The inaugural production for St Paul’s Opera, although we had no idea it was inaugural, nor did we have a company name! The three founders put their heads together and Deborah Matthews welcomed the local community to the church to picnic and enjoy the opera, Jennifer McGregor directed and Patricia Ninian produced and sang.
Our first production was a fundraiser for St Paul’s Church, with plans for a thorough make-over in readiness for the bicentenary of the building in 2015.
The Casts:
Der Schauspieldirektor (Mozart’s short comic opera of 1786 - an impresario comes up against two formidable soprano divas and wins them over)
Director: Jennifer McGregor
Conductor: Justin Fung
Pianist: Matthew Burgess
Mr Vogelsang: Stephen Cviić
Madame Goldentrill: Patricia Ninian
Madam Silverpeal: Anne Marie Sheridan
Gianni Schicchi (Giocomo Puccini’s one-act opera - part of the ‘Il Tritico’ - the Donati family gather as their rich patriarch, Buoso is dying, to secure their assumed inheritance, only to be conned out of everything, through their greed, by Gianni Schicchi. )
Pianist: Elspeth Wyllie
Zita: Marina Barker
Simone: David Ireland
La Ciesca: Anne Marie Sheridan
Marco: Will O’Brien
Betto: James Olds
Rinuccio: Domenico Colonna
Nella: Patricia Ninian
Gherardo: Stephen Cviić
Gherardino: Sky Yang
Gianni Schicchi: John Furlong
Lauretta: Phoebe Humphries
Maestro Spinelloccio / Ser Amantio di Nicolao: Andy Lee
Pinellino: John Forster