We’re preparing for a busy autumn with both the R&D of our new adaptation of The Elixir of Love and our ever popular series of concerts for older people across South London. Based on similar concerts developed during lockdown and the following years we’ll be performing for a variety of carehomes and lunchclubs for elderly groups in Merton, Wandsworth and Croydon. The groups will be entertained with opera, musical theatre, classical songs, piano solos and old musical theatre classics for everyone to sing a long to! Hugest thanks to our funding from National Lottery Community Fund to enable us to provide these!
The team performing this autumn will be:
Felicity Buckland
Felicity trained at the RNCM and on ENO’s Opera Works programme.
Felicity’s 2023/4 season appearances included Flora La Traviata at ENO (cover); Rosina The Barber of Seville (Bradford Opera Festival); Amneris Aida (Kentish Opera); Meg Page Falstaff (West Green House Opera), and concert performances of Mendelssohn Elijah and Beethoven Symphony No. 9. She has sung principal roles at ENO in both of Phelim McDermott’s celebrated productions of Philip Glass: first Kasturbai in Satyagraha, then Ankhesenpaaten in Akhnaten, and she will return to the Coliseum in early 2025 as Mary Livingstone in Thea Musgrave’s Mary, Queen of Scots.
Past operatic highlights include: Wellgunde The Rhinegold (Birmingham Opera); Carmen (Baseless Fabric Theatre/Grimeborn/Kentish Opera); Lily Porgy and Bess (Theater an der Wien); Nicklausse The Tales of Hoffmann (Kentish Opera), La Cenerentola (High Time); Olga Eugene Onegin (Opera Up Close, Opera South East); Rossweisse Die Walküre (Grange Park Opera); Beggar Woman Sweeney Todd, and Paquette Candide (West Green House Opera).
Felicity is in demand on the concert platform, and has made solo appearances for the BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall, at Royal Festival Hall, and with the BBC Concert Orchestra. She is also a singing tutor and experienced animateur, leading music workshops for groups of all ages and abilities across the UK.
Elspeth Wilkes
Born in Leigh-on-sea, Essex, Elspeth studied at King’s College, London, Trinity College of Music and Royal Academy of Music. She has performed at venues including St John’s Smith Square; Linbury Studio, Royal Opera House; St Martin-in-the-Fields; Kings Place; Trafalgar Studios; Savoy Theatre, West End as well as performing recitals in Greece, Spain, Portugal, France and South Africa. Elspeth has performed at the Ravenna music festival, Italy, the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and the Dublin Gay Theatre Festival where she won the ‘Oscar’ award.
Elspeth has worked with BBC Wales, Royal Ballet, Royal Shakespeare Company and Southbank Sinfonia and has performed for HRH The Princess Royal. She also performs regularly for the charities Lost Chord Foundation and Music in Hospitals working with people suffering from dementia. Elspeth has worked as a repetiteur/musical director with many opera companies including Opera up Close (winning an Olivier award for La Boheme), Opera Brava, Merry Opera, Northern Ireland Opera, Kings Head Opera and Opera de Bauge. Elspeth is the conductor of Thurrock Choral Society and assistant conductor of Barnes Choir and is a member of the Bridgetower Ensemble.
Claire Wild
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).
