The London City Opera has quickly
established itself as the market leader of high quality touring opera throughout
the United Kingdom, Europe, and North America. With their productions of
such classic audience-pleasers as La Bohème, Madame Butterfly, Die
Fledermaus, HMS Pinafore, The Mikado, La Traviata, Tosca and The Merry
Widow, the London City Opera is capturing the attention of international
audiences and critics alike and the response has resulted in a major success.
Over the past years, the company
has been in great demand to perform at not only the finest theaters throughout
the United Kingdom, but also at many major music festivals and now, extensive
international tours. Developing high quality touring opera and operetta
productions has made the London City Opera's name stand out in the international
field.
The company presents Christmas seasons
of Operetta at St. David's Hall in Cardiff and The Fairfield Hall London
and has also devised Charity Opera Galas which have been attended by members
of England's royalty.
In March of 1998, the company made
their European debut when they took La Bohème & Madame Butterfly
on an extensive tour of France and Switzerland. In January of 1999, the
London City Opera made a highly successful debut tour throughout North
America delighting audiences in 28 cities with their performances of Die
Fledermaus. They returned in the winter of 2000, for their second season
in North America with their production of The Magic Flute, touring in 36
U.S. cities. The 2001 U.S. tour featured Carmen, which was seen throughout
the United States in over 65 cities. The London City Opera was recently
featured in the widely acclaimed magazine "Opera Now".
This season, the London City Opera,
under new artistic direction, returns to over 70 cities from coast to coast
bringing their sparkling and fun-filled production of Lehàr's The
Merry Widow. Set in turn of the century Paris, the London City Opera is
delighted to bring audiences this evening of intrigue, political chicanery
and romance.
The London City Opera will return
for their fifth North American tour with the popular classic, Puccini's
Madame Butterfly (Winter/Spring 2003).
In addition to their sold out tours
in the United States, the London City Opera continues their touring schedule
in the U.K. and return tours to Europe as well as the Far East.
The aim of the company is to present
touring opera and operetta productions of the highest musical and vocal
standards and to prove to new and old audiences alike, that opera was composed
as entertainment - entertainment which moves one to tears or makes one
smile.
Peter OBERFRANK
conductor
Peter Oberfrank is Music Director
of the National Theatre of Szeged, a major city in Southern Hungary. According
to Andras, in addition to conducting serious opera as Music Director in
Szeged, Peter also regularly conducts operetta and lighter operas such
as performances of Porgy and Bess and A Midsummer Night's Dream last season.
This fall he conducts Falstaff -
a contemporary opera, Boccanegra and Elisir d'Amore, in addition to a Holland
tour of Magic Flute with his own touring opera company, including performances
in Rotterdam, Hilversum and Kerkrade. He is also scheduled to conduct a
new contemporary production this year, but that opera can be postponed
if he is engaged for the London City Opera tour, and the rest of his conducting
engagements and new productions can be postponed or delegated to subordinate
conductors.
Peter comes from a musical family
(his brother-in-law is the retired General Music Director of the Hungarian
State Opera) and he is also a professor of the Liszt Academy in Budapest.
He already has a touring history with the Hungarian Virtuosi Orchestra,
and could provide a good wind/brass section from his own opera orchestra
for the London City Opera tour.
Roberic Dunnett, writing in The Independent
of London, wrote about a new staging of Peter Grimes conducted by Oberfrank
in Budapest :
"The conductor (Peter Oberfrank)
evinces from the orchestra intelligent, inspired pacings interspersed with
breathtaking silences, stunning brass in the Sea Interludes, a ravishing
viola solo for the boy apprentice, and a warm string sound that would have
thrilled Britten."
Terry John
BATES
director and choreographer
Terry John Bates studied fine arts
before turning towards dance. He danced with such companies as the Zurich
Ballet, the Munich Ballet, the Ballet of Northern Ireland and London's
Royal Opera Ballet, as well as for television and cinema. His career as
a choreographer started off in a spectacular manner, with two prestigious
awards, the Laurence Olivier Award and the Tony Award, for his choreography
of Brian Friel's piece Dancing at Lughnasa, played at the Royal National
Theatre in London and on Broadway in New York. He then continues to expand
his horizons staging opera. He is invited as choreographer and/or stage
director by some of the most prestigious theatres in the world, just to
mention a few amongst others : the English National Opera, the Welsh National
Opera, the Scottish Opera, the May of Music in Florence, the operas of
Frankfurt, Rome and Lausanne, the Metropolitan Opera in New York, and in
France, the Chorégies d'Orange, the Opera of Versailles, and the
Capitole in Toulouse.
Keith DUNNE
designer
Keith is the winner of the BBC Visions
2001 New Talent (Production Design) Award. He trained in Theatre Design
and graduated in 2000 from Central St Martin's College after a career of
ten years in the Royal Navy. He recently toured with the award winning
play Splendour for Paines Plough. His theatre design credits include All
For Love (Battersea Arts Centre), Sentence Deferred, Mother's Boy and Fred
& Ginger (Rosemary Branch), and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (Ohio University).
Musicals include Company (Tower Theatre) and Cabaret (Millfield Theatre).
Opera design includes La Traviata (Surrey Opera), Suor Angelica, Pulcinella
(Abbey Opera) and Rigoletto (Echo). For television, Brookside (Channel
4), music video Honoris Causa (MTV) and for Reeltime Pictures he designed
Dr Who's - Lust in Space and Mind Games. He is currently working on a new
drama for ITV called Footballers Wives (Shed Productions) and designing
Pinocchio (Chicken Shed Theatre Company) and Die Fledermaus (Echo).
