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The Parting & Buster's Trip Our performance of 2 mini operas based on texts by Lorca (15 mins each) |
Recently...The Music Troupe
gratefully acknowledges the recent support of the following trusts and foundations: Vaughan Williams Foundation The Marchus Trust Gemma Classical Music Trust The Fidelio Charitable Trust The Greenham Trust Our productions' associated workshops have been sponsored by the Geller Institute of Ageing and Memory at the University of West London 
The Duchess of Padua at The Space, London and other venues
"Lambert’s music is spot on, fusing a traditionally dynamic Bel Canto score without feeling the least bit dated. It is always dramatic and flows seamlessly… glimpses of stunning beauty in the love-focused duets and arias... a tight score that never drops the excitement, Lambert’s gothic-inspired music fits so well, and the performers do such a strong job, that it is difficult not to enjoy it." (Broadway World) |
Masque of Vengeance at The Cockpit, London and The Stoller Hall, Manchester "... a taut and driven eighty minutes in which there is very little dead time. Powered along by a dynamic, pulsating score for piano duet, with soaring bel canto vocals and dramatic recitatives, there was never a dull moment to be experienced..." (Planet Hugill, November 2023) 
Our most slimmed-down operas have been The Parting & Buster's Trip for 3 singers and accordion performed September 2024 as part of a double bill at Tête-à-Tête: The Opera Festival
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Fleeting shots of recent productions...
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The Music Troupe was founded in 2014 by composer Edward Lambert and colleagues to perform, amongst other things, new small-scale operas. We wanted to bring back the art of beautiful singing into new operas that are designed for smaller spaces: works that aren't scaled-down productions of grand opera but new chamber pieces in which the music and drama are tailored, not trimmed, to an intimate experience. We want our shows to be as entertaining as they are economical. 13 productions later, the group has given valuable opportunities to a wide range of over 100 performers and creatives (see below). We have delivered performances in Manchester, Brighton, Yorkshire and Berkshire as well as London, and given workshops in schools and for those living with dementia. In 2020 we made a unique opera movie on location. We have further projects in the pipeline and are keen to secure funding to support an expansion of our activities.
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”…the next generation is looking to buy their vegetables at a farmers' market, not a supermarket. They want that taste, that crunch, that flavour. I think they're looking for more intimate musical experiences where you're close enough to taste the quality of the work. Opera can operate on many different levels, for many different metabolisms and on many different social scales and that diversity is a very good thing."
Peter Sellars, The Independent, 26/02/2015 The Music Troupe is a registered charity no. 1161386 Trustees: Ian Caddy, Susan Holmes, Richard Foster, Jenny Weston BEM Thank you to all the artists, venues, audiences and funders who have supported us. |
And for the future...
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In 5 Years' Time
Adapted from a play by Lorca which explores themes of frustrated love, personal identity, decay and death; yet it does so in the manner of a fairy tale, clothed in fun and topsy-turviness. Cast of 8; accompanied by an ensemble of 8 instruments 75 mins more info → |
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The Butterfly's Spell
In the world of insects, a Poet Beetle rejects the love of the devoted Sylvia in favour of an impossible infatuation with a fragile Butterfly whose destiny it is to fly away. A sad tale, but a comic opera which also features a drunken Scorpion, an overbearing Mother and Two Fireflies which glow in the dark. Suitable for all ages. From an early play by Lorca. Cast of 7; accompanied by an ensemble of 7 instruments 70 mins more info → |
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Swellfellow the Tyrant
King Swellfellow is a tyrannical dictator who gorges himself while his subjects starve. Can he and his sleazy ministers cling to power when the Countess returns from exile? And whose side will the Press be on? Still pertinent today 200 years after it was written, Shelley's satire is here made into an opera which is as comic as it is bizarre Written for community performance with some roles for amateur singers Cast of 10 and chorus; accompanied by an ensemble of 7 instruments 80 mins more info → |
