During late September/early October 2020 we headed to seven different care homes across Wandsworth and Merton to provide a concert to their residents and staff to try and bring some musical joy and lift spirits during these difficult times of Covid 19. Kindly funded by Wimbledon Foundation, Merton Giving and Sylvia Waddilove Foundation we performed outside in the car parks and gardens of care homes so that residents and staff could safely enjoy our socially distanced performance. Check out our video for a peek at what we got up to! Read more
This week we are kicking off our opera care homes project! Soprano Claire Wild and Pianist Elspeth Wilkes with a small team are visiting a number of different care homes in Merton & Wandsworth. We’re going to be Covid-19 safe with our team working in car parks and gardens at the care homes and have handgel, masks and thermometers at the ready!
Claire Wild – Soprano
Claire Wild attended the Royal Northern College of Music‚ sponsored by the Peter Moores Foundation and the Musicians Benevolent Fund. She won the Webster Booth Award‚ the James Oncken Song Prize and the Frost Brownson Award.
Highlights in recent seasons include Lilli Vanessi / Katharine in Kiss Me, Kate and Elle La voix humaine for Welsh National Opera, Susanna Le nozze di Figaro for Regents Opera and Petra in A Little Night Music for Opera Project at West Green House, Welsh National Opera as Emma in Khovanshchina and Garsington Opera as Caridad The Skating Rink, a newly commissioned opera by David Sawer.
Concert repertoire includes Elijah, Messiah‚ Carmina Burana, Bach St Matthew Passion, Mozart C Minor Mass. She has performed Dallapicolla Commiato and Stravinsky Pulcinella (Royal Northern Sinfonia) and Christmas and New Year Galas (Raymond Gubbay, Orchestra of Opera North, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic and London Concert Orchestra) and Messiah (City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra). Read more
Thanks to the generosity of Merton Giving and Wimbledon Foundation we are thrilled to be offering Merton & Wandsworth care homes an opera performance session in their garden or car park this autumn. Based on the successful format we have previously provided to older people’s lunch clubs at community organisations including Age UK, Commonside Trust and Wimbledon Guild we wanted to offer a musical session to help improve older people’s mental well-being during this difficult time. A professional opera singer and pianist will perform several songs and talk about their freelance careers and the work of Baseless Fabric in the garden or car park socially distanced from residents and staff.
If you know a local care home that would be interested and whose restrictions will allow for outdoor visitors this Sept please get in touch!
Meanwhile, we are also intending to offer care homes a full performance of our acclaimed modern English Die Fledermaus next year so that residents and staff can experience the joy of a full operatic story (and a very funny one with hilarious characters and super catchy tunes)! We currently have a fundraising target of £9k to give 6 care homes this opportunity (as well as providing work for 12 freelance professional artists who have all seen their income disappear during this crisis). We have various funding applications into trusts and foundations but if you are able to donate towards this joyful experience for local elderly please donate here!
Click to Support this Care Home Project!
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We’re 5 years old! On 22nd December 2014 we nervously registered Baseless Fabric as an official company and set up a meeting with a business bank account manager. It was all a bit scarily official. So how do we do this then?! Run a company, make work in public spaces, engage with our local community…
It’s been a quite mental 5 years and we have learned such a lot both creatively and practically in working out how to make it all happen. We couldn’t have done it without your support.
A First Class Death (2015)
A First Class Death at VAULT Festival, A Secret Life with Theatre 503, Reunion & Dark Pony in South London libraries, street operas Drifting Dragons, Cosi Fan Tutte and Die Fledermaus, Mitcham Library drama workshops, countless Opera Taster Workshops for local schools & sessions with elderly groups, and recently also 2 parallel productions for schools offering young people a chance to engage, explore and be imaginative with opera over a 7 month project. Not to mention becoming a charity 4 years ago! Read more
We are super excited to have Sophie Hamlet joining our Board of Trustees! Not only is she a brilliant accountant but she’s super passionate about theatre, opera and music and reaching new audiences. So we asked her a few questions so you could get to know her: Read more
Louisa & Giles at the Autumn Rose Club
It’s a sad time but we’ve come to the end of our amazing Die Fledermaus project over the past 18 months. We’re looking back on everything that we’ve achieved and all the brilliant people we’ve met, especially the fantastic young people in our Opera Taster Workshops and Parallel Productions and the wonderful older people in our sessions for elderly groups. We’ve had such fun in all the different activities of the project and are so proud of what everyone’s achieved. Read more
So that you can get to know #TeamDieFledermaus we thought we’d ask our brilliant singers a few questions about their characters:
What would your character have in their supermarket shopping trolley?
Falke: Vodka and crisps
Rosalinde: Nappies, formula, Pinot Grigio
Eisenstein: Stella and nappies
Adele: Smashed avocado, honey flavoured lockets, sugar free red bull Read more
Leo and Jo at Wimbledon Tennis Championships
This week our Artistic Director Joanna Turner & General Manager Leo Mercer headed to the Wimbledon Championships and Jo chatted to the Wimbledon Channel & everyone on Henman Hill about our exciting Die Fledermaus project supported by the Wimbledon Foundation’s Arts & Community Engagement Fund. Read more
We are looking for reliable, enthusiastic volunteers with an interest in theatre, music and community projects to help us create our Die Fledermaus re-imagined for high street locations across Merton & Wandsworth , South London between 1st – 14th August.
No experience necessary – all training will be provided! Volunteers will get a sneak peek into our rehearsals and travel expenses covered on performance days. We also provide tea & cake!
You only need to commit to a couple of hours per show – and of course you get to see the show too! Whether you can commit to one, two or all of the performances we’d love to hear from you!
To find out further details or if you have any questions please contact General Manager, Leo Mercer.
Need more info? check out our Die Fledermaus page.
We look forward to hearing from you!
Performance Dates
| Date | Time | Location | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Thu 1st Aug | 5pm | COLLIERS WOOD Starts at  Savacentre / The Qube, SW19 1DD |
FREE |
| Fri 2nd Aug | 11am | POLLARDS HILL Starts at New Horizon Centre cafe, CR4 1LT |
FREE |
| Sat 3rd Aug | 1pm | RAYNES PARK Starts at Waitrose, Raynes Park, SW20 0BS |
FREE |
| Sat 3rd Aug | 5pm | WIMBLEDON Starts at Elys, Wimbledon SW19 4DP |
FREE |
| Tue 6th Aug | 8pm | Arcola Theatre – Indoor Seated Version24 Ashwin St, Dalston, London E8 3DL |
Book at: Arcola Theatre |
| Wed 7th Aug | 8pm | Arcola Theatre – Indoor Seated Version24 Ashwin St, Dalston, London E8 3DL |
Book at: Arcola Theatre |
| Thu 8th Aug | 5pm | WANDSWORTH TOWN Starts at Southside Shopping Centre, SW18 4TQ |
FREE |
| Fri 9th Aug | 1pm | MITCHAM Starts at Morrisons, Mitcham, CR4 2JS |
FREE |
| Sat 10th Aug | 1pm | CLAPHAM JUNCTION Starts at ASDA, 204 Lavender HIll, Battersea, SW11 1JG |
FREE |
| Sat 10th Aug | 5pm | WIMBLEDON VILLAGE Starts at Bayley & Sage, 60 High Street, Wimbledon, SW19 5EE |
FREE |
| Tue 13th Aug | 1pm | MORDEN Starts at Oxfam, 31 London Road, Morden, SM4 5HT |
FREE |
| Tue 13th Aug | 5pm | TOOTING BROADWAY Starts at Tooting Market, Tooting High Street, SW17 0SN |
FREE |
| Wed 14th Aug | 1pm | ROEHAMPTON Starts at Roehampton Library, 2 Danebury, Ave, SW15 4HD |
FREE |
| Wed 14th Aug | 5pm | WIMBLEDON Starts at Elys, Wimbledon SW19 4DP |
FREE |
Mitcham Library Beatboxing Workshop
Click the video above to play it!
Easter already feels like a long time ago but before eating too much chocolate we had a fab week with nearly 70 brilliant young people aged 12 – 16 and 5 different professional theatre practitioners creating great stuff in Mitcham Library’s Merton Arts Space!
Beatboxing, stage combat, puppetry, theatre design and of course drama! Each of the workshops was fully booked with a waiting list and from our post-workshop feedback forms sent to parents, 64% of respondents said their child had never taken part in arts activities before, and over 70% said their child gained new friends, new skills, more confidence and a desire to take part in more arts activities in the future. In fact, 100% said they would like to take part in the future so I think we can say the workshops were a resounding success! Read more
