Part theatre, part opera company, Prologue Opera is as passionate about pulling audiences into the world of opera as it is about reaching out to the community.
Every Prologue Opera production engages, excites and entertains from the first note to the final curtain, challenging your preconception of opera.
Everyone has a backstory.
Everyone has a prologue.
By telling the story of the characters in Puccini’s original classic, we allow the audience to understand them better, get under the skin of the story and encourage them to draw comparisons with their own prologues!
Our aim is to show that opera is about everyone and can be FOR everyone.
SYNOPSIS
Becoming:
Against the backdrop of a barrio in an unspecified South American city, in the mid-20th Century where a military junta battles the burgeoning resistance, the characters of our story arise. No. 1 “I Remember Sundays” - each character recalls what life was like for them growing up, their experiences, their influences, their prologue. We develop this theme further as their lives intertwine in No 2 “And Now” and No 3 “Scarpia’s Ordination” They become who they are
Cavaradossi becomes a painter - jaded by his struggle against the church and its unthinking followers - he begins to build his anti-establishment sentiments and will to show society, through art, a different life Florencia goes from a choir girl to a singing student to a diva opera singer, not without the notice of many an admirer along the way She revels in the acclaim Scarpia, rejected by the church, takes matters into his own hands and finds his calling in the Secretariat of State Intelligence. Spoletta, yearning to be seen and heard by anyone of import (No. 4 Mr Cellophane) , finds his raison d’être as Scarpia’s henchman, leading him to develop a binding connection to his employer Lastly, Angelotti, a tragically naive yet hopeful child of the revolution, is caught up in the middle of these people and their world.
The stage is set!
Act I
As Cavaradossi returns to the City after travelling to America to challenge society with his art, he recalls the memories of a City he once knew (No. 6 The Tango) In his painting workshop, whilst preparing to sell his Magdalene in the Wilderness to Scarpia, Cavaradossi (with his now fully-formed jaded approach to life) tries to teach the young Angelotti that art is not a weapon. Angelotti takes this as a call to arms (No. 7 Internationale) and tries to rouse the rabble with chants of Patria o muerte - But who is watching?
Floria & Mario are in his painting studio Whilst she becomes bored and yearns for a more romantic setting, Mario is preoccupied with his painting commission. Scarpia arrives and the painting is bought but that’s not only thing that he is after
Poor Angelotti, fired up by the words of his mentor, confronts Scarpia and his henchman, not with a happy ending Cavaradossi is accused and arrested by Scarpia, having invented a story about what happened
Act II
Mario is interviewed by Scarpia who shows him that there really is no way out of his version of “the truth” Floria enters and learns of the real truth Unbeknown to Tosca, Mario’s fate awaits, despite the promise of a “fake” execution “like Palmieri” She is forced to give herself to Scarpia to save her lover’s cries of agony the revolution seems to break through to cries of victory and Tosca has a nasty surprise for Scarpia.
Cavaradossi yearns for the free life he could have had and laments his fate Tosca flees the crime scene and has managed to gain exit visas for them both . She is convinced that they will be free. Mario, despite his lover’s hope, knows this is not the case but steels himself that Tosca will at least, live on
The pantomime plays out. Scarpia’s murder is discovered to cries of officers searching.
Loyal Spoletta, is grief-stricken by what happened to his employer and chases down Tosca Overwhelmed with true despair of her situation, Tosca takes matters into her hands again....for one last time.
Meet Our Cast
Anna Sideris - Floria Tosca
“The rich layers of Anna Sideris’ appealing lyric soprano, conveyed sensual sauciness and flashed with feistiness ” (Claire Seymour, Opera Magazine). Anna Sideris is a lyric coloratura soprano working on the opera stage and recital platform, recognized for her dramatically engaging performances and richness of tone
Operatic highlights of Anna’s career so far have been performing the roles of Violetta in ‘La Traviata’ (Verdi), Susanna in ‘Le Nozze di Figaro’ (Mozart) and Joanna in ‘Sweeney Todd’ (Sondheim). On the concert platform she loved the challenge of performing Boulez at Aldeburgh Festival and singing on BBC Radio 3’s ‘Music Matters’, with many highlights in between
Anna studied at Oxford University, Royal Academy of Music and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and is now a passionate teaching artist. She has introduced many primary school children to opera, designed well-being programs for employees of the NHS and people living with Long Covid, as well as helping those with dementia through the power of music and singing.
When she is not singing Anna can often be found on the dance floor at Pineapple Dance Studios, and one well kept secret about Anna is that before she started singing Anna played the trombone and can be heard playing briefly for Danny Elfman on the soundtrack of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
Anthony Flaum - Mario Cavaradossi
Anthony is a graduate of the Royal Academy of Music & the National Opera Studio. He has sung principal roles with many of the UK’s major opera companies - English National Opera, Scottish Opera, Grange Park Opera, Buxton Opera Festival, Northern Ireland Opera, Iford Arts, Nevill Holt Opera and Opera Della Luna amongst others. He began his career in the original Olivier award-winning production of La bohème as Rodolfo for Opera Up Close In 2021, he made his acting debut to much critical acclaim in King Lear alongside Sir John Tomlinson & Sir Thomas Allen at The Grange Festival. He enjoys the versatility of performing for private functions, educational outreach in the arts and singing with celebrated orchestras such as the Royal Philharmonic and also, of course, the Hastings Philharmonic. Recently, he broadened his work as a Producer for Barefoot Opera on their summer opera tours and looks forward to further collaborations with them He also looks forward to performing the role of Theseus in a new staging of Jonathan Dove’s opera Monster in the Maze (Sheffield Crucible) later in 2024.
Beginning professional life in banking, Anthony moved down to St Leonards on Sea in 2020 . He founded Prologue Opera in 2021 and dedicates this performance to Sophie, Sadie and Corinne
Brendan Collins - Vitelio Scarpia
One of Ireland's leading baritones, Brendan Collins has performed as a soloist across Ireland, the UK, Europe, the Middle East, China and America.
Lauded for his rich voice, dramatic skills and magnetic stage presence, he has performed in many of the world's leading venues including the Royal Albert Hall London, the Brooklyn Academy of Music in New York, Glyndebourne Opera House, Kennedy Centre Washington D C , Wexford Opera House, National Concert Hall Dublin, the Hong Kong Cultural Centre, Sadlers Wells London, Stephansdom Vienna, Palais des Beaux Arts Brussels, Grand Théâtre de Luxembourg & Opéra de Lausanne to name just a few Opera engagements include Irish National Opera, Glyndebourne Festival Opera, Scottish Opera, English Touring Opera, Opera Theatre Company, Northern Ireland Opera, Longborough Festival Opera, Anna Livia Festival, Opera Collective Ireland, Cork Operatic Society and Iford Opera. His repertoire of nearly 70 roles include the title role in Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi, Scarpia (Tosca), Count Almaviva (Le Nozze di Figaro), Marcello (La Boheme), Escamillo (Carmen), Germont (La Traviata), Tonio (Pagliacci), Alfio (Cavalleria Rusticana), Don Alfonso (Cosi Fan Tutte), Paolo Albiani (Simon Boccanegra) & Masetto (Don Giovanni).
Jonathan Cooke - Spoletta
Jonathan Cooke, is a versatile tenor, equally comfortable on the operatic stage, concert platform, and choral circuit. He graduated from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland (RCS) in 2015 with a Master of Music degree. Prin-cipal roles whilst studying include Ruggero in Puccini's La Rondine (RCS), Tamino in the Young Opera Venture's touring production of The Magic Flute and Le Mari in Poulenc's surreal one-act opera Les Mam-elles de Tiresias (RCS). Since moving to London, Jonathan’s operatic roles have been many and varied, though recently he has been focussing on the larger lyric roles, including Rodolfo La Boheme (cover, Mid Wales Opera), Don Jose Car-men (Various companies), Hoffmann The Tales of Hoffmann (Kentish Opera), Pinkerton Madame Butter-fly (Opera Up Close), and Cavaradossi Tosca (Various companies) Concert highlights include Britten’s Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings and St. Nicolas, Elgar The Kingdom, Verdi Requiem, Rossini Petite Messe Solenelle and Handel Messiah.
Recent and future engagements include Dr. Caius Falstaff at West Green House Opera, and Steuermann der Fliegende Holländer at St Endellion Summer Music Festival
For more information, visit www.jonathancooketenor.com
Harry Gentry - Angelotti
This is Harry’s debut with a first professional production after being in the business since he was eight years old He attends Bexhill Academy where he studies, speech and drama, music, practice, and theory and even dance! He has had a great amateur career contrasting plays, musicals, dance shows and operas Most recently, he performed with Battle Theatrical Society in their production of Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. He has been part of White Rock Youth Theatre for many years and has starred as Fat Sam (Bugsy Malone), the Lion (Wizard of Oz) and looks forward to the playing the title role of Willy Wonka in their summer project of Charlie & the Chocolate Factory
He has thoroughly enjoyed this journey with Prologue Opera and looks forward to the audience reaction to Becoming Tosca
Prologue Opera are hugely grateful to Lisa Gentry, Nomio & Lee for all their chaperoning services and to Laura Bateman for helping build our child protection policies
Meet Our Creative Team
Christopher Cowell Director, Translation, Dialogue, Lyrics
Christopher is an opera director and librettist whose international career has taken him from Chicago (Semele, Il viaggio a Reims) to Denmark (Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Orlando, Rinaldo, Il turco in Italia, Le nozze di Figaro) and from Portugal (Die Zauberflöte, Giulio Cesare, I Capuleti e i Montecchi) to Ireland (Carmen) and Sri Lanka (Cavalleria rusticana) via Sweden (Don Pasquale, Il barbiere di Siviglia). 2008 saw his main-house début at Covent Garden directing a revival of Les Contes d’Hoffmann, while for Glyndebourne Touring Opera he directed La Traviata, Le Comte Ory and Rodelinda.
Other UK productions include Faust, Lucia di Lammermoor, Le Cid, Manon Lescaut and Così fan tutte for Dorset Opera Festival, Agrippina, Poro and Atalanta for the London Handel Festival, La bohème and Partenope for Iford Arts, The Snowmaiden for UCO, Cendrillon, May Night and Don Giovanni for the Royal Academy of Music, Idomeneo for the Royal Scottish Conservatoire and the world première of Samuel Coleridge Taylor’s Thelma for Surrey Opera
As a translator he has produced many English performing versions of operas for The Royal Opera House, Scottish Opera, Opera North and English National Opera.
Frank Moon - Composer (Nos. 1, 2 & 3)
Multi instrumentalist and composer Frank moon has produced scores for dance and theatre that have been performed across the world, including orchestral scores for The Royal Ballet and San Francisco Ballet, Joyce Theatre New York, Shakespeare’s Globe, Burgtheater Vienna, Ballet Moscow, and Ballet de Santiago His long standing collaboration with Arthur Pita has produced 17 works in 14 years. In 2021 he was nominated for Outstanding Creative Contribution at the Critic’s Circle National Dance Awards, for his scores for dance. As a performer has toured widely with many ensembles in genres from jazz and folk to chamber music, funk, latin, gamelan, mediaeval music, as well as Middle Eastern, African and Indian fusions. His oud playing features in several Hollywood films.
Meet Our Creative Team
Lesley Anne Sammons
Musical Director
Lesley Anne Sammons is a much sought-after conductor, répétiteur, arranger and vocal coach. As répétiteur and vocal coach she has held full-time positions at Scottish Opera and Teatro Massimo di Palermo and she also worked at Glyndebourne Festival Opera, Royal Opera House, English National Opera, Dutch National Opera, Opera North, English Touring Opera and Grange Park Opera. She conducted Madama Butterfly and Il Barbiere di Siviglia at Opera Holland Park and The Magic Flute at Longborough Festival Opera. Lesley-Anne was Musical Director of Barefoot Opera for many years, where she reimagined a variety of opera scores, creating the distinctive instrumental combination known as The Barefoot Band. In 2019 LFO commissioned Lesley Anne to arrange La Calisto for the Barefoot Band and young singers, which received critical acclaim, including a fourstar review in The Times. In 2020 she conducted Lucy Mulgan’s children ‘s Opera Red . She arranged a double bill of Gluck’s Orfeo and Mascagni’s Zanetto and played in the band for the community opera Bloom Britannia by Orlando Gough. She arranged and performed Cosi Fan Tutte for LFO in 2021. Lesley Anne is an Associate Lecturer at Chichester, nurturing young talent on the Triple Threat Course for Musical Theatre. She plays for Intergenerational Opera, which brings schoolchildren and “Older Friends” from the Community together through Opera.
Boyan Ivanov - Clarinets / Promenade Musician
A Bulgarian-British clarinettist, who has performed at some of the world’s most prestigious venues including the Barbican Centre, Royal Festival Hall, Royal Albert Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall, St Martin-in-the-Fields, Cadogan Hall, Kings Place, and St John’s Smith Square, amongst others. Graduating from the Guildhall School of Music & Drama, he plays regularly with the Hastings Philharmonic, Ensemble OrQuesta, Vox Vanguard, London Arts Orchestra, Orion, Firebird, Orpheus Sinfonia amongst others Recent engagements; tours to China (Plovdiv Philharmonic Orchestra, Bulgaria) where he performed Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto in A major and L. Bassi’s “Rigoletto” Concerto-Fantasy as a soloist In 2020, Boyan was invited to be a jury member for the VIII International Competition for Young Musicians, Macedonia. He made his debut in Brazil in October 2022, performing Weber’s Clarinet Concerto no.2 as a soloist (OSRNOrquestra Sinfônica do Rio Grande do Norte). In April 2023, Boyan was honoured to be an assistant to the legendary British clarinettist Andrew Marriner in his Masterclass, Plovdiv, Bulgaria They performed together as part of the course. The Ivanov & Chen Duo will release their debut album, “Euphony”, in 2024 featuring classic works and unique popular arrangements for clarinet and piano including music by Brahms, Elgar, Sarasate, Piazzolla, and Gershwin
Viva Halton Wright was born in Lambeth, London She studied Costume at Wimbledon School of Art, gaining a BA (Hons) degree Theatre Design: Costume Interpretation. After graduation, she went to work for English National Opera, Royal Opera House, Castleward Opera, National Theatre, Royal Shakespeare Company, English National Ballet, BBC, ITV, Disney, and Regent's Park OpenAir Theatre as a Costume Maker
In 1998 she began her designing career with Wagner's Ring Cycle for Longborough Festival Opera, then Tosca and The Magic Flute were collaborations with students at Wimbledon School of Art making costumes under her tutelage. She designed further productions with Holland Park Opera, The Bridewell Theatre, and the National Trust Also, she enjoyed designing Panto for Watermans Art Centre. Holland Park Opera, The Bridewell Theatre.
She the moved in to TV work and designed 'Bedlam' for Seneca, Sky History Channel then designing adverts for Domino's Pizza, Perkier Bar, Virgin Trains. Alongside making for the current Coke Cola advert, National Lottery Ad and Just Eat Ad
She Lives in East Sussex with her 3 boys, two Spaniels, 2 cats and chickens
I’m Aimee, a 22 year old costume designer (in practice). I graduated in 2023 and am currently working with Viva Halton as a Costume Design Assistant. At college, I studied fashion design and went on to study fashion communication at University, becoming mesmerised with vintage/ historical clothing. Towards the end of my studies, I started to dress myself in the pieces I found for projects. I began to source garments from antique/charity shops and I was enthralled by the possibility of bringing history to life by dressing in them myself. Moving and living with these timeless garments felt as if I almost fell back in time, if only for a moment This is where I fell in love with historical costume in particular. I was taken under Viva’s wing in 2023 and have worked on all sorts of projects, challenging me as well as enjoying sharing a passion for the way dress has such an impact on society With this in mind, I intend to continue bringing history to life through beautiful wardrobe designs within the film and media genres.
Production Credits & thanks
Tosca
Original score & libretto
No. 1, 2 & 3 in Synopsis Composition
No. 4 “Mr Cellophane”
Original score & libretto
No. 5 “Mi buenos Aires Querido”
Original score
James Deane
Leopard Production Services
Jonathan Richardson
G. Puccini
Italian libretto - Luigi Illica
English translation - C. Cowell
Frank Moon with lyrics by Christopher Cowell
From “Chicago” John C. Reilly
Carlos Gardel
English translation - C. Cowell
Lighting Designer St John’s, St Mary’s, Battle
Lighting Designer Stables Theatre
Jane Richardson Stage Manager
Sophie Bell
Celina Zomer
Assistant Stage Manager
Hair & Make Up Consultant
Viva Halton Wright Designer
Aimee Lambert
Wardrobe Assistant
Michael Willard Set Building
Dee Harvey & Sophie Bell Set Painting
Christopher Cowell
Lisa Gentry
Photography
Poster artwork
Lead Chaperone
Peter Mould
Kate Mallet - Third City PR Publicity
Special Thanks
Without you, Becoming Tosca would not have become;
Jennifer Bell MBE
Hinrichsen Foundation
Isbael Blackman Foundation
My wife & children - Sophie, Sadie & Corinne.
Our audience!
Thanks also go to;
Our tour venues - St John’s (St Leonards), St Mary’s (Guildford)
Debbie & the team at Battle Abbey
Neil & the entire team at The Stables Theatre
Barefoot Opera
Laura Bateman - White Rock Theatre
Lisa Gentry - for generally being awesome!
Celina Zomer - East Sussex College
Louise Winter - for hosting our MD!
Marcio and Helen da Silva - for all their help
The Carlisle - our rehearsal venue
Elizabeth Rowe - original musical discussions
Tamar Osborne - for loaning our bass clarinet
Charlotte Tingley & Janet Hodgson - marketing advice
Anyone I’ve missed who has contributed!
BECOME A FRIEND
We are a micro opera company and could use your help!
Obviously, the best way to support us is to come and see our shows so thank you for being here and support us!
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A donation of just £5 from many of our supporters, can go a long way to support us in the future!
If you felt like supporting one of our future projects, do get in touch on email! Email - team@prologueopera.com
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We hope to produce further groundbreaking opera for you in the future as well as working on some educational outreach ideas to involve the community as a whole.....so if you enjoyued the show, then please do use the terminal at the front desk to donate to the future of Prologue Opera.
Trust Sponsors
The Hinrichsen Foundation CIO is a charity mainly devoted to the promotion of new music.
We are grateful for them for supporting our commissioning of new music.
It was founded in 1976 by Mrs Carla Eddy Hinrichsen to ensure the continuation of the tradition of supporting contemporary music established by the Hinrichsen family as the proprietors of Edition Peters the music publishers, established more than 200 years ago in the German city of Leipzig.
ISABEL BLACKMAN FOUNDATION
The Isabel Blackman Foundation has a long and rich tradition of supporting initiatives in and around Hastings Old Town and St Leonards with their activities ranging from Health and Education to the Arts.
We are grateful for their support and trust in Prologue Opera.
