The Magic Flute
On 4th July 2024, over 700 primary school children from all over Waltham Forest joined forces to perform in one of Mozart's most celebrated operas - The Magic Flute. Created and directed by soprano Maya Sapone, and produced by Waltham Forest Music Service, this unique children’s adaptation of the opera was made possible by Music Education Hub funding from Arts Council England and the wonderful resources from the Royal Ballet & Opera’s CREATE & SING programme.
Lighting equipment generously provided by AR-Events and Southwark Playhouse; Extra equipment provided by AB Lighting and generously supported by Big Penny Social; Backdrop kindly provided by Battersea Arts Centre; Sound equipment by Wilding Sounds; Photography by Monika S. Jakubowska; Videography by Sergej Novosad; Lighting Design by Petr Vocka; Video Editing; by Maya Sapone.
The Little Choir of Joy is run by Waltham Forest Music Service, which, as part of the East London Music Alliance, is the Lead Organisation for London East Music Hub. Children aged 5-12 years from schools across the borough meet weekly to rehearse and have fun making music together.
Led by opera singer and choir director Maya Sapone, the choir enjoys performing an eclectic range of repertoire from folk, pop & rock to opera. In 2019 the choir performed on BBC Radio 2 as part of the London Borough of Culture. In July 2024 they performed an adaptation of The Magic Flute opera by Mozart, a project produced by Waltham Forest Music Service in partnership with the Royal Ballet & Opera ‘Create & Sing’ programme. This one-of-a-kind event featured more than 700 primary school children from around Waltham Forest. The choir performs regularly in venues across Waltham Forest including the William Morris Gallery, Norris Hall, the Town Hall and Fellowship Square. In December 2024 the choir performed for Their Majesties The King and The Queen during their visit to Waltham Forest.
This year the choir celebrates its 10th anniversary and is currently working on a new children’s production of the opera Carmen by Bizet directed by Maya Sapone. The project is in partnership with the Royal Ballet & Opera and will be staged in July 2025 as part of the Waltham Forest Summer Music Festival.
THE RED ROOM Aalborg opera festival, Denmark. Opera in one act based on a short story by the famous Iranian writer Sadegh Hedayat. Set 1930s Iran, The Red Room is an intimate drama with overtones of Gothic horror that explores nihilism and philosophic despair. An exquisite performance given by ensemble Fantômas.
ANTI GONE is a newly commissioned two-hander play written by the Russian playwright Evgeniya Palekhova. Evgeniya’s latest two plays were staged at Theatre Doc in Moscow (‘Russia’s most daring theatre’ (BBC).
In this contemporary take on Sophocles tragedy, directed by an award-winning director Ovlyakuli Khodzhakuli, Xameleon Theatre explores the subjects of tyranny, abuse of power and living under dictatorship regimes.
Antigone is an arresting and timely re-imagining of the eponymous classical Greek tragedy. It presents a haunting story of a torn family and a woman who dared to say “No” in a country shaken down by unrest and tyranny.
A mixed bill, premiered at Lilian Baylis Studio, Sadler’s Wells Theatre 2019.
Four contemporary dance works have aligned, taking the audience on an exploration of reflection, purification, self and identity. An energetic path that illuminates the significance of our connection as human beings is navigated through unspoken word in Ley Line.
In partnership with the Japan Foundation London and with the support of Eden Court Theatre Scotland and Moonwalk Studio Italy, we connect three exceptional international choreographers James Pett, Travis Clausen-Knight and Kihako Narisawa and celebrate the work of these talented emerging artists, whilst breaking down barriers of countries, languages and culture.
Informal Between Trailer
(Filmed by Julian Langham, edited by George Winfield)
The Tarot at the Edinburgh fringe festival August 2019. Directed by Joanna Vymeris.
Dance, Physical Theatre and Circus
Our show is unique – a different show every day determined by the cards drawn by an audience member.
The operatic spectacle Faust, Alberta explores the tragic story of Doctor Faustus and his fatal deal with Mephistopheles from a contemporary angle. A Nameless Man finds himself in a remote cabin surrounded by frozen snowfields. He doesn't know who he is nor where he is from, only that something is after him - an unstoppable machine that hunts those who fell from grace. In nine scenes, he tries to collect his memory. Triggered by snippets from his past, he slowly starts to put the pieces together.
The operatic monmologue will be performed by Benjamin Bevan, whose engagements include Henry Cuffe in Britten’s Gloriana and Der Sprecher in Zauberflöte (Royal Opera House), Lescaut in Boulevard Solitude by Henze (Royal Danish Opera and Welsh National Opera), and work with BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, among many others.
Opera in the city 2018 Festival,
Music Director - Simone Spagnolo
Stage director: Pamela Schermann
Set and costume design: Cindy Lin
Lighting design: Petr Vocka
Assistant set and costume design: Joanna Townley
Cast: Benjamin Bevan, baritone
Musicians: Alda Dizdari (violin), James Greenfield (cello), Ross Thomas (clarinet), Ric Elsworth (percussion)
With one of Puccini’s greatest masterpieces, Clonter presents the history of a love affair, from the first tentative encounter to its devastating end. As a young poet and dress-maker fall for each other, romantic idealism is confronted by the reality of poverty, and the lives of a small group of friends are transformed forever.
Production set in the mid-20th Century and sung in Italian with English surtitles, and orchestra.
Rodolfo - Bechara Moufarrej
Marcello - Alexey Gusev
Colline - Connor Baiano
Schaunard - Jolyon Loy - Baritone
Benoit - Pedro Ometto
Mimi - Mirjam Mesak Soprano
Musetta - Erika Baikoff
Alcindoro - Pedro Ometto
A Waiter - Marcus Harman
Music Director & Conductor - Clive Timms
Director - Harry Fehr
Assistant Music Director - Robin Humphreys
Set & Costume Designer - Grace Venning
Lighting Designer - Peter Petr Vocka
Photographs by Pauline Neild
Opera in the city 2018 Festival,
Gluck’s opera is based on the Greek myth of Orpheus, who - unable to accept the death of his beloved wife Eurydice - descends into the Underworld to bring her back. Moved by his pleas, the Spirits grant him permission, but there is one condition: while leading her out of Hades, he must not turn around and face her. The timeless love story will be presented as a modern fairy-tale in a new, English translation and with a musical arrangement for piano, violin, flute and harp by musical director Andrew Charity.
Stage director: Pamela Schermann
Musical director: Andrew Charity
Set and costume design: Cindy Lin
Lighting design: Petr Vocka
Assistant set and costume design: Joanna Townley
Cast: Caroline Kennedy (Eurydice), Lawrence Olsworth-Peter (Orpheus), Lizzie Holmes (Amor). Musicians: Nina Kopparhed (violin), Lianna Jefferey (flute), Zita Silva (harp).
‘Love: paternal, possessive, unrequited, unknown. Coppélia explores what happens when desire dominates reason, when jealousy leads sanity astray, and when, as so often in love, all is not quite as it seems. The infamous ballet will be stripped bare, swallowed and spat out through the compelling voice of contemporary circus, transforming this Hans Bellmer-esque tale of a mechanical doll into a Freudian nightmare. The powerful story of infatuation, mechanisation and domination, will be realised in an experimental, multidisciplinary fashion. Circus, film and spoken word sit side by side, a unique examination of love and the uncanny, with Chinese Pole, Cyr Wheel, Aerial Hoop, Dance Trapeze, Juggling, and Hand to Hand performances.’
Director/ producer – Joanna Vymeris
Assistant producer – Gillian Vymeris
Technical director and lighting designer – Petr Vocka
Designer – Connie Dent
Stage Manager – Matthew Gardner
Assistant director – Gareth Mattey
Publicity designer – Charlotte Randall
Photographers – Abi Rice, Noel Shelley, Mark Neal, Be a Cadwaller
Film maker – Izabela Barszcz
Poet – Sophie Leseberg Smith
Coppélia. – Nathalie Alison
Dr Coppélias – Michelle Ross
Swanhilda – Laura Moy
Franz – Pascal Haering
Clonter’s production of Mozart’s timeless comedy is set in 1930’s Spain during the civil war, exploring class dynamics, and a strong gender divide, with wit and heartrending emotion.
Sung in Italian with English surtitles, and orchestra.
Musical Director/Coach – Clive Timms
Director – Stephen Medcalf
Assistant Music Director – Robin Humphreys
Designer – Nate Gibson
Lighting Designer – Petr Vocka
ORA concert at The Cutty Sark, Greenwich
“The choir were on stunning form throughout, and constantly impressed with the sense of control and power. Ora has now developed a very clear sense of identity, and Suzi Digby gets a powerfully focused performance from her singers. Ora’s commissioning project remains a striking example of confidence in the contemporary composers..” Planet Hugill, 2nd February 2017 **** 4 Stars
The play about the fictional Roman general Titus Andronicus is thought to be Shakespeare’s first tragedy, and is his most violent work. It is a story about revenge and cruelty set during the latter days of the Roman Empire, which shocked and fascinated audiences since its first performance in 1594 where it premiered at The Rose Playhouse.
"Savage, brutal, astonishing to watch. Korean director Jung Han Kim's experimental adaptation of Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus at the Rose Playhouse is thrilling."
Assistant Director: Stevan H Mijailovic
Costume & Prop: Yole Lambrecht
La Traviata (The Fallen Woman) is based on the famously scandalous novel, La Dame aux Camélias by Alexandre Dumas.
Clonter’s production of this Verdi masterpiece, directed by Christopher Cowell, aims to reveal the darkness beneath the sparkle of a rich and hedonistic society. Paris in the 1840s is the setting of Dumas the Younger’s seminal work, which recounts a thinly-veiled version of his impetuous affair with Marie Duplessis. She becomes the Violetta Valéry of Verdi’s opera. Her life was brief but incandescent as a courtesan among the lesser Parisian nobility. Tragically, her career was cut short by a fatal consumption and by her immediate abandonment by the circle of whom she was once such a fêted centre point. A father’s affection for his children proves a ruthless opponent to her search for the experience of “real” love before she dies. Moral superiority, hypocrisy and indifference all play their part in her ruin. The production will concentrate on the disintegration of a life that strives for redemption through one act of self-sacrifice, but is nevertheless judged immoral by the society that created her, used her and then destroyed her.
Music Director & Conductor – Clive Timms
Director – Christopher Cowell
Assistant Music Director – Robin Humphreys
Set & Costume Designer – Eleanor Wdowski
Production shots Pauline Neild
The Winter’s Tale at the Holy Trinity Church, Guildford High Street
Directed by Caroline Devlin
Designed by Neil Irish
Sound by Matt Eaton
