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, Blow, Donizetti, Flotow, Floyd, Gounod, Leoncavallo, Mascagni, Offenbach, Puccini, Purcell, 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 current members of the Committee are:
Alastair Macgeorge worked for 40 years in the consumer movement - 28 years with Which? and, post-‘retirement’, supporting fledgling groups all over Eastern Europe and Central Asia from 1991 to 2003. These post-Soviet travels yielded a musical bonus in the shape of some truly memorable performances of rare operas in unlikely places. An early starter on the piano but never a great practiser, he infuriated his father, a gifted accompanist, by ‘strumming’ (i.e. playing what came into his four-year-old head). This led to a lifetime of music-making in many contexts – in domestic chamber music, accompanying singers and instrumentalists, and in composition - notably the score for Murder in the Cathedral in St. Michael's, Highgate, in 1991, and a few songs, choral pieces and other small-scale works. He joined HGO on day one as its rehearsal pianist, and has been deeply involved with its development ever since, latterly as Chairman.
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.
Oliver-John Ruthven is Music Director of Hampstead Garden Opera Company (L’Elisir d’Amore November 2008, Susannah April/May 2009) and Founder Director of the Oriana Ensemble. He was cover conductor to the Royal Ballet for their 2008 production of The Dream, and was Acting Director of the Hallé Youth Choir from October 2007 to April 2008. He also works extensively in Music Theatre and is busy as a freelance singer. He is looking forward to conducting HGO’s forthcoming productions of Venus & Adonis/Dido & Aeneas (November 2009) and La Clemenza di Tito (April/May 2010).