FLORAL OPERA

presents a

STAGECRAFT WORKSHOP

with

John Ramster

John Ramster has offered us a date for another acting workshop. You may bring an aria, recitative, or show song, or you may arrange with someone else to do a duet or ensemble. He will then set up the scene and coach you in acting and interpreting it.

Each item will be allotted approximately 25 minutes – you can book two places or just one. This workshop is for singers at all levels; you don’t need necessarily to have had any stage experience, we encourage beginners to have a go, but we would ask you to memorise your piece to the best of your ability. There will of course be one of our repetiteurs present to play for you.

Listeners will also be welcome, and may get involved in acting in the scenes.

The date is Saturday, 17 January 2009, 1100-1800, and will take place in St Pancras Hall,

11 Lancing Street, next to Euston Station.

Please respond as soon as possible. This date is not far away, and we are about to start the Christmas/New Year shut-down season. It would be helpful if you would contact Lina even if you are not sure that you definitely want to book, so that she knows who is interested. If full, we will run a stand-by list but it will of course be uncertain whether we can fit you in. We reserve the right to cancel should there be insufficient applications by mid-June.

The charge for singing participants will be either £46 for one item or £87 for two (duets £25 each person); listeners may attend for £10 per day. A booking fee (£10 for singers) will be required to secure your place (otherwise we cannot guarantee to keep it) – it will be returnable if we do not have a place available. The balance cheque becomes due 2 weeks before the masterclass, when you become responsible for paying your fee even if you have to withdraw, unless you/(we) can find a substitute to take your place. Cheques should be made out to Floral Opera.

To apply, please contact Lina Johnsson, who is co-ordinating the session, sending her the attached application form – please remember to state how many slots you require. Her email is lina@sweetmusic.info. She will request the deposit cheque and give you an address to send it to (preferably accompanied by a printed copy of the application form).

With best wishes,

Gil & Gillian

Floral Opera Administrators

John Ramster

John is Drama Lecturer for the Opera Department at the Royal Academy of Music and regularly directs productions and scenes there with both the opera department and the post-graduate singers. He has also taught and directed at the Royal College of Music, the Guildhall, the RSAMD, as well as further education companies: Morley College, Birkbeck and City Lit. He began his operatic career with Glyndebourne where he assisted on over 20 productions, working alongside directors such as Peter Sellars, Trevor Nunn and Deborah Warner. As a freelance director he has recently worked with OTC in Ireland on Hansel & Gretel and The Marriage of Figaro, and the Portuguese company Opera Faber on Don Giovanni and L’elisir d’amore. He also teaches at the Ardingly AIMS Summer School.

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FLORAL OPERA is a non-profit-making educational group, which provides serious study courses for those who want to learn more about opera performance, with opportunities for studying stage-skills and opera singing in original languages to as high a standard as possible, under the direction of tutors with professional opera experience.

Floral Opera’s origins go back to the Practical Opera Weekends devised by Richard Gregson, which he and Nina Walker subsequently developed as part of the Royal Opera House’s educational programme. The courses are designed to provide training for singers of all levels of ability, whether they are intending to enter the music profession, or those with little experience who are seeking an educational course to study the practical aspects of opera. There are auditions for principals in the opera courses but none for chorus. Auditions for Masterclasses will be arranged at the tutors’ discretion.

Future plans: Masterclasses: Carlos Fernandez Aransay (25 January), Stagecraft: Annilese Miskimmon (7 March). Other masterclasses are planned for February onwards.

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APPLICANTS (please all enter your contact details below):

To: Lina Johnsson/Gillian Ward

NAME: …………………….. I enclose deposit / full payment (cheque to Floral Opera) ………

My choice of repertoire:…………………………………………………………………………

If new to us, please give a brief note of your experience:…………………………………………

(I have / have not changed my address/tel.nos. )

Please state how you heard about us……………………………………………………………………