The passion of opera meets the adrenalin of improvisation. Impropera is opera improvised on the spot from the audience’s suggestions. Without the use of a score, a script or a safety net.
Synopsis
How does one describe the pure enjoyment of virtuoso musicianship combined with the agile wit of improvisation? In a world of dumbing down, here is a show for an audience that revels in the skill and sparkle of such programmes as QI, I’m Sorry I Haven’t a Clue and The News Quiz.
Impropera create opera with an anarchic irreverent edge. Led by David Pearl, who made his ROH debut aged 9 with Placido Domingo in 1970, the Impropera Company also features Comedy Store regular Niall Ashdown, sensitively powerful soprano Morag McLaren, clarinettist Peter Furniss, musical director Anthony Ingle on piano and regular guest artists Andy Morton, Adey Grummet, Louise Crane and BBC Maestro’s Zoe Martlew. With an entirely new show every night, fresh from six brilliantly inventive minds and voices, Impropera can make a musical production about absolutely anything. With a bit of help from the audience in the way of suggested phrases, words or scenarios, Impropera draws you into their world of diverse characters – perhaps a chorus girl who never gets the part, a rapper, a parking attendant, or a pompous barrister; sung with profound emotional commitment and comedic verve. The passion of opera meets the adrenalin of the unknown. Impropera is on-the-spot opera improvisation using audience suggestion, without score, script or safety net. You’re invited to be part of a new show built afresh every night, led by six brilliantly inventive minds and voices.
Brilliant Ingenuity – The Times. Irresistibly Funny – The Daily Telegraph
Act 1
Act 2
www.impropera.co.uk
Musical Director: Anthony Ingle
Artistic Director: David Pearl
Producer: A K Bennett-Hunter
Assistant Producer: Kat Nugent
Company: Susan Bissat
Woodwind: Peter Furniss
Cello: Zoe Martlew
Soprano: Morag McLaren
Soprano: Adey Grummet
Tenor: Andy Morton
Baritone: Niall Ashdown
Musical Director: Anthony Ingle
Artistic Director: David Pearl
Producer: A K Bennett-Hunter
Assistant Producer: Kat Nugent
Company: Susan Bissat
Woodwind: Peter Furniss
Cello: Zoe Martlew
Soprano: Morag McLaren
Soprano: Adey Grummet
Tenor: Andy Morton
Baritone: Niall Ashdown
Biographies
Anthony Ingle (Musical Director) Anthony started improvising on the piano at the age of three, has written original scores for over sixty musico-theatrical productions and is Director of Music for Productions at LAMDA, and Musical Director of Opera Circus.
Peter Furniss (Woodwind) Peter is a teacher, animateur, composer and conductor. Having played the recorder since birth, Peter took up the clarinet at the age of seven and has been making it up as he goes along ever since.
Morag McLaren (Soprano) Morag has performed in a wide variety of opera as well as her critically acclaimed one-woman shows. Notably she played Carlotta in Lloyd Webber’s Phantom of The Opera, Her Majesty’s, and Mrs Segstrom in Sondheim’s A Little Night Music at Royal National Theatre.
Niall Ashdown (Baritone) Niall is a comedian, actor, improviser and writer. Comedy Store regular, he has also improvised in Lifegame, Animo, Improbable Tales, and on TV’s Whose Line Is It Anyway.
Andy Morton (Tenor) Andy Morton is from Dorset. He has recently appeared for Opera East, Opera della Luna, Opera Circus, and English National Opera, as well as in premieres of Darwin’s Dream, Royal Albert Hall and Pinocchio, Royal Opera House.
Adey Grummet (Soprano) Adey works hard to defy classification. She has created over a dozen roles in new operas for contemporary composers, led projects as a vocal animateur for the BBC and ENO Baylis, and can play the Hawaiian guitar on her nose.
Zoe Martlew (Cello) Zoë performs internationally as a soloist, with contemporary bands, and her one woman cabaret show. A jury-member for BBC2 TV’s Maestro and UK panel member for 2009 Eurovision song contest, she draws the line at Dutch music.