Newsletters


July 2007 Newsletter

Everybody needs friends - especially Lakeland Opera

The patrons and friends support scheme is vitally important in fulfilling our dual aims of bringing professional fully staged opera productions to Cumbria and our commitment to introducing young people to this art form through our extensive school workshops programme.

Our next major production of Cavalleria Rusticana and Pagliacci is scheduled to tour Cumbria in November 2007. The superb partnership of musical direction under David Sutton and artistic direction by Yvonne Fontane guarantees that this will be a cultural highlight of the year.

In addition to the professional cast of singers, for the first time we will have a fully professional orchestra. Not only will this enhance and enrich the production, it will add substantially to its costs and, as this year we have no grant from the lottery as their funding is spoken for elsewhere, we desperately need more Patrons and Friends. Please join us.

As a Patron or Friend you will have access to advance booking for the best seats at each venue and will be named in the programme. More importantly, you will have an inner glow from knowing that your support is enabling full-scale professional opera to reach parts of the United Kingdom which would otherwise be barren.

To begin or renew your support, please email us for further details. Patrons are asked to subscribe £25 and Friends £10. If you are a tax payer, we offer a gift aid declaration that will enable us to claim an additional 28% in tax back from the Inland Revenue.

Many thanks; we look forward to welcoming you as a Patron or Friend.

On behalf of the Lakeland Opera team.


September 2005 Newsletter

Dear Patrons, Friends and Supporters,

Since we last wrote to you we have been very busy; organising fund raisers like the Last Night of the Proms at Keswick and running the school workshops at 16 schools throughout the county. The proms night was, as usual, a sell-out and hugely enjoyable.  The workshops were very successful and were received very well by both students and staff.  To many of the children attending this was the first time they had listened to opera.

Following Lakeland Opera’s widely acclaimed production of La Traviata in 2003; plans are well underway for the next project, a fully staged production of Bizet’s Carmen in November.  This is surely one of the most famous and best-loved of all operas, full of wonderful melodies such as the “Toreador Song”, the “Flower Song” and the “Habanera”. It has moments of great drama as well as love and tenderness.

Carmen will be performed by a company of around 45, including a children’s choir (often a young singer’s first introduction to singing opera), a chorus of around 25 voices and 10 principal roles.  The four main roles are to be sung by professional singers.  There is to be a full orchestra of about 40 players.

The role of Carmen will be sung by Kathryn Hannah.  Her recent roles include Giannetta in L’Elisir D’Amore for Opera Holland Park and in their 2004 season she sang Laura in Luisa Miller as well as chorus in Le Nozze di Figaro.  She was also part of the chorus for Fidelio, Tosca and L’Arlesiana in 2003.

Robert Millner will take the role of Don Jose, a role that he also sang for Garden Opera last year.  Also in 2004 he has sung Nemorino in L’Elisir d’Amore for Northern Opera and Ernesto in Don Pasquale for European Chamber Opera.

We are honoured to have Yvonne Fontane, who is a singer as well as a director, to direct.  She had superb revues when she both directed and took the lead role in Carmen for Stowe Opera last year.

There are to be five performances; the opening night at Kendal Leisure centre on Friday 4^th November, The Coronation Hall, Ulverston on Saturday 5^th November, followed by three nights at the Theatre by the Lake, Keswick on 9^th, 11^th and 12^th November.

The cost of a major production is high with only approximately 60% of the cost raised from ticket sales; the rest has to be found by sponsorship and fundraising in line with our aim to make opera accessible to all.  We have been successful in our bid for funding from Northern Arts, vital to us if we are to stage a huge production like Carmen.  We have also had sponsorship for our workshops through several local Neighbourhood Forum Schemes.

We look forward to seeing you at Carmen.

Best wishes from the Lakeland Opera team.



January 2005 Newsletter

Dear Patrons, Friends and Supporters,

Lakeland Opera would like to take this opportunity to thank you all for your support in enabling us to make our production of La Traviata such a success. We were very pleased with our ticket sales and were especially thrilled that Keswick Theatre was filled to capacity on the two nights we performed there. A strong cast with exceptionally good principals earned us excellent reviews.  We do hope you enjoyed it whichever venue you chose to attend. And now we would like to tell you that we have made the big decision, namely which opera we will present in November, 2005.

We are delighted to announce that we are to perform Bizet’s Carmen. Carmen is one of the mainstays of the operatic repertoire and is popular with audiences all over the world.  The opera is set in and around Seville in the 1820s and was first performed in Paris in 1875.  According to one survey, the Toreador’s Song is the most widely known piece from any work of music theatre (followed closely by the Triumphal March from Aida).

We will be holding auditions in late spring, 2005 and are looking forward to hearing the wonderfully talented singers that we always attract to these events.  We have been lucky as a company to build up several long lasting relationships with our past performers and many keep in touch with us to find out our future plans and to tell us of their successes since last singing for us.  Many have returned to sing for Lakeland Opera at fund raising events.

Here is a résume of some of their roles since you last heard them:-

Lurelle Alefounder, (Violetta, La Traviata) – Norina - Don Pasquale, Manila.

Martin Lamb, (Baron Douphol, La Traviata) – the Don -  Don Pasquale, Manila - Falstaff, The Merry Wives of Windsor and work for Grange Park Opera. Now on the concert platform at Buxton and for the International Gilbert & Sullivan Festival.

Sarah Estill, (Liu, Turandot) – Opera North, lead roles for Madame Butterfly, Merry Widow and Die Fledermaus with Randazzo Opera, Pagliacci for English Pocket Opera and Carmen, Stowe Opera.

Alex Grove, (Turandot) – Touring with the Opera Group, studying in Switzerland with Nicolai Gedda, currently performing Remendado in Carmen at Stowe Opera. Going to tour with Mid Wales Opera performing Borsa in Rigoletto.

Julian Close (Turandot) - Scottish Opera, English National Opera and Welsh National Opera.

Hugh Francis (Turandot) - Young Artists Programme at Royal Opera House.

Angela Fuller (Turandot & Eugene Onegin) - Royal Opera House and currently in Bayreuth singing at the Wagner Festival.

Nick  Rawnsley (Eugene Onegin) – Flashmob - The Opera (lead role) performed at Paddington Station as seen on T.V.

And, speaking of long lasting relationships, Lakeland Opera introduced local Nick Chambers, a.k.a. the Prince of Persia, (Turandot), to his “Miss Right”, Sam Wright in fact, ( Turandot ) and this year they have married and produced their own little opera babe, Millie.

In August, as part of our fundraising events, we held a very successful “Last Night of the Proms” at   The Theatre by the Lake, Keswick.  A full house heard a stirring performance from the Barrow Shipyard Brass Band with Sean Rea as soloist.  Also, we are to present another gala evening of opera excerpts at Dunthwaite House on Saturday May 21^st 2005 when we will hope for good weather for your picnic in the lovely gardens.

We would also like to take this opportunity to invite anyone among you who would like to become involved in the production of Carmen or any aspect of the organisation of Lakeland Opera to join us.  All kinds of skills are needed in the build up of producing an opera as well as on the nights of the performances.  If you have time to spare, your assistance would be very welcome.  We can be contacted at the address on the Contact Us page of this website.

We do hope that you will give us your support for Carmen; the venues and dates are printed below.

Best wishes for 2005.

From all the team at Lakeland Opera