Yesterday there was an early evening performance in Walter Hall by members of the UoT Opera.  Fourteen singers and two pianists in various combinations presented a total of eleven scenes.  The scenes were blocked with some basic props but concert dress, or rather whatever part of the singer’s wardrobe evoked their character fr them, which is probably more fun if you are singing Musetta than Dr. Bartolo.

Composers ranged from Donizetti and Bellini to Wagner and Strauss (both of them) via the likes of Offenbach and Delibes so it was a pleasantly varied programme.  Scenes varied too from solos to duets to larger ensembles, on a couple of occasions involving everyone.  The standard was very high and quite uniformly so, which hasn’t always been the case with this sort of student show.  It does though mean that a scene by scene review would be long and tedious!

So I’m just going to name check the participants and add a sincere “bravi tutti”.  Ana Isabella Castro, Nathania-Rose Chan, Cassandra Amorim, Avana Platt, Lyndon Ladeur, James Coote-Stevenson, Lissy Meyerowitz, Benjamin Done, Luke Noftall, Jun Lam Wesley Hall, Ellita Gagner, Alex Sorensen, Emily Rocha and George Theodorakopolous sang, Christine Bae and Spencer Kryzanowski handled the piano duties and Mabel Wonnacroft directed.