Pinchgut’s Liz Nielsen sent
this from London today:
“While in London I have been tracking down the singers who will sing the principal roles in our production this year. How lovely to meet a young father who is bursting with excitement about his 6 month old son. Andrew's wife is Russian born and now they have a 6-month-old son who is very beautiful - I know as I have seen the photos on Andrew's iPhone. We went to the same coffee shop Derek Welton had introduced me to near Liverpool St Station, as it is a convenient place to meet. Andrew spoke of the very interesting time of change he has seen in Russia since he first went there. He is off again to Russia today for rehearsals for Die Fledermaus with the Bolshoi. He went to Russia originally to study piano but was persuaded that he had a voice worth concentrating on so that is how he became an opera singer even though he originally did not know a lot about opera. Although his family does not contain any other musicians, he now appreciates the many recordings of opera that his father had collected over the years and listens to them whenever he is in Australia.
He was interested to hear about Elena Xanthoudakis and Derek as he does not know them. Andrew has sung in the City Recital Hall Angel Place, Sydney and is wondering how we will make it work for an opera. His family are all from Sydney so there will be many people, apart from our usual audience, happy to see him there in December with his wife and baby. It was good to be able to tell him about our loyal audience and our very supportive orchestra and chorus and how we will try very hard to look after his family when he is here in December.
His role in the Haydn for us covers a huge register so we are glad to have Andrew in this role as critics have commented on how he can go beautifully from register to register with great technique. What a treat this is going to be for us all."
The book office opened to our
subscribers only last Thursday, and so with only 5 days of selling – we have
sold over 22% of the house. So as not miss this special treat - book early and
book often!
Anna
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