New Sussex Opera promise Passion at the Opera!

The concerts will be at St Michael's Church, High Street, Lewes on Friday, September 30 at 8pm; Leconfield Hall, Petworth on Saturday, October 1 at 7.45pm; and St Nicolas Church, Church Lane, Pevensey on Friday, December 16 at 7.30pm. Book on www.newsussexopera.org/booking-details/ or pay at the door.

Belle Lurette will be directed by David Foster who is also organising the concerts which will build on the success of a similar night at Petworth last year. Passion at the Opera will feature arias, duets and choruses by Mozart (The Magic Flute and Don Giovanni), Handel (Acis and Galatea), Verdi (Nabucco, A Masked Ball and Macbeth), Sullivan (The Sorcerer), Monteverdi (The Coronation of Poppea), Dove (The Enchanted Pig), Donizetti (L'elisir d'amore), Gounod (Faust), Bizet (Carmen), Massenet (Chérubin) and Saint-Saëns (Samson and Delilah).

David said: “New Sussex Opera is always looking for new ideas and also ways to raise money, and these concerts are fundamentally to raise money for the main opera production. Last year we ran a one-off one-evening event down at Petworth which went down very well indeed. We had a number of soloists from that and we thought it would be a good opportunity to repeat that and extend it.

“This time very cunningly we're calling it Passion at the Opera. The format is that we have got six soloists and about ten in the chorus, and the role I am playing, apart from putting it together, is that I will introduce the various pieces. We have got some very passionate singing and some very passionate music and it is good fun to work with the soloists. There all doing it for free so we've asked them whether they've got their own party pieces or things that they would like to sing, all within the theme of Passion at the Opera.”

“And then our production will be Offenbach’s Belle Lurette (which opens at Lewes Town Hall on Thursday, November 10 at 7.30pm before moving to Hove, Eastbourne and London). We try do pieces that are a bit unusual rather than yet another Traviata or Carmen. We are trying to pick up pieces that are either being forgotten or actually premieres for us. This particular one has not been performed in the UK for more than 140 years. Sometimes you can look at a piece and you can see why it has dropped off the radar but that's definitely not the case with this one.

“We did a main production last October/November which was another Offenbach which started in Lewes. It was a first big production for two years. Obviously everything came to a halt in March 2020 but we managed to do some interesting rehearsals outside in football stadiums when we could, just doing them socially distanced, though obviously there was a big gap when nothing could happen at all, but we're very lucky to have a very loyal chorus. Some of them are members of other groups as well but we were lucky that they all wanted to come back which is great."