include Sara iTobias and the Angel (re-opening of the Young Vic Theatre), Witch Macbeth (Scottish Opera), Dorabella Cosi (Ryedale Festival and Grange Park Opera at Nevill Holt), Annina Traviata (Pimlico Opera), Sesto Giulio Cesare (Yorke Trust), and 3rd Lady Zauberflote (Opera North).

PHILIP LANGRIDGE Bluebeard Bluebeard Supported by an anonymous donor was made a CBE in the 1994 Queen’s Birthday Honours.

International festivals and opera houses he is closely associated with include Salzburg, Metropolitan Opera New York, La Scala Milan, Bayerische Staatsoper Munich, Royal Opera House, Glyndebourne, Edinburgh, and ENO. In concert he has appeared with the world’s major orchestras and

CYNTHIA MAKRIS Minnie Fanciulla has performed at opera houses worldwide including La Scala Milan, Royal Opera House, Staatsoper Berlin, Teatro Real Madrid and the Bayerische Staatsoper Munich. Her debut as Minnie was at the Finnish National Opera and she repeated the role for the Teatro Regio Torino. She has performed Strauss’ Salome in Berlin, Tokyo, Strasbourg, Lisbon, Sydney, Philadelphia, Hannover, Rio

de Janeiro, Stuttgart and Helsinki. Recent engagements include Norma (Philadelphia), Tosca and Fidelio (Finnish National Opera), Venus in Madrid, Leonora Forza del Destino (Savonlinna Festival) and Tosca (Opéra Comique Paris). As Turandot she has appeared at Savonlinna, WNO, Opéra de Marseille, the Teatro Colon and next year will appear with Opera Queensland.

RORY MACDONALD Conductor Fanciulla studied music at Cambridge and. in his midtwenties was appointed Assistant Conductor at the Hallé. He assisted at Glyndebourne, ENO and Paris Opera and then joined the Young Artists Programme at the Royal Opera House where he assisted Antonio Pappano on the Ring Cycle. Appearances include Idomeneo, Cosi (Glyndebourne tour), Barbiere di Siviglia, Fidelio, and Rheingold (Royal Opera), Glass’s Orphée, Owen Wingrave (Linbury Studio), Bohème (Danish National Opera). His plans include Midsummer Night’s Dream (Linbury Studio / Chicago), Albert Herring (Glyndebourne on Tour), Barber (ENO), Seraglio (Opera North).

STUART McDERMOTT ensemble first studied Physics at Imperial College London, and went on to study voice at the Royal Academy of Music with Philip Doghan and Iain Ledingham, supported by the Simon Fletcher Charitable Trust. He has previously sung chorus for Opera Holland Park and Opera by Definition.

ANTONY McDONALD Director/Designer Rusalka is a Royal Designer for Industry and was part of the British Team of Designers, who won the Golden Triga at the 2003 Prague Quadrennial for Un Ballo in Maschera (Bregenz).

As Director/Designer credits include Wonderful Town (Grange Park), Tsarevitch, (South Bavarian Theatre), Knot Garden, Aida, Samson & Dalilah, Broken Strings, Snatched by the Gods (Scottish Opera), Manon and King Priam (Reisopera, Holland), Current and recent design includes Billy Budd (Frankfurt, dir. Richard Jones), Manon Lescaut (Vienna State Opera, dir. Robert Carsen), Sleeping Beauty (Scottish Ballet, chor. Ashley Page), Magic Flute (Japan, dir. Emmanuelle Bastet), Cunning Little Vixen (Nederlandse Opera, dir. Richard Jones), Eugene Onegin (Royal Opera, dir. Stephen Pimlott), One Touch of Venus (Opera North, dir. Tim Albery). Between 2009 and 2012 he will direct Wagner’s Ring Cycle in the Netherlands.

ANDREW McINTOSH ensemble studied at Trinity and Royal Academy of Music. Recent engagements include Dancairo Carmen (Pegasus Opera, Linbury, ROH), Sciarrone Tosca, BBC2 series The Choir, Alidororo Cenerentola, Silvano Ballo in Maschera (Surrey Opera), title role Porgy & Bess (RPO at Barbican) and performances of Messiah and St. John Passion with Polyphony.

JAMES McORAN-CAMPBELL Gamekeeper Rusalka / Bello Fanciulla Supported by Chris & Miranda Ward trained at GSMD and National Opera Studio. He made his national debut as Giovanni at Opera North The Magic Flute Grange Park Opera 2007 Director Stephen Medcalf Designer Francis O'Connor Adrian Dwyer (Tamino) grapples with a monster

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where he has also sung Count Figaro and Pastore/spirito Orfeo. For Grange Park Opera at Nevill Holt he sang Figaro Barber, Belcore Elixir of Love. Recent appearances include Ormus Cama in the world première of The Ground Beneath her Feet by Victoria Borisova-Ollas (Hallé), Dandini Cenerentola (WNO), Fauré La Bonne Chanson, Finzi’s Earth and Air and Rain, Jake Heggie’s Thoughts Unspoken and Poulenc’s Le Travail du Peintre in the Crush Room of the Royal Opera House.

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STEPHEN MEDCALF Director Fanciulla works extensively in Italy where he directed Queen of Spades (Teatro alla Scala), Entführung (Ancona and Palermo), Zauberflöte and Manon Lescaut (Parma), and A Village Romeo and Juliet, Zauberflöte, Aida and Carmen (Cagliari). In 2006 he was awarded the prestigious critics’ Premio Abbiati for Best Director. Other notable productions include Figaro (opening of the new Glyndebourne opera house), Flying Dutchman (Opera North), Albert Herring (Salzburger Landestheater), Cosi (Sao Carlos, Chatelet, Teatro Real and ROH), May Night (Wexford Festiva)l, Ezio (Théatre des Champs Elysées) and Roberto Devereux (Buxton Festival).

Future engagements include Ariadne auf Naxos (Salzburger Landestheater), Elisir d’amore (Victoria) and his début at Opera de Marseille with Il Pirata.

He directed Magic Flute at Grange Park last year.

TOBIAS MERZ ensemble New Zealand born he studied at the Royal Conservatorium, The Hague. His stage appearances include Cosi (Opera Australia), Charpentier Messe de Minuit pour Noel (Royal Melbourne Philharmonic), Smetana The Two Widows and Zauberflote (New Opera Academy, Amsterdam), Bastien und Bastienne (Den Haag). This is his second season at Grange Park.

The Three Ladies (Margaret Rapacioli, Flora McIntosh and Rebecca von Lipinski) and Adrian Dwyer (Tamino)

ELEANOR MEYNELL ensemble studied at Chetham’s and RNCM before joining the BBC Singers for four years. Roles include Donna Anna and Hanna Glawari (Pavilion Opera), Masha Queen of Spades (BBC Philharmonic / Kirov Opera), Russian Mother Death in Venice (Chandos recording), Herd Girl Peer Gynt conducted by Neeme Jarvi at the Salzburg Festival and the BBC Proms.

HYALMAR MITROTTI Pistola Falstaff / Castro Fanciulla is Colombian and French, took degrees in Filmmaking and Theatre at Sorbonne in Paris before he studied singing.

He entered the GSMD where repertoire included Perruchetto Fedeltà Premiata, Guglielmo, Uberto Serva Padrona. He recently won scholarships to sing at the Hawaii Performing Arts Festival and to study French Art Song with François Le Roux, Jeff Cohen and Noel Lee at the Académie Francis Poulenc in Tours, made his debut at the SaintEtienne Opera House and sang Pietro Simon Boccanegra (Valladolid).

GARETH MORRIS Bardolph Falstaff / miner Fanciulla studied at Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama and Royal Academy. Roles include Roberto Devereux (Valladolid), Tamino, Ferrando, Ottavio, Basilio, Curzio, Prunier, Dr. Blind, Sesto, Paris in von Suppé’s The Ten Belles, Normanno and Arturo Lucia, Ko-Ko Mikado. He has broadcast as a soloist with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra on BBC Radio 2, 3 and 4.

GEORGE MOSLEY Oscar Bluebeard Supported by Nicholas Baring Since winning First Prize at the International Mozart Competition in Salzburg, George has performed with Covent Garden, ENO, Scottish Opera, Opera North and BBC TV. He has appears extensively in Italy

The Magic Flute Grange Park Opera 2007 Director Stephen Medcalf Designer Francis O'Connor Richard Coxon (Monostatos) and Jeremy White (Sarastro)

working for La Scala, Teatro Regio Torino, Teatro Comunale Bologna, Teatre dell Opera Roma, San Carlo Naples and numerous other houses. He has performed many times for the Megaron in Athens, in Hong Kong and Beijing. In America he has performed in New York City Opera, Seattle, Detroit and Washington DC. For Grange Park he has sung Germont, Ramiro L'Heure Espagnol, Directeur Mamelles de Tiresias and Giovanni. He has recently worked for La Fenice, Tel Aviv and in Washington DC and plans include Picasso Il Banquetto (Messina), Dancaire (San Carlo Naples) and Athanael Thais (Athens).

EAMONN MULHALL Prince Saphir Bluebeard was born in Wexford, studied at Trinity Dublin, RCM and National Opera Studio. Roles include Ferrando Così, Ottavio Giovanni (Opera Ireland), Jacquino Fidelio, Soldier Emperor of Atlantis (OTC Dublin), Massimo Ezio (London Handel Festival), Dr Blind Fledermaus (Clonter), Leilo in La Capricciosa Corretta (Bampton) and concert performances as Parpignol Bohème (RTE Orchestra) and Sailor Dido & Aeneas (Irish Chamber Orchestra).

FRANCIS O’CONNOR Designer Fanciulla trained at Wimbledon School of Art. Previous productions at Grange Park include Magic Flute, Don Giovanni, South Pacific. Other opera includes Manon, Pinocchio (Opera North), Traviata (ENO), Don Pasquale (Geneva, Garsington), The Original Chinese Conjuror (Aldeburgh and Almeida Opera), Der Vogelhändler (Berlin), Maometto II (Strasbourg), Ariadne auf Naxos (Castleward), May Night (Wexford), Vie Parisienne (D’Oyly Carte), Barber of Seville (ETO) How To Succeed In Business and Cole Porter’s Out of this World (Chichester). Recent theatre includes: Stepping Out (Derby), Moonlight and Magnolias (Tricycle), Long

Day’s Journey into Night (Druid), The Big House (Abbey, Dublin), Translations (Princeton and New York), Shadowlands (Salisbury), Leaves (Royal Court), Man of La Mancha (Edinburgh Lyceum). For Galway’s Druid Theatre designs include Beauty Queen of Leenane (also London and Broadway), Lonesome West (also Broadway), and My Beautiful Divorce (also London).

2005 included the complete Synge plays (Galway, Dublin, Edinburgh, Lincoln Center, New York 2006). Other work includes The Plough and The Stars and House of Bernada Alba (Abbey, Dublin), Andorra and A Raisin in the Sun (Young Vic), Calico (Duke of York’s), The Lieutenant of Inishmore (RSC and Garrick) and Peer Gynt (NT). Work in hand includes Deep Blue Sea (Bath and national tour), Six Characters in Search of an Author (National Theatre of Scotland), Taming of the Shrew (RSC).

DAN O'NEILL Movement Fanciulla was a founder member of the Featherstonehaughs and performed with many other leading dance companies including DV8 Physical Theatre, Second Stride, Toronto Dance Theatre and Extemporary. As a choreographer work includes ATC’s Jeff Koons, Frantic Assembly’s Peepshow, Great Expectations (Bristol Old Vic), Monkey (Young Vic) and Escapade (South Bank Centre). Dan’s work for screen includes Desert Dreams (BBC), The Linesman (BBC/NPS), The Human Voice (Channel 4), IMZ nominated Showtime (SE Arts) and various short dance films and documentaries.

ANNE-MARIE OWENS Jezibaba Rusalka Supported by Malcolm Herring was born in South Shields and studied at GSMD and National Opera Studio. At Grange Park she has appeared as Marcellina Figaro, Quickly Falstaff – the role of her professional debut with the Glyndebourne tour. She joined ENO in 1985 where appearances included Anezka Two Widows, High Priestess Vestale, Marfa Khovanshchina, Jezibaba Rusalka, and Judith Weir’s Blond Eckbert.

Her repertoire includes Brangäne Tristan und Isolde, Amneris Aida, Azucena Victoria Joyce (Queen of the Night)

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Trovatore, Venus Tannhäuser and Santuzza Cavalleria Rusticana, Madelon Andrea Chenier (Scottish), Ragonde Comte Ory (Garsington). Anne-Marie has also appeared with Royal Opera House, Glyndebourne, WNO, Opéra National de Paris, Théâtre Royale de La Monnaie, Opéra de Lausanne, New York City Opera, Santiago Opera, Arizona Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Opera di San Carlo, Komische Oper, Berlin, Bayerische Staatsoper.

Recent engagements have included Morozova in Tchaikovsky’s Opricnick (Cagliari), Witch Hänsel & Gretel and Jezibaba Rusalka (Opera Australia), Herodias Salome (Santa Fe), Mrs Grose Turn of the Screw (Glyndebourne) and Quickly Falstaff (WNO).

VERITY PARKER Nannetta Falstaff studied RNCM and GSMD and then joined the Glyndebourne chorus. She recently appeared as Johanna in Pimlico Opera's co–production with HMP Kingston of Sweeney Todd.. Opera includes Despina, Belinda Dido & Aeneas, Gianetta L’elisir d’amore (cover GTO) and excerpt performances as Zerbinetta Ariadne of Naxos. She sang the role of Flora Turn of the Screw in a Glyndbourne Education Project

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ROBERT POULTON Popolani Bluebeard Supported by William & Kathy Charnley was born in Brighton and spent his early career at Glyndebourne where roles include Ned Keene, Lido Boatman Death in Venice, Foreman Jenufa and Kuligin Katya Kabanova. He sang Falstaff and Magnifico at Grange Park. Other roles include Magnifico (Liceu / Spanish tour), Mozart’s Figaro, Ramiro L’heure espagnole, Marcello, Tom Cat/Clock L’enfant et les sortilèges, Prus Makropulos Case, Golaud (GTO), Almaviva, Ned Keene, Leandro Love for Three Oranges, Animal Tamer/Acrobat Lulu, Chorebus Trojans, Gunther, Alfonso, Prince Arjuna Satyagraha (ENO), Father Hansel & Gretel, Leporello (WNO), Figaro (Scottish), Germont La traviata, Podesta Thieving Magpie (Opera North), Harasta Cunning Little Vixen, Punch Punch & Judy, Starek Jenufa (Amsterdam), Germont (Opera Holland Park), Minskman Flight (GFO, Adelaide and Antwerp), Giovanni, Prus (Opera Zuid) and Ned Keene (Cologne, Bremen, Nantes, Copenhagen, Amsterdam).

KATHERINE PRICE ensemble trained at RSAMD and has since appeared in Strauss’ Four Last Songs (Manchester), Musetta Bohème, Queen Isabella in the British Première of Glass’ The Voyage, and in FaultyOptic’s 2004 – 2005 tour, commissioned by Opera North.

TOBY PURSER Chorus Master / Assistant Conductor Recently appointed assistant conductor to l’Ensemble Orchestral de Paris, Toby is principal conductor of the Orion Symphony Orchestra and London International Orchestra. Recent performances include with the St.Petersburg Camerata, KotorArt Chamber Orchestra in Montenegro, and Oxford University Orchestra. With Pimlico Opera and the prisoners of HMP Kingston, he conducted Sweeney Todd and was assistant conductor on The Gambler last summer.

SAMUEL QUEEN ensemble was an academic and choral exhibitioner at Gonville & Caius, Cambridge. Since leaving university he has appeared in Curlew River (Mahogany Opera), Nabucco, Lakmé and Il barbiere di Siviglia (Opera Holland Park). He studies with Robert Dean.

MARGARET RAPACIOLI Meg Falstaff was born in London, read Italian and French at University College London, studied singing with Maestro Angelo Bertacchi in Italy and then at National Opera Studio, London. Her operatic experience includes Hebe HMS Pinafore (Carl Rosa), Cherubino Marriage of Figaro, Polly Beggar’s Opera and Maddalena / Giovanna Rigoletto (Longborough), title role of Djamileh (Opera Minima), cover of PIPPO La Gazza Ladra and Cherubino (Opera North), Mrs Nolan The Medium (Second Movement Opera) and 3rd Lady Magic Flute (Grange Park).

ARLENE ROLPH Kitchen Boy Rusalka studied at RSAMD, Royal College of Music and the National Opera Studio. At Scottish Opera she created the role of Jane Claremont in Sally Beamish' Monster and has also sung Dorabella Cosi, Irene Tamerlano, and Hansel Hansel & Gretel (Scottish Opera Go Round).

Other roles include Cherubino Figaro (Glyndebourne), Annio Clemenza (Glyndebourne Tour), Rosina Barbiere, Cherubino Figaro and Varvara Katya Kabanova (WNO), Composer Ariadne auf Naxos (ETO). Recent appearances included title role in Philipe Boesmans’ Julie (Music Theatre Wales), Speranza and Messagiera Orfeo and Annio (Opera Frankfurt), Speranza Orfeo (Staatsoper Berlin with Rene Jacobs). Future and current commitments include a return to Frankfurt for performances of Orfeo, Siebel Faust, and Bianca Rape of Lucretia.

JAMES SCARLETT Caius Falstaff / miner Fanciulla studied at Trinity College of Music and has sung with Savoy Opera, Riverside Opera, British Youth Opera, and Opera Holland Park. His bel canto roles include Tonio Fille du Regiment, Almaviva Barbiere, Ramiro Cenerentola and title role Comte Ory. Other roles include Nadir Pêcheurs des Perles, Michele Saint of Bleecker Street, Curzio Figaro, Mercury Orpheus in the Underworld. Recent appearances include Prince Nilsky Gambler (Grange Park), Florestan Bohemian Girl (Opera South) and he toured with Pimlico Opera I Capuleti e I Montecchi.

AMY SEDGWICK ensemble studied at GSMD. Roles include 2nd Lady Flute (Swansea City Opera), 3rd Lady Flute (Opera Nova), Fenena Nabucco (Kentish Opera), Bianca in Thea Musgrave’s The Voice of Ariadne, Veronique Dr Miracle, Suzuki Madame Butterfly and Dulcinée in Massenet’s Don Quixote (GSMD Scenes).

Chorus experience includes Magic Flute, Falstaff and L’Elisir D’amore (Grange Park), Figaro and Cosi (Garsington), Beatrice & Benedict, Masquerade, Handel’s Susanna and Chabrier’s L’Etoile (GSMD).

OLAFUR SIGURDARSON Sheriff Jack Rance Fanciulla Supported by Halldora Blair was born in Iceland and studied in Reykjavik, Royal Academy of Music and RSAMD. He made operatic history by becoming the first principal of the Icelandic Opera’s ensemble 2001–2004 where roles include Mozart’s and Rossini’s Figaro, Scarpia Tosca, Verdi’s Macbeth, Papageno, Schaunard La Bohème, Alfio Cavalleria Rusticana and Tarquinius The Rape of Lucretia. Recent engagements include the title roles Rigoletto, Macbeth and Manfredo L’amore di tre Re, Gérard Andrea Chénier, Tonio I Pagliacci and Jack Rance La Fanciulla del West (Opera Holland Park), title role Kullervo (Saarbrücken), Mozart’s Figaro for Grange Park, Escamillo Carmen and Sulpice La Fille de Regiment (ETO) and Marullo, Rigoletto and Ford Falstaff (Opera North). Plans include Barnaba La Gioconda (Opera Holland Park) and title role Blaubart’s Burg (Saarbrücken) where he will shortly begin a two year contract as principle baritone.

REBECCA STOCKLAND ensemble studied at University of Exeter and GSMD. Ensemble singing includes BBC Singers, Ikon and L’Inviti Singers. Recent appearances include Pitti-Sing Mikado (Surrey Opera), 3rd Lady, Diana Calisto, Mistress Quickly, Zita, Fidalma (Il Matrimonio Segreto), Dryad (Ariadne auf Naxos), Dido, Sorceress, Olga, Dorabella, Cherubino, Tisbe, Dulcinée Don Quijote, Romeo,

Rosina, Isabella L’italiana in Algeri, Carmen, Josí in von Suppé’s Ten Belles without a Ring and Clarina La Cambiale di Matrimonio. Companies worked for include Buxton, ETO, New Chamber Opera, Abbey Opera, Birkbeck Opera, Morely College Opera and ROH Education Department. Plans include Meg in Niccolai’s Merry Wives of Windsor (Minack, Cornwall).

GEORGE SOUGLIDES Designer Bluebeard Other collaborations with Stephen Langridge include, Otello (Salzburg Festival and Rome), (set); Salome (Malmo), Orphee et Euridice (Greek National Opera), Marriage of Figaro and Maria Stuarda (Grange Park Opera), Arianna in Creta, Nationale Reisopera; Semele, Buxton Festival; The Marriage of Figaro, Ystad Sweden, and GSMD; The Possessed (World Premiere) by Harris Vrontos. Current and recent work includes: The Flowering Tree (Chicago Opera Theater, Dir. Nicola Raab); Barber of Seville dir. Ptolemy Christie, GPO at Neville Holt; Il Prigionero Dir. Christopher Alden; Xerxes, Dir. James Robert Carson and L’Elisir D’Amore, Dir. Vasilis Anastasiou. Theatre: Peace by Aristophanes (Thesaloniki / Epidaurus), Arcadia, Thesaloniki, The Talking Cure Athens, Dir. Constantinos Arvanitakis; Bourgeois Gentilhomme, Thesaloniki, Dir. Yannis Iordanites; Picture of Dorian Gray, Athens, Dir. V. Anastasiou; Freischutz (costumes) for Nationale Reisopera, Dir. Marcel Sijm.

125 The Magic Flute Grange Park Opera 2007 Director Stephen Medcalf Designer Francis O'Connor Teuto Koco (Papagena) and David Stout (Papageno) plan their future

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ANDREW SRITHERAN Trin Fanciulla studied in California with Marilyn Horne, at RNCM and National Opera Studio. He won the UK National Mozart Competition in 2002 and First Prize in the Wagner Society Bayreuth Bursary in 2004. He joined the Jette Parker Young Artists Programme in September 2005 and made his Royal Opera debut as Snout Midsummer Night’s Dream followed by Malcolm Macbeth, Second Foreman/Coachman Lady Macbeth Of Mtsensk and Tchaplitsky Queen Of Spades. He understudied Dick Johnson La Fanciulla Del West, Don José Carmen, Cavaradossi Tosca, and Pinkerton Butterfly. He sang the title role Idomeneo for Opera de Bauge.

• RECIPIENT OF A GRANGE PARK ENDOWMENT FUND SCHOLARSHIP

MELVIN TAN ensemble Singapore–born Melvin graduated in Literature from Edinburgh University and then studied at the Royal Academy. He has sung roles with Singapore Lyric Opera, Clonter Opera and Opera Holland Park. In 2007, he was awarded 2nd prize in the Ludmilla Andrew Russian Song competition.

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JOANA THOME 1st Nymph Rusalka Supported by Mrs Ian Jay was born in Brazil and studied at the University of Rio de Janeiro and GSMD. Roles include Cherubino Figaro, Lucretia Rape of Lucretia, Béatrice Béatrice et Bénédict, title role Xerxes (Cheltenham Festival), Minerva Il Ritorno d’Ulisse, Prosperino and Messagiera L’Orfeo (Brazil), Nutrice and Bacco Orfeo by Rossi (St. John's Smith’s Square), Yarico Inckle & Yarico (Opera East), Dido, Carmen (Clermont Ferrand, France) and the cover of Mercedes (Valencia).

ANDREW THOMPSON ensemble recently completed an Advanced PGdip at Trinity College of Music. Recent roles include Le Marquis de la Force in Poulenc’s Dialogues des Carmélites and Escamillo Carmen. He has previously worked with Opera UK and Stowe Opera.

ALEXANDRA TIFFIN Witch Dido / dead wife Isaure Bluebeard Supported by James Hudleston trained at the RNCM and RAM. Roles include Gertrude Hamlet, Bradamante Alcina, Olga Eugene Onegin, Cornelia Giulio Cesare, Dorabella Cosi, 3rd Lady Zauberflöte and Rosina Il Barbiere di Siviglia.

WILL TUCKETT Choreographer Bluebeard has won several choreographic awards (including the Cosmopolitan Dance Award, The Ursula Moreton Award, and The Jerwood Choreographic Award) and been nominated for Critics Circle Dance Awards for both Wind in the Willows and Canterville Ghost. Choreographic commissions include works for The Royal Ballet, SWRB/Birmingham Royal Ballet, ROH2 (including Timecode, The Wind in the Willows, The Soldier’s Tale, Pinocchio, Sondheim’s Into the Woods), Rambert Dance Company, English National Ballet (The Canterville Ghost),

Dance Umbrella, National Ballet of China and American Ballet Theatre’s Studio Company. He has made several films for the BBC and Channel 4 as both choreographer and director and conceived the Channel 4 series Ballet Changed My Life: BalletHoo! He has choreographed for The Royal Opera, Opera North and Bregenz Festival. He recently choreographed and directed Kurt Weill’s Seven Deadly Sins (Royal Ballet) and a new play Marianne Dreams (Almeida theatre).

DONG JUN WANG Jake Wallace Fanciulla Supported by Mr & Mrs Richard Morse Born in China, Dong took piano lessons from an early age before entering the Central Conservatoire of Music to study singing. In 2005 he entered the Royal Academy of Music where his roles included Robert in Tchaikovsky’s Iolanta, and Count Almaviva Nozze di Figaro. Other roles have included Silvio Pagliacci (Italy), Enrico Lucia di Lammermoor (Beijing premiere). On the concert platform his repertoire includes Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony and performances of the Brahms’ Requiem.

PETER WILLCOCK Sid & Jackrabbit Fanciulla / ensemble studied Art in Brighton before making the shift to singing. Having attended Trinity College of Music he sang on cruise ships and in street theatre and in musical theatre. As a soloist Peter premiered the role Fritz in Stephen McNeff / Phillip Pullman’s Clockwork (Linbury, ROH) and has appeared as Zuniga, Seneca, Aeneas, Ceprano, Masetto and Leporello, Noah (Noyyes Fludde). Recent chorus work includes Aida (ENO) and Pirates of Penzance (Carl Rosa at the Gielgud theatre). Peter works extensively in Opera Education, and has led workshops and trained children’s choruses for Opera North, Royal Opera House and Opera Brava for six years. This is his second season at Grange Park.

LOUISE WOODGATE dead wife Blanche & ensemble Blue Bleard Supported by James Hudleston studied music at Oxford Brookes and Trinity College of Music. She appeared with HMP Wandsworth/Pimlico Opera as Eponine Les Miserables. In 2001 she co–founded Opera Soufflé playing at the Edinburgh Festival and abroad. Roles include 2nd Lady Flute, Flora Traviata and Tatiana Onegin (Oxford Touring Opera). She is currently on the ENO Opera Course.

PETRO WYCHRIJ ensemble was born in England of Ukrainian and English parents. He has sung and danced with various Ukrainian ensembles nationally and internationally. He gave up his carreer in Marketing to attend RNCM where he sang Siward in Martin Butlers Better Place and Chekalinsky Queen of Spades.

Professional roles include Remendado Carmen, Slim Paul Bunyan, Vasek Bartered Bride, Rodolfo, Cardinal in the world première of Light Passing by Nicola Lefanu and Mayor Pied Piper (Opera North). Petro has sung with the chorus of Scottish Opera and Buxton Festival.

APPLICATION FORM GR ANGE PARK OPER A & OPER A

AT

N E V I L L H O LT

C AT EG O R I E S O F S U P P O R T 2 0 0 9

NOTE that tickets are for the use of the family of the registered individual and must not be sold on I would like to support Grange Park Opera

THE GLASS CEILING SOCIETY The proposed donation (£1,000) will be acknowledged in the programme. Members may wish to support us further with an application for tickets for the season and will be invited to gatherings associated with the development of productions, the festival and prison.

THE SCHOOL OF HIPPOCRATES The proposed donation (£600 for one year) will be acknowledged in the programme. Members may wish to support us further with an application for up to 16 tickets for the season and will be invited to gatherings associated with the development of productions, the festival and prison.

THE SCHOOL OF ARCHIMEDES The proposed donation (£325 for one year) will be acknowledged in the programme. Members may wish to support us further with an application for up to 8 tickets and will be invited to ONE gathering associated with the development of productions and the festival.

THE SCHOOL OF PLATO The proposed donation (£175 for one year) will be acknowledged in the programme. Members may wish to support us further with an application for 4 tickets for the season.

I would like to support the Opera at Nevill Holt THE CAPTAIN’S TABLE The proposed donation (£375 for one year) will be acknowledged in the programme. Members may wish to support us further with an application for up to 12 tickets for the Nevill Holt festival and 4 tickets for the Grange Park festival. You will be invited into the Great Hall for a glass of champagne after a performance to meet the cast and conductor.

THE CLIPPER CLASS The proposed donation (£175 for one year) will be acknowledged in the programme. The Clipper Class may wish to support us further with an application for up to 8 tickets for the Nevill Holt festival and 2 tickets for the Grange Park festival.

THE STOWAWAYS The proposed donation (£75 for one year) will be acknowledged in the programme. The Stowaways may wish to support us further with an application for up to 6 tickets for the Nevill Holt festival.

I would like to join the Mailing List THE SCHOOL OF EUCLID (The Mailing List) £35 is the suggested donation and we will send you a list of available dates for both Nevill Holt and The Grange in February so that you can book promptly. The full calendar can viewed on the website from November. Donors to any of the above categories DO NOT need to join the Mailing List.

Please send to Grange Park Opera, 24 Broad Street, Alresford, SO24 9AQ keeping a copy for yourself I enclose a personal cheque payable to Grange Park Opera for £ Customs & Excise have asked us to point out that donations of lesser and greater amounts are acceptable and that tickets are not guaranteed

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Hangman by Diva

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12 clues, lacking a definition, lead to solutions that are 6 Cowboys and 6 Indians. The first letters of these clues can be arranged to help Minnie save Dick from the noose by revealing the person named above the gallows.

The first correct solution opened on 30th August will receive two tickets for the 2009 festival Send solutions to : Grange Park Opera (Crossword), 24 Broad Street, Alresford SO24 9AQ ACROSS

DOWN

7

Very fast around the hour (6)

1

Armagnac - oh dear! – in such regular doses (7)

8

Lead-free campaign crucial to climate ultimately (8)

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Info containing backing for Oklahoma (6)

11

Company to watch in merger (7)

3

What’s three foot high? It’s down on the cards for lovers!

12 Rape, despoil - see destruction as the means to an end (7)

(3,3,2,6)

13 Sapphic inspiration for Homer at Olympus? (5)

4

Small upset suffered by ego-tripper (8)

14 Damien, restrained by one into bondage, panting for more? (9)

5

Top politician screwing after pair get physical (8)

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6

Both article and instructions lack introduction (7)

19 Body part buried by blunted weapon turning up in pit (9)

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Final heap shan’t yield what forty-niners looked for (1,5,2,3,3)

21 Anniversaries requiring tin can get opener from Heinz by the

10 A fool without National Insurance is a fool (4)

A Charge of the Heavy Brigade? (7,4)

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marquee (5)

128

Order a jumper on the mobile (8)

23 I repair dilapidated flats for Americans (7)

16 Executive position for clown (2,3,3)

24 River Wye burst banks. Raise this arch? (7)

17

25 Gets clued up for Spooner’s wash bag? (5,3)

18 Depicts sea when choppy (7)

26 Ducks do clear left for one (6)

20 “The Times” attends pea-brained summit (4)

English poet manqué embraces fine sentiments (7)

22 Poet under a pseudonym! (6)

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2007 puzzle RUSSIAN ROULETTE Around the perimeter of the puzzle is the phrase Mesdames et Messieurs Faites Vos Jeux The pink solutions are important when playing Russian Roulette. All solutions were "spun"

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2007 winner DEREK MACKAY Other correct solutions: John Henly, Pamela Grosvenor, William Mather, C J Sehmer, Helen Robinson Past winners 2006 James Sehmer 2005 William Mather 2004 Pamela Grosvenor 2003 Jane Poulter | 2002 Tony Phillips 2001 John Grimshaw | 2000 John Henly 1999 Michael James Apt John