Fulham Opera is now just little over one year old, and this past year we have successfully mounted productions of Das Rheingold, Suor Angelica, Gianni Schicchi, Die Walküre, a second performance of Das Rheingold for the London Wagner Society, and Tosca. These have all been well received, and although we may not have made a fortune from the shows, we are in no way in the red, and we own our own lighting rig. I would like to thank you all for your efforts in making this all happen, and I do hope that, as I am about to outline the plans, you will be interested in continuing the Ring journey to its conclusion.
So, as you are now hopefully aware, we are planning Siegfried to take place on Tuesday, Friday and Sunday the 12th, 15th and 17th February 2013. I am about to start musical rehearsals with the major cast members and all is looking well for that. Those of you not in this show, please do publicise it, and do join us for it.
There had been a plan to then go directly into Götterdämmerung, but, for various reasons, we have now had a rethink of our calendar outline.
Wednesday 22nd May 2013 is Wagner's 200th birthday. This past year for his 199th, we did Walküre and had cake, as you'll recall. This coming year, there is a large event taking place with the Philharmonia at the Royal Festival Hall. We have been invited to be part of this "Wagner 200" festival, in a fascinating and adjunct way, in the afternoon, which will be a wonderful way of publicising our efforts. More about this will be sent to you in the coming days and weeks, as more arrangements between the organisers of the festival and Fiona's ideas come into focus. I would be grateful if you could let me know in principle, if you might be interested in taking part in this day, which will be preceded by at least a couple of days rehearsal at St John's.
Then, we have moved Götterdämmerung to November 2013. This will also enable us to start in darkness. We plan to do the opera twice, though splitting the opera such that we do the Prologue and Act I on Wednesday night, and Acts 2 and 3 on Saturday night. The London Gay Mens Chorus are still very much up for this, and I hope that all of the people who have received notification of casting in this are still interested and available such that the performances will be:
Performance I: Prologue and Act I on 13th, Acts II and II on 16th November
Performance 2: Prologue and Act I on 20th, Acts II and II on 23rd November
Then, as you are also likely aware, we still have the overall goal of producing an entire Ring Cycle. Split over 6 days, such that
Monday: Rheingold
Tuesday: Walküre I and II
Weds: Walküre III and Siegfried I
Thurs: Siegfried II and III
Fri: Götterdämmerung Prologue & I
Sat: Götterdämmerung II and III
The weeks we intend to do this are 10th - 15th February 2014 and 24th February - 1st March 2014.
The only way this will be possible, is if we achieve a fairly significant amount of funding, and as such, you can provisionally pencil these dates into your diary, and associated rehearsal time as professional engagements. If you could kindly let me and the flossywalkure@gmail.com company email know that you are (or are not) up for the remainder of this project, and things can start coming to fruition. It's obviously going to take an enormous amount of organisation!!
Many thanks again to you all for your hard work this past year, and for your splendid performances. Onwards and upwards.
All very best,
Ben Woodward
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