Opera Prelude Lecture Series 2018

Join Opera Prelude for an exciting season of lecture-recitals, discussion mornings and celebrity masterclasses.

Opera Prelude is a small charity, run by volunteers and dedicated to supporting the next generation of operatic talent with the all-round skills to succeed in a highly competitive industry.

Since its launch in 2010, it has been bringing opera into the community, engaging, educating and involving audiences through its accessible, opera-related events which provide experience and fairly-paid performance opportunities for its young artists.

Past events in this series

Opera Prelude: ‘From Sensibility to Sense’

Opera Prelude: ‘From Sensibility to Sense’

The great escape from sentimentality in opera and literature of the 18th and 19th centuries

Tuesday 6 February 2018, 10.30am

VENUE: Caversham Room at Cadogan Hall

Before beginning her current career as soprano and librettist, Becca Marriott read English at Oxford. In this lecture, she returns to her roots, using her extensive knowledge of both literature and music to guide us past those “truths universally a...

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Opera Prelude: ‘Genius and Tragedy’

Opera Prelude: ‘Genius and Tragedy’

The lost and found letters of Giuseppe Verdi

Tuesday 13 February 2018, 10.30am

Following the recent rediscovery of private letters between Giuseppe Verdi and Salvadore Cammarano, Dr Simon Maguire of Sotheby’s will begin this morning’s lecture with the thrilling tale of their preservation, saved for the nation by the Italian...

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Opera Prelude Singers’ Prize Masterclass with Della Jones

Tuesday 13 March 2018, 10.30am

Now in its fifth year, the Opera Prelude Singers’ Prize offers one of our young singers the unique chance of private masterclasses with Della Jones, one of Great Britain’s leading mezzo-sopranos. We are most grateful to her for the generosity she...

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Opera Prelude: ‘Don’t Look Back’

Opera Prelude: ‘Don’t Look Back’

Orpheus’s Adventures in Opera

Tuesday 20 March 2018, 10.30am

Orpheus, the so-called father of song, has reached far from his classical roots to influence music and other art forms right up to the present day. His heady mixture of bravado, passion, charm and indelible musical gifts enabled him to save Jason and...

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Opera Prelude: Masterclass and Discussion with Susan Bullock

Tuesday 27 March 2018, 10.30am

Baritone Alex Otterburn is one of Scottish Opera’s Emerging Artists for the 2017/18 season and is described by them as a ‘name to watch’. He has most recently played the role of Eddy in their production of Mark-Anthony Turnage’s Greek, along...

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Opera Prelude: Masterclass with Janis Kelly

Tuesday 17 April 2018, 10.30am

Masterclass morning with Janis Kelly – heralded as a “singing actress of near genius” (Sunday Times). More details to follow.

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Opera Prelude: Jack Furness of Shadwell Opera

Opera Prelude: Jack Furness of Shadwell Opera

Tuesday 24 April 2018, 10.30am

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Opera Prelude: ‘The Golden Age of the Imperial Theatres’

Opera Prelude: ‘The Golden Age of the Imperial Theatres’

Opera at the Mariinsky, 1890-1917

Tuesday 1 May 2018, 10.30am

In this morning’s lecture, Dr Rosamund Bartlett and pianist Maria Levandovskaya take us back to the glory days of imperial St Petersburg’s Mariinsky Theatre, highlighting the composers, directors, singers and conductors who helped to build its in...

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Opera Prelude: ‘Accidents in Opera’

Opera Prelude: ‘Accidents in Opera’

The mishaps, mayhem and misfortune of productions, singers and theatres

Tuesday 8 May 2018, 10.30am

Opera: the most complete art form, and (most of the time) a stunning blend of music, stagecraft, lighting and passion – but what happens when it all goes wrong? Ask any singer and they will have a hundred stories of errors and accidents onstage, mo...

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Opera Prelude: Discussion and Masterclass with David Butt Philip & William Wallace

Tuesday 15 May 2018, 10.30am

More details to follow.

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Opera Prelude: ‘Happily Never After’

Opera Prelude: ‘Happily Never After’

Why are we so drawn to operatic tragedy?

Tuesday 22 May 2018, 10.30am

Tosca, plummeting to her doom from the roof of the Castel Sant’Angelo; Juliette, stabbing herself to be reunited with her dying lover Romeo; Rodrigo, shot in front of his powerless best friend; opera is full of beloved characters meeting grisly end...

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Opera Prelude: The Opera Awards Masterclass with Dame Anne Evans

Tuesday 29 May 2018, 10.30am

Dame Anne Evans kindly leads this morning’s event with emerging young singers. She made her debut as Countess Ceprano in Rigoletto 1967 in Geneva and went on to make her debut in a leading role in 1968 as Fiordiligi in Così fan tutte at the the...

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Opera Prelude: The Puccini Problem

Opera Prelude: The Puccini Problem

(or ‘How do you solve a problem like Puccini’?!)

Tuesday 25 September 2018, 10.30am

Has everything about Puccini been said/studied/sung already? Musicologist Alexandra Wilson and mezzo-soprano Adriana Festeu discuss Dr Wilson’s critically acclaimed book, The Puccini Problem: Opera, Nationalism and Modernity, which was awarded the...

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Opera Prelude: Masterclass with Yvonne Howard

Tuesday 2 October 2018, 10.30am

Hailed as ‘one of the finest singing actresses this country has produced’, Yvonne Howard’s reputation in diverse repertoire from Wagner to Handel proclaims her one of the country’s finest mezzos. Yvonne will be generously leading this morning...

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Opera Prelude: Standing at the Crossroads

Opera Prelude: Standing at the Crossroads

Opera in the 20th century

Tuesday 9 October 2018, 10.30am

“The most expensive solution would be to blow the opera houses up” (Pierre Boulez). Conductor Mark Austin offers an accessible exploration of opera in the 20th century, uncovering its roots in the 19th century as the starting point for a survey o...

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Opera Prelude: Paris and the Russian avant-garde

With Dr Natalia Murray

Tuesday 16 October 2018, 10.30am

With Dr Natalia Murray, Maria Levandovskaya (piano) and Ed Ballard (baritone). Inspired by the recent exhibition Icons of Modern Art. The Shchukin Collection, which attracted over 1.3 million visitors in just four months and took place at the Louis V...

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Opera Prelude: Masterclass with Sir John Tomlinson

Tuesday 23 October 2018, 10.30am

We are extremely grateful to Sir John Tomlinson for joining Opera Prelude again at Cadogan Hall and for generously sharing his invaluable professional expertise with our young artists, as he coaches them in this morning’s masterclass. Advance booki...

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Opera Prelude: ‘Red Roses and Red Noses’ – Life in the English Country House 1918-1939

With writer and historian Adrian Tinniswood

Tuesday 30 October 2018, 10.30am

With writer and historian Adrian Tinniswood, Callie Gaston (soprano), TBC (tenor) and Natalie Burch (piano). There is nothing quite as beautiful as an English country house in summer. And there has never been a summer quite like that Indian summer be...

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Opera Prelude: ‘Debussy: A Painter in Sound’

With music critic and musicologist Stephen Walsh

Tuesday 6 November 2018, 10.30am

With Stephen Walsh (music critic and musicologist), accompanied by Maria Levandovskaya (piano) and Sophie Pullen (soprano). In the centenary of Debussy’s death, Stephen Walsh’s compelling new biography Debussy: A Painter in Sound, digs deep into...

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Opera Prelude: ‘Life is beautiful’

Opera Prelude: ‘Life is beautiful’

Romanticism and activism: a lecture exploring Verdi’s lavish romantic operas

Tuesday 13 November 2018, 10.30am

With Becca Marriott (soprano) and Maria Levandovskaya (piano). Focusing largely on La traviata, which Becca recently adapted for the King’s Head Theatre (nominated for an Olivier Award for their 2017 production of La bohème, also adapted by Becc...

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Opera Prelude: Masterclass with Roderick Williams

Tuesday 20 November 2018, 10.30am

Roderick Williams, OBE – arguably one the UK’s leading baritones, equally acclaimed in both opera and song is generously leading this morning’s highly sought-after masterclass with Opera Prelude’s young artists, accompanied by Natalie Burch...

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Opera Prelude: The Rake’s Punishment

Don Giovanni’s journey from paper to the stage

Tuesday 27 November 2018, 10.30am

With Ricardo Panela (baritone) and Opera Prelude’s young artists, accompanied by Maria Levandovskaya. This lecture will focus on the history of the creation of one of the most famous and beloved operas in Operatic canon. Starting with its initial c...

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Opera Prelude: “Glitter and be Gay”

Opera, Hollywood and Old-Fashioned Glamour

Tuesday 4 December 2018, 10.30am

With Rosie Clifford (mezzo) and Opera Prelude’s young artists, accompanied by Natalie Burch. “Glitter and be gay, that’s the part I play” – so sings Cunegonde in Leonard Bernstein’s masterpiece Candide, lamenting the loss of her virtue in...

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Opera Prelude Lecture Series 2018

Past events in this series