Surrey Opera

Surrey Opera is a semi-professional English opera company based in Croydon, providing opera in Surrey, Sussex and Kent. The company offers opportunity to emerging professional opera singers, providing the opportunity to work with professional directors, musicians, designers and the Surrey Opera Chorus. Alumni of Surrey Opera include known singers Peter Sidhom, Russell Smythe, Susan Gritton and David Soar. While opera forms the majority of its repertoire, the company also performs operettas, musicals and soirées.

The company premiered the rediscovered Samuel Coleridge-Taylor opera Thelma in 2012,[1][2][3][4][5][6][7] and in 2017 staged the world premiere of The Life To Come,[8][9] by Louis Mander and Stephen Fry.

Company history

Surrey Opera was founded by the late Joyce Hooper MBE in 1969. The company's first production was Mozart's The Magic Flute, performed in the Market Hall, Redhill, Surrey in June 1970. Over the years, productions of all Mozart's major operas followed, as well works by other composers. In 1976, conductor Jonathan Butcher took over as Artistic Director, and has been at the helm ever since.

Surrey Opera have gained a reputation for staging new or re-discovered operas such as the world premiere of Thelma by Samuel Coleridge-Taylor and Iernin by George Lloyd, not staged since its premiere in 1934. Their second world premiere production, The Life to Come was staged in September 2017. Composed by Louis Mander to libretto by Stephen Fry, it was based on E.M.Forster's short story "The Life to Come".

Their third world premiere production, Madeleine, was commissioned by Surrey Opera for its 50th anniversary in 2020 from composer David Hackbridge Johnson, based on the true story of Madeleine Smith. Its performance was delayed until 2021 because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

They performed, in May 2023, the UK premiere of Sense & Sensibility, the Musical (book and lyrics by Jeffrey Haddow and music by Neal Hampton), based on the novel Sense_and_Sensibility by Jane_Austen.

In 2016 Surrey Opera performed for the Prince Of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall at Minack Theatre in Cornwall.

Past productions
Year -
2023 Sense & Sensibility, The Musical - UK Premiere
2022 Don_Giovanni
2021 Madeleine - World Premiere
2019 The Barber of Seville
2018 Candide
2017 The Life to Come - World Premiere
2016 A Midsummer Night's Dream[10][11]
2015 Camelot
2014 Tosca
2013 Iernin
2012 Thelma - World Premiere, Die Fledermaus
2011 The Gondoliers, Albert Herring
2010 My Fair Lady;[12] The Bartered Bride
2009 The Barber of Seville; Madam Butterfly[13]
2008 The Merry Wives of Windsor
2007 The Marriage of Figaro; The Mikado
2006 The Beggar's Opera; A Masked Ball
2005 The Abduction from the Seraglio; Peter Grimes
2004 The Magic Flute; Fiddler on the Roof
2003 Macbeth; The Cunning Little Vixen
2002 The Pearl Fishers; Orpheus in the Underworld
2001 La traviata; La bohème
2000 Carmen
1999 Tosca; L'elisir d'amore
1998 Sweeney Todd; Cavalleria rusticana; Pagliacci
1997 The Flying Dutchman; Aida
1996 The Yeomen of the Guard; The Magic Flute
1995 Cavalleria rusticana; Pagliacci; Don Giovanni
1994 The Marriage of Figaro, Turandot
1993 Hansel and Gretel; Faust
1992 Hansel and Gretel; Die Fledermaus
1991 Così fan tutte; Nabucco
1990 Eugene Onegin; Madam Butterfly
1989 La traviata
1988 Falstaff; The Barber of Seville
1987 The Magic Flute; The Turn of the Screw
1986 Amahl and the Night Visitors; The Zoo; La bohème
1985 Don Giovanni
1984 Peter Grimes
1983 Carmen
1982 Fidelio
1981 The Marriage of Figaro; Dido and Aeneas; Noye's Fludde
1980 The Barber of Seville
1979 Idomeneo
1978 Carmen
1977 The Magic Flute
1976 La clemenza di Tito
1975 The Abduction from the Seraglio
1974 Fidelio
1973 Don Giovanni
1972 Così fan tutte
1971 The Marriage of Figaro
1970 The Magic Flute

Notes and references
  1. Allison, John (April 2012). "Thelma, Surrey Opera at the Ashcroft Theatre, Croydon, February 11". Opera. Cabbell Publishing Ltd. 63 (4): 470–1.
  2. Butcher, Jonathan (February 2012). "Meeting 'Thelma'". Opera. Cabbell Publishing Ltd. 63 (2): 142–146.
  3. Picard, Anna. "The Tales of Hoffmann, Coliseum, London Thelma, Ashcroft Theatre, Croydon London Sinfonietta, Queen Elizabeth Hall, London". The Independent. Archived from the original on 25 May 2022. Retrieved 5 September 2017.
  4. Maddocks, Fiona. "The Tales of Hoffmann; Thelma; Nash Ensemble – review". The Observer. Retrieved 5 September 2017.
  5. Clements, Andrew. "Thelma - review". The Guardian. Retrieved 5 September 2017.
  6. Hall, George. "Thelma review at Ashcroft Croydon". The Stage. Retrieved 5 September 2017.
  7. Service, Tom (7 February 2012). "Thelma: an opera world premiere". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2 September 2017.
  8. White, Michael (September 2017). "Coming to Life". Opera Now. Rhinegold Publishing Ltd.: 51.
  9. "Surrey Opera to perform world premiere of Fry's latest work". Inside Croydon. 28 July 2017. Retrieved 2 September 2017.
  10. "A Midsummer Night's Dream - Review". Minack Theatre. Retrieved 2 September 2017.
  11. Mortimer, Owen (21 April 2016). "Surrey Opera celebrates Shakespeare's anniversary". Opera Now: Rhinegold Publishing Ltd.
  12. Ames, Simon (23 February 2010). "Review: My Fair Lady presented by Surrey Opera at The Harlequin, Redhill". Surrey Mirror.
  13. Ames, Simon (18 February 2009). "Review: Surrey Opera presents Madama Butterfly". Surrey Mirror.
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