Opera Holland Park named Best Opera Company of 2010

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City of London Sinfonia is delighted to congratulate Opera Holland Park, which has been named the Best Opera Company 2010 by the Sunday Times Review of the Year.

"Five hits out of six, with excellent stagings of Carmen and Don Giovanni, the most convincing La forza del destino here in decades, and a rare outing for Zandonai's potboiler Francesca da Rimini." 

In the best opera productions of 2010, the Independent on Sunday said: "Conductors Stuart Stratford and Brad Cohen conjured the thrill of La forza del destino and the sorrow of Pelléas et Mélisande in Holland Park."

City of London Sinfonia has been resident orchestra at OHP since 2004 and is very much looking forward to this summer’s festival, which includes favourites such as Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro and Verdi’s Rigoletto along with lesser-known gems such as Catalani’s La Wally. For more information and to book please visit the Opera Holland Park website.

 

Christmas come to the City

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This Wednesday saw CLS's annual performance of Handel's Messiah at St Paul's Cathedral. To a packed audience of 2500 people, this concert heralds the real start of the festive season for the City of London and it is an honour to be a part of it each year. Annual performances of the Messiah have been staged since its composition in 1742, and by the end of the 18th century it had become a national institution.

And on Thursday (16th December), we return to St Paul's for another Christmas institution - the Christmas carol service, which features celebrity narrators and a chance for the thousands-strong audience to get involved and sing along (maybe the CLS staff team will go in for the descant again this year!). Amidst the twinkling candles and historic grandeur of the Cathedral, it's a fantastic way to hear the orchestra and get into the festive spirit at the same time.

Tickets are available from St Paul's Cathedral but it's always hugely popular and if you're unable to secure any, for the first time ever this year the concert will be relayed to Paternoster Square outside the Cathedral on big screens. So bundle up warm, come along and help welcome in the festive season with beautiful music and a historic setting!

More information is available here 

And the tree? Well, we couldn't resist sprinkling a bit of Christmas magic on the CLS office. Happy Christmas!

 

Brightening up a cold Sunday with Carnival sounds!

This Sunday saw CLS’s family concert, Crash, Bang, Wallop! offering the sounds of the carnival to our audience at Cadogan Hall. Before the concert, children made jingling bracelets, musical stick puppets and had the chance to make their own instrument – a shaker or a drum – to play during the concert itself. Some pictures from the day are below.

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The next Crash, Bang, Wallop! concert at Cadogan Hall is on Saturday 26th March 2011 and features the story of Jemima Puddleduck. Hope to see you there!

 

 

The glamorous world of the arts

For the past few months, there have been ever-increasing boxes of old milk cartons, water bottles and plastic food containers piling up in our office. Visitors to CLS HQ might think that we are either displaying worrying tendencies to hoard rubbish, or are fanatical about recycling. The answer is somewhere between the two – we have a family concert coming up this weekend, and as part of the pre-concert activities for children offer them the chance to make their own instrument so that they can participate in the music-making. So we’ve stocked up on rubber bands, dried beans and chopsticks (as beaters, you understand) and are very much looking forward to helping the youngsters to make drums and shakers, all beautifully decorated with CLS stickers. The theme of the concert is ‘Carnival’ (read about our partners for the concert, the Ebony Steel Band, below) and the programme will feature Milhaud’s jazz ballet music ‘The Creation of the World’ as well as more familiar music and songs to get the whole audience involved.  These concerts are always great fun – relaxed, inclusive and above all a great introduction to live orchestral music – and we’d love to see you there.

Crash, Bang, Wallop! Family concert. For children aged 5 and up.

Cadogan Hall, London

Sunday 28 November 2010

 

11am Creative activities

12 noon Concert

 

Tickets from www.cadoganhall.com or call 020 7730 4500.

 

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-          Marylka Gowlland, CLS Development Manager