New Opera Company

Last updated

The New Opera Company was a British opera company active during the period 1956 to 1984. It was mainly based at Sadler's Wells Theatre, London and later worked in co-ordination with English National Opera. The company was responsible for the premieres or major revivals of important work in the operatic canon. [1]

Contents

History

The Cambridge university opera company was formed in 1956 and the following year became the New Opera Company. [2] The founders of the company were the conductor Leon Lovett, the administrator Peter Hemmings and musicologist Brian Trowell. [1] Its inaugural productions were welcomed with enthusiasm by London critics; Andrew Porter praised the conducting of Lovett and Trowell's production of The Rake's Progress while in A Tale of Two Cities Lovett was described as a "born conductor of opera", Besch's production was commended in the "spirited and effective performance". [3] From 1957 to 1967 there was a close association between the New Opera Company and Sadler's Wells Opera with costume and scenery loans, assistance with technical equipment, and the engagement of singers. [4]

In the early 1970s the Arts Council considerably increased its grant, and the Greater London Council also gave funding. [4] In 1971 Charles Mackerras and Anthony Besch joined the artistic council of the New Opera Company. [5]

In 1973 Anthony Besch was the Director of Productions. By that year the company had produced 34 works, of which 13 were world premieres and 12 were British premieres; works by 12 British composers were among those performed. [4] Although mainly based in London it gave a few independent productions elsewhere. [1] Small-scale music theatre productions included Time Off? Not a Ghost of a Chance! (Elizabeth Lutyens), Dawnpath (Nicola LeFanu), A Full Moon in March (John Harbison) and Inner Voices (Brian Howard). [6]

In 1973 the ENO association was renewed and Edmund Tracey, Drama and Text director of Sadler's Wells Opera, joined the New Opera Company board, with Jeremy Caulton, assistant to Lord Harewood becoming general manager of the company. [4] After collaborating with English National Opera for several years, their only association of a planned series with Opera North was in October 1984 in Leeds, with a run in London. [6]

The withdrawal of Arts Council funding was announced as part of the report 'The Glory of the Garden' and the company ceased operation after 1984. [6] Grove comments that its "service to London opera in introducing new works, mostly in highly effective performances, was unparalleled". [1]

Repertory

Within its repertoire the company performed many rare operas: [1]

Related Research Articles

English National Opera Opera company based in London

English National Opera (ENO) is an opera company based in London, resident at the London Coliseum in St Martin's Lane. It is one of the two principal opera companies in London, along with The Royal Opera, Covent Garden. ENO's productions are sung in English.

Welsh National Opera (WNO) is an opera company based in Cardiff, Wales; it gave its first performances in 1946. It began as a mainly amateur body and transformed into an all-professional ensemble by 1973. In its early days the company gave a single week's annual season in Cardiff, gradually extending its schedule to become an all-year-round operation, with its own salaried chorus and orchestra. It has been described by The New York Times as "one of the finest operatic ensembles in Europe".

John Lanchbery Australian composer

John Arthur Lanchbery OBE was an English-Australian composer and conductor, famous for his ballet arrangements. He served as the Principal Conductor of the Royal Ballet from 1959 to 1972, Principal Conductor of the Australian Ballet from 1972 to 1977, and Musical Director of the American Ballet Theatre from 1978 to 1980. Although he resigned from the position of Principal Conductor of the Royal Ballet in 1972, he continued to conduct regularly for the Company until 2001.

The Royal Ballet Ballet company in the United Kingdom

The Royal Ballet is an internationally renowned classical ballet company, based at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden, London, England. The largest of the five major ballet companies in Great Britain, the Royal Ballet was founded in 1931 by Dame Ninette de Valois, it became the resident ballet company of the Royal Opera House in 1946 and was granted a royal charter in 1956, becoming recognised as Britain's flagship ballet company.

Sir Alexander Drummond Gibson was a Scottish conductor and opera intendant. He was also well known for his service to the BBC and his achievements during his reign as the longest serving principal conductor of the Royal Scottish National Orchestra in which the orchestra was awarded its Royal Patronage

John Cranko South African choreographer

John Cyril Cranko was a South African ballet dancer and choreographer with the Royal Ballet and the Stuttgart Ballet.

Carl Rosa Opera Company

The Carl Rosa Opera Company was founded in 1873 by Carl Rosa, a German-born musical impresario, to present opera in English in London and the British provinces. The company premiered many operas in the UK, employing a mix of established opera stars and young singers, reaching new opera audiences with popularly priced tickets. It survived Rosa's death in 1889, and continued to present opera in English on tour until 1960, when it was obliged to close for lack of funds. The company was revived in 1997, presenting mostly lighter operatic works including those by Gilbert and Sullivan. The company "was arguably the most influential opera company ever in the UK".

The English Opera Group was a small company of British musicians formed in 1947 by the composer Benjamin Britten for the purpose of presenting his and other, primarily British, composers' operatic works. The group later expanded to present larger-scale works, and was renamed the English Music Theatre Company. The organisation produced its last opera and ceased to run in 1980.

Opéra national du Rhin

The Opéra national du Rhin is an opera company which performs in Alsace, eastern France, and which includes the Opéra in Strasbourg, in Mulhouse where the "Ballet de l'Opéra national du Rhin" is based, a national center for choreography since 1985), and in Colmar with its "Opéra Studio", a training center for young singers. A reflection of its importance is the status of “national opera” which it has held since 1997.

Kent Opera was a British opera company in the period 1969-1989. Based in Ashford, England the Company presented its productions in several centres mainly in the southern part of England. These included The Orchard Theatre, Dartford, the Assembly Halls, Tunbridge Wells, Marlowe Theatre, Canterbury, Kings Theatre, Southsea, Theatre Royal Norwich, the Derngate, Northampton. Operas were performed in English usually with new translations of the libretto, mainly by professor Michael Irwin but also by both Norman Platt and Anne Riddler. The orchestra was at first the Midland Sinfonia, though after two years the company employed its own orchestra.

Donald Robin Smith is an Australian operatic tenor who is known professionally as Robin Donald. He is the son of the Australian operatic tenor Donald Smith.

Edith Coates OBE was an English operatic mezzo-soprano. A highly gifted actress with a striking stage presence, Coates initially found success in larger dramatic roles before transitioning into portraying mainly character parts in the 1950s. She began her career with Lilian Baylis's opera company at the Old Vic in 1924. She stayed with the company when it moved to the Sadler's Wells Theatre and remained with them up to 1946. Coates career was put on hold while the London stages were closed during World War II. There is no doubt that the war limited her career as it occurred during her prime singing years; though she was also said not to have been excessively ambitious. In 1947 Coates joined the Royal Opera, London where she remained until her retirement from the stage in 1967.

Ashley Lawrence (musician)

Ashley Macdonald Lawrence, was a New Zealand conductor mainly active in the UK and Germany, and particularly associated with ballet.

Alexander Faris

Samuel Alexander "Sandy" Faris was a Northern Irish composer, conductor and writer, known for his television theme tunes, including the theme music for the 1970s TV series Upstairs, Downstairs. He composed and recorded many operas and musicals, and also composed film scores and orchestral works. As a conductor, he was especially known for his revivals of Jacques Offenbach and Gilbert and Sullivan operettas.

Opera North is an opera company based at the Grand Theatre, Leeds. This article covers the period between the severing of its ties with English National Opera and the departure of its founding music director David Lloyd-Jones.

John Fryatt

John James Fryatt was an English actor and opera singer best known for his performance in comic character roles.

Dennis Arundell English actor

Dennis Drew Arundell OBE was a British actor, librettist, opera scholar, translator, producer, director, conductor and composer of incidental music.

Charles Montague Corri was an English musician, conductor and arranger. He spent most of his career working for Lilian Baylis, as her musical director at the Old Vic Theatre, and then at Sadler's Wells Opera.

Norman Tucker

Norman Walter Gwynn Tucker was an English musician, administrator and translator. Trained as a concert pianist, he was invited to join Sadler's Wells Opera in 1947 in an administrative role, and from 1948 to 1966 he was the managerial head of the company.

Anthony John Elwyn Besch was an English opera and theatre director. As a young man he worked at Glyndebourne assisting the directors Carl Ebert and Günther Rennert. His first work as an opera director was for Welsh National Opera in 1954. Among other British companies with whom he worked were Opera North, D'Oyly Carte, The Royal Opera, the Aldeburgh Festival and Garsington Opera. He was most closely associated with English National Opera, Scottish Opera, and the New Opera Company.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Hume, Robert D, Jacobs, Arthur. "London, §II: Institutions, 1: Companies, K–N". In: The New Grove Dictionary of Opera . London & New York, Macmillan, 1997.
  2. Obituary for Peter Hemmings. The Daily Telegraph , 5 January 2002.
  3. Porter, Andrew. "New Opera Company at Sadler's Wells : A Tale of Two Cities and The Rake's Progress". Opera , vol. 8, no. 9, September 1957, pp. 586–593.
  4. 1 2 3 4 "In the News", Opera . March 1973, p. 202.
  5. "Szymanowski's King Roger". Opera . May 1975, p. 428.
  6. 1 2 3 Company description. Programme for Johnny Strikes Up , Sadler's Wells Theatre, London, 1984.