‘Dream Team’ announced to direct CARMEN

2022 is almost done for St Paul’s Opera (SPO) but we have one more hugely important job to complete and that is to tell you what’s happening next year.

Our 2023 summer production will be Bizet’s Carmen.

We know this is going to be a big hit with both our audience and, most importantly, the immensely talented singers who will want to be a part of this. Audition details will be announced early in the New Year.

We also want to tell you news of the creative team that will deliver this much-loved opera. We have taken our time to search for talent new to SPO and we’ve come up with a ‘dream team’ who will bring the production to life. We present our Stage Director, Eleanor Burke, and our Musical Director, John Paul (JP) Jennings.

Eleanor and JP are already well known to each other, having produced Bluebeard’s Castle (Bartok) at the Grimeborn Opera Festival in August 2022 with Eleanor’s own environmentally sustainable opera company, Green Opera.

Commenting on the joint appointment, SPO Founder and Director, Tricia Ninian remarks, “The recruitment process is crucial in laying the groundwork for a successful production. Yes, the basic qualifications need to be in place (and that’s an undeniable fact with Eleanor and JP), but you also have to have a gut feel for the ‘fit’ of the team. And it’s most definitely there with these two.”

Tricia adds, “This is a significant year for SPO, being its first with full charitable status. We have made great strides in raising our profile in recent years, and with Eleanor and JP with us for our 2023 summer production of ‘Carmen’, I feel we are in safe hands, with the addition of youthful creative excellence – a perfect fit for the ethos of SPO!”

The production will take place at St Paul’s Church, Clapham SW4 0DZ. The performance dates are Thursday to Saturday, June 29th & 30th, and July 1st, 2023.

Auditions will be held in late January / early February 2023, with specific details being announced early in the New Year.  Any singers who wish to be considered can register now by emailing info@stpaulsopera.org

Eleanor Burke is a director and movement director, working internationally. She is the Founder and Artistic Director of Green Opera, the first environmentally sustainable opera company.

 At 23, Eleanor became the youngest director ever accepted onto the Jetta Parker Young Artists Programme (2022-24) at the Royal Opera House, London. She was a Staff Director at Theatern Krefeld und Mönchengladbach and has worked with companies including Opera Holland Park, English Touring Opera, Silent Opera, British Youth Opera and Royal Academy Opera.

 Her upcoming productions include world premieres of William Gardner/Matthew Green, The Prisoner (Royal Academy of Music); and Eleanor Burke/Logan Lopez-Gonzalez, 555: Verlaine en Prison (La Monnaie); as well as a programme of opera scenes on the Royal Opera House Mainstage.

 Eleanor's production of The Cunning Little Vixen (Hampstead Garden Opera) has recently been nominated for an Off West End Award. Other work includes Bluebeard's Castle (Green Opera); Le Loup-garou (Gothic Opera); and Nazli Tabatabai-Khatambakhsh/Emily Hazrati, TIDE (Britten Pears Arts, Aldeburgh Festival).

​Her revivals have included Don Pasquale, Rusalka, Die Zauberflöte, Dialogues des Carmélites, Carmen (Theatern Krefeld und Mönchengladbach); Mansfield Park: UK Tour (Waterperry Opera Festival). This season she assisted on revivals of Tosca and Tannhäuser at the Royal Opera House and will be returning to Opera Holland Park to assist on Hänsel & Gretel.

 Eleanor holds a First Class Degree in English Literature from Trinity College, Cambridge where she was a choral scholar, and was a Fellow at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama.

John Paul (JP) Jennings Musical Director

American conductor John Paul Jennings has quickly emerged onto the scene as a young conductor of note. He is Music Director of the Suffolk Youth Orchestra, and Assistant Artistic Director of Regents Opera, leading performances of critically acclaimed productions of Strauss’s Die Agyptische Helena and Verdi’s La forza del destino. He received great praise for performances of Bartók’s Bluebeard’s Castle with Green Opera (working with Eleanor Burke) for the Arcola Theatre’s Grimeborn Festival in 2022.

 As a guest conductor, John Paul has conducted concerts with Thames Philharmonia, and the East Anglia Chamber Orchestra. Other highlights include BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra’s Emerging Conductor Showcase in 2022, conducting the ENO orchestra in a masterclass with Martyn Brabbins, and assisting Toby Purser with the Philharmonia Orchestra’s performance of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony at the Royal Albert Hall.     

 John Paul was the James Horner Scholar at the Royal College of Music and Resident Music Scholar of the Robert Anderson Trust. He studied with Toby Purser, Howard Williams, and Peter Stark, and has participated in masterclasses with Sir Antonio Pappano and Sir Roger Norrington. Highlights at the RCM include a highly acclaimed performance of Schoenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire, as well as numerous concerts with the RCM Philharmonic.  He also studied conducting at the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague. A semi-finalist in the Blue Danube International Opera Conducting Competition, he frequently coaches’ singers in preparing their operatic roles, and comfortably works in English, French, German, Italian and Czech.

 Future engagements include assisting on Regents Opera’s Ring Cycle, having completed Das Rheingold in November 2022, continuing with Die Walküre in May 2023.