what's on...
The Burning Question (La domanda scottante) The Music Troupe at the Tete-à-Tête Festival The Cockpit Theatre, London NW8 8EH Thursday 1 September 2022 music by Edward Lambert words by Norman Welch & Edward Lambert with additional material by Ambrose Bierce (1842 - ca. 1914) and the Latin Requiem Mass |
![]() Director: Jim Osman Design: Alexa Moore Arianna: Rosalind Dobson (soprano) The Pope: Arlene Belli (mezzo-soprano) Ignacio: Philip Clieve (tenor) S. Pietro: Samuel Lom (bass) Piano duet: Susan Norman & Elspeth Wilkes |
Attended by a demonic manservant and an angelic maid, the first female Pope has died. She now wants nothing less than a cosy retirement in paradise, but Someone has other ideas and the elevator going upwards gets stuck. It's a Day of Wrath! What does St Peter, the Caretaker, know? Does he hold the key to the plot? Accompanied by piano duet and a choir of heavenly voices, this is a satire that confronts the ridiculous, the sublime, love, death and comic opera all at the same time.
Rosalind Dobson is a soprano in the Alexander Gibson Opera school at the RCS, where she studies under Wilma MacDougall. Recent appearances include Miss Wordsworth in Albert Herring (Clonter Opera) and the Controller in Flight (RCS). She is the 2022 winner of the Ye Cronies Opera Award.
|
Philip Clieve is a British tenor from Lancashire and a recent graduate of the prestigious National Opera Studio. Having worked with some of the UK's leading opera companies (Opera North, WNO, ENO) he is in demand both on the stage and recital hall.
|
Arlene Belli is an Italian mezzo with Middle-Eastern ancestry, graduate of the Conservatorio S. Cecilia in Rome, winner of the first prize in 2018 at the Simone Alaimo Competition and a recipient of the Sybil Tutton Opera Award 2021. Recently Associate Artist at the National Opera Studio in London.
|
Samuel Lom studied at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, the University of Warwick and Universitat der Humboldt in Berlin. At home in the bass and baritone repertory, Samuel is also a keen advocate of new music and appeared in 2 Tête-à-Tête shows in 2019. He is also a librettist and translator.
|
Coming up soon...
The Duchess of Padua
a parlour opera in four acts after the play by Oscar Wilde Performances planned forJanuary/February 2021 have been postponed A Gothic drama of revenge, passion and murder turned into a ‘parlour opera’… In this early play by Wilde, the beauty of his verse mattered more than the realistic portrayal of character and the credibility of the drama. At times melodramatic, at times sentimental, with everything in between, this adaptation faithfully follows the twists and turns of Wilde's extraordinary plot and reveals it to be more modern than it seems. Designed to make a big impact in small spaces this is a grand, ‘Italian-style’ opera with arias, ensembles, a love-duet, and a death scene condensed for just four voices and piano duet. The performance lasts about 1 hour 40 minutes including interval |
What's still to come: