That's all folks....

So the season drew to a triumphant close with the final performance of the brilliant production of Rigoletto and I feel that all future productions, anywhere, must be forced to do the ending in the way that Lindsay Posner staged it. No arguments. Verdi got it wrong. Not that everybody agrees of course. I had a long letter yesterday from a patron who was outraged that we had "updated" (his quote marks) the opera and had subverted the composer's original intentions. I am not sure that there is a record of Verdi demanding a particular kind of production but I pointed out that the opera was written 160 years ago and the play on which it is based twenty years earlier. The correspondent did, however, think the musical standards to be very good indeed. I consider it my duty to convert patrons from having this one dimensional view of how we should produce opera. I find it hard to imagine that they would want to see essentially the same production of Rigoletto every time but it would appear so.

It has been another amazing season; one that took all the twists and turns that we have come to expect and in the early part of the summer, one that was very much a struggle. As ever, the company pulled through. An average of 98% houses is testament to the magnificent support we get from patrons and now it is on to the next two...news on 2013 soon we hope.

There is a small film festival taking place this weekend and features "Some like it hot", "Cinema Paradiso" and a new film being given a special gala screening' "First Night" which tells the story of a group of amateurs creating a production of Cosi. You can get details on our website.

Open Day

Shirt post just to say that the Open Day yesterday was a brilliant success, even with intermittent monsoon rain. Loads of people gave up their Sunday to help. Highlights; minute maestro and the chance fir lots of people to realise their dream of conducting an orchestra. The CLS nightmare of me conducting them was realised too. They have never sounded so good though... ;-)
And the scratch chorus who sang Va Pensiero was absolutely magnificent.

Spoilers...shut up!

And so the great mystery is solved; how would we do the avalanche? Rarely has an element of an opera so pre-occupied a nation! It is worth pointing out that the story is, in fact, that Wally sees the avalanche and throws herself to her death. Does the opera even call for an avalanche?

It has been a bit disappointing to see the closing element of the show revealed in some reviews because its effect at the dress, when nobody knew what would happen was dramatic on those who saw it. But that is a common theme these days; in Rigoletto, the reimagined ending has been given away several times. On that I am stridently with the director, Lindsay Posner, to such a degree that I think Verdi made a ricket of it. A genuine, if rare, case of the stage director knowing better than the composer (ooh, controversial).

As for La Wally, I think there is immense beauty at times in the production and it draws one in- spellbindingly at times.

One almost universal aspect has been approval for the opera's gorgeous score. Perhaps a reappraisal of it as a one aria opera is about to occur? Richard Morrison said in The Times that the Act four prelude is "as haunting as Mahler's First Symphony" which is praise indeed. Of course, we have been saying this sort of thing about these operas for years and it is good to see credible voices raised in acceptance of this fact. For too long, it has been as if people cannot really bring themselves to accept that there is a whole school of neglected operas that actually do feature some quite breathtaking music. If it is neglected, then there must be a good reason for it, right? Well no actually. It is usually because opera house managements all around the world are simply not inventive, knowledgeable or imaginative enough. One thing is for absolutely sure, there is an enormous appetite for it, as has been proven by our selling out La Wally and pretty much every other opera in this vein over the years. Still, why mine the repertoire of the past 100 years when you can spunk a few hundred grand on another new opera by a pop star? There was a piece in the Guardian today (a decent one, too) by a composer who wonders whether opera singers can sing pop? Why? Because he wants to write an opera and is not sure that opera singers can sing his kind of music. Write a bloody musical then and get Alfie Boe to sing it!

Still, you can always rely on us at OHP....

Holiday to Kefalonia booked. I am already worried I might hate it.

An avalanche of interest

With the opening of La Wally tonight, the question occupying everybody it seems is "how will they do the avalanche?" I have never been asked a question more often. However, whilst I am not giving anything away, I am happy to report that this is one hell of a score; inventive, never standing still, never stagnating, rich, sumptuous and oh so Wagnerian at times but at others gorgeously Italian. Anybody coming to see it should pay very close attention to the orchestra. That isn't to say that the cast don't sing up a storm, because they do, but it is a total experience that goes way, way beyond the famous aria. There are some very beautiful visuals too..

It is always exciting opening one of our rarities because there is such a great sense of discovery among the audience. Invariably, there is a period of contemplative unfamiliarity but as is so often the case, the brew begins to bubble and the music works it's magic. Can't wait.

Oh dear ACE

Interesting news from the Arts Coucil that 66 applications for funding in the March round were the victims of computer error when documents that formed part of the applications were not uploaded to the assessors. Some of you may recall that back then I mentioned that I believed we had suffered such an error although I don't know if we are included in the 66.
My suspicion is that 66 is a hell of a lot more than that.

To recap, we had applied for funding of our growing and brilliant Inspire Project. The ACE have five core criteria of which applicants should meet at least two. At worst, we met four of the five and at best, all of them. Because of the success of the project and because of plenty of match funding from donors, we felt it had a strong chance. When the assessor's report refusing the application arrived I was pretty flabbergasted to find that a great many of the reasons given for refusing the funding were attached to what were called "failures to provide information". This missing information included things like feedback, evidence of participation, of service user profiles etc.

Stunned, I called the assessor and expressed my surprise that she had obviously missed the very substantial annual report for the project that I had included with our application and which featured the data she required and much more besides. After a moment of perplexed silence (I swear I could hear her gulp) at the other end of the phone, she said she would call me back. Some time passed and she telephoned to insist that the document had not been uploaded. She added that in any case, it wouldn't have made a difference. I commented that having said the missing information was the reason for refusal, I found it surprising that HAD it been provided, we would still have been refused!

And that was that.

The news this morning will no doubt stir up much protest and the general approach from the ACE appears to be that none of this missing data would make any difference. A truly breathtaking statement in the circumstances.

One good thing comes out of it - my colleagues who probably thought I had mucked up the application can think again!