Box Office opened last Thursday, to our newsletter subscribers, with a bang. We have sold half a house in the first day (450 tickets) and now only have 3 1/2 houses to sell.
In true Pinchgut style, we threw a terrific party on Wednesday night and called it the “Pinchgut Opera Fundraising Cocktail Evening”, as it was intended to raise funds for this year’s production of L’Ormindo and make a bit of a splash around Sydney and further field. These objectives were certainly met (going over our target by about $7,000).
Her Excellency Marie Bashir, the Governor of NSW, opened the evening with some kind words, setting the tone of the evening. It was then on to some fine performances by Fiona Campbell, Jane Sheldon, David Greco, Cantillation, and soloists from the Orchestra of the Antipodes, with Antony Walker conducting. Plenty of food and wine all beautifully coordinated by MC Guy Noble in the foyers of The Australian Museum – made for a magic evening.
The other objective of the evening (as is the objective of the entire company) is to have heaps of fun. This was happily achieved, with the last few days taking lots of calls and emails to that effect. One from our resident bassoonist Simon Richard:-
“ Last night was fun wasn't it? It is a pleasure to work for a company which treats its employees with such decency, affection and respect, right down to the lowliest bassoon player and lighting gaffer. Under such conditions you will never have a shortage of people eager to give freely of their time and goodwill!”
I’ve also spent the last day calling 22 winners of the Raffle – always a delightful job and think every winner said, “Really? But I never win anything.”
So today I thought this was the appropriate day to start the Blog for the year…
And a video of the evening with Fiona, David singing "Sound of Parley" from King Arthur by Purcell:-
I look forward to bringing you more news in the lead up to opening night on 2 December 2009 of L'Ormindo.
Anna
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