The Peter Moores Foundation has given vast encouragement to British arts for half a century and subsidised dozens of important recordings that would otherwise have been unmade. Sadly, it is shutting down.
Here’s the press release, just in:
SWANSONG PROJECT
TO MARK the FINALE of the PETER MOORES FOUNDATION
and
50 YEARS OF PHILANTHROPY
1964 – 2014
The Peter Moores Foundation, set up by Sir Peter Moores in 1964, will conclude 50 years of charitable
activities with a SWANSONG Project taking place between 2013 and 2015, and involving 8 of the UK opera companies with which the Foundation has been most closely associated.
The 8 companies are:
Birmingham Opera, English Touring Opera, Opera North, Scottish Opera, Welsh National Opera, English National Opera, The Royal Opera Covent Garden, and Glyndebourne Festival Opera.
The Foundation is providing funding for each company to stage repertoire they otherwise would not be able to present without such support. Whilst two productions will take place in 2015, the Foundation itself will close down in April 2014. (see Appendix A for production details)
It is also planned to add one final recording to the Opera in English catalogue produced with
Chandos Records, bringing the total of complete operas recorded in English translation to 63 (excluding recital and operatic highlight discs).
Commenting on the Trustees’ decision to close down the Foundation, Sir Peter explained:
‘I started giving some modest financial support to a few young artists whom I met when I was still in my twenties (artists such as the young Geraint Evans, Joan Sutherland, and a burgeoning conductor, Colin Davis). By the time I set up my Foundation in 1964, when I was 32, that early experience had provided the guidelines for the kind of support I wanted to develop:
My aim has been to open doors of opportunity – but not to mollycoddle because, ultimately, an artist’s career or an organisation’s project, will depend on their ability to use that bridge of support for their further development, and as a platform on which to build up wider support.
To that end, the Foundation has always been a ‘hands on’ charity, initiating ideas, identifying where help could be given and projects advanced, rather than one that waits to ‘rubber-stamp’ (or not) requests for help. I wanted a broad scope for the Foundation, to support and initiate projects in education, health, community work and the visual arts as well as in opera. We’ve disbursed over £215 million in doing so, and are now pretty well spent up.
In opera we’ve aimed to make things happen that otherwise would not happen, to enrich the repertory with works that otherwise would not be heard, and, wherever possible to ensure that these reach and are accessible to the wider audience, whether that be through tours, broadcasts, education projects, recordings or in the cinema.
Our Swansong will support productions by Birmingham Opera, English Touring Opera, Scottish Opera, Opera North, Welsh National Opera, English National Opera, The Royal Opera Covent Garden, and Glyndebourne. While bringing our curtain down, we want to remind the world at large of the many ways, large and small, in which Opera and its enjoyment can be nourished in the United Kingdom. We want our Swansong to encourage other, younger, would-be or active philanthropists and charities to take up the baton. Spread the word! ‘
The PMF website - www.pmf.org.uk – will be maintained until 2015, as the Foundation’s archive and as a source of information for the Swansong events.
Details of Swansong Project and PMF support are given in following Appendices A, B, C
For further information, contact:
Helen Anderson
Press & PR Consultant, Peter Moores Foundation
Tel: 0207 735 1860 Mobile: 0774 760 3628
helen@helenandersonpr.co.uk 28 November 2012
APPENDIX A
PETER MOORES FOUNDATION – SWANSONG PROJECT 2013 – 2014/15
- Opera North – to stage Verdi’s Otello for the first time in its 33-year history. Music Director
Richard Farnes conducts 14 performances in Leeds and on tour, opening 16 January 2013.
- Birmingham Opera - Khovanshchina project – support for the creation of a new site-specific production of Mussorgky’s masterpiece with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, leading to performances in April 2014.
- English Touring Opera - support for two new productions over two seasons, touring 12-15 towns and cities in the UK:
Spring 2013: Donizetti’s L’assedio di Calais
Spring 2015: Donizetti’s Il furioso all’isola di San Domingo
- Scottish Opera - in celebration of the 200th anniversary of Wagner’s birth, a new production of Die fliegende Hollander directed by Harry Fehr, opening at Theatre Royal Glasgow in April 2013 before touring to Edinburgh. Last performed by Scottish Opera 25 years ago the opera now returns in the season celebrating the Company’s 50th anniversary.
- Welsh National Opera - Donizetti’s three Tudor operas,
Anna Bolena, Maria Stuarda, Roberto Devereux
Presented in consecutive productions, Autumn 2013, at the Wales Millennium Centre, Cardiff and on tour
- English National Opera - a major new production of a rarely performed work, featuring the full company, conducted by Music Director Edward Gardner. Details will be released in Spring 2013 when ENO announces its plans for the 2013-2014 Season.
- The Royal Opera, Covent Garden - UK premiere of George Benjamin’s Written on Skin,
March 2013, and new production of Rossini’s La donna del lago, May/June 2013, including
live cinema screening, 27 May 2013
- Glyndebourne Festival Opera - Donizetti’s Poliuto (to be staged in 2015 Season)
APPENDIX B
PETER MOORES FOUNDATION - SOME SAMPLES OF INITIATIVES
- Transatlantic Slave Trade Gallery
Opened 1994 in Liverpool’s Merseyside Maritime Museum to foster discussion and understanding about the heritage and true history of the Transatlantic slave trade, a subject previously rarely addressed fully by white or black people. The success of this led to the independent development of an International Slavery Museum which opened on the same site in 2007, with much of the original gallery at its core.
- Compton Verney art gallery, Warwickshire
Created out of the shell of a derelict 18th Century mansion, bought in 1993, opened in 2004
planned with the first-time visitor to an art gallery in mind - and within 90 minutes’ (or less) travelling from most parts of England. The PMF has provided Compton Verney with a basic endowment on which the award-winning gallery can build the necessary wider financial support to ensure its healthy future.
- Undergraduate Management Studies – University of Oxford
The Foundation endowed the first academic posts in undergraduate Management Studies to be established at Oxford in 1991. This paved the way for the development of the Said Business School .
- Endowment of Lectureship in Chinese Business Studies at Said Business School, 2004
- Endowment of Junior Fellowship in Chinese Archeology, Merton College, Oxford, 2010
- Stay on at School - project developed with Lord Pitt to encourage young people in the UK of Afro-Caribbean background to ‘stay on at school’ and go on to further education.
- Recording of the “English” Ring conducted by Reginald Goodall with English National Opera, live from the London Coliseum, 1973 – 1977
- Opera in English label with Chandos Records, established 1995
The world’s largest collection of operas sung in English translation features 62 complete operas as well as recital discs and opera highlights. It includes several historic recordings made between 1959 and 1984 and over the years has captured on stage and in the studio not only well-known recording artists but also preserved the artistry of many other singers who would not otherwise be well represented on disc.
- Recording of rare bel canto repertory with Opera Rara
The Foundation has championed the work of Opera Rara, enabling the company to research and introduce 43 works to its catalogue of rare bel canto operas, thus opening up to the public an immensely rich repertory previously only accessible to scholars.
- Bursaries and scholarships for young singers
From 1971 onwards, the Foundation has supported vocal students and postgraduates in their studies, as well as providing advice and help with further training during their early careers.
Continued/
- Opera audience development
Peter Moores Week in Liverpool 1991 – developed in collaboration with Brian McMaster , then Managing Director of WNO especially for first time opera-goers(included interval ‘watch the scene-changes’). All seats @ £2.50.
Scottish Opera For Youth – tours 1991 – 1995
Tour to Barbados 1991 from which Scottish Opera’s UK tour in 1993/94 to schools was developed. The 1993/94 tour embraced UK primary schools in London, Manchester, Liverpool and Birmingham – all areas where there are large communities of UK citizens of Afro-Caribbean descent.
The Magic Flute – film of Mozart’s opera (ie not a cinema relay of a stage production),
Directed by Kenneth Branagh, English translation of original German libretto by Stephen Fry
- Agriculture & Business education – Barbados
Scotland Beef Project – developed to help local farmers become independent
Business management scholarships – established to enable young Barbadians to study retail business in the UK
Appendix C follows:
APPENDIX C
PMF history of support to the 8 companies featuring in the SWANSONG Project
BIRMINGHAM OPERA COMPANY
PMF has supported the work of Birmingham Opera Company, and its predecessor (City of Birmingham Touring Opera) since 1996 when it began by supporting CBTO’s audience development programme 1996-97.
PMF has supported Birmingham Opera Company in particular for its innovatory work with local communities (a vital part of the company’s productions).
BOC productions supported by the PMF include:
2005 The Return of Ulysses (Monteverdi staged at Planet Ice – and abandoned ice rink)
2006 He had it coming (Mozart’s Don Giovanni staged in a disused Bank)
2007 La traviata (Verdi’s opera staged at the National Indoor Arena)
2009 Otello - at the Argyle Works (filmed and subsequently shown on BBCTwo)
2012 Life is a Dream - new work by Jonathan Dove, staged at Argyle Works, March 2012
2012 Mittwoch from Stockhausen’s Licht (world premiere for London 2012 Festival), staged at Argyle Works, August 2012.
PMF funded community access for this production
PMF Swansong support
Birmingham Opera’s KHOVANSHCHINA project 2012-2014
Mussorgsky’s great masterpiece will be performed by Birmingham Opera Company and the CBSO in Spring 2014. From Autumn 2012 BOC will be working on the project with a preliminary phase utlising Mussorgsky’s Songs and Dances of Death. This haunting and beautiful song-cycle for baritone and piano will provide the catalyst for producing 14 digital films in response to the piece, the aim being to equip participants with the training and editorial skills necessary to creating their own digital content. Live performances will take place all over Birmingham, in people’s living rooms, workplaces, shops, bus stops, and community centres. Throughout Autumn 2012, Birmingham Opera Company is also working with its Chorus to create a truly Russian sound for the performances of the opera in Spring 2014.
ENGLISH NATIONAL OPERA
1991 ‘Sponsor an Opera’ - an audience initiative for a production of Shostakovich’s Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk (May/June 1991)
1992 Revival of Berg’s Wozzeck (first performance by ENO since 1967)
2000 Verdi’s Ernani - First staging at the Coliseum - PMF support for casting, refurbishment and new staging based on Elijah Moshinsky’s 1979 production originated for WNO/Royal Northern College of Music (also supported by PMF).
Following the stage performances, it was recorded in a studio by Chandos Records for the Opera in English series (see also list of recordings below)
2006 Verdi’s Rigoletto - refurbishment of sets and costumes for Jonathan Miller’s production (February 2006)
Janacek’s The Makropulos Case - support for casting new production which was also recorded live at the London Coliseum for Chandos/Opera in English (see also list of recordings below)
2011 Monteverdi’s The Return of Ulysses (ENO co-production with Young Vic)
PMF funding for costs of engaging specialist musicians and instruments
ENO Benevolent Fund – contribution via concert at the Coliseum in memory of Sir Charles Mackerras
Young Singers
Many emerging young artists who received PMF Scholarships and other practical assistance from the Foundation, engaged in principal roles at ENO
ENO on Record - PMF initiated/supported Recordings
The Ring – conducted by Reginald Goodall
Recorded live at the London Coliseum by EMI, 1973 – 1977
Digitally remastered by Chandos Records/Opera in English
Rheingold recorded at performances, March 1975; released 1975
Reissued on Digital CDs by Chandos/Opera in English, 2001
Siegfried recorded at performances, August 1973; released 1974
Reissued on Digital CDs by Chandos/Opera in English, 2001
The Valkyrie recorded at performances, December 1975; released 1976
Reissued on Digital CDs by Chandos/Opera in English, 2000
Twilight of the Gods recorded at performances, August 1977; released 1978
Reissued on Digital CDs by Chandos/Opera in English, 2001
The Mastersingers – conducted by Reginald Goodall
BBC live recording at Sadler’s Wells theatre, February 1968
Digitally remastered by Chandos /Opera in English, released 2008
The Coronation of Poppea
Dame Janet Baker, Sadler’s Wells Opera Chorus and Orchestra,
Conductor: Raymond Leppard
BBC live recording at London Coliseum, November 1971
Digitally remastered by Chandos/Opera in English, released 2010
Werther
Dame Janet Baker, English National Opera Orchestra and Chorus,
Conductor: Sir Charles Mackerras
BBC live recording at London Coliseum, December 1977
Reissued on digital CDs by Chandos Records/Opera in English, 2000
La traviata
Valerie Masterson, English National Opera Orchestra & Chorus
Conductor: Sir Charles Mackerras
Studio recording, 1980, released by EMI, 1981
Digitally remastered and released by Chandos/Opera in English, 1999
Pelleas and Melisande
Eilene Hannan, Robert Dean, Neil Howlett, Sarah Walker, John Tomlinson
English National Opera Orchestra and Chorus
Conductor: Mark Elder
BBC live broadcast from London Coliseum, November 1981
Digitally remastered and released by Chandos/Opera in English. 2012
Mary Stuart
Dame Janet Baker, Rosalind Plowright
English National Opera Orchestra and Chorus
Conductor: Sir Charles Mackerras
Recorded live at London Coliseum, April 1982
Digitally remastered and released by Chandos/Opera in English, 1999
Otello
Rosalind Plowright, Charles Craig,
English National Opera Orchestra and Chorus
Conductor: Mark Elder
Recorded at London Coliseum, January 1983, released by EMI 1983
Digitally remastered and released by Chandos/Opera in English, 2001
Rigoletto
Helen Field, John Rawnsley, Arthur Davies, John Tomlinson
English National Opera Orchestra and Chorus
Conductor: Mark Elder
Studio recording, 1983, released by EMI 1984
Digitally remastered and released by Chandos/Opera in English, 2000
Continued/
Julius Caesar
Dame Janet Baker, Valerie Masterson, John Tomlinson
English National Opera Orchestra and Chorus
Conductor: Sir Charles Mackerras
Studio recording, 1984, released by EMI 1985
Digitally remastered and released by Chandos/Opera in English, 1999
Ernani
Julian Gavin, Alan Opie, Peter Wedd, Peter Rose
(Susan Patterson)
English National Opera Orchestra and Chorus
Conductor: David Parry
Studio recording by Chandos/Opera in English, July 2000
Released 2001
Falstaff
Andrew Shore, Yvonne Kenny, Barry Banks, Susan Gritton, Ashley Holland
English National Opera Orchestra and Chorus
Conductor: Paul Daniel
Studio recording by Chandos/Opera in English, May/June 2001
Released 2002
Lulu
Lisa Saffer
English National Opera Orchestra
Conductor: Paul Daniel
Studio recording by Chandos/Opera in English, May 2005
Released 2006
The Carmelites
Catrin Wyn-Davis, Felicity Palmer, Josephine Barstow, Orla Boylan
English National Opera Orchestra and Chorus
Conductor: Paul Daniel
Studio recording by Chandos/Opera in English, October 2005
Released 2006
The Makropulos Case
Cheryl Barker
English National Opera Orchestra and Chorus
Conductor: Sir Charles Mackerras
Live recording at London Coliseum, May 2006
Released by Chandos/Opera in English, 2007
Continued/
ENO & The Goodall Legacy - Special Events
2001 The Goodall Ring - an all-day event at the Coliseum, June 2001
marking the re-issue of Reginald Goodall’s seminal ‘English Ring’
recorded live 1973-1977, organised & funded by PMF
2008 The Genius of Valhalla - afternoon event at the Coliseum, November 2008
to celebrate re-issue of Goodall’s recording of Wagner’s The Mastersingers on Chandos/Opera in English . Included screening of Humphrey Burton’s Omnibus programme on Goodall, originally shown on BBC TV1.
Hosted by Humphrey Burton, the event brought together Norman Bailey (Wotan, Hans Sachs and many other roles with Sadlers Wells/ENO), Margaret Curphey (Eva in Mastersingers plus Gutrune, Sieglinde, Brunnhilde with Goodall), Anne Evans, John Lucas (biographer of Goodall), Anthony Negus,
Brian McMaster, Nicholas Payne, to discuss the Goodall legacy to ENO. Included written and recorded contributions from Alberto Remedios and John Tomlinson.
PMF Swansong Project
2014 Support for major new production of rarely-performed opera, involving full company, conducted by Music Director Edward Gardner. Details to be announced in Spring 2013
ENGLISH TOURING OPERA
Whilst PMF support has been credited for particular ETO productions since 2004, it should be seen in the context of the PMF’s overall support for ETO’s work:
- Enabling higher musical standards (vocal & orchestral)
- Developing young British singers through performance & coaching opportunities
- Building audiences and attracting support for education & community outreach programmes.
PMF support for ETO includes:
2004 Spring tour: Mozart The Marriage of Figaro
April – September : Tobias and the Angel co-production with Young Vic Theatre Co, as part of the Young Vic ‘Walkabout’ series produced whilst their new theatre was being built
2005 Spring tour: Mozart Cosi fan tutte
Donizetti’s Mary, Queen of Scots
Mozart The (little) Magic Flute (family orientated version, including local area schools and family workshops in Preston)
Continued/
2006 Spring tour: Puccini Tosca; Janacek Jenufa
Autumn tour: Baroque Festival Tour
Monteverdi Orfeo
Cavalli Erismena
Handel Tolomeo
Purcell Dido and Aeneas with Carissimi Jephte
2007 Spring tour: Tchaikovsky Eugene Onegin; Mozart The Seraglio
Late summer: Julian Joseph’s new opera, Bridgetower
Autumn tour: Handel Teseo; Haydn L’Infedelta delusa (sung in English with the title Country Matters)
2008 Spring tour: Carlisle Floyd Susanna; Mozart Don Giovanni;
Donizetti Anna Bolena
Autumn tour: Dvorak Rusalka; Bizet La tragedie de Carmen
2010 Spring tour: Mozart The Marriage of Figaro;
Donizetti Don Pasquale; Britten A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Autumn tour: Thomas Linley/Sheridan The Duenna;
Goehr Promised End
PMF Swansong project
2013 Spring tour: PMF funding specifically to enable ETO’s production of Donizetti ‘s L’assedio di Calais
2015 Spring tour: PMF funding specifically to enable ETO to stage UK premiere of Donizetti’s neglected masterpiece, Il furioso dell’isola di San Domingo
GLYNDEBOURNE
Audience development & touring 1997-2002
Glyndebourne on tour (formerly, Glyndebourne Touring Opera)
PMF supported 6 touring seasons, 1997 – 2002
Continued/
Glyndebourne Education 2006 – 2011
PMF support for Glyndebourne’s education activities over six years, 2006-2011, included ‘Opera Experience’ 2007 – part of the schools’ programme, and Schools’ performance at Glyndebourne of Britten’s The Turn of the Screw
Glyndebourne Festival Opera - Rarely performed opera
1995 ) Rossini’s Ermione – first staging in the UK
1996 ) revived, 1996
2005 Rossini’s La Cenerentola
2005 Big Screen Live Relay of La Cenerentola to the grounds of
Compton Verney, Warwickshire
Recordings
Flight – Jonathan Dove’s opera, broadcast on Channel 4 from Glyndebourne, 1999, issued on Chandos/Opera in English label, funded by PMF
Intermezzo - with Elizabeth Soderstrom, conducted by Sir John Pritchard. BBC live recording of 1974 Glyndebourne Festival production, digitally remastered and issued on Chandos Records/Opera in English label, 2011.
PMF’s Swansong production at Glyndebourne
2015 Donizetti’s Poliuto (more information to be announced).
NB This will be the final production in the PMF’s Swansong project – marking the end of the PMF’s activities with Glyndebourne and, hopefully, lighting the beacon of support for others to pick up and carry forward.
OPERA NORTH
1993/94 Ponchielli’s La gioconda (part of PMF initiated bel canto project including productions of La favorita and Lucia di Lammermoor with WNO, and
Norma with Scottish Opera)
1995 New production by Matthew Warchus of William Walton’s
Troilus and Cressida staged at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Leeds, and on tour
2009 Verdi’s Don Carlos, conducted by Music Director Richard Farnes,
Subsequently recorded in Leeds Town Hall (see details below)
Continued/
Recordings
Boris Godunov (Highlights)
John Tomlinson
Chorus of Opera North and English Northern Philharmonia
Conductor: Paul Daniel
Studio recording, Leeds Town Hall, June 1997
Released by Chandos/Opera in English, 1998
Idomeneo
Bruce Ford, Susan Patterson, Rebecca Evans, Diana Montague, Nicolai Gedda
Opera North Orchestra and Chorus
Conductor: David Parry
Studio recording, Leeds Town Hall, June 2003
Released by Chandos/Opera in English, 2004
Nabucco
Alan Opie, Susan Patterson, Alastair Miles
Opera North Orchestra and Chorus
Conductor: David Parry
PMF supported stage production and
Studio recording, Leeds Town Hall, 2005/2006
Released by Chandos/Opera in English, 2006
Bluebeard’s Castle
John Tomlinson, Sally Burgess
Orchestra of Opera North
Conductor: Richard Farnes
Studio recording, Leeds Town Hall. 2005
(scheduled in conjunction with semi-staged performances)
Released by Chandos/Opera in English, 2006
Don Carlos
Julian Gavin, Janice Watson, Alastair Miles, William Dazeley,
Jane Dutton, John Tomlinson
Opera North Orchestra and Chorus
Conductor: Richard Farnes
Studio recording, Leeds Town Hall, 2009
Released by Chandos/Opera in English, 2009
PMF Swansong project
2013 Verdi’s Otello, conducted by Richard Farnes; first time staged in the Company’s 33 year
history
Continued/
ROYAL OPERA HOUSE, COVENT GARDEN
1991 Gawain (Harrison Birtwistle)
Financial help with TV recording by BBC, broadcast 17 April 1992
+ funding for Collins Classics CD (1996 )
1994 Mose in Egitto (Rossini)
Funding towards stage production (ROH premiere)
2000 Otello (Rossini)
Funding towards stage production (ROH premiere)
2002 Roberto Devereux (Donizetti)
Live recording by Opera Rara of concert performance at ROH,
July 2002
CD supported by PMF
2002 I masnadieri (Verdi)
Funding towards first staging of this production at
Covent Garden (previously staged on ROH tour to Baden-Baden
Festival and Savonlinna Festival, Finland)
2004 The Tempest (Thomas Ades)
New opera, premiere February 2004
Funding of performance scores
2005 Don Sebastien (Donizetti)
Live recording by Opera Rara of concert performance at ROH,
September 2005
CD supported by PMF
2008 The Minotaur (Harrison Birtwistle)
New opera, premiere April 2008
Funding of performance scores
2008 Matilde di Shabran (Rossini)
Funding towards first staging of this production at ROH
(first staged at Rossini Festival, Pesaro, 2004)
2012 Miss Fortune (Judith Weir)
New opera, co-commission ROH/Bregenz Festival 2011
UK premiere, March 2012
Funding of performance scores
PMF Swansong Project
2013 Written on Skin (George Benjamin) – new work
Funding for UK stage premiere March 2013
(also funding of CD recording by Nimbus from Aix Festival premiere July 2012, scheduled for release New Year 2013)
La donna del lago (Rossini)
Funding towards staging of new production at ROH, May/June 2013; production to be screened in cinemas, May 2013)
Support for the following CD recordings (in addition to those listed above):
EMI: Peter Grimes (Haitinck)
ROH Cast,Chorus and Orchestra
Recorded 1992; released 1993
EMI: The Cunning Little Vixen (Rattle)
ROH Cast, Chorus and Orchestra
Recorded 1990; released 1991
Chandos/ EMI recording re-issued on Opera in English label, 2003
Opera in
English NB Both EMI and Chandos recordings funded by PMF
Chandos/ The Bartered Bride (Sir Charles Mackerras)
Opera in Based on ROH casts with Royal Opera Chorus
English recorded Dec 2004, released Oct 2005, marking
Sir Charles’s 80th birthday (Nov 2005) - and the quarter century of Sir Peter’s recording with Sir Charles.
WELSH NATIONAL OPERA
1979 Ernani, co-production with Royal Northern College of Music
1987 Support for welsh baritone, Phillip Joll, to study Wotan/Wanderer with
Prof. Clemens Kaiser-Breme
1991 Peter Moores Week at Empire Theatre, Liverpool – audience development
A week of performances introducing opera to people who had never seen it before. Developed in collaboration with Brian McMaster, then Managing Director of WNO, it included talks and introductory workshops as well as interval ‘watch the scene changes’ and was designed with special offers and other incentives to encourage the ‘first-timers’ to attend future performances in WNO’s regular visits to the city.
All seats sold @ £2.50, available only to first time opera-goers. Funded by the PMF.
Continued/
1991/93 La favorita, Lucia di Lammermoor (part of Bel canto opera project developed by PMF with WNO, Scottish Opera and Opera North to enable rarely seen bel canto operas to be introduced into each company’s repertoire. (Scottish Opera staged Norma and Opera North chose La gioconda)
1998/9 Madama Butterfly (Puccini)
Funding for refurbishment of original 1978 set, to make fit for touring
1999 Support for the provision of a WNO residency and concert in Cardiff for singers studying at the National Opera Studio
2000 La traviata (Verdi)
Funding for refurbishment of sets and costumes for touring, Feb/March 2001
2001 /5 The Sacrifice – new opera by James MacMillan; funding provided for
vocal scores (ie enabling performance)
2007 Funding to enable London premiere at Sadler’s Wells, November 2007
WNO Young Singers
Throughout the 1990s, the PMF provided support for WNO’s Young Singers scheme to enable promising young artists to study specific roles. For example Toby Spence studied the Count/Barber of Seville with Luigi Alva, Cathryn Wyn-Davies studied with Ileana Cotrubas, Alwyn Mellor and Rosalind Sutherland with Renata Scotto. Other artists in the scheme receiving support from the PMF included Wynne Evans, Janice Watson, Rebecca Evans, Gwyn Hughes-Jones, Phillip Joll and Jeffrey Lawton (for Tristan).
Young WNO
PMF supported Young WNO for a range of activities during the 2010/2011 season, all designed to engage young people in opera and music making. This included the preparation and performance of a specially commissioned work for Welsh National Youth Opera:
The Sleeper by composer Stephen Deazley and writer Michael Symmons Roberts.
Recordings
Osud (Janacek) 1989
EMI recording with WNO Orchestra & Chorus,
Cond. Sir Charles Mackerras
Remastered & released, 1999, by Chandos Records/Opera in English
Both recordings supported by PMF
Cast: Helen Field, Kathryn Harries, Philip Langridge
Continued/
Eugene Onegin (Tchaikovsky) 1994
EMI recording with WNO Orchestra & Chorus,
Cond. Sir Charles Mackerras
Re-mastered & released, 2001, by Chandos Records/Opera in English
Both recordings supported by PMF
Cast includes: Thomas Hampson (title role), Kiri Te Kanawa,
Patricia Bardon, Linda Finnie, Elizabeth Bainbridge, Neil Rosenshein,
John Connell, Nicolai Gedda, Richard van Allan
Jenufa recording 2003; released 2004, Chandos Records/Opera in English
WNO Orchestra & Chorus,
Cond. Sir Charles Mackerras
Cast includes: Janice Watson (title role), Dame Josephine Barstow,
Elizabeth Vaughan, Peter Wedd, Nigel Robson, Neal Davies, Alan Fairs
Katya Kabanova
recording 2006; released 2007, Chandos Records/Opera in English
WNO Orchestra & Chorus,
Cond. Carlo Rizzi
Cast includes: Cheryl Barker (title role), Jane Henschel, Victoria Simmonds,
Kathleen Wilkinson, Robert Brubaker, Peter Hoare, Peter Wedd,
Owen Webb
The Sacrifice (James MacMillan)
Recording from live BBC broadcast 2007 (London premiere, Sadlers Wells), released 2010, by Chandos Records
WNO Orchestra & Chorus,
Cond. Anthony Negus
Cast includes: Christopher Purves, Lisa Milne, Peter Hoare, Leigh Melrose, Sarah Tynan
- ends -
What an extraordinary record! It is too bad the foundation will be terminated, but there are limits to everyone’s resources, and the foundation applied them in the best way they could. Hopefully, Sir Peter will remain active to consult and provide the benefit of his advice and experience with other foundations.
Why is the foundation shutting down?
I guess no one knows or is curious why it is shutting down. Is it just an assumption that the foundation has run out of money?
Steve, the quote above says “we’re spent up”. That rather suggests that they’ve spent all the dosh.
Anyway, it’s his, and if he just wants to stop spending it, that’s his call – we should frankly just be very very grateful that he’s chosen to support the arts so much already.
Thanks, I actually overlooked that “spent up” part.
As a beneficiary of Sir Peter’s incredibly generous and enlightened largesse I am naturally very saddened by this news. He is an absolute legend and his foundation has played a vital role in the support and development of opera in this country for the past fifty years. I guess when the PMF withdrew their support from Opera Rara a couple of years ago there was a clue as to how the wind was blowing. Nevertheless Opera Rara is still in business with support from new sponsors and one hopes that Sir Peter’s wish for other younger philanthropists/charities to step up to the plate will not go unheard!
Thank you, Sir Peter, for all you have done for the arts. Your unstinting generosity over 50 years deserves a standing ovation from everyone who loves music.
what about opera rara, please don’t let them down!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!