Our production for 2001 was Verdi’s Macbeth.

The Performances

There were two performances of the opera to full houses in the Big Schoolroom of Sherborne School,  on Friday 17th and Saturday 18th August 2001.

The Production

The production, celebrating the Verdi centennial, was a collaborative venture with São Paulo ImagemData, State of Pará Government and FUNARTE - National Funding of Arts, Brazil, who will use the same production in April 2002 at performances in São Paulo, Belo Horizonte and (with Patrick Shelley conducting) Belém.

The Brazilian connection did not stop there - the roles of Macbeth and Macduff were sung by two young soloists who had only a few months earlier gained first and second places in a prestigious international singing competition in Belem, Brazil.  For Daniel Lee and Eduardo Itaborahy this was their UK debut and they sang their roles with considerable distinction alongside Christine Bunning as Lady Macbeth and Michail Milanov as Banquo.

The sheer quality of the soloists and the orchestra was impressive enough, and we attracted some excellent reviews.  However, we also take considerable pride in providing for the young members of our chorus an unforgettable fortnight of hard work during which they learnt much about singing technique and stagecraft, and which gave them the particular thrill of performing on the same stage as inspiring soloists.  This year the demands on the girl's chorus in particular were huge, with many lines of the vocal score to learn in Italian and a complex set of movements on stage when they were witches at the start of Acts I and III.

What our young participants thought about it

While we are always encouraged when our audiences tell us how much they have enjoyed our performances, we take some care to ensure that the newer and younger members of the chorus and stage crew also enjoy, and benefit, from the experience.  Here is a selection of their views:

For Luise Breyer (19) this was her first experience of Dorset Opera.  She thought it absolutely brilliant and in putting an opera together with professionals and amateurs in only two weeks was impressed by the nice atmosphere and ambience, and how we all worked together.

Emma Berry (16) is now intent on a singing career.  She found the friends I have made in just two weeks with Dorset Opera are probably some of the most talented and inspiring individuals I have met (in one place) for a long while.

For Lucy Fry (19) this was her second season with our chorus.  The highlights for her were Eduardo' Itaborahy’s aria in the refugee scene in Act 4, Christine Bunning's amazing stage presence and professionalism, and the inspiration given by the Chorus Master, Gareth Jones.  She was very depressed when we all left.  It’s really the people who make it so special.

Georgina Toscani, 19, wanted to join our chorus to get experience working in a production with professionals before starting her first year at Royal Holloway.  She was not disappointed and was particularly enthusiastic about the friends she made, the confidence she gained with everyone being so encouraging friendly and fun when rehearsing long hours.

Some of the younger members of the stage crew also enjoyed the experience.

For Lucy Grayton, 16, her only previous stage experience was in amateur dramatics in Suffolk.  She learnt a lot about lighting and sound, and found that in Dorset Opera you can meet some very different people, and even through all the hard work produce an amazing show.

Andrew Morley-Smith, 17, enjoyed his second year with the stage crew, and acted from time to time as the Director's Assistant.  He found the opportunity to work alongside a professional director enormously rewarding.

We hope we have convinced the reader that Dorset Opera really is something special.  David Edelsten writing in Country Life said " it is an aesthetic miracle performed annually at Sherborne School by a wide circle of experts and enthusiasts, a production of extraordinary quality, with professional soloists.  Every year we go it seems better than the last: this was no exception." 

A Selection of press comments

David Edelsten, Country Life: … another treat awaited us at home, Dorset Opera were staging Verdi's Macbeth. In case you have jumped to the wrong conclusion and think that Dorset Opera must be hedge opera, let me tell you that it is an aesthetic miracle performed annually at Sherborne School by a wide circle of experts and enthusiasts, a production of extraordinary quality, with professional soloists. Every year we go it seems better than the last: this year was no exception.                          

Robert Boas, L'Opera Milan:  The major success of the evening was the Lady Macbeth of Christine Bunning who was making her Sherborne début. Her lower register is not strong but she produced radiant tone on and above the stave, displaying an expressive mezza voce and soaring effortlessly over the large unsunken orchestra. She defied usual practice by remaining on stage for the final phrase of the sleepwalking scene with its high D flat but the sound was so beautiful that one would not have had it otherwise……………..Patrick Shelley drew exciting sounds from his big ad hoc orchestra. The conductor occasionally overpowered the soloists' pianissimi but achieved impressively clear textures; the sleepwalking scene was memorably haunting while the much disparaged battle music caught fire in a manner I had never previously experienced.                                                         

 Robert Thicknesse, The Times:  Christine Bunning was in splendid voice, not remotely unsexed, effortlessly surging through the blaring brass with an old-fashioned, gutsy soprano, relishing successive crimes with horrible glee, laughing her victims to their requiem, producing some fantastic curdled chest-notes in her sleep and bringing that whole scene off with risky bravura…….The trip was worthwhile just for the stunning Macduff of the Brazilian tenor Eduardo Itaborahy, combining the sobs of a lost age of Italian singers with pure animal passion and something of Bergonzi in its literal ring of unmistakable class. Michail Milanov's cavernous Banquo was effortlessly magnetic…… a very impressive staging by Mark Clark which managed to fit the huge numbers of soft-shoe shufflin' witches and soldiers of the chorus on to the tiny, two-tier stage with great elegance, and was designed and lit with gothic twilights and sunsets as simply effective as a Japanese print……..The thunderous finales and exiles' chorus were movingly done…                                                                                                                                      

George Hall, Opera Now: In comparison with some of the rarities this enterprising company has essayed over the 27 years of its existence, Verdi's first Shakespearean opera is a mere commonplace, but it remains a major challenge……. the spirit of work itself - dark, passionate and elemental - came over clearly from both stage and pit.  …………..The Dorset Opera Chorus was well in the picture and the orchestra regularly splendid. …….Much of the credit for the musical quality of proceedings should go to conductor Patrick Shelley, whose understanding of Verdi's style was impressive. All the tempi worked effectively, both for the music and for the individual singers - not that frequent a combination.