Hampstead Garden Opera (HGO) was founded in 1990 by Dr Roy Budden as an evening class at the Hampstead Garden Institute, and became a charitable trust (registered charity no. 1092649) in 2002.
This multi-ethnic company strives to achieve professional standards within an amateur framework, and performs two fully-staged operas in English each year. All parts are, wherever practicable, double-cast. Principals are expected to sing chorus and/or minor roles on their “off nights” unless there are exceptional circumstances. Since HGO has no regular independent funding, each participating member is asked to make a donation towards the cost of its productions. Membership donations are payable immediately upon a role being offered and accepted – and at the latest at the first rehearsal (unless payment in instalments has been agreed in advance). Members are also expected (within reason) to sell a minimum of 10 tickets each.
‘Upstairs at the Gatehouse’, Highgate Village, in the London Borough of Camden, has been HGO's home since March 2001. HGO is affiliated to NODA and Barnet Borough Arts Council.
The original intention was to concentrate on the major operas of Mozart, but the repertoire has since expanded to encompass works by Bizet, Donizetti, Flotow, Gounod, Leoncavallo, Mascagni, Offenbach, Puccini, Johann Strauss and Verdi. Since arriving at ‘Upstairs at the Gatehouse’, HGO has produced operas such as Mozart’s Cosi fan Tutte, Figaro’s Wedding and The Magic Flute, Offenbach’s Orpheus in the Underworld and The Tales of Hoffmann, Puccini’s Il Trittico, Bizet’s Carmen and Puccini's Madam Butterfly. See the list and details of HGO's previous operas.
The President, since 2007, is Penelope MacKay, AGSM, HonARAM.
The current Trustees are:
The music director is Robin Newton. Anne MacGeorge is the Secretary of the Committee.
Penelope Mackay was born in Yorkshire and trained at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama, London. Having spent most of her professional career in opera (Glyndebourne, English National Opera, Covent Garden, Opera North, Flanders, Liège, Graz, New Opera Company, English Opera Group and English Music Theatre), she began her teaching career in 1988, combining it with performances at Covent Garden (Cunning Little Vixen) and Her Majesty’s Theatre (Phantom of the Opera). Penny is responsible for coaching in French Song at the Royal Academy of Music and French diction and phonetics both there and at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama. She is also a professor of singing in both institutions with a wide brief, teaching undergraduates on the classical and the jazz courses at GSMD, and postgraduates in both institutions on the opera courses, music theatre and early music courses. Penny was granted her Primary EVTS Licence by Jo Estill in May 2002. She has recently been involved with the Britten Pears Young Artists programmes at Snape Maltings, coaching on the opera, oratorio and French song courses.
