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The Chairman's Report: Year end July 2010 |
On Saturday 24th October at Branksome Place we presented an evening entitled “Sing a Song of Empire” and “Trafalgar Night”. Our own Tom Higgins played the piano accompaniment with aplomb and Richard Fawkes assisted in directing the evening. Lisa Swayne, soprano, and Duncan Rock, baritone, both gave impressive performances of songs largely from 1850 - 1920. Pride of place was given to “Fringes of the Fleet” - a short song recital composed by Sir Edward Elgar towards the end of the First World War. Tom Higgins had just completed the first professional recording of the song cycle since Elgar’s own in 1917. (The compact disc by Tom which features the Guildford Philharmonic Orchestra can be purchased from all good classical music shops.) Our ever popular New Year party had to be postponed on 8th January because of adverse weather conditions. Happily the artists and almost all of the audience could attend the new date at the end of January. Olivia Ray, Philip O’Brien and Dominic Barrand, all soloists in La Périchole, both sang and acted with such distinction that many were persuaded there and then to go to our main production later in February. Nigel Foster accompanied on the piano to his customary high standard. The Georgian House Hotel did us proud with the canapés before the concert and with the meal afterwards. On 17th January, Tom Higgins ably supported by Michael Hartnall and Guy Davenport, presented an excellent introduction to Offenbach and La Périchole at the Millenium Hall in Liphook. Those attending also enjoyed a tasty afternoon tea. Our production of La Périchole by Offenbach proved to be a triumph. All our principals not only sang well but acted their parts so well. The stage direction provided by Ian Gledhill was first rate. We were very pleased to welcome back our Artistic Director John Braithwaite following his sabbatical. As always he pulled together both an attractive and excellent set this time for Lima of the early 19th century. Tom Higgins’ music direction was to his usual high standard with all of the chorus, the principals and the professional Guildford Philharmonic Orchestra. Nicholas Westcott-White was our most able stage manager well assisted by Jennie Hill as Deputy Stage Manager. Paul Ives did trojan work in producing another superb souvenir programme. This is important being the company’s ‘flagship’ document. This light hearted operetta was much enjoyed by all who took part, and of course our audience. About 1,000 came to see the show plus some 260 children who came to our Thursday afternoon matinee. The matinee gave our covers the opportunity to sing an abridged version of the show. We are grateful to Ian Gledhill for directing and Tom Higgins for conducting the matinee and also our hard working chorus and Production Manager for supporting the matinee. I often fear that the matinee might last too long for children, but there is no doubt that they thoroughly enjoy seeing a fully staged production coupled with an explanation of what is going on. Our practice of opening the curtains when at least one of the set change takes place is always a ‘hit’. On 20th June and by kind invitation of Mr and Mrs Andrew Robertson, we presented an afternoon’s entertainment at Rumbolds Barn, Plaistow. The international tenor, Ryland Davies, assisted by students from the Royal Academy of Music, demonstrated how opera scenes are worked on in rehearsal. Scenes were taken from the Marriage of Figaro by Mozart, L’Amico Fritz by Mascagni and the Barber of Seville by Rossini. A capacity audience was enthralled as Ryland Davies took the students through the scenes. After tea, the scenes were performed by the soloists, Iris Korfker soprano, Belinda Williams mezzo-soprano, Laurence Meikle baritone and Roberto Ortiz tenor, all accompanied most skilfully on the piano by Yu Su. Ticket sales for La Périchole were higher than for the previous year. Our additional events were more profitable. All the same, it was a challenging year financially because one of the grant making trusts which has supported us has now been wound-up. This contributed to a decline in donations of some £10,000. We are working on seeking further grants and other donations. The company will not otherwise be able to maintain the high quality of its productions, which is so fundamental to the operation of Opera South. This last year we welcomed Anjie Swayne to the committee as our new Production Manager for La Périchole. This is a demanding but essential role. We are grateful to her for the efficiency and enthusiasm which she has brought to the task, and indeed for continuing in the same role for our next production. She joins David Swayne on the committee who is our hard working Finance Director. At the beginning of the year, Dennis Drysdale stood down both as minute secretary to the main committee and as chairman of the Operations Committee for health reasons. He had a distinguished career both in running education services for local authorities and subsequently as a justice of the peace. He brought his skills to bear in chairing the Operations Committee. He went into hospital in July 2010 and it was a great shock to us all when he died 5 days after an apparently successful operation. We all have fond memories of Dennis and are grateful to him for the calm and patient work which he carried out for the company for more than 6 years. Our condolences to his wife, Mary. This last year also saw the sudden death of our President, Philip Langridge, who died on 5th March 2010 aged 70 following a short illness. During his career as an international tenor, he sang in most of the major opera houses. He was made a CBE in 1994 for his services to music. He was a regular visitor to our main productions. He served as our President from 2005 until 2010. We offer our ondolences to his wife Anne Murray, one of our vice presidents Michael Hartnall stood down as a trustee and as chairman of the music panel in March 2010. He has played a vital role for the company for a period of over 7 years. Each year he has meticulously researched operas and operetta which may be suitable for performance by the company and its principals. This is a demanding task. There must be enough chorus but not too much, and, the mix of principals must be sensible for putting on a show at an economic cost. The production must also have sufficient box office appeal without being one of the main stream operas which can be seen on a regular basis in many of the major houses. Further, auditions for our principals is a surprisingly time consuming activity leading up to perhaps 3 or 4 days of auditions. Exasperatingly there may then still be a role to fill. I am most grateful to Michael for his hard work and expertise. The company is fortunate to have Michael Letchford as the new chair of the audition panel. He has already worked with us on the panel for some 3 years. After La Périchole Jamie Jack retired as our Front of House Manager. For some 6 years he has discharged this role for our productions at the Haslemere Hall with undinted enthusiasm and very properly with an eye for health and safety. Thank you Jamie for your hard and essential work. We are delighted to welcome back Vanessa Blaber to succeed Jamie. For many a long year she was our Production Manager before stepping down in March 2009. In April 2010, Michael Barnes stood down from the Operations Committee. He has worked for Opera South for some 10 years, bringing his business skills to the company. He proved to be second to none for in selling advertising to boost the company’s income, and he has always been successful at bringing in an audience for our additional events many of which he helped to plan. I am grateful to him for the good effective work which he put in on behalf of the company over so many years. In May, Bertie and Rosemary Mawer nobly ran a stall for Opera South in Haslemere High Street as part of the biennial Charter Fair. Guy Davenport helped set up the DVD display with brief extracts from La Périchole. We are all grateful to Ian Hudson for his excellent work over the years as our web master. We also now welcome Jane Larkin who has done sterling work on further design. You can now even see clips from La Périchole on our website. A welcome too to Robert Weir who brings his business skills to Opera South, and is assisting us with grant applications. Robert comes from the Canadian West. His banking and marketing career took him to Tokyo and then London and Edinburgh, and more recently Haslemere. He is a firm believer in the performing arts, although relatively new to Opera. We look forward to working with him. Isobel Rooth has kindly taken the minutes for our committee meetings over the last 18 months but now stands down from that role. This is one of the less glamorous but nonetheless important roles in the running the company. My thanks to her for her good work. We still have our excellent office at Branksome Place in Haslemere. We are grateful to DeVere Venues for the generous terms on which they allow us the use of the office. I also thank chorus members Denise Miles as office manager and Rosemary Mawer as membership secretary and other Operations Committee members for all their hard work in the office. It is a challenge for all of us both running and managing a semi-professional opera company and inevitably opera itself is always a financial challenge. There are so many aspects to a successful production, which also means that there is plenty that it is capable of going wrong. It is a tribute to the music, artistic and production side that such high standards have been achieved. It is also no less of a tribute to all the vital background work which has been and continues to be done by members of the Operations Committee, many of whom do not have the pleasure of taking part in the production itself. It would be all but impossible for the Company to function without an effective Operations Committee. We are accordingly grateful to all of them, and in particular to Carolann Martys who took over as Chairman of that committee last September. It is a strength of Opera South that so many people from so many varied backgrounds volunteer their time and expertise for the company. It is important that we all work together as a good team, whatever our contribution, in the best interests of Opera South. My thanks to you all for the hard work which you are already doing. I look forward to seeing you at our forthcoming events, to include the Tsar and the Carpenter next February in the Haslemere Hall. Anthony Ramsden, Chairman.September 2010 
La Périchole 2010: Anthony Ramsden can be seen front right.
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