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ETO announces appointment of
Associate Conductor Michael Rosewell and new support for Outreach projects at
the close of their spring tour English Touring Opera is
delighted to announce the appointment of Michael Rosewell in the new position
of Associate Conductor following successful final performances of Così fan
tutte, Mary, Queen of Scots and The (Little) Magic Flute at the Bath Festival
last week. Michael conducted Britten’s A
Midsummer Night’s Dream to great acclaim for ETO during the spring 2004 tour,
as well as performances of The Turn of the Screw for ETO’s first appearance at
the Buxton Festival last July. He will conduct ETO’s new production of
Janácek’s Jenufa, directed by ETO General Director James Conway, in spring 2006. Michael began his conducting
career in Germany, notably the Staatstheater Kassel, Staatstheater Wiesbaden
and the Nationaltheater Mannheim, before joining the music staff of the Vienna
State Opera where he worked closely with many of the worlds leading singers and
conductors. In Michael has a close affinity
with the works of Benjamin Britten and conducted A Midsummer Night’s Dream in
the Jubilee Hall, the first time this work has been heard in the original venue
since its world premiere in 1960. Other notable successes include the American
Opera Association’s top award for performances of Britten’s The Rape of Lucretia
in Michael is Artistic Director of
the London Phoenix Ensemble and Director of Opera for the James Conway, General Director
of ETO, said, “Michael Rosewell brings to ETO a wealth of experience in the
opera house, and a specialist knowledge of the development of young singers.
He's a man of the theatre, a sympathetic and critical listener, a brilliant
conductor and a good colleague. ETO is particularly looking to Michael to
develop our already outstanding orchestra.” English Touring Opera is also
delighted to announce the generous support of The Equitable Charitable Trust
for its special needs outreach work, in the form of £45,000 spread over three
years. Since its inception in 1984, ETO’s Outreach department has been a
pioneering force in introducing opera to people of all ages and abilities.
Recent projects include an interactive opera for primary schools called 40
Hares and a Cunning Little Vixen (based on Janácek’s The Cunning Little Vixen)
and the first tour of Jonathan Dove’s community church opera Tobias and the
Angel, involving 500 amateur singers of all ages. Some of ETO’s most successful
recent projects have been based around the integration of pupils from
mainstream and special needs schools, with composers and animateurs working
with students over a period of weeks to create new pieces of music theatre. One
such project in 2003, Ariadne in The grant from The Equitable
Charitable Trust will allow ETO to disseminate The Labyrinth CD-ROM to schools
across the country and to provide practical support for teachers who want to
set up similar projects. ETO will also coordinate eight such integrated
projects over the next three years, ranging in scale from the provision of
individual artists to fully developed school residencies. The work will
culminate in a mini-festival of shared performances at some of the schools we
have worked with in 2007. English Touring Opera’s next
integrated project is the staging of a new opera based on the life of Mary,
Queen of Scots in Doncaster and The music for the opera has been
commissioned specially by ETO from composers Helen Chadwick and Rachel Leach to
coincide with the end of the tour of Donizetti’s opera Mary, Queen of Scots.
The community groups have been developing the work with the two composers in
workshops over the last two months. The groups involved are a mixture of all
ages and abilities. There are children from six mainstream primary and
secondary schools, two special schools, and the Sheffield Community Youth
Choir. The adult groups are Movers and Shakers, a dance group for the over-50s,
and Doncaster-based Quirky Choir. In all, 250 people will take part in the two
fully-staged performances. English Touring Opera’s next
‘main stage’ performances will be Handel’s Ariodante at the Buxton Festival on
11, 17 and 22 July, a revival of the autumn 2003 production. All three
performances are nearly sold out. A revival of this spring’s The (Little) Magic
Flute for families opens for four months in September, and new productions of
Handel’s Alcina and Verdi’s Falstaff tour the country from October. For more information about any
aspect of ETO’s work, please contact Robin Norton-Hale, One Breath, a new
professionally-staged community opera, is performed at: · · Manor Lodge, 7pm on 18 June.
Box office 0114 249 6000 Tickets £2 adults, £1 children. Ariodante by Handel is performed
at the Buxton Opera House as part of the Buxton Festival: · Buxton Opera House, 7.15pm on
11, 17 & 22 July. Box office 0845 12 72190 Tickets £6 - £33. Information for editors ETO’s One Breath project is
generously supported by Youth Music, the PRS Foundation for New Music,
Sheffield Council, Abbey National Foundation, R M Burton Foundation, Sheffield
Town Trust and Askew Design and Print ( |
English Touring Opera gratefully acknowledges the financial support of Arts Council England.
