Hampstead Garden Opera (HGO) celebrated its 20th anniversary in 2010 with performances of Mozart’s last two operas, both written and first performed in 1791 - The Clemency of Titus in April, and The Magic Flute in October/November.
The company was founded in 1990 by the late Dr Roy Budden as an evening class at the Hampstead Garden Institute, and became a charitable trust (registered charity no. 1092649) in 2002. HGO is affiliated to NODA and Barnet Borough Arts Council. Each year it performs two fully-staged operas with orchestra and in English, at ‘Upstairs at the Gatehouse’, a 100-seat community theatre in Highgate, North London, which has been its base since 2001.
All parts are, wherever practicable, double-cast. Principals with small roles will normally be expected to join the chorus on their performing 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. Members are also expected (within reason) to sell a minimum of 10 tickets each.
As a company we aim to provide opportunities for talented young singers, orchestral players and répétiteurs in the early stages of a professional career to gain on-stage and workshop experience, working creatively alongside loyal amateurs on an equal footing, in a friendly culture, and without the pressures inherent in the world of professional opera.
We have deliberately chosen to be part of the regular programme offered by a small, informal local community theatre, partly in order to attract people who may never have set foot in the big opera houses, and to revolutionise their whole concept of what opera is, and who it is for. In the intimate setting of Upstairs at the Gatehouse, audiences are drawn into the action, and feel the full emotional impact of operas both well-known and unfamiliar in a new and exciting way. We do our utmost to keep our costs and our seat prices well below West End levels, but without subsidies or substantial sponsorship, we still have to rely on ticket sales for around two thirds of our income.
The original intention was to concentrate on the major operas of Mozart, but the repertoire has since expanded to encompass works ranging in period from John Blow and Henry Purcell (late 17th century) to Carlisle Floyd (1954). Latterly, there has been a move away from the big 19th century operas: they are less suited to the voices we are currently attracting; and by and large they need bigger orchestral forces than we can muster. For the full range of works we have performed 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 Oliver-John began his musical career as a chorister at Westminster Abbey. He graduated in 2006 with a first class honours in Music from the University of Manchester. He has been Music Director of Hampstead Garden Opera Company since 2008. He has recently completed a year as keyboards apprentice to the Monteverdi Choir under Sir John Eliot Gardiner and has performed at the Proms and across Europe as a member of the English Baroque Soloists. He has previously held positions as cover conductor to the Royal Ballet and Acting Director of the Halle Youth Choir. Oliver-John is in demand as a continuo player, and is harpsichordist and co-director for Musica Poetica London. He is also busy as a freelance tenor, regularly singing for Philharmonia Voices and as a tenor deputy for Stile Antico.