April 26 – Lucy Cox, soprano
May 3 – James Carter, countertenor
May 10 – Alex Brett, bass
May 19 – Domnhall Talbot, tenor
May 24 – Amrit Gosal, soprano
May 31- Daniel Tate, bass
June 7 – Wilfrid Jones, countertenor
June 14 – Jake Barlow, countertenor

Asteria: Kate Semmens
Irene: Joanne Edworthy
Andronico: Joseph Bolger
Tamerlano: Andrew Radley
Bajazet: Daniel Auchincloss
Leone: Giles Davies

Tickets
3 July (Preview) Download form here
6 July and 12 July New College Development Fund Call (01865) 279 337
7 July Download form here
9 July Download form here
10 July Friends of the Oxford Botanic Garden Call (07722) 605 787
13 and 14 July 2012 Friends of Welsh National Opera Call (01865) 408 045 orramatriv@btinternet.com

Credits
Conductor – Steven Devine
Director – Michael Burden

Conductor – Harry Sever

15 and 16 February 2013, 8.30pm
New College Ante-Chapel

Tickets: £12 / £6 concessions
at www.galileoinoxford.co.uk
or on the door

Philip Glass’s chamber opera, Galileo Galilei, is an essay on the life of the Italian scientist, philosopher, astronomer, and author of the texts A dialogue concerning the two chief world systems and Two new sciences. The opera’s libretto is based on excerpts of letters of Galileo and his family, including his daughter, Maria Celesta, and is constructed as a one act set of scenes. Dramatically, the opera works backwards. It opens with Galileo as an old, blind, man, under house arrest, and works in reverse order through his trial and inquisition for heresy; his break with the Church; his own struggle of belief in both religion and science; and the nature of his writings. The opera ends with the young Galileo watching an opera composed by his father, Vincenzo, who was a member of the Florentine Camerata. The subject of his father’s opera is the motions of celestial bodies, a theme which completes the cyclic nature of the opera already established by the backwards-moving plot. Other operas by Philip Glass include the trilogy, Einstein on the Beach, Satyagraha, and Akhnaten, and The Fall of the House of Usher, performed by NCO in 2008. His output also includes dance music, symphonies, concertos and chamber music. Photo credit: Steve Pyke

Cast
Sagredo - Johanna Harrison
Duchess – Christina Aileen Thomson
Marie Celeste - Esther Mallett
Eos - Gessica Howarth
Marie de’ Medici – Johanna Harrison
Maria Magdelena – Tara Mansfield
Oracle 1 - Tara  Mansfield
Cardinal 1 – Rose  Rands
Scribe – Edward Edgcumbe
Old Galileo - Nick Pritchard
Young Galileo - David Le Prevost
Pope Urban VIII - Daniel Tate
Cardinal Barberini - Daniel Tate
Oracle 2 – Samuel Poppleton
Cardinal 2 - William Pate
Salviati – Michael Hickman
Cardinal 3 - Michael Hickman
Priest – Samuel Poppleton
Father - Milo Comerford
Simplico – Ashley Francis-Roy

18 January
Sam Keeler, baritone

January 25
Aileen Thompson, soprano

February 1
Steven Grahl, tenor

February 8
Thomas Nicols, baritone

February 15
Katie Cochrane, soprano

February 22
Thomas Drew, tenor

March 1
Daniel Laking, countertenor

March 8
Amrit Gosal, soprano

First week – Anna Pool (mezzo) and James Poston (baritone)
Second week – Jake Barlow (countertenor)
Third week – Lottie Bowden (soprano)
Fourth week – Johanna Harrison (soprano)
Fifth week – Helena Bickley (mezzo)
Sixth week – Gessica Howarth (soprano)
Seventh week – Tom Hammond-Davies (countertenor)
Eighth week – Samuel Poppleton (bass)

Conductor: Harry Sever

Tickets: £10/£5 on the door

Harry is a second-year music student at The Queen’s College, studying singing with Giles Underwood and conducting with Toby Purser. As a singer, Harry has toured Japan, Hong Kong, America, and Europe both as a soloist and with a variety of different ensembles, and has made several recordings, including a recital of English song, and Schubert’s Die Schöne Müllerin. As a director, Harry has worked with choirs and orchestras in America and Australia, and now runs his own group – The Novalis Chamber Orchestra – based in Oxford. He currently holds the Michel academic scholarship at The Queen’s College, as well as the répétiteur scholarship at New Chamber Opera, and is working as a songwriter, arranger, and orchestrator for a number of groups, both in London and further afield. In his spare time, Harry is an amateur thereminist and keen sportsman, captaining the Queen’s College 1st XI and representing Oxford on the Australian Rules Football pitch.

27th April – Edward Edgcumbe, countertenor
4th May – Ashley Francis-Roy, bass
11th May – Tanya Sen, soprano
18th May – Joshua Powell, baritone
25th May – Daniel Laking, countertenor
1st June – Charlotte Robinson, soprano
8th June – Guy Cutting, tenor
15th June – Elizabeth Biddle, soprano

Book tickets here.

Eurydice – Julia Sitkovetsky
Orpheus – Will Blake
Calliope – Anna Sideris
Pluto – Dominic Bowe
Jupiter – James Geidt

Diana – Olivia Clarke
Venus – Tara Mansfield
Cupid – Esther Mallett
Mars – Tom Bennett
Mercury – Tiago Rito
Juno – Johanna Harrison
Hebe – Emily Shercliff
Aurora – Gessica Howarth
Apollo – Ashley Francis-Roy
Balloonist/Lift Man – Felix Leach

Cerberus – Samuel Poppleton, Dominic Oldfield, Andrew Hayman

Chorus: Ellen Timothy, Emily Meredith, Esther Drabkin-Reiter, Patrick Edmond, Milo Comerford, Paul Stapley

New Chamber Opera Studio presents a staging of Offenbach’s satirical and evergreen look at the Orpheus story. A scathing attack on Gluck and the famous Orpheus opera, it features such tunes such as The Infernal Galop, widely known as the Can-Can. It premiered at the Théâtre des Bouffes Parisiens in Paris on 21 October 1858, and ran for a staggering 228 performances, and has held a place in the repertory ever since. The story is based on the well-known Greek mythology of Orpheus’s descent to hell to retrieve the soul of his dead wife Eurydice. The work, which features well-regarded figures of ancient times in comical and bizarre circumstances, evoked an outcry amongst Parisian critics with its acerbic satirical tone, but this only resulted in greater interest in Offenbach’s work and subsequently led to its widespread popularity.

Plot
Act 1 Scene 1 opens in the countryside near Thebes. Public Opinion introduces herself as guardian of public virtue, before Eurydice enters and sings of the farmer Aristaeus whom she is in love with. Upon her husband Orpheus’s arrival, it is clear that they detest each other. Orpheus tells Eurydice that he has filled the cornfields with snakes as a trap for Aristaeus, and Eurydice tries to warn Aristaeus when he arrives but is encouraged by him to walk through the cornfields. Upon being bitten, Eurydice finds out that Aristaeus is the god of the underworld Pluto in disguise, and is led to Hades. Orpheus is delighted with his newfound freedom, but Public Opinion insists that he must retrieve Eurydice from the underworld for the sake of public decency.

Act 1 Scene 2 opens on Mount Olympus in the clouds at dawn. Jupiter chastises the gods for their unbecoming behaviour, and reprimands Pluto for having abducted a mortal woman. Unable to tolerate Jupiter’s hypocrisy any further, the gods interrupt Jupiter by mocking his own amorous exploits. Public Opinion then enters with Orpheus, and Jupiter instructs Pluto to return Eurydice to Orpheus, and all the gods follow Pluto to Hades to ensure that Jupiter’s order is obeyed.

Act 2 Scene 1 opens in Pluto’s boudoir, in Hades. Eurydice is finding the underworld very dull. Jupiter, who arrives with Pluto, finds out where Eurydice is being kept prisoner and manages to get through the keyhole of the door of her room by being transforming into a fly. Jupiter reveals his true identity to Eurydice and suggests that she should escape with him to Mount Olympus, in the midst of the chaos of Pluto’s party.

Act 2 Scene 2 opens in Hades. Pluto’s party is well under way with exuberant dancing, and Eurydice is present at the party disguised as a Bacchante. Jupiter tries to flee with Eurydice, but is stopped by Pluto who informs Jupiter that Orpheus is on his way with Public Opinion. Upon arriving, Orpheus demands for Eurydice to be returned to him, and Jupiter obliges – on the condition that Orpheus does not look back at Eurydice while leading the way out of Hades. The task is duly carried out, until Jupiter throws a thunderbolt just behind Orpheus, causing him to turn around in shock and thus losing his claim on Eurydice. All except Public Opinion is happy with the outcome, and the raucous cancan is reprised.

More information
www.orpheusinoxford.co.uk

This English version is by Geoffrey Dunn, and the performances are given by arrangement with Josef Weinberger Limited.

20th Jan – Tiago Rito bass
27th Jan – Simon Grange bass
3rd Feb – Jake Barlow countertenor
10 Feb – Guy Cutting tenor
17 Feb – Tal Katsir soprano
24 Feb – Thomas Stell tenor
2 Mar – Patrick Edmond bass
9 Mar – Domhnall Talbot tenor