 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
The Samling Foundation has been working with some of the world's best for the past ten years nurturing outstanding young singers as they embark upon their professional careers. Through Samling Opera, in partnership with Northern Sinfonia conducted by Thomas Zehetmair and directed by the Foundation’s Patron Sir Thomas Allen the Foundation produced the first of three planned Mozart operas at The Sage Gateshead in 2005. Cosi fan tutte starred six Samling Scholars - Carolyn Dobbin, Henriikka Gröndahl, Amy Freston, Mattijs van der Woerd, Rafael Vázquez and Richard Morrison. Nearly three thousand people from all over the North East and beyond came to Hall One at The Sage Gateshead to enjoy the production, which was recorded by BBC Radio 3 on the opening night and broadcast on Friday 8th July 2005. The production was
critically acclaimed by
local and national press -
The Guardian gave it four Education Programme
In tandem with the production The Samling Foundation, in partnership with the Learning and Participation Department at The Sage Gateshead, involved 42 gifted and talented teenagers - music and performing arts students from across the North East and Cumbria in an education programme. This was central to the project and involved the commissioning of scenes, based on the themes of the opera, by Susannah Waters, which explored the text of the opera through drama and music.
Taking the themes of love, betrayal, cynicism and idealism the students explored in workshop the motivation of the characters and took soundings, found parallels and explored the text, discovering their own resonances in one of the world’s great works. Through improvisation, creative writing and performance, they produced their own piece 'All the Girls Do It' in words, music and dance in response, which they performed in Hall 1 for an audience that included the director and cast of the opera production. Over 1000 school children were invited to attend a special free performance of Cosi fan tutte which was introduced by the director Sir Thomas Allen. CD-ROM and Website Our intention is to reach as wide a young audience as possible through a specially commissioned website and a CD-ROM, which can be used as a study aid in classrooms across the region. We aim to have this produced and distributed in Spring 2006 - a lasting legacy of the project.
The future for Samling Opera With two further productions in the planning stages - Don Giovanni in 2007 and The Marriage of Figaro in 2009 - the Foundation looks forward to exciting times ahead. "Six young and very promising Samling Scholars took on an enormous task and came through with flying colours. The fact that the BBC took a performance as a live broadcast has helped put The Samling Foundation very firmly on the map and we can, I believe, look forward to more exciting times ahead. The prospect fills me with tremendous pleasure." Sir Thomas Allen "Take a bunch of talented singers, a world class director, a
world class production team, a world class orchestra and
conductor add a world class venue, place them in the
flawless logistical and administrative hands of Karon
Wright and her Samling team, pour into a cauldron of
creativity and then liberally season with fun, good humour
and side-splitting laughter. Heat, simmer for three weeks
and then serve generously." Richard Morrison "The students worked incredibly hard and very professionally especially during the three Cosi FanTutte Allen's intention is to stage all three of the Mozart-Da Ponte operas between now and 2009, and on this evidence the remaining productions will be unmissable. The staging is minimal, with the singers exposed on a platform denuded of everything but a few pieces of bland leather furniture. Allen introduces a few simple elements of lighting and costume (for what is Cosi if not an opera about the possibilities of dressing up?), yet this is all he needs to create a perfectly realised theatrical universe. This is in no small part due to Thomas Zehetmair. An outstanding violinist, quartet leader and musical director, Zehetmair here proves that he's an exceptionally adaptable operatic conductor as well. And the line-up of young vocal talent he has to work with is not far short of outstanding. Henriikka Grondahl produces eloquent, beautifully supported tone as Fiordiligi, well complemented by Carolyn Dobbin's richer, chestier Dorabella. Rafael Vázquez's Ferrando floats effortlessly above the stave, but encounters greater difficulty removing the safety cap from his bottle of poison. Amy Freston's Despina wields a frightening pair of garden shears rather than a magnet while masquerading as the doctor, though it seems to have the desired effect. You could quibble slightly: what, for example, is a suite of sofas doing in the garden? But it doesn't really matter: Cosi is riddled with dramatic implausibility, yet Allen's experience makes it ring perfectly true.
|
 |
The students were given unparalleled access to the processes involved in staging opera at an international level. They visited the set, attended rehearsals and explored with the team – the directors, conductor, vocal consultant, orchestra and singers - the opera from the inside out.
REVIEW: 
Sage, Gateshead 
