Oyster Opera

Oyster Opera
Oyster Opera home
Who are Oyster Opera?
New at Oyster Opera!
Festivals and Street Opera
Weddings
Birthdays and Anniversaries
Corporate Entertainment
Whole Operas
Links
Photo Gallery
Sound and Video Gallery
Contact Oyster Opera
WHOLE OPERAS

Oyster Opera is proud to present "La Boheme" by Puccini as its latest production.

As with all oyster shows it is being performed in the original language (Italian), with period costume, complete set and piano accompaniment. However, if there is an opera you would particularly like to hear, then we would be delighted to discuss and hopefully tailor a performance to your requirements/space/event.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Sharply characterized, intelligently directed and beautifully sung - a jewel of a production" (Warwick Thompson, Metro)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

NO VENUE? SEE THE OPERA MARQUEE

Oyster Opera's productions are totally portable and can be stretched or shrunk according to your proposed venue (lighting/scenery). This means we can bring opera to unusual places and spaces.

We have performed in the Steiner Theatre, the Bloomsbury Theatre, Leighton House and Lauderdale House, London, but also have taken operas to private schools, town halls, stately homes and Scottish Castles. Opera-loving clients have staged a whole opera in their gardens, hallways, drawing rooms or marquees - either to entertain their friends, or as part of a festival, or often to raise money for charity. One idea is to host a fund-raising evening as a "mini-Glyndebourne", inviting people to bring picnics for a long interval and to dress in glamorous evening wear!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Oyster Opera's production was a revelation to me . it was just so well acted."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Another brilliant idea is to have a dinner party - organize the guests on one side of the tables, all facing a raised platform/stage, which is what we have done at Leighton House, Kensington, London where the resident caterers worked with us to provide silent, unobtrusive food and service - so the audience enjoyed the wonderful setting of Leighton House, a first class dinner and a splendid private performance of Le Nozze di Figaro at extremely close range.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"What a brilliant evening! I never heard a sextet sing so clearly. I heard every word."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

We provide the performance with a set and minimal lighting rig, and the copy (information and text) for you to make your own Programme, for a set fee. (Or we can produce it for you). All you need to do is to provide the space, the chairs, the piano (upright is fine, just make sure to have it tuned), electricity for the lights and the audience!

If you would like a full information pack on 'How to host an opera' - for funding raising or just for private entertainment please contact us.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"First rate voices and acting - a magical evening! Piano accompaniment was so good that I hardly missed an orchestra and the singers so polished and on cue that they didn't need a conductor."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

OUR PRODUCTIONS:

Puccini's La bohème, Rossini's Il barbière di Siviglia, Mozart's Cosi fan Tutte and Le nozze di Figaro, Verdi's La Traviata, Humperdinck's Hansel und Gretel, Stravinsky's The Rake's Progress and Britten's The Turn of the Screw.

We would be delighted to discuss possibilities for any opera you have in mind and would perform in English if it were preferable.

Flexible is our middle name.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Find out who we are, check out the sound and video-bites or contact us directly for further information.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

OUR CASTS:

Oyster Opera's fabulous casts have been as follows:

La Bohème

Mimì
Musetta
Rodolfo
Marcello
Schaunard
Colline
Benoit / Alcindoro
Music Director
Director
Fiona Oliver-Smith
Aurelia Jonvaux
James Heath
Marlon da Silva Maia
Philip Kay
Orlando Schenk
Antoine Salmon
Richard Black
Clive Bebee

Cenerentola

Cenerentola
Don Ramiro
Dandini
Don Magnific
Clorinda
Tisbe
Alidoro
Music Director
Director
Hannah Mason
Stephen Anthony Brown
Peter Grevatt
Leon Berger
Sarah Estill
Justine Davies
John Milne
Richard Black
Clive Bebee

La Traviata

Violetta Valery
Flora Bervoix
Annina
Alfredo Germont
Giorgio Germont
Gastone
Barone Douphol
Marchese d'Obigny / Dottore Grenvil
Music Director
Director
Fiona Oliver-Smith
Hannah Mason
Aurelia Jonvaux
Andrew Friedhoff
Marlon da Silva Maia
Robert Amon
Orlando Schenk
Antoine Salmon

Richard Black
Fraser Grant

Cosi fan tutte

Fiordiligi
Dorabella
Guglielmo
Ferrando
Despina
Don Alfonso
Music Director
Director
Janet Fairlie, Fiona Oliver-Smith
Fiona Oliver-Smith, Hannah Mason
Kevin Sharp, Jeremy Vinogradov
Michael Hart-Davis, Angus McAllister
Yvonne Patrick, Emma Silversides
Deryk Hamon, Orlando Schenk
Annette Saunders; Krystian Belliere
Fraser Grant

Il Barbiere di Siviglia

Count Almaviva

Doctor Bartolo
Don Basilio
Figaro

Fiorello
Rosina
Bertha
Music Director

Director
Jonathan Stoughton, Nick Smith, Paul Badley
Orlando Schenk
Stephen Holloway
Jeremy Vinogradov, Christopher Foster, Alex Ashworth
Angus McAllister
Fiona Oliver-Smith
Gudrun Finnbogadottir, Jane Stevenson
Kenneth Roberts; Frances Kelleher; Michael Pugh
Fraser Grant

Le nozze di Figaro

Figaro
Susanna
Count Almaviva
Countess Almaviva
Cherubino
Marcellina
Don Basilio / Don Curzio
Doctor Bartolo / Antonio
Barbarina
Musical Director
Director
Orlando Schenk
Emma Silversides
Philip Kay
Fiona Oliver-Smith
Hannah Mason
Jane Stevenson
James Hodgson
Stephen Holloway
Riko Tanaka

Michael Pugh
Fraser Grant

L'elisir d'amore

Nemorino
Adina
Belcore
Dulcama
Gianetta
Chorus

Musical Director
Director
Andrew Friedhoff
Fiona Oliver-Smith
Antonio Perez-Iranzo
Orlando Schenk
Hannah Mason
Hamish Gallie, Riko Tanaka, Kalina Koleva, Craig Steel, Verity Johnson
Richard Black
Fraser Grant

Eugene Onegin (abridged version, sung in Russian with English narration)

Tatiana
Olga
Vladimir Lenski
Eugene Onegin
Alexander Pushkin
Director
Conductor

Russian coaching
Jessica Lindberg
Alenka Ponjavic
Robert Carlin
Toby Sims
David Pullan (narrator)
Fraser Grant
David Gibson. Oyster Chamber Ensemble, arrangement by Lara Taylor
Alexandre Naoumenko


















--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------