Geoffrey Shovelton News
British opera singer and actor
- tenor
- United Kingdom
- opera singer
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2024-04-23
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2024-02-24 09:51:00
The Lady of Satis House: composer Jacques Cohen talks about finally bringing his 2012 Charles Dickens-inspired monodrama to disc
Jacques Cohen: The Lady of Satis House - Marie Vassiliou at Tete-a-Tete: The Opera Festival in 2012 (Photo: Claire Shovelton)Jacques Cohen's operatic monodrama The Lady of Satis House premiered in 2012. A commission from Bill Bankes-Jones' Tete-a-Tete: The Opera Festival, it was directed by Joe Austin, designed by Emily Harwood and performed by soprano Marie Vassiliou and the Piatti Quartet. 2012 was also the bicentenary of Charles Dickens' birth and faced with writing the opera in six weeks, Jacques chose Miss Havisham from Great Expectations as the subject, drawing his text from Dickens' book.Jacques Cohen (Photo: Lester Barnes)Now, some 12 years after those first performances, the work has appeared on disc, on the Meridian label, again performed by Marie Vassiliou with the Tippett Quartet. The disc also features two of Jacques' works for string quartet, When the Bough Breaks: Three Lullabies for String Quartet and From Behind Glass: Tone Poem for […]
2023-11-10 09:02:00
Never a dull moment: Edward Lambert's Masque of Vengeance, a taut and driven new opera based on Thomas Middleton's 17th-century play, The Revenger's Tragedy
Edward Lambert: Masque of Vengeance - The Music Troupe (Photo: Claire Shovelton)Edward Lambert: Masque of Vengeance; The Music Troupe, David Edwards; The CockpitReviewed by Florence Anna Maunders, 9 November 2023Based on a Thomas Middleton play from 17th century, Edward Lambert's new opera proves to be pacey, and exciting production, with an excellent and committed cast Composer Edward Lambert and his company, The Music Troupe presented Lambert's new opera, Masque of Vengeance, at the Cockpit Theatre from 7 9 November 2023, directed by David Edwards with Lelia Zanette, Charles Johnston, Francis Gush, Lawrence Thackeray, Will Diggle, Mae Heydorn, Laure Meloy, Christopher Foster and Madeline Robinson, plus Alex Norton and Adrian Salinero on piano.The opera is based on Thomas Middleton's 1606 play, The Revenger's Tragedy. Set in a fictitious Italian court, Middleton's farcical play pits ambitious factions against each other in a backstabbing bloodbath of revenge and trickery worthy of an episode of Game […]
2023-09-25 07:05:00
A half hour full of switchback changes, genuine surprise & delight: Rania Chrysostomou & Sarah Parkin's On Being Vocal at Tête à Tête
Rania Chrysostomou & Sarah Parkin: On Being Vocal - Sarah Parkin - Tête à Tête at the Cockpit (Photo: Claire Shovelton)Rania Chrysostomou & Sarah Parkin: On Being Vocal; Sarah Parkin, director: Sarah Parkin & Rania Chrysostomou, filmmaker: Catherine Valve; Tête à Tête at the CockpitReviewed by Florence Anna Maunders, 10 September 2023Intriguing and intense operatic exploration of women's hidden storiesA truly collaborative creation between the British/Cypriot composer Rania Chrysostomou and the Canadian/French soprano Sarah Parkin, On Being Vocal, was presented on 10 September 2023 at the Cockpit as part of Tête à Tête: the Opera Festival. This short opera managed to squeeze an enormous amount of content and variety into a running time just over half an hour. In the setting of a women's support group, and aided by Catherine Valve's projected film, Parkin took on the six different roles, each with its own distinct characterisation and musical voice.Starting with a nice touch of scene […]
2021-08-07 18:40:00
Tête-à-Tête Opera Festival (2) – The Unravelling Fantasia of Miss H. (world premiere), 5 August 2021
Cockpit Theatre Mary Matthewson (Sarah Nicolls), Mary Frances Heaton (Red Gray)Images: Claire Shovelton Mary Frances Heaton (voice) – Red Gray Mary Matthewson (inside out piano) – Sarah Nicolls Overseer/Asylum Attendant – Katie Webster Zoe Bouras (director)Katie Webster (movement)Kristina Jjelm (lighting)Rosie Whiting (costumes)A fascinating evening encountering The Unravelling Fantasia of Miss H.: perhaps more a resourceful theatre piece with music than opera, though it had something of music theatre to it too. As with other instalments in Tête-à-Tête’s 2021 Opera Festival, though, we should not get bogged down with what ‘is’ or ‘is not’ an opera. Sometimes it matters, for instance when that question proves an intrinsic part of the work and its challenge, but that was not the case here. Mary Frances Heaton, Overseer (Katie Webster) Stitched-up-Theatre here presents the tale of Mary Frances Heaton, words and music formulated together by […]
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