Blog

Re-imagining opera for the high street: the libretto

After the success of last year’s Cosi Fan Tutte and with the amazing opportunity afforded by Wimbledon Foundation’s Arts & Community Engagement Fund, we were excited to get to work on the tricky but satisfying process of adapting another opera for performances along the high street to reach audiences who might never go to see an opera in a traditional opera house / theatre venue.

As we’d had such positive audience responses to our adaptation of Cosi, we decided to have the same team re-writing Die Fledermaus – myself, Artistic Director Joanna Turner, re-writing the libretto (the words the characters sing) and Leo Geyer re-writing the music (changing what’s written for a full orchestra to 3 instruments, changes to vocal lines and of course making sure our massive cuts work musically). Together Leo and I also cut the opera down to about an hour and adapt it to make sense for the modern high street. Read more

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School kids considering a career in opera!

Holy Trinity Primary School Workshop

A few weeks ago we had a great time running workshops for various primary and secondary schools across Merton and Wandsworth teaching Years 5 & 6 about opera as part of our Die Fledermaus project.

We asked our brilliant workshop leaders James, Elliott and Danae to tell us a bit more about how they went….. Read more

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We’re a Merton Best Business Award Finalist!

We are thrilled to have been chosen as a Merton Best Business finalist in the ‘Best in the Creative Sector’ category! We are so delighted to have our work recognised locally as part of these awards as we are committed to embedding our work in our home borough of Merton and offering something different and exciting to our local audiences and the participants in our workshops.

We’re looking forward to meeting the other finalists at the awards ceremony soon!

 

Blog

Die Fledermaus School Workshops

Students workshop at St Marks Academy

As part of our exciting Die Fledermaus project we are running a series of workshops in primary and secondary schools across Merton & Wandsworth this July. These workshops teach young people about opera giving many of them an insight into an art form they might not otherwise encounter. They learn about what opera is and who is involved in creating it; the story and characters of Die Fledermaus and our modern adaptation; they learn to sing and act out the characters of a section of the opera themselves; and they get to hear a professionally trained opera singer sing right next to them and sing with her!

We can’t wait for our three talented workshop leaders to get working with all these schools in a few weeks. Meanwhile, you can learn a bit more about them here: Read more

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“Altogether I’m sure Mozart would agree it couldn’t be bettered!”

Cosi Fan Tutte 2018 Qube Centre, Colliers Wood

What a wonderful and busy time we had reviving our Cosi Fan Tutte production last week! It was fantastic to get the team back together rehearsing at our lovely local Lantern Arts Centre and presenting our original street opera adaptation in the Colliers Wood Qube Centre and in Mitcham town centre. Thank you so much to all the wonderful businesses for letting us perform in their stores – especially Sainsburys in the Qube Centre which was a new venue for us and The White Lion of Mortimer in Mitcham for the super kind round of drinks after the show! What a treat for thirsty performers! Read more

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Help us bring opera to new audiences!

Cast & Creative Team from Cosi Fan Tutte at The Offies Awards

We are looking for reliable, enthusiastic volunteers with an interest in theatre, music and community projects to help us create our Cosi Fan Tutte re-imagined for high street locations in Merton, South London.

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! To find out further details or if you have any questions please contact General Manager, Astrid Hilne.

Need more info? check out our Cosi Fan Tutte page.

We look forward to hearing from you!

Blog

Introducing the Cosi Fan Tutte 2018 Cast

We are delighted to announce the singers and instrumentalists for our Cosi Fan Tutte 2018 production.

Singers

Louisa Tee

Louisa Tee – Fiordiligi

Louisa trained as an actress at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama and then gained a scholarship to study singing at Trinity College of Music after which she attended the Opera Works course at the English National Opera. Louisa was nominated for best female in the Off West End awards for the role of Violetta in La Traviata at the Soho Theatre which then transferred to the Tricycle Theatre and toured to UK venues. She then went on to play The Countess, Le Nozze di Figaro which also toured the UK. Other roles include Mimi, La Boheme (Soho Theatre and UK tour) Donna Anna, Don Giovanni (Soho Theatre) Queen of the Night, Magic Flute (Hawaii Performing Arts Festival) Fiordiligi, Cosi Fan Tutte Grimeborn (Arcola Theatre) Louisa also directed Magic Flute and Orpheus in the Underworld for St Pauls Opera recently and has worked in the chorus of Opera Holland Park and Raymond Gubbay. Read more

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Sharing Creative Skills…

May has kicked off with a busy couple of weeks for the Baseless Fabric Team as we gear up for our Cosi Fan Tutte performances in June, prepare for our Die Fledermaus school workshops in July as well as collaborating with local theatre company Attic to run another successful Merton Creative Networking Event.

St Teresa’s Primary School opera workshop

In July we’ll be offering schools in Merton and Wandsworth opera workshops to give young people an insight into what opera is, hear a professional opera singer sing right next to them and teach them to sing and act out the characters of an opera duet themselves. We have professional drama practitioners, musical directors and opera singers leading these school workshops and as part of the process of choosing these practitioners for our forthcoming workshops we recently held a Skills Sharing Workshop to meet workshop leaders new to Baseless Fabric. Read more

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Introducing new members of our team!

It’s a hugely exciting time at Baseless Fabric and we have two new members joining our team. We’re thrilled to welcome Astrid Hilne as our General Manager and Rachel Barnett as one of our trustees.

Astrid Hilne

Astrid Hilne – General Manager

Astrid Hilne has been a professional theatre practitioner since 1986. Her theatre producing and directing credits include work at the Gate Theatre, Lyric Hammersmith Studio, Bridewell Theatre, Young Vic Studio and Royal National Theatre in London.

In the UK she has produced and directed (and translated) tours of new work and foreign classics to art centres and festivals. Astrid has also worked for Chichester Festival Theatre, Bath Theatre Royal and West Sussex County Youth Theatre. Further afield she has directed and lectured at Athens University, Ohio, USA, performed and directed in France and collaborated with Iindiza Theatre Company, in South Africa and the UK. Read more

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