Thursday 12th August & Friday 13th August, 20.30
Virtuoso musicianship, agile wit and ingenious storytelling, Impropera is opera improvised on the spot from the audience’s suggestions. Aardvarks and arias. Tragedy and profanity. Come completely unprepared because anything is possible.
‘Brilliantly Clever and Irresistibly Funny’ (The Daily Telegraph)
Synopsis
“Rising to the audience’s every challenge, the company quickly weave a plot of brilliant ingenuity, embroider it with musical parody and bring wonder and joy to all.” The Times
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; where serious music meets surreal comedy. Improvised on the spot from the audience’s suggestions, Impropera makes you the maestro and what you say, goes.
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, powerfully sensitive soprano Susan Bisatt, clarinett ist Peter Furniss, with musical director Anthony Ingle on piano and are joined for Tete a Tete by regular guest artists Adey Grummet and Louise Crane. Other regular guests include Andy Morton, Zoe Martlew and Pip Eastop. With an entirely new show every night, fresh from six brilliantly inventive minds and voices, Impropera can make a musical production about absolutely anything.
“Indescribably Funny. Opera is long overdue this improvisational going-over – especially when it is done with the love and care of Impropera. The better their improvisation, the harder it is to believe it was actually improvised. This is not about musical pastiches but built one motional authenticity, realness and complicity.” Swedish Daily News
www.impropera.co.uk
If you would like to see video of last year’s Impropera production CLICK HERE!
Musical Director: Anthony Ingle
Artistic Director: David Pearl
Producer: Kat Nugent
Woodwind: Peter Furniss
Soprano: Adey Grummet
Contralto: Louise Crane
Tenor: David Pearl
Baritone: Niall Ashdown
Musical Director: Anthony Ingle
Artistic Director: David Pearl
Producer: Kat Nugent
Woodwind: Peter Furniss
Soprano: Adey Grummet
Contralto: Louise Crane
Tenor: David Pearl
Baritone: Niall Ashdown
Biographies
Adey Grummet (Soprano) Adey has created over a dozen roles in new operas for contemporary composers. Recently she has been developing new work with ROH, Sadlers Wells and the National Theatre. Tête à Tête has just commissioned her for the libretto for Circus Tricks, to go into production in February 2011.
Louise Crane (Contralto) has worked as a principal artist with Glyndebourne, ENO, the Monnaie (Brussels), Opéra de Lyon, ETO, Aldeburgh Festival, Opera Factory, Opera della Luna, D’Oyly Carte, Opera East and Mid-Wales Opera. A busy oratorio and concert singer at home and abroad, she has broadcast for BBC Radio 2 and 3 and Classic FM.
Niall Ashdown (Baritone) 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. He has co-written and starred in two series of Losers for BBC Radio 4 and is the renowned sports blogger Robbo
Peter Furniss (Woodwind) took up the clarinet age seven and has been making it up as he goes along ever since. He has performed internationally with a great many British ensembles, orchestras and opera companies, as well as being a member of Improprera for 12 years. www.peterfurniss.co.uk
Anthony Ingle (Musical Director) started improvising on the piano at the age of three, has written original scores for seventy-odd musico-theatrical productions and is resident Musical Director at LAMDA, and MD of Opera Circus. On the strength of last year’s Festival Impropera, he was invited to be MD of Tête a Tête’s Salad Days…..
David Pearl (Artistic Director, Tenor) David began singing at the age of nine at Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. He worked with Kent Opera and New Sadlers Wells Opera before co-founding Opera Circus in 1990. David is well known as a pioneer in arts in business work around the world as the Director of Pearl Group.