A teaser from Act 1 - Recorded at the Vernon Ellis concert on Monday 8th June

I wish I had some clever excuse for offering only a small 'snippet' of the Act 1 trio with Eisenstein, Adele and Rosalinda but I am afraid it is nothing more exciting than running out of room on the memory card.

This was recorded at the Vernon Ellis concert on Monday 8th June. Once again I admit my bias but Sarah Redgwick is singing the role of Rosalinda beautifully. Sarah, a Guildhall Gold Medal winner, has made her reputation singing Marzelline, Susanna, Zerlina for Scottish Opera, Opera Holland Park, Clonter Opera, Welsh National Opera etc and has recently started singing Violetta for Scottish Opera and Opera de Bauge. Many singers reach a point in their careers where they have to change repertoire as their voices develop and grow. This is such a case. What makes us so happy is the fact that Sarah still performs with the joie de vivre of a Soubrette but with the voice of a Diva. I think this is evident in the clip attached.

Charne Rochford has been a revelation to Madeleine and me. His biography is impressive. He sang First Armed Man at Glyndebourne and for English Touring Opera and sang the 1st Priest in Kenneth Branagh's film of the Magic Flute but his strong assumption of the role of Eisenstein with a voice that matches his dramatic resolve is wonderful to see...and hear. Only a small clip here so you will have to come to one of our performances if you wish to hear more of this exciting young tenor.

Ana James is, to me, the perfect Adele but I think I have already made my feelings about this exceptional soprano clear in the previous post. Unfortunately you don't get to hear much of her in this clip. :( I really should get a larger memory card.

Introducing our lovely Adele, Miss Ana James

Rehearsals are in full swing and the cast are working hard to make our performances as good as they possibly can. Ana James was cast relatively late. Our original choice had a clash with the Buxton Festival so we reluctantly agreed that we had to find a new Adele. Luckily we were told about this beautiful soprano from New Zealand with the gorgeous voice and magnetic stage presence. A few days later Ana came, sang for Madeleine and was promptly engaged on the spot.

We have been incredibly lucky with our cast. Simon Thorpe and Charne Rochford work together as if they were brothers and Lise Christensen plays the bored and world weary character of Prince Orlofsky with aplomb. Jeffrey Black brings real experience to Frank with the bonus of a beautiful baritone voice and has a perfect foil in Bernard Horsfall playing Frosch.

Nicky Spence is a younger than usual Blind. He is playing him like a young turk lawyer who unfortunately... isn't very good at his job. Debra Morley who I have worked with on several occasions is luxury casting as Ida. Debra has sung most of the lyric coloratura repertoire with great success. The fact that she is a wonderful colleague is another matter.

Garrie Davislim has spent most of his career in Vienna, Milan and guesting in Germany singing most of the lead romantic tenor roles of his Fach. A graduate of the National Opera Studio he is a perfect Alfred and a very believable 'lover' of our Rosalinda, Sarah Redgwick.

I will stop babbling on and let you enjoy the film.

Wait until you here Ana sing...

Strauss' Waltz of Marriage: Sin, Satire and Spin...

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Our performances of Die Fledermaus at Cadogan Hall begin in 10 days. First performance at 7pm on Tuesday 16th June & the second on Friday 19th June. Soloist rehearsals begin tomorrow and the Sitzprobe with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and Philharmonia Chorus is on Sunday 14th...we are literally in the home straight.

Can't wait to see it all come together. Must admit hearing Leslie Howard playing Liszt's Hungarian Fantasy will be fantastic. His rehearsal with Madeleine went extremely well...it will be quite a concert.

More about Leslies involvement here



Below is the article which our conductor, Madeleine Lovell has written for the programme. For those of you who don't know this operetta this is a very helpful and enjoyable form of introduction.


Strauss' Waltz of Marriage: Sin, Satire and Spin

After 135 glorious years as a mainstay of the operatic repertoire, it is all too easy to take Johann Strauss II’s Die Fledermaus a little for granted. The warm familiarity of the score can perhaps endanger our appreciation of Haffner’s and Génee’s well-aimed satire – on marriage, fidelity, mid-life crisis, the aspiring actress, the self aggrandizing tenor, and the sore loser – when, in truth, Strauss’ music provides the perfect foil. It is hard to imagine a musical setting more focused on awkwardness and discomfort.

While calling upon all the stock-intrades of comedy – mistaken identity, the battle of the sexes, class-warfare, as well as the requisite happy ending – Strauss never loses sight of the emotional core of the action. Consider, for example, the giddy succession of new themes in the Finale of Act 1 (the trio for Alfred, Rosalinda and Frank), spiralling out of control just as management of the situation spins away from Rosalinda. The middle portion of this Finale (‘Dear Sir, what can you think of me?’ … ‘It’s getting late, we’re tête-à-tête’) reveals what Rosalinda is trying her best to conceal, with a vocal line whose potential urbanity is undermined by sudden leaps, awkward breaks and deliberately fussy grace notes. She uses the sophistication of the waltz to paper over her anxiety.

The underlying menace of Orlofsky is suggested in a similar way. The vocal register of Chacun à son gout, largely based around the lower-middle part of the voice, suddenly erupts into the highest part of a mezzo’s range. Strauss’ music uncovers the erratic nature of this Prince, and, through remarkable use of the high part of the voice (whose timbre will, inevitably, be very penetrating) in this aria and throughout Act 2, shows us a domineering character.

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Power play is also at the heart of Rosalinda’s Act 2 show-stopper Csárdás. Supposedly the moment at which Eisenstein’s wife is least sincere, Strauss produces music of unparalleled beauty and emotional strength. Her impersonation of a Hungarian Countess ceases to be an exercise in fabulous fakery (unlike, for instance, Adele’s Audition Aria) and becomes instead a lament for the marriage that she has just seen falling apart. This mesmeric music, with its virtuoso display of the singer’s legato line and dazzling coloratura, makes us appreciate the depths of Rosalinda’s character. This in turn sheds light on why Eisenstein in the end cannot live without her.

Eisenstein’s short temper, and the associated issue of his violent jealousy, are brilliantly evoked in trios at either end of the opera. The Act 1 Trio with Rosalinda and Blind begins noisily as Eisenstein storms in, biting out his criticism of his incompetent lawyer, and barely letting anyone else get a word in. Despite Rosalinda’s best efforts to calm him with two passages of soothing Andante, Eisenstein’s bad mood shows no sign of abating. Blind’s ill-conceived and long-winded description of how he will sort things out merely tips him over the edge. Strauss demonstrates an equally masterful handling of pace in the Act 3 Trio for Eisenstein, Rosalinda and Alfred. Time and again Eisenstein’s short fuse looks set to sabotage his ambush of his ‘unfaithful wife’ as he cannot stop his own horrified outbursts as more details of the story are revealed. The sheer rhythmic force of the final section, as well as the contrast between a heavily accented three-note ascent high in the voice (‘Ei-sen-stein’) followed by a legato four-note descent low in the voice (‘though I was cheated’) drives this Trio to its breathless conclusion. Strauss, of course, last used this music at the beginning of the Overture, cleverly rounding off the opera by identifying its main musical theme with the belligerent
main character.

No account of Strauss’ handling of pace in Die Fledermaus would be complete, however, without mention of the descent into paralytic drunkeness that is the multi-sectional Act 2 Finale. What begins with a champagne toast, quickly dissolves into hiccups and a joyous collective decision to invade one another’s most personal space. The lurching theme of the final section shows us the revellers in the last stages of intoxication. Bacchus would have approved.


© Madeleine Lovell
Queens’ College Cambridge


Please don't forget our Fledermaus launch concert at Vernon Ellis' House 49 Queen's Gate Terrace. Monday 8th June. 7 - 7.30pm.

As usual we have pulled out all the stops with appearances by Sarah Redgwick, Rosalinda singing the Czardas; Ana James, Adele will sing the Audition Aria; Simon Thorpe, Falke will sing the famous Bruederlein and Lise Christensen, Orlofsky will sing Orlofsky's famous aria.

Plus 30 members of the Philharmonia Chorus who will sing the final champagne chorus. A wonderful way to spend a summers evening. Madeleine Lovell will conduct and give a short talk about the piece, with Margaret Marinkovic on the piano.

Fine wines and canapes will be served. Seats are still available please book here

Please email us at info@londonlyricopera.com if you would like any further information.

Philharmonia Chorus rehearsing Die Fledermaus

Last night I popped in to watch the penultimate Philharmonia Chorus rehearsal before the Conductor's call next week. It is wonderful to hear the music sung with such joy. This was recorded off the cuff with a very small camera but the results are pretty good. The Chorus Master/ Philharmonia Artistic Director is Edward Caswell ably assisted by Stephen Rose on the piano.

All other plans are going well but the complexity of mounting a production at this level never ceases to amaze me. Rehearsals for the principals start in earnest next week with the Vernon Ellis
event on Monday the 8th at 49 Queen's Gate Terrace as a taster for our friends and sponsors.

Tickets are still available.

I hope this will tempt more of you to come to our performances.

LLO on Bachtrack

Yesterday I had a long chat with Alison Karlin, Founder of the UK's newest concert search engine/resource Bachtrach.com subsequently I registered LLO and entered the concert details for Die Fledermaus here. Terrific site as it gives so much detailed information about the concerts and provides us with another way to find our audience. We wish them well.

LLO Die Fledermaus - Press Release

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Deborah Riedel (1958 - 2009) Die Fledermaus dedicated to the Inspirational Australian Soprano

Earlier this year the opera world lost one of its brightest stars, the inspirational Australian Soprano, Deborah Riedel passed away in January after a 10 year battle with Cancer. The news hit all singers in Australia and many overseas very hard as few people knew that she was so ill. I first met her in the mid 80's when she gave a concert in Melbourne with other members of the Australian Opera ( Opera Australia today) Chorus at the Wesley Church in Melbourne. Donald Solomon, an old friend of my parents introduced us all to her. From that moment on I was an admirer of her work and was captivated by her lovely, warm nature. Here I was not alone. She was truly universally loved...an example to us all.

Years later she returned to Melbourne to sing Leila in the Pearlfishers and later had a triumph as Marguerite in Ian Judge's brilliant production of Faust both staged by the Victoria State Opera and conducted by Richard Divall. Like many of my contemporaries I rated Deborah Riedel as one of the great singers of her generation. When I first heard her she had a beautiful warm Mezzo-Soprano voice. Later she made the change into a full lyric Soprano and so began a major International career.

She enjoyed the support of Dame Joan Sutherland and Richard Bonynge who conducted many of her greatest triumphs some during her courageous 10 year battle with cancer. Her loss at such a young age is so cruel for many reasons. Some of her greatest work especially her Sieglinde in the State Opera of South Australia's historic Ring Cycle (note: Her Siegmund was the Tenor, Stuart Skelton currently singing Peter Grimes for ENO) was during this time.

LLO began this tradition when I dedicated LLO's concert performance of The flying Dutchman at the Barbican to my late father, Eric Hancock and followed this by dedicating Fidelio to a dear German lady, opera lover and supporter, Edith Kraus. I wrote an email to the cast asking them for suggestions and her old friend and colleague Jeffrey Black (Frank in Die Fledermaus) wrote back suggesting Deborah Riedel. Dedicating these performances is a small gesture but we hope it will offer comfort to her husband the tenor, Paul Ferris (who will be attending one of the performances) and also encourage members of our audience to give to one of the charities that we support, Marie Curie Cancer Care whose work is so important.

Obituaries:
A Statement by Richard Bonynge from the Opera Australia website
The Independent
The Times
The Australian

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Madeleine Lovell, Conductor of Die Fledermaus, introduces London Lyric Opera's Cadogan Hall spring season

Madeleine Lovell, conductor for Die Fledermaus introduces LLO's coming concert performances at Cadogan Hall. We had a valuable day meeting Gill Dixon, Events Manager at Cadogan Hall and a brief meeting with James Tapping their Technical Director to discuss our requirements for Die Fledermaus. Thanks to Cadogan Hall's state of the art lighting rig we have a myriad of options available to us to enhance the look of the evening. With 68 singers in the Philharmonia Chorus and 46 in the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra we have to be sure of our planning to ensure we maximise the performance space but avoid singers 'bumping' into the orchestra. As you can imagine space will be at a premium. The concert Steinway grand has to be moved centre stage after the first act...this is the easy part...getting it off in a 'unobtrusive' way will be fun.



Madeleine Lovell - Conductor ©mozbphotography.com

Afterwards a very helpful time was spent planning the entrances and exits plus props and the many other requirements. A very enjoyable day with a constant stream of ideas coming from Bernard and a couple of very silly ones thrown in for good measure.

Music calls have begun. Madeleine is personally coaching the cast before rehearsals begin. This was a tradition started by Lionel Friend when he prepared The flying Dutchman cast months before.

Debra Morley to sing Ida

Lovely English soprano, Debra Morley will be singing the role of Ida. Her experience with many of the UK's finest companies covers most of the lyric coloratura repertoire. Miss Morley will compliment our already strong cast. More details soon.

Tomorrow will be a busy day. A production meeting with Madeleine Lovell and Bernard Horsfall after an inspection of the stage at Cadogan Hall. With the flyer ready now and about to be printed we have alot of work ahead of us to get the word out about our performances. Press release will be issued shortly.

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Our beautiful flyer is here.. Die Fledermaus at Cadogan Hall

Delighted to share the flyer for Die Fledermaus with you all.
Illustration by Amelie Hegardt/Darling Management and designed by the talented Orla McAvinue at Wardour

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Jeffrey Black - The busy baritone

Jeffrey Black is singing Frank for LLO in our upcoming performances of Die Fledermaus at Cadogan Hall. After a major international career as a lyric baritone he decided to take two years off to focus on the dramatic Verdi baritone repertory. After we engaged him as the Inspector, Frank he was booked by Chelsea Opera Group to sing the title role in Simon Boccanegra with them on June 7th. A few weeks later and he has been booked to understudy Falstaff at Glyndebourne in the current production. We are looking forward to working with this very highly sort after baritone in Fledermaus at Cadogan Hall, Tuesday June 16th and Friday June 19th 2009.

A few words about the beautiful illustrations...

Wardour became our design and branding partner in May 2008. From our first production at Leighton House we have commissioned an illustration for every production. The process starts with a brief to Wardour which pretty much sums up what the opera/ concert is about, what look we are after, period, feel etc. Lisa Cromer, Wardour's Design Director has unenviable task of trying to make sense of my musings and thoughts and somehow offer me with drawings that are exactly what I was after all along but didn't really know how to say it...see what I mean. Lisa sends me samples of work by illustrator's she believes compliment the work we are doing. The striking work of
Amelie Hegardt/ Darling Management jumped out at us. Die Fledermaus epitomises fun and style. A comedy of manners and a light-hearted poke at infidelity and the seven year itch. Rosalinde is one of Opera's most glamorous characters and we believe that Amelies gorgeous illustration has captured this idea with her glamourous illustration of this beautiful woman.

The next stage is the Flyer and Poster. A good example is the illustration we had for our first concert, Passion of Puccini at Leighton House. The illustrator here was Noumeda Carbone which set the bar very high for all future concerts. The brief was to combine the three heroines from the opera's we were presenting in excerpts. La Boheme (Mimi), Tosca and Madam Butterfly. The result was an image which was a major factor in helping LLO find and attract our audience and was the reason we decided to stick with the concept of strong illustrations for every concert.

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...and Sam Weber's illustration for Fidelio. Interestingly enough Cadogan Hall's marketing people were so taken by the design they happily had this poster in the most prominent position, next to the box office, for over a month. From Sloane Square tube it just looked fantastic.

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...then the final stage is the Programme which Wardour, to date, have taken the illustration and used elements of it throughout the programme on each and every page in the most imaginative and amazing ways eg Cycles was our next concert at Cadogan Hall, the brief asked for lush and vibrant colours with a strong floral influence plus references to the songs ( it was a concert of orchestral song cycles) and the poetry we were presenting. The illustration was by Izumi Nogawa. The programme was B5 and was a very impressive 44 pages including cover.

If you have a minute scroll through the programme (there are more on the issuu site on the side bar on the left of an enlarged page) and be, as I was at he time, amazed at the inventiveness and sheer style of the designers at Wardour.

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The flying Dutchman was next in November 2008. This was the major concert of our year and Evelina Frescura didn't let us down with this striking and evocative illustration. Dutchman is one of Wagner's early operas but is on the cusp of his mature works which are famous for the power and intensity of the plots, music and characters. I don't know how she did it but somehow a 'simple' drawing of a ship told a story and created a mood that enhanced the concert we were about to perform. The articles within the programme are wonderful. Page 16 & 17 is a brilliant piece by Germaine Greer. I know for a fact that the Wardour team loved this spread.

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Die Fledermaus is on sale...Two performances

Die Fledermaus is now on sale at Cadogan Hall. Sponsored by Wardour for the first time we will have two performances. The first on Tuesday 16th June and the second on
Friday 19th June. Both performances will begin at 7.00pm with a pre-performance talk at 6.00 in the main auditorium.

This is a major step forward for us. I hope we manage to repeat the success we had with Fidelio with a near sell out house.

Adele completes our cast...Ana James to sing this wonderful role for LLO.

Ana James has just accepted our offer to sing Adele. After an exhaustive search we are thrilled to have a singer of her quality in our cast. A native of New Zealand, graduate of the Manhattan School of Music and the ROH Young Artist programme : Attached is the announcement we made on our Twitter account. More information here.

Now that our cast is complete the real work begins. Madeleine. Myself and Bernard are working though the dialogue, score and stage directions now. We plan to follow the style of our previous two productions; Singing from memory, dramatically convincing and strong performances from the cast. The added element of a world class concert pianist playing with the RPO will give the audience a memorable night at the opera.

The international nature of our cast is evident. Simon Thorpe, Garrie Davislim [half Irish] and Jeffrey Black (Australia), Nicky Spence (Scotland), Edel Shannon (Ireland), Ana James (New Zealand), Sarah Redgwick, Charne Rochford and Bernard Horsfall (England) and Lise Christensen (Denmark).

Veteran Actor Bernard Horsfall to star as Frosch in London Lyric Opera's Concert Performances of Die Fledermaus at Cadogan Hall

Bernard Horsfall has appeared in many television and film roles including On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969), Enemy at the Door (ITV, 1978-1980), Gandhi (1982) , The Jewel in the Crown (1984), The Hound of the Baskervilles (ITV, 1988) and Braveheart (1995). 



He has made several guest appearances in the BBC science fiction television series
 Doctor Who. His first was as Lemuel Gulliver The Mind Robber (1968). His other appearances were as a Time Lord The War Games (1969), Taron Planet of the Daleks (1973) and Chancellor Goth The Deadly Assassin (1976).

Other television credits include : Doctors BBC: Murder Rooms: The Dark Beginnings of Sherlock Holmes BBC: Casualty BBC: Poirot ITV: Between the Lines BBC and The Bill Thames TV.

Bernard toured Europe in a production of My Fair Lady as Colonel Pickering and appeared at the Royal Opera House and the Chatelet, Paris as Merlin King Arthur (Purcell) dir. Graham Vick, cond. William Christie.

Theatre credits include the title role in Cymbaline dir. Bill Alexander; Pistol Henry V dir. Adrian Noble; Player King Hamlet dir. Adrian Noble; Old Capulet Romeo & Juliet; Old Shepherd Winter’s Tale dir. Tony Hands; The Director Sarcophagus; York Richard II and Le Grue Red Noses all at the RSC. Old Shepherd and Hymen As you like it at the Crucible, Sheffield and Sir Patrick Cullen The Doctor’s Dilemna at the Almeida both directed by Michael Grandage.

George Who’s afraid of Virginia Woolf? Dir. John Fernald; George Jumpers dir. Phil Young; Solness The Master Builder dir. John Fernald all at the Leeds Playhouse. The Severed Head (Iris Murdoch) dir. Val May at the Criterion Theatre; Hancock 1776 (musical) dir. Peter Hunt at the Albery; The Marquis Camille (RSC Prod.) dir. Ron Daniels at the Comedy Theatre.

Bernard Horsfall’s Showreel



Bernard Horsfall website

Appearing in Die Fledermaus

Special Guest Star -Acclaimed Concert Pianist Leslie Howard to play with the RPO in Die Fledermaus

Leslie Howard

Die Fledermaus would not be complete without a guest appearance by a true virtuoso performer. LLO are delighted to announce that Leslie Howard, whose work includes the largest recording project ever undertaken by a solo pianist when he completed a marathon effort to personally record all of Liszt's piano works for Hyperion Records on 97 CDs, will play a piano concerto by Liszt, with the RPO accompanying, in the Gala scene in the middle of Act 2.

This all came about from an earlier concert that LLO produced in September 2008, Cycles at Cadogan Hall conducted by Madeleine Lovell. Leslie wrote to us complimenting the playing of the orchestra and Madeleine's conducting and made a passing remark saying,"I would be delighted to play a concerto here on this stage under Madeleine's direction". I remember thinking at the time that it isn't every day a world class concert pianist makes that kind of an offer (at the time I don't think he expected me to take him up on it so be warned...) but as LLO produced operatic concert performances I thought an opportunity would never come. Months passed and we decided to do Fledermaus...that is another story...Now normally in the gala scene famous singers will come out and sing a party piece and wow us with their vocal fireworks but the Leslie Howard idea was simmering away. Why not? Thankfully Amanda Williams at Amex Centurion Card liked the idea which was important as they are promoting us to their cardholders and Madeleine loved it. The only problem now was to twist his arm and remind him of an email he wrote in September.

I think I called Leslie just after Christmas 08, he probably thought I was mad but here we are. The title of the piece will remain a secret but rest assured Prince Orlofsky should be pleased.

More information about Leslie and his career can be found here

Leslie Howard playing Liszt's, "Cszardas S.225/1

ps No arm twisting was required. If you happen to see a smile on his face while he is playing Liszt with the RPO well...

pps Leslie's biography

Die Fledermaus - Update and Casting

Illustration by Amelia Hegardt, Design by Wardour

The last few weeks have been incredibly busy. Planning for our 2010 season is well in hand and the confirmation of a second performance of Fledermaus has created its own excitement.

Madeleine and I heard many fine singers and are thrilled with our cast. Sarah Redgwick will be a sensational Rosalinde. Sarah not only sings beautifully etc but has incredible charisma and presence when she is on the stage. Her husband will be the charming Charne Rochford as Eisenstein.

Falke will be sung by rising baritone ( WNO,ON, GTO, OA ) Simon Thorpe and the Alfred by tenor Garrie Davislim who completely beguiled us in his audition and we offered him the role on the spot.

Internationally experienced baritone Jeffrey Black is luxury casting as Frank. Jeffrey has graced the stages of the Met, ROH and many other great houses throughout the world and we are delighted to have him in our cast. Lise Christensen singing Orlofsky who has sung the role for Scottish Opera. Nicky Spence returns to LLO after his beautifully sung first prisoner in Fidelio and the delightful Edel Shannon completes the cast as Ida...but not quite. Veteran actor, Bernard Horsfall who has starred in Dr Who and James Bond will be a perfect Frosch. I have known Bernard for many years and was thrilled when he agreed to be involved.

Finally we come to Adele. We will be able to confirm her early next week. What I can say is that she is fabulous. All in all a very fine ensemble cast.