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For much of the last week I was either at home in Wheathampstead, a village just north of London, or rushing around London trying to fit in as much as I could during my brief visit.

I do love London and, having had a relatively nomadic life for most of the last 21 years, it really is my home. London is where my musical routes are embedded, the seed being firmly planted and nurtured when I was a choirboy at St. Paul’s Cathedral from 1993 to 1999. It is where my football team are, Come on you Irons!!, and where my family and ancestors have lived for most of the last 200 years.

As a Classical musician in 2015, London is an amazing place. Despite all manner of odds stacked against it, there is so much happening all the time. In addition to the big guns of ROH and ENO, the Opera scene is thriving with medium and small companies, professional and amateur, putting on new productions week after week in venues from small theatres, to pubs, to the spaces underneath railway arches and so on. And despite what some newspaper critics will have us think, people are turning up and enjoying it, and engaging in the art form, a thriving art form. Imagine how much more thriving it would be if there was the sort of state funding that the Germans enjoy…..

Great support

Without the funding structures that the Germans have in place, it is down to the individual company and artist to find the desired funding. As I mentioned last week, I have had to raise a not-insignificant sum to enable my attempt at a career in opera, and this last week gave me a chance to meet one couple who have supported me over the last year.

This particular pair are a lovely couple in their 80’s, who live in North London, and have been in the same house for the last 54 years. I stumbled upon their names when I was looking for funding last April, and wrote them a letter, telling them a bit about myself, what I have done, where I was going, how much money I was looking for. It was a bit of a stab in the dark, I had never met them before and I only knew that they had, at one point, supported the Opera in Covent Garden. Luckily for me they were interested by my letter, ‘it had a spark’ so they told me, and after a few phone calls to discuss things, they gave me some money that enabled me to attend the Solti Accademia Bel Canto course last summer.

Realising how important supporters are to a career in the arts, I spent the next few months sending updates about the course and the next stages of my career, and then a Happy New Year/Christmas message. Looking after the relationship and hoping to help them realise how grateful I am for their support. When I realised I would be in the UK for a week I thought it was very important to finally meet them. With the meeting arranged a few weeks ago, I headed up to their nearest tube station around 2pm on Monday where I was met by a short, elderly gentleman, wearing a large Cossack hat and with Verdi blasting out from his car speakers. Within a few minutes the conversation was flowing and I was amazed to learn how much of an Opera loving couple I had come to meet.

Mr kind supporter, I won’t tell you their names if you don’t mind, first attended an Opera in 1947, Carmen at the newly formed Covent Garden Opera company. Since then he has seen over 500 different operas, all over the world, from Sante Fe to Munich, Verona, Madrid, Stuttgart and so on. They have kept records of every show they have attended in that time, which included more than 30 Rigoletto’s, 9 different Performances of Britten’s Gloriana and 47 visits to see Mozart’s Cosi Fan Tutte! Even more remarkably, he has been to at least one performance of every single production at Covent Garden since that Carmen in 1947, that’s every single production at Covent Garden over 68 years. To think of some of the great singers they have seen, just the list of Tenors is impressive enough, Vickers, Gedda, Kraus, Bjorling, Di Stefano, Pavarotti, Wunderlich (they saw Wunderlich!!! Oh to have heard Wunderlich live!) and so on.

Here I was, having tea with Opera going royalty and all they wanted to really talk about was me, what I liked, what I was doing, what my wife did, how is Stuttgart, how can they help me in the future etc. It was very humbling to be treated in such a way and I left there, rushing to the next meeting of the day, with a reaffirmed sense of value in my Operatic journey. (That sounds ridiculously pompous, sorry)

Attending

One aspect I have enjoyed being in Stuttgart is that I get a free ticket to every show I am not in. This means I have seen 6 new Operas this season already, including last weeks harrowing Jenufa.

Whilst I was in London I was happy to be able to drop in two rehearsals of Royal Academy Opera’s new ‘Rakes Progress’, conducted by Jane Glover and in another great production by John Ramster. Sadly I can’t make any of the actual performances, but I would recommend them to any of you that might be able to go.

I also caught a lovely concert in St. George’s, Hanover Square. This was an hour long lunchtime event featuring Handel, Bach and Pergolesi and performed by a two singers and a baroque ensemble including a good friend of mine, Oliver-John Ruthven. It was a particularly enjoyable hour as it came after a competition first round, which I sang that morning, and it was great to be able to fit in seeing friends perform during my brief visit.

What else

The rest of my week included two singing lessons, much needed with the wonderful Gary Coward, some coachings and meetings with friends and colleagues. A last minute Bach John Passion at St. Albans Abbey, a lovely concert which happened to be attended by some friends from Uni, who it was great to see, and my understanding parents who I had had to rearrange meeting due to the concert.

I also got to actually see my wife for a few days, which is a bit of a novelty.

And now

Now I am back in Stuttgart, ready to play football this afternoon and sing Nabucco performance number 8 tomorrow, before flying BACK to the UK for a Messiah in Dorking on Sunday…..

The next few weeks includes the last few Nabucco shows, some auditions and concerts, here and in England. Better make the most of my day off!

Until next week,

Bye!

Ps: No idea about health this week, no time to exercise, plenty of time to grab unhealthy food…. Must do better!

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