Author: mwillis

Cinderella – Jules Massenet – Opera 2015

Sheffield City Opera will be performing Cinderella by Jules Massenet in June 2015

This will be at the Library Theatre in Sheffield during week commencing 22nd June 2015.

Current plans are to conduct three performances on 26th and 27th June. The opera will be sung in English.

If you would like to be involved in our production contact us now on info@sheffieldcityopera.com or ring 07547 230632

In preparation, Sheffield City Opera is conducting auditions in Sheffield on Sunday, 1st February 2015 from 2:00 to 5:00pm for the various singing roles in Cinderella.
A second date of Sunday, 8th February (2pm to 5pm) has been arranged for any follow up auditions or for those who cannot make the first date.

If you are interested in auditioning with us, please let me know by return and I will provide further details in due course.

Love and Conflict Programme (Provisional)

1) Opening chorus from Nabucco The glory of Israel is shattered & broken (p10-20) VERDI 5 mins

2) Zachariah & Chorus from Nabucco VERDI: Take heart O my children (p21-30) VERDI 6 mins

3) O lovely peace from Judas Maccabeus (2 Sopranos) HANDEL 4 mins

4) Avant de quitter ces lieux – Valentine’s aria from Faust (Baritone) GOUNOD 5 mins

5) Soldiers’ Chorus from Faust (Men) (Opera Choruses Book p 116) GOUNOD 5 mins

6) Finale Trio & small chorus from Don Giovanni MOZART 7 mins

7) O mio babbino caro – from Gianni Schicchi (Bass & Sop) section p59 to aria PUCCINI 3 mins

8) Witches chorus – from Macbeth (WOMEN) (Opera Choruses Book p 319) VERDI 5 mins

9) Pieta, rispetto, amore – Macbeth’s aria from Macbeth (Baritone) VERDI 5 mins

10) O soave fanciulla – from La Boheme (Soprano & Tenor) PUCCINI 4 mins

11) I hear the soft note – from Patience (Sextet) GILBERT & SULLIVAN 4 mins

12) Bella figlia dell’amore – from Rigoletto (Sop, Mezzo, Tenor, Bass) VERDI 6 mins

13) Finale – from Magic Flute MOZART 3 mins

Interval

14) Grand March – from Aida (Opera Choruses Book p 298) VERDI 7 mins

15) Softly Awakes my heart – from Samson & Delila (Soprano) SAINT SAENS 5 mins

16) Au fond du temple saint – Duet from Pearl Fishers (Tenor & Bass Baritone) BIZET 7 mins

17) Love theme – from Romeo & Juliet TCHAIKOVSKY 5 mins

18) Casta Diva – from Norma (Soprano) BELLINI 6 mins

19) Soave il vento – Trio from Cosi Fan Tutti (Sop, Mezzo & Bass) MOZART 3 mins

20) Tonight quintet and chorus – from West Side Story BERNSTEIN 4 mins

21) Nessun Dorma – from Turandot (Tenor) + chorus PUCCINI 3 mins

22) Finale – from Marriage of Figaro (p 344) MOZART 5 mins

Love And Conflict – St. Margaret's Church, Swinton

Saturday, 29th November 2014 – 7:30pm

They are some of opera’s biggest wish pieces, the ones that rend your your heart : the brooding, blistering choruses of a threatened people in Verdi’s ‘Nabucco’; the birth of love and its attendant seeds of destruction in the Love Duet from Puccini’s ‘La Boheme’; the crackling tensions of the quartet from Verdi’s Rigoletto’; the transcendent beauty of reconciliation in the Finale of Mozart’s ‘Marriage of Figaro’.

Strong characters, driving drama, it’s music to die for…
Tickets: £10 per person

[wp_cart_button name=”Saturday, 29th November 2014 – 7:30pm at St. Margaret’s Church, Swinton.” price=”10.00″]

If you like to join our chorus and sing with us in the concerts, see our programme, soloist and other ensembles are being organised this month. Come along and find out more.

St Luke's Programme – Midsummer's Eve

A selection from Phantom of the Opera –  Andrew Lloyd Webber

Think of Me (Soloist: Anne Bailey)
Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again (Soloist: Lorraine Webb)
The Music of the Night (Soloist: Michael Willis)
The Phantom of the Opera
All I Ask of You

O Mio Babbino Caro from Gianni Schicci (Soloist: Fiona Constantine)
Giacomo Puccini

Habanera (Soloist: Anne Bailey) & Toreador Song (Soloist: Michael Willis) from Carmen
George Bizet

A selection from West Side Story – Leonard Bernstein
Tonight
I Feel Pretty
Make of our Hands (Soloist: Anne Bailey)
Maria (Soloist: David Brothers)
America

Dido’s Lament from Dido and Aeneas (Soloist: Fiona Constantine)
Henry Purcell

Easter Hymn from Cavalleria Rusticana (Soloist: Lorraine Webb)
Pietro Mascagni

— INTERVAL —

A Medley from Oliver
Consider Yourself
Food, Glorious Food
Where is Love? (Soloist: Jo Hutchesson)
Pick a Pocket (Soloist: David Tomkins)
I’d do anything
Oom-Pah-Pah
Consider Yourself

A selection from other Musicals
The Hills Are Alive (Soloist: Rebecca Lambert) and
I have confidence (Soloist: Catherine Davison) from The Sound of Music Rogers and Hammerstein
This is my beloved from Kismet (Soloist Joanna Mackey) Wright & Forrest
Do You Love Me? from Fiddler on the Roof (Soloists: David Tomkins & Christine Ayres) Joseph Stein

A selection from Les Miserables – Claude-Michel Schönberg

At the End of the Day
I Dreamed a Dream (Soloists: Jo Huchesson & Jeremy Craven)
Do You Hear the People Sing?
On My Own (Soloist: Jo Huchesson)
Bring Him Home (Soloist: David Brothers)
On this Page (Soloists: Jeremy Craven & Fiona Constantine)
Do You Hear the People Sing?

Midsummer Music Programme

Dronfield Civic Hall – Dronfield – Saturday 7th June 2014

Conductor: Robert Webb

Accompanist: Peter Hurst

A selection from Phantom of the Opera Andrew Lloyd Webber

  • Think of Me (Soloist: Anne Bailey)
  • Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again (Soloist: Lorraine Webb)
  • The Music of the Night (Soloist: Michael Willis)
  • The Phantom of the Opera
  • All I Ask of You

A selection from Carmen George Bizet

  • Habanera (Soloist: Anne Bailey)
  • Women’s Fight Scene (Chorus with Jeremy Craven singing the role of Zuniga)
  • The Toreador Song (Soloist: Michael Willis)

A selection from other Opera

  • One Fine Day from Madam Butterfly (Soloist: Mary McCready) Giacomo Puccini
  • Dido’s Lament from Dido and Aeneas (Soloist: Rebecca Lambert) Henry Purcell
  • Polotsvian Dances from Prince Igor (Soloist: Jeremy Craven) Alexander Borodin
  • Easter Hymn from Cavalleria Rusticana (Soloist: Lorraine Webb) Pietro Mascagni

INTERVAL

A selection from West Side Story Leonard Bernstein

  • Tonight
  • I Feel Pretty
  • Make of our Hands (Soloist: Anne Bailey)
  • Maria (Soloist: David Brothers)
  • America

A selection from other Musicals

  • The Hills Are Alive from The Sound of Music (Soloist: Rebecca Lambert) Rogers and Hammerstein
  • Do You Love Me? from Fiddler on the Roof (Soloists: Tom Tomkins & Chris Ayres) Joseph Stein
  • Where is love? from Oliver (Soloist: Fiona Constantine) Lionel Bart
  • Summertime from Porgy and Bess (Soloist: Anne Bailey) George Gershwin
  • Last Night of the World from Miss Saigon (Soloists: Mary McCready & Nigel Rothery) Schönberg
  • So In Love from Kiss Me Kate (Soloist: Chris Ayres) Cole Porter

A selection from Les Miserables Claude-Michel Schönberg

  • At The End of the Day
  • I Dreamed a Dream (Soloists: Fiona Constantine & Jeremy Craven)
  • Stars (Soloist: Nigel Rothery)
  • Do You Hear the People Sing?
  • On My Own (Soloist: Fiona Constantine)
  • Bring Him Home (Soloist: David Brothers)
  • On This Page (Soloists: Jeremy Craven & Fiona Constantine)
  • Do You Hear The People Sing?

Dronfield Programme can also be download as a PDF

 

Sheffield City Opera-Picnic Concert at Wentworth Castle Gardens

Date: Sunday 20th July

Time: 5:30 pm – 8:30 pm

Following the great success of last year’s event, Wentworth Castle Gardens is delighted to welcome back the Chorus and Principals of Sheffield City Opera for another ‘picnic’ concert on the South Lawn.

The programme will include numbers from a number of popular composers whose works have graced both the stages of the West End and Broadway, and the silver screen.

Just like last year, bring along your family and friends for an evening of wonderful musical entertainment – and don’t forget the picnic! Grounds open for picnics from 5.30pm and the performance will begin at 6.30pm.

Ticket prices Adults £12 Children (2 and over) £8

To book: 01226 776040

On line booking will be available shortly. Find out more on the Wentworth Castle Garden Website

Please dress for the weather-the concert will go ahead except under extreme weather conditions. The concert area will not be open until 5.30pm. Normal Garden admission applies if you wish to visit the garden before this time.

Midsummer Music – 12 days away!

Hi everyone!

Only 12 days to go until our first of three Midsummer Music concerts – this one’s going to be at the Civic Hall in Dronfield at 19:30. Ticket orders are already rolling in, and we can’t wait to get out there and entertain the people of Dronfield with highlights of our favourite operas and musicals.

Central to the concert is going to be extracts from our most recent full-length opera performance, which was Carmen by Bizet. We’ll have the terrific Anne Bailey performing the famous Habanera, backed by the whole chorus, singing about the flighty and fickle nature of love – definitely not to be missed.

One of our principals from the performance of Carmen, Rebecca Lambert, will be taking on the role of Dido in the haunting Lament, where she dies of a broken heart after being abandoned by her lover.

Not only will we be hearing opera, but also some favourites from the world of musicals! More love and abandonment from Les Miserables in On My Own and I Dreamed a Dream (sung by yours truly!) and the impassioned Stars, performed by another of our principals from Carmen and other past opera performances, the incomparable Nigel Rothery.

And, as they say, many more besides!

Tickets can be purchased on this very website – or if you can’t make Dronfield, there will be two other similar concerts in Lodge Moor and Swinton within a few weeks.

Looking forward to seeing you there!

Fiona

@scopera
@fionalovesopera

Introducing the Sheffield City Opera board – part 1

Happy weekend to you all – hope you’re having a great time in the sunshine!

A lovely thing to listen to at a time like this is ‘Un bel di vedremo’ (One Fine Day) from Puccini’s opera Madame Butterfly – here below is a terrific version performed by Renee Fleming – . You’ll also be able to hear this at some of our forthcoming concerts performed by one of our members!

So, this blog post is to start to introduce some of the members of the Sheffield City Opera board (in their own words!) – we’re very friendly and would love to hear from you if you’re planning on coming to one of our concerts, looking to join us, interested in what we do or if you’re one of our members with suggestions or comments for us to think about when we’re planning events and programmes.

Barry Dines

Barry
Barry Dines

 

Position on Board – Co-chair and Treasurer

Joined SCO in – 2008

Most memorable moments in SCO – Playing part of the snake in the opening scene of “The Magic Flute” – opera doesn’t much sillier than this – and singing in Carmen for the first time – it’s a great opera with lots of opportunity to sing out and enjoy the experience.

Favourite operas – Carmen and HMS Pinafore

Fiona
Fiona Constantine

Fiona Constantine

 

Position on Board – Social Media / Online Marketing (and writing the blog…hi!)

Joined SCO in – 2014

Most memorable moment in SCO – Singing as part of the chorus in Carmen in the Victoria Methodist Church, and trying not to cry at the end on stage!

Favourite operas – Le Nozze di Figaro and Les Dialogues des Carmelites (if you don’t know it, give it a Google, it’s amazing!)

 

 

In other news, flyers for our concerts in Dronfield, Lodge Moor and Swinton have been printed and they’ll be coming soon to a window, bus stop, poster board or side-of-a-building near you very soon!

That’s all for this week, do give us a follow on Twitter (@scopera) for more updates and to get in touch with us!

Fiona

@scopera
@fionalovesopera