Audience reactions...
The Clemency of Titus - April 2010
The Birth of English Opera - November 2009
Susannah - April 2009
Elisir d'amore - November 2008
"[...] I deeply love seeing opera performed on a small stage, and it doesn't get much smaller than the upstairs theatre at the Gatehouse, my local pub in Highgate, which seats about 180. The immediacy and directness is enormous, you can hear all the words without the singers straining excessively and there's a requirement that they actually act. I've now seen several HGO performances here and thoroughly enjoyed them all - in many ways, far more than going to a full scale opera house. [...]" – David Karlin for Bachtrack. Read the full review
"[...] Quality characterised the recent production of this work by Hampstead Garden Opera. The Dionysus Ensemble under Music Director Oliver-John Ruthven played in its usual exemplary way. The reduced orchestration by Tony Burke and Amanda Holden’s English translation worked well. Bruno Ravella’s interpretation as Producer/Director was inventive and intelligent. The effective set by Sarah Bacon, evocative costumes by Madeleine Millar and intelligent lighting by Gary Dooley conveyed imperial opulence, humbler Roman life and fire in the Capitol convincingly. [...]" – Edmund Gordon for BUZZ. Read the full review
"[...] Conductor Oliver-John Ruthven set such a lively pace, with such momentum, that I was deceived into thinking there must have been more than the usual cuts in the score. There weren’t: if just felt swift and sleek, which is exactly what was needed. [...]" – Michael White for Ham & High. Read the full review
"[...] For a semi-pro venture, Hampstead Garden Opera is surprisingly good, ambitious and innovative; and its autumn show, staged as usual at the Gatehouse, Highgate, was a double bill that paired Purcell's Dido (which everyone does) with John Blow's exactly contemporary Venus and Adonis (which almost no one does). And hearing them back to back made me wonder why this coupling isn't standard [...] The two pieces make a broadly convenient fit in style and story. Both are about abruptly terminated love. Both leave a woman on the stage alone, without her man [...] And this production drew them even closer by superimposing a modern-day narrative that played one as a sequel to the other [...] There were commendable performances from Lucy de Butts in the double role of Cupid/Belinda, Christina Petrou as Venus, Rebecca Henning and Taylor Ott as a pair of decidedly perky witches, and above all from Helen Bailey as a warm and secure Dido who delivered her lament in an interesting way: not as grand tragedy but as the pale, exhausted monologue of someone numbed by grief. And why not? In this production it was, after all, her second time unlucky." – Michael White for Catholic Herald. Read the full review
"[...] Audience reaction suggested my absorbed pleasure throughout the evening as widely shared. The productions generated consistent audience involvement with immediately believable characters, far from the idealized classical figures so often portrayed. [...] Musical and dramatic standards were impressive. They amply met what must have been substantial demands from the conductor (Oliver-John Ruthven) and producer/director. Lucy Roberts (Venus), Henry Deacon (Adonis), Anna Whyte (Cupid/Belinda), Emma Watkinson (Dido) and Ashley Riches (Aeneas) had most chance to shine, and took it fully, but all other cast members also gave exemplary performances. The Dionysus Ensemble (just six musicians this time) played with great feeling and understanding." – Ed Gordon for BUZZ. Read the full review
Kate Molleson for Opera Magazine. Read the full review
Edmund Gordon for Buzz. Read the full review
"The best discovery so far of my time as music critic on this newspaper is Hampstead Garden Opera - a small, largely amateur company but assured, competent and ambitious." – Michael White for Ham & High. Read the full review
"The musical tour-de-force in the piece is Susannah's aria, The Trees on the Mountain, which was sung with stunning grace and power by Helen Bailey. [...] Because the drama works and because the music is so vivid and accessible, I'm convinced that Susannah is a great opera to attract new audiences to the genre, and I'm surprised that it's hardly ever been performed here in Britain." – David Karlin for Bachtrack. Read the full review
"Sitting in Upstairs at the Gatehouse greatly enjoying Hampstead Garden Opera's latest production, of Gaetano Donizetti's Elixir of Love, I thought how lucky we are to have this excellently run venue on our doorstep, with such an inspiring company to fill it. During the interval another Highgate Society member voiced a similar thought. The gratified reactions of the rest of the audience suggested many minds were working alike." – Ed Gordon for Buzz, the Highgate Society magazine. Read the full review
"Discovering Hampstead Garden Opera for the first time is like stumbling upon some ancient temple, whose rites and initiations have been going on for centuries, but to which one has not been privy." – Roderic Dunnett for Opera Now Magazine Nov./Dec. 2008. Read the full review
"To find Idomeneo staged upstairs at a north London pub by a small, deeply impressive company from Hampstead - in a production that would not have disgraced ENO or WNO - took one by surprise." [...] "Look out eagerly for the same company's comic L'elisir d'Amore in the autumn.!" – Roderic Dunnett for Early Music Today Magazine.
"Hampstead Garden Opera was founded by Roy Budden in 1990. It has mounted more than 30 productions, usually two a year with young professionals. This Idomeneo is its 11th Mozart staging, and, I dare say, the boldest. Idomeneo is a massive undertaking for a company with slender resources and mostly reliant on individual patrons. Hampstead offered excellence in every department." – Roderic Dunnett for Opera Magazine. Read the full review
"It's gratifying to be able to report that Hampstead Garden Opera's interpretation was thoroughly enjoyable. It was even tempting to return another evening. The well lit production was thought-provoking, the singing of a uniformly high standard, and the orchestral playing well up to previous high levels" – Edmund Gordon for "The Buzz".
"A small-scale production which suited the piece very well. Musical support was excellent with a good balance between the orchestra and the stage. Outstanding chorus work complemented some memorable prinicipal performances. One of the best productions of this work I have seen." – Paul Holgate for "NODA".
Reviews of this production included:
“...Combined with some of opera's most memorable tunes, the result is a production that's as relevant to our lives today as it was when it was written more than 200 years ago... For anyone new to opera, daunted by the high art of Covent Garden's Royal Opera House, judging by this show, Hampstead Garden Opera could prove an ideal introduction. It's neither high-budget nor slick as they come, but you couldn't really call this an amateur production, so professional were the performers... Eccentric costumes mixing opulent ballgown with neon futurist punk dispel any last notion of opera as stuffy...” - Camden New Journal, 26 April 2007
“...Musically it was sublime as always... On this occasion we were blessed with the very best once more...” – NODA, April 2007
Reviews of this production included:
“This production is evidence that, in its 16th year, HGO has established itself as a major cultural asset of north London, a showcase of the musical riches that we have in our community.” - Camden New Journal, 9 November 2006
“Another magnificent performance by my top opera company who just go on getting better and better” – NODA
