An Operatic Salon for the Modern Age
VICTORIA KINGHAM
The derivation of the word ‘opera’ is from the Latin opus – work, artwork, creation, realisation. This is indeed what local inspired company, Barefoot Opera, continue to achieve. Having developed from modest beginnings, they are now a significant and unique musical force, emanating from here but spreading their wings to London and throughout the South East.
In a quiet corner of leafy Decimus Burton country in deepest St Leonards stands an enviable house which must once have been a centre of local social occasions – balls, soirees, salons. In the enormous ballroom, atmospherically lit with a chandelier (holding real candles!) an actual salon was held, to mark the end of one successful season and the beginning of the next Barefoot year and new plans. “It’s so lovely” said one eager attendee, admitting she was not as a rule an Opera fan, “to hear this beautiful singing in such an informal atmosphere.” Many of the guests were Trustees or Friends of Barefoot, which is set up as a charity and survives through donations, Trustee contributions, annual Friends contributions and (comparatively small, but very necessary) grants from the Arts Council and other public organisations.
There was a decidedly salon atmosphere. The ballroom was crowded with friendly excited visitors and two or three convivial dogs. The invited singers clearly blossomed in front of this kind of audience, and their brilliance was surprising. They had been carefully invited (by Jenny Miller, opera singer, Barefoot founder and owner of the house) not only for their vocal ranges but for their ability to render well known, extremely challenging arias, requiring either expressive romanticism or the rare vocal dexterity given to relatively few singers. So it was that fiery soprano Katerina Oikonomou daringly performed the famous passage from Mozart’s Magic Flute in which the Queen of the Night denounces her daughter – very high, very fast, very brilliant – you’d know it if you heard it. Egor Zhuravskii sang Tosti’s Serenata with great feeling, serenading his distant sleeping lover with an exceptionally pure tenor voice. Zhuravskii and the other soprano, Kristina Nikiforova, are now local residents (and husband and wife).
Anthony Flaum, himself a banker-turned-singer who additionally runs his own opera company, Prolog Opera, is also now Artistic Director of Barefoot. He was the evening’s genial host, outlining past activities and future plans for the company.
Very striking was the evening’s feeling of inclusivity; members of the Board of Trustees handed out food and drink themselves, and effortlessly managed to address most of the guests personally. This unstudied informality is perhaps part of the success of the organisation; they intentionally challenge the notion that opera is elitist, by producing work that remains of the highest quality (vocally and dramatically) and simultaneously provides contemporary versions of opera classics that reach new audiences. They do, they work, they create, they realise; they define and redefine opera year by year.
Next year’s principal production will be Lucia Di Lammermoor, Donizetti’s 1835 musical rendering of Walter Scott’s original Bride of Lammermoor, written in 1819 but set in 17th century Scotland. Find out more about Barefoot Opera here: barefootopera.com Upcoming events: barefootopera.com/upcoming-events
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What a beautiful write-up, Victoria. As one of the trustees serving home-made nibbles, and revisiting my teen years as a waitress, it was truly a pleasure to be part of this magical evening.