26 February — 4 March 2024
7pm
Silk Street Theatre
A Star Next to the Moon
Silk Street Theatre
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A Star Next to the Moon
music by Stephen McNeff
libretto by Aoife Mannix
Based on Pedro Páramo by Juan Rulfo
Licenced by arrangement with Peters Edition Limited, London
With support from the Vaughan Williams Foundation and the Hinrichsen Foundation
Please note this production contains scenes of a sexual nature, violence and death. There will be scenes relating to mental illness, and references to abuse and discrimination. Haze will feature in this production.
The performance duration will be approximately 2 hours and 20 minutes, including one interval.
In this programme:
Martin Lloyd-Evans director
Dominic Wheeler conductor
Anna Reid designer
Anthony Doran lighting designer
Raniah Al-Sayed intimacy director
Jonathan Waller fight director
William Byram assistant director
Laurie Slavin assistant director
Michael Rose assistant conductor & chorus master
Director's Note
If time, our challengingly mysterious fourth dimension, were to be squeezed, to be crushed and flattened so that it joined its more familiar spatial siblings, we could visit the past by simply crossing the room. We could sit alongside our past selves, our histories, watch them like strangers at a café and be puzzled and dismayed, intrigued and repelled by their preoccupations. Were we to find some lofty viewpoint, the horizon wouldn’t sit at the limit of our vision, but at the limit of our time, our experience – our entire lives visible in one terrible eyeful. And finally, if death were to offer no release, no escape from this lived landscape, we would sit enthralled and appalled in an ever-present eternity of our own deeds, permanently in communion with our misdeeds, unable to shake the reality of our selves.
This is the world the novel Pedro Páramo inhabits. It quite deliberately flies in the face of the passage of time. Just at the point you think you have differentiated ‘now’ from ‘then’, ‘next’ from ‘previous’, and even ‘life’ from ‘death’, the story undercuts your clarity and demands you rethink. The effect of this continual undermining of reader perspective is to drive our attention away from narrative, away from the linear flow of time and the need to uncover ‘what happens next’, so that we focus more on an abiding, immanent energy or atmosphere that seems to pervade everywhere and all times. At the heart of that energy is Pedro Páramo himself, a cruel and violent landowner who lays waste to everyone and everything in his orbit. And so the piece, episode by episode, builds a devastating picture of the cloying inescapability of despotism and how its venom poisons all those within its reach.
Within this collage of despair, individual scenes have coherent timelines and consequences. But though, like fragments of shattered glass, we cannot rationally join adjacent scenes together, we can all-too-clearly feel the primal violence that created them. In this way, a scatter diagram of part-connected episodes slowly builds a single picture. Helpfully, the opera broadly divides these emerging patterns into two sections. Firstly, the search of Juan Preciado for his father, and then the back story of Pedro himself.
To translate metaphors and images is always reductive, but maybe, with a book so hell bent on undermining the reader’s assumptions, a little travel guide might be forgiven. The name Pedro Páramo roughly translates as “stone of the barren plain”. He is the force of despotism that has assaulted and despoiled since it ‘inherited’ the land. Every woman Pedro encounters has suffered abuse of one sort or another at his hands, and there is a sense in which they are the land, the natural unexploited region which has suffered at the hands of invading profiteers. The nation was forged by brutal domination of the land. Caught under Pedro’s influence, they all are forced into deeds for which they face an eternity of punishment. The only exception is Susana, his childhood sweetheart, whose abuse happened long before Pedro got to her. Pedro’s loss of Susana finally drives him to drag the whole town into annihilation. Pedro’s end feels like he has poisoned the entire land with his despotism, a perverse original sin that no-one ever can, or will, be able to escape or absolve.
Although Pedro Páramo is very much a Mexican novel, its themes are universal and all too contemporary, and the opera very much seeks to give space to resonances beyond the Mexican border. Despotic entitlement and the violence it spawns poisons everyone. There is no escape. It drags its innocent victims into unwilling complicity and leaves them staring at the shreds of their lives – in this case, for eternity. This four-dimensional music poem articulates the feeling of oppression, its awful, asphyxiating, violent, intimate invasion into ordinary lives. And it leaves the sickening taste of hope forever laid waste.
–Martin Lloyd-Evans
Composer's Note
I first became aware of Rulfo’s novel Pedro Páramo in 2006 when I was invited by the Mexican-American pianist, Ana Cervantes to write a short piece for her forthcoming CD, Rumor de Páramo/Murmurs from the Wasteland. The resulting Pavane for Dona Susanita was premiered at the Guanajuato Festival that year. Closer reading of the novel suggested striking operatic possibilities as it moves between realities, plays with time, and through its memorable characters investigates the boundary between life and death.
Juan Rulfo was, as Susan Sontag notes in her introduction to Pedro Páramo, a man of many silences. Critic Mark Swed reminds us that the great Mexican writer and seminal influence on Latin-American literature in the second half of the 20th century produced little (the slim novel in 1955 and, before that, short stories), and what Rulfo produced says little, “Yet he wrote magnificently between the lines in a prose magical and musical even in translation.”
I took the opera idea to John Lloyd-Davies, then running the Royal Opera House’s Opera Development programme, and in 2010, with Dominic Wheeler directing the music, we workshopped five scenes from the opera. This was a promising start, and in 2012 I went to Mexico to meet the Rulfo Foundation to talk about the opera. Unfortunately – as sometimes happens in the creation of opera – discussions were protracted. Apart from a little more development work at Guildhall School in 2014, we let the project hibernate until 2019, when the opportunity to write a new work for the Guildhall Opera Programme became possible. We reopened discussion with the Foundation who were now more amenable provide we adopted Rulfo’s original title for the work, A Star Next to the Moon. But then the pandemic intervened…
Oddly, this was not all bad as Aoife Mannix, who I’d worked with on numerous projects and approached about adapting Pedro Páramo, contacted me to say that whilst recovering from Covid she had drafted a libretto “in a strange, feverish, breathless state”. This formed the basis for the libretto. We were both drawn to the idea of a world where, against the tyrannical bulling of Pedro, the barrier between the living and the dead is highly porous. This spoke to us through the vivid characterisations rather more than any idea of a specific time or place. Aoife’s version, which translated Rulfo’s fantastical and magically terrifying world into highly musical verse, allowed me to develop and expand the earlier sketches into the full opera. It has taken nearly two decades and I’m grateful to everyone who has helped get it here.
–Stephen McNeff
Thank you to the Hinrichsen Foundation and the Vaughan Williams Foundation for support. To John Lloyd Davies and the Royal Opera House for early development work. To Dominic Wheeler for believing in the opera and to Guildhall School of Music & Drama for the development opportunities. Also, to Katie Tearle at Peters Edition for support, and especially to Maud Hodson who worked on the orchestral part extraction and score editing with such thoroughness and precision.
Synopsis
Summary
Juan Preciado, as a deathbed promise to his mother, sets off to visit the town of Comala to find his father, Pedro Páramo. Comala is not as his mother described, and appears desolate, no longer a living town. Strange and disturbing encounters with the mysterious inhabitants start to build a picture of a place trapped in its own past as the nightmarish stories drive Juan towards a feverish loss of sanity. The present becomes overwhelmed with re-lived horrors from the past, while in parallel the narrative of Pedro Páramo emerges. We learn of a brutal despot, and how his ruthless rise to power poisoned all who came within his orbit. Pedro’s one glimpse of humanity is Susana who, despite her long absence and his tyranny, he has loved since childhood. However, she is now beyond his reach and her decline into sickness and death drive Pedro to despair and his final act of malice.
Prologue
Juan Preciado makes a promise to his dying mother that he never meant to keep.
Scene 1
Fulfilling his mother’s wish, Juan is on the road to Comala to find his father, Pedro Páramo. He is lost. He meets Abundio who gives directions and reveals that Pedro Páramo is his father too.
Scene 2
The Media Luna. Fulgor, the foreman, and Pedro Páramo, now the owner of the Media Luna, discuss the state of finances and debt. Pedro tells Fulgor that, to solve his financial problems, he’s to go to affluent Dolores Preciado and, on Pedro’s behalf, propose marriage to her. Dolores accepts – with reservations…
Scene 3
Eduviges Dyada welcomes Juan to her house and tells Juan about his mother as a young woman. A series of strange nightmares and visitations frightens Juan and he rushes from the room. He meets Damiana, the woman who cared for him as a baby, and she leads him away from the house – but then she vanishes.
Scene 4
Juan is wandering the streets in confusion and hears two women (Doña Faustina and Doña Angeles) gossiping about him. He is also sure he hears strange voices, but The Sister reassures him it happens all the time. She invites him to her house to join her and her brother in bed. Juan dreams and wakes in a fever. He runs to the square.
Scene 5
Dorotea explains that he was collapsed in the square. He still hopes to find his father, but she tells him that hope is something that she has given up on. She asks if he can hear the walking above.
Interval (20 minutes)
Scene 6
At the Media Luna, Pedro is angry as his son, Miguel, goes out on the rampage again. Fulgor is critical of Miguel’s bad ways. Damiana hears the voices of Juan and Dorotea and warns them to stay away.
Scene 7
Miguel has been killed in a riding accident. Pedro acknowledges that this could be the point at which he starts to pay. Father Renteria says that they have all sinned and that there can be no mercy for any of them.
Scene 8
Justina sings in the rain while Susana dreams she is a child again. Dorotea and Juan hear them. Pedro exclaims that he has waited thirty years for Susana to return – but her torments have affected her mind.
Scene 9
The People try to make an impoverished living out of the land and are driven to revolution. When they confront Pedro, he makes hollow promises – and is distracted by his obsession with Susana.
Scene 10
Susana imagines that she is swimming and dreams of her first husband.
Scene 11
The Revolutionaries make more demands. Pedro believes he can still win, but Damiana says that he never knew when to just walk away.
Scene 12
Father Renteria tries to hear Susana’s last confession, but she rejects him and withdraws herself from Pedro and the world.
Scene 13
The Travelling Circus comes to Comala much to everyone’s delight, but Pedro is outraged by this seeming lack of respect to Susana and damns the town to destitution. After the murderous reappearance of his estranged son, Abundio, Pedro understands that he is finally alone and without salvation.
Creative Team
Director
Martin Lloyd-Evans
Conductor
Dominic Wheeler
Designer
Anna Reid
Lighting Designer
Anthony Doran
Intimacy Director
Raniah Al-Sayed
Fight Director
Jonathan Waller
Cast
Pedro Páramo
Jacob Harrison
(26 February & 1 March)
Alaric Green
(28 February & 4 March)
Susana San Juan
Holly Brown
(26 February & 1 March)
Ana-Carmen Balestra
(28 February & 4 March)
Juan Preciado
Steven van der Linden
Fulgor
Emyr Lloyd Jones
Dorotea
Rachel Roper
Abundio
Joe Chalmers
Dolores Preciado
Shana Moron-Caravel
Eduviges Dyada
Vladyslava Ionascu-Yakovenko
Father Renteria
Jonah Halton
Damiana Cisneros
Yolisa Ngwexana
The Sister
Ana-Carmen Balestra
(26 February & 1 March)
Holly Brown
(28 February & 4 March)
Justina
Shana Moron-Caravel
Doña Faustina
Vladyslava Ionascu-Yakovenko
Doña Angeles
Shana Moron-Caravel
Toribio Aldrete
Joe Chalmers
Chorus
Sholto Biscoe-Taylor
Twm Tegid Brunton
Alfie Harris
Harry Jacques
Anais Manz
Hayley Meth
Miriam Miskovska
Andreas Perez-Ursulet
Katharina Russell
Matías Carbonetti Schwanek
Roei Shafrir
Ollie Williams
Orchestra Staff
Orchestra
Ensembles, Programming
& Instrument Manager
Phil Sizer
Orchestra Librarian
Anthony Wilson
Music Stage, Logistics & Instrument Manager
Kevin Elwick
Music Stage Supervisors
Shakeel Mohammed
Louis Baily
Violin I
Heidi Kim*
Zoe Hodi
Mario Gutiérrez Gorría
Ludwika Borowska
Malgorzata Podlinska
Nia Lecheva
Grace Powell
Violin II
Mateus Modafferi Dandalo*
Kristine Kwok
Laia Francés Pont
Clemmy Germain
Erola Masqué
Tanya Perez Jovetic
Viola
Dom Stokes*
Jake Montgomery-Smith
Holly Woods
Iva Durkovic
Cello
Natalie Alfille-Cook*
Daniel Mihailiuc
Josh Lucas
Emma Cox
Double Bass
Caetano Fernandes Oliveira*
Melisande Lochak
Flute
Stratty Ryan* (alto flute)
Lucy Walsh (piccolo)
Oboe & Cor Anglais
Lidia Moscoso
Clarinet
Sofia Mekhonoshina*
Teah Collins (bass clarinet)
Alto & Soprano Saxophone
Charlotte Arthur
Bassoon & Contrabassoon
Izzy Cave
Horn
Jack Reilly*
Henry Ward
Dan Hibbert
Trumpet
Noah Bailis*
Alice Newbould
Trombone
Ben Loska
Timpani
Lauren Bye
Percussion
Bogdan Skrypka*
Beier Li
Harp
Emily Sullivan
Guitar
Matilde Freiria
Piano, Harmonium & Harpsichord
Henry Reavey
(26 February & 1 March)
Meghan Rhoades
(28 February & 4 March)
*Section Principal
Names and seating correct
at time of going to print.
Production Team
Opera Department Students & Fellows
Assistant Directors
William Byram
Laurie Slavin
Assistant Conductor & Chorus Master
Michael Rose
Repetiteurs & Surtitle Operators
Henry Reavey
Meghan Rhoades
Freelance
Wardrobe Manager
Sophia Raja
Wigs, Hair & Makeup
Debbie Purkis
Lucia Mameli
Additional Staff
English Language Coach
Stephen Higgins
Production Arts Students
Production Manager
Benjamin Yeo
Assistant Production Manager
Oscar Keeys
Stage Manager
Molly Hands
Deputy Stage Manager
Callum Wallace
Assistant Stage Managers
Kal Chapman
Jan Robotycki
Technical Manager - Head of Performer Flying
Nick Dyne
Head of Flys & Rigging
Lwls Davies
Production Electrician
Peter Adams
Lighting Programmers
David Agcaoili
Tommy Sharma
Production Sound Engineer
Peter Adams
Costume Supervisor
Shaunna Cheriton
Costume Assistant
Ida Pontoppidan
Dressers & Wardrobe Maintenance
Tara Duffy
Abby Simcock
Lead Scenic Carpenter
Lola King
Scenic Carpenters
Eli Hunt
Amy Jacobs
Lauren Jones
Linus Pomroy
Brighton Temple
Props Co-ordinator
Georgie Sunter
Prop Makers
Lauren Jones
Beau Morton-Turner
Scenic Art Co-ordinator
Abbie Hardcastle
Lead Scenic Artist
Joe McKenna
Scenic Artists
Dan Basnett
Bow Edwards
Oscar Keeys
Bea Taylor
Stage Crew
Working across our Opera and Drama productions this year:
Liam Allen
Iden Amys
Christina Angus
Jamie Baker
Alfred Blake
Didier Brown
Katherine Byrne
Archie Carr
Eddie Comerford
Alissa Crew
Jay Culmer
Seth Cunningham
Jasmin Davenport
Tara Duffy
Kirsty Edwards
Nia Edwards-Williams
Josh Essl
Iris Farquharson
Alice Friend
Hawks Gómez
Jasmine Green
Rohan Green
Finn Irving
Toby Ison
Meg Jordan
Finn Karat
Talia Servadio Kenan
Hollie Lester
Koren Little
Imogen Marinko
Emma Mason
Daniel McDermott
Walter Nash
Shannon Parker
Jaiden Parsons
Kamila Przybylski
Kez Reynolds
Beca Roberts
Agnes Rønningen
Joshua Sanderson
Dan Shelley
Abbie Simcock
Kennedy Stephens
Pasha Taylor-Hanson
Nicole Thomaz
Iris Towers
Grace Waring
Lili Warden
Isabela Way
Joseph Wilkins
Sid Worth
Christa Yap Shin Yee
Stephen McNeff
composer
Stephen McNeff was born in Ireland, brought up in Wales and educated at the Royal Academy of Music in London. After working as a music creator in theatre he became Composer in Residence at the Banff Centre in Canada. He is best known for his work in opera and theatre. His opera Clockwork (2004), based on the novel by Philip Pullman, was seen at the Royal Opera House Linbury Theatre and in 2007 the Royal Opera House commissioned Gentle Giant, adapted from Michael Morpurgo’s book. He went on to be the first Royal Philharmonic Society/Performing Right Society Foundation ‘Composer in the House’ with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, increasing the recognition of his versatility and adaptability in a wide range of genres.
Equally at home in the concert hall or theatre, works like the operas Vivienne (2014), Banished (2016) and Beyond the Garden (2020) have enjoyed wide audiences both in the UK and abroad, while choral pieces for the BBC Singers and Chamber Choir Ireland sit alongside solo instrumental works and concertos for oboe, flute and, most recently, saxophone quartet. Hedd Wyn, his opera commissioned by Welsh National Opera for TV was released on CD in 2022, while his song cycle for tenor Gavan Ring and pianist Louise Thomas, Ballads of a Bogman, was premiered in California in 2022, broadcast on RTÉ Lyric FM and recently heard at the Wexford Festival. Last year the BBC broadcast The Horizons of Doubt (with a text by Aoife Mannix) performed by the BBC Singers in a retrospective concert featuring a number of his choral works. Other recent works include Spirits Unsurrendered, a collaboration with the Royal Irish Academy of Music at Kilmainham Gaol in Dublin and a new choral work for Chamber Choir Ireland, Dives and Lazarus, which was premiered in Dublin and Belfast last November and is soon to be heard on RTÉ.
Aoife Mannix
librettist
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Aoife Mannix is an award-winning Irish poet and writer, the author of a novel, four collections of poetry, two pamphlets, and seven libretti. She has been poet-in-residence for the Royal Shakespeare Company and BBC Radio 4’s Saturday Live, and has written articles for the Irish Independent and The Gloss (the lifestyle magazine of the Irish Times) among others. She has toured internationally with the British Council as well as throughout the UK and Ireland including the Southbank Centre, Latitude and the Big Chill. In addition to A Star Next to the Moon she has previously worked as a librettist with composer Stephen McNeff on The Horizons of Doubt (recorded by the BBC Singers as part of BBC Radio 3’s Afternoon concert), Beyond the Garden (a one act opera with mezzo-soprano Susan Bickley), The Walking Shadows (a choral work about the First World War which premiered at St-Martin-in-the-Fields) and A Half Darkness (commissioned by Chamber Choir Ireland as part of the 1916 centenary.)
She has been commissioned by the BBC, the National Archives, the Portsmouth Museum, Youth Music Theatre UK, Apples and Snakes, the National Gallery of Ireland, the O’Brien Collection, the Bronte Parsonage and Cherwell Theatre Company. She has taught creative writing at Goldsmiths, University of London, the University of Westminster, Anglia Ruskin University and Bucks New University. She has previously worked as a script editor for the BBC as well as for Channel 4 and the Royal Court Theatre. She has a PhD in creative writing from Goldsmiths, University of London. She lives in Oxfordshire.
Creative Team
Martin Lloyd-Evans
director
Guildhall School productions Dead Man Walking, Miss Fortune, The Little Green Swallow, The Angel Esmeralda (world premiere), A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Dialogues des Carmélites, The Tale of Januarie (world premiere), Capriccio and The Aspern Papers (UK premiere and RPS Award nominee).
Other Credits Le nozze di Figaro, Andrea Chénier, The Queen of Spades, La Wally, Gianni Schicchi, Zanetto, I gioielli della Madonna, Adriana Lecouvreur, Il tabarro, Die Fledermaus, La rondine and Isabeau (Opera Holland Park); The Rape of Lucretia and Flight (British Youth Opera); The Grange Festival, Clonter Opera, Scottish Opera, Holland Opera, Operosa, Classical Opera Company at Sadler’s Wells, Garden Opera and Penang State Festival. Theatrical credits include The Russian Doctor, The Articulate Hand, Wellcome Trust and TEDMED; Wallace and Gromit: Alive on Stage.
Future plans Pagliacci (Opera Holland Park).
Dominic Wheeler
conductor
Guildhall School productions The Angel Esmeralda (world premiere), A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Così fan tutte, The Long Christmas Dinner, A Dinner Engagement, Dialogues des Carmélites, The Tale of Januarie (world premiere), Mavra and Iolanta, The Rape of Lucretia, The Cunning Peasant, The Adventures of Pinocchio, The Little Green Swallow Dove (UK premiere), Le nozze di Figaro and Owen Wingrave with the Banff Centre (Canadian premiere).
Operatic credits Das Rheingold, Siegfried, War and Peace, The Trojans and The Turk in Italy (English National Opera); The Barber of Seville (English National Opera and Opera North); L’elisir d’amore (Opera North); Don Giovanni (Opera North, Scottish Opera and Batignano Festival); Alceste (Scottish Opera and Opera de Nice); Manon (New Zealand Opera); A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Hungarian State Opera); Il tabarro and Gianni Schicchi (New National Theatre, Tokyo); Curlew River (Geidai Arts, Tokyo); Echo and Narcissus by Stuart Macrae and Gentle Giant by Stephen McNeff (ROH2 at the Linbury - both world premieres); The Sofa/The Departure by Maconchy (Independent Opera at Sadler’s Wells); recordings for Chandos Pelléas et Mélisande (shortlisted for Royal Philharmonic Society Opera Award); productions for Royal Academy Opera, English Touring Opera, Opera Holland Park, Chelsea Opera Group, Batignano Festival and Berlin Opera Academy.
Orchestral and choral credits Philharmonia Orchestra, BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, BBC Concert Orchestra, BBC Proms 2014, BBC Singers, Orchestra of Opera North, English Chamber Orchestra, Bach Choir, London Mozart Players, Northern Sinfonia, City of London Sinfonia, Sinfonia Viva, Orchestre de l’Opera National de Bordeaux, Tokyo Mozart Players, European Union Youth Orchestra and Hong Kong Sinfonietta.
Future plans National Childrens Orchestra; Bluebeards Castle (London Schools Symphony Orchestra); Alcina and Giulio Cesare (Saluzzo Opera Academy).
Anna Reid
designer
Guildhall School productions Dead Man Walking, Miss Fortune, The Telephone, The Little Green Swallow (associate to Dick Bird) and Autumn 2019 and 2020 Opera Scenes for the Opera Department; Jackal Run and All Your Houses for the Drama Department.
Other design credits include Accidental Death of An Anarchist (Theatre Royal Haymarket/Lyric Hammersmith); For Black Boys Who Have Considered Suicide When The Hue Gets Too Heavy (Apollo Theatre/Royal Court Theatre); Rock'n'Roll, The Memory of Water, Cash Cow, Paradise and The Hoes (Hampstead Theatre); The Vanishing Room (English Theatre Frankfurt); The Power of Paternal Love (Barber Opera); The Ministry of Lesbian Affairs, SESSIONS, Soft Animals and Fury (Soho Theatre); Dust (Trafalgar Studios/New York Theatre Workshop); Four Minutes Twelve Seconds, The Kitchen Sink and Jumpers for Goalposts (Oldham Coliseum); Our Country's Good and A Midsummer Night's Dream (Tobacco Factory Theatres). Anna has also designed productions for Wilton’s Music Hall, Jermyn Street Theatre, Southwark Playhouse, Finborough Theatre and Park Theatre.
Anthony Doran
lighting designer
Guildhall School productions Dead Man Walking, The Telephone and Miss Fortune.
Other design credits Not the End of the World, Orlando and Shaddows (Eurydice Speaks) (Schaubühne); The Malady of Death (Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord); Bluets and The Cherry Orchard (Schauspielhaus); Norma Jeane Baker of Troy (The Shed); The Return of Benjamin Lay, Scrounger and Late Night Staring at High Res Pixels (The Finborough Theatre); Killing It (Ameena Hamid Productions); A Colder Water (The Vaults); Asymptote (Jack Philp Dance); Showcase (Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance).
Associate credits Kubla Khan (Oily Cart); The Greatest Play (Tara Finney Productions); Forbidden Zone (Schaubühne); Traveling on One Leg (Schauspielhaus).
Raniah Al-Sayed
intimacy director
Raniah is a Movement Practitioner and Intimacy Director, with a specialty in the physical acting process of Lucid Body. She is a faculty member at Shakespeare's Globe Higher Education Department and continues to teach through her company Lucid Body London.
Guildhall School productions Days of Significance, Attempts on Her Life, The Gift, Our Town, Hyde & Seek, Dennis of Penge, Intimate Apparel, Road and Pilgrims.
Intimacy Director credits Peaky Blinders: The Rise (Immersive Everywhere); Bootycandy (The Gate); £1 Thursdays (Finborough Theatre); Supernova (Theatre503); How A City Can Save The World, The Hypochondriac and Fossil Kids (Sheffield People's Theatre); Machinal and Follies (Royal Central School of Speech and Drama); Earthquakes (Academy of Live and Recorded Arts); The Welkin (Conti Arts).
Intimacy Coordinator credits I’m Not Finished (dir. Rebecca Gausnell); The Wife and Her House Husband (dir. Marcus Markou); Salt Wounds (dir. Hannah Renton); Remi Milligan: Lost Director (dir. Samuel Lodato); Break the Rule (dir. Beata Jamroziak); Asst I.C. on Dreamland (dir. Ellie Heydon).
Assistant Director credits A Voice Lesson: Orla Descends (Britten Pears Arts).
Future Plans Multiple Casualty Incident (The Yard); Alize's Room (dir. Anna Fearon).
Jonathan Waller
fight director
Fight director credits include theatre and opera productions at Shakespeare’s Globe, Cheek by Jowl, Chichester Festival Theatre and Mischief Theatre; film and television drama and documentaries including the BBC, the History Channel and combat for puppeteers for The Dark Crystal (Netflix); commercials including Strongbow utilising his skills as a Master Archer.
Teaching experience includes London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, Rutgers University, The Drama Studio, ArtsEd, London Academy of Theatre, School of the Science of Acting and Guildhall School of Music & Drama; Master Teacher for The Society of British Fight Directors, The British Academy of Dramatic Combat and founding member of The British Guild of Stage Combat; numerous courses in Mexico, including the Centro Universitario de Teatro and University of Mexico. Jonathan was instrumental in founding the Escuela Mexicana de Combate Escénico, the first stage combat organization in Mexico, and is also involved in developing stage combat in Italy having taught several teachers from the Accademia Nazionale d'Arte Drammatica and courses in Rome for actors, teachers, students and Alumni of the Accademia.
Additional experience as a researcher in human Conflict Communication, in its cultural context, across different societies and time periods involving fighting and riding in different armours and historical clothing; and work with The Mary Rose Trust and The Royal Armouries Museums, who Jonathan represented at The Nikko Toshugo Shrine in Japan.
Opera Department Students & Fellows
Will Byram
assistant director
Guildhall School Assistant Director Junior Fellow.
Assistant Director Credits include Autumn 2023 Opera Scenes (Guildhall School).
Movement/Choreography Credits include La Traviata (Instant Opera); The Merry Widow, Faust, La Traviata (Opéra de Baugé); Act III from Eugene Onegin (Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance); Dido and Aeneas (Purchase Opera, USA).
Performer Credits as a dancer in works by George Balanchine, Merce Cunningham, Wayne McGregor, Maxine Doyle, Kinsun Chan and Ohad Naharin.
Future Plans Assistant director for Handel's Alcina (Guildhall School Summer Opera 2024).
Laurie Slavin
assistant director
Guildhall School Assistant Director Junior Fellow.
Assistant Director Credits include La bella dormente nel bosco, Maria Egiziaca (Guildhall School);The Yeomen of the Guard (The Grange Festival).
Performer Credits include Albert Herring Albert Herring, Acis Acis & Galatea, Lensky Eugene Onegin (Byre Opera); Hilarion Princess Ida (The National Gilbert & Sullivan Opera Company); Soldier & Other Roles Scoring a Century, Ramiro (cover) La Cenerentola (British Youth Opera).
Michael Rose
assistant conductor & chorus master
Guildhall School Junior Fellow.
Repetiteur credits include Trouble in Tahiti, A Hand of Bridge (Cumbria Opera Group); Banished, Coraline, Les Art Florissants (Royal Birmingham Conservatoire); The Decision (Birmingham Opera Company).
Assistant Director credits include Summer Opera Makers 2023, Dead Man Walking, Sāvitri (Guildhall School).
Future plans Assistant Conductor & Chorus Master for Handel's Alcina (Guildhall School Summer Opera 2024).
Ana-Carmen Balestra
soprano
Guildhall School Opera Course (second year) studying with John Evans.
Scholarships Anne Pashley Opera Scholarship; Weavers' Scholarship; Tallow Chandlers' Scholarship; David Family Foundation; Kathleen Trust; Van de Ende Foundation; Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds.
Competitions Guildhall Wigmore Prize Recital 2024; Miluska Duffkova 2021; Opera Viva! Awards 2021; Sinfonia Rotterdam Award 2020.
Previous roles include Frasquita Carmen (Waterperry Opera Festival); Barbarina Le nozze di Figaro, Dalinda Ariodante, Denise Le marriage aux lanternes (Royal Danish Opera Academy); Susanna Le nozze di Figaro, L’ensoleillad Massenet, Blanche Dialogues des Carmélites, Giulietta I Capuleti e i Montecchi, Governess The Turn of the Screw, Adina L’elisir d’amore, Tirésias Les mamelles de Tirésias (Guildhall School Opera Scenes); BBC Total Immersion: Songs by Kaija Saariaho, broadcasted on BBC Radio 3.
Future plans Alcina in Handel's Alcina (Guildhall School Summer Opera 2024).
Holly Brown
soprano
Guildhall School Opera Course (second year) studying with John Evans and Yvonne Kenny.
Scholarships Wax Chandlers' Scholarship; Walter Hyde Memorial Prize; Behrens Foundation Scholarship; Help Musicians Sybil Tutton Opera Award.
Previous roles include Donna Anna Don Giovanni (Cumbria Opera Group, Orchestra Vox); Queen of Shemakha The Golden Cockerel (Orchestra Vox); Clorinda La Cenerentola (British Youth Opera); Maria Maria egiziaca, La Fata verde La bella dormente nel bosco (Guildhall School); Countess Capriccio, Maria Maria Stuarda, Donna Elvira Don Giovanni, Countess Le nozze di Figaro, Armida Rinaldo, Mélisande Pelléas et Mélisande (Guildhall School Opera Scenes); Traveller in Lost Property, a new opera for Guildhall School Opera Makers.
Joe Chalmers
baritone/bass
Guildhall School Opera Course (second year) studying with John Evans.
Scholarships Elizabeth Sweeting Award; Help Musicians Sybil Tutton Opera Award; Dow Clewer Foundation Scholarship; The Drake Calleja Trust; Mario Lanza Foundation.
Previous roles include Captain Corcoran (cover and performed) HMS Pinafore (English National Opera); Death Sāvitri, Partner Reborns, Narratore I due timidi, Voce del mare Maria egiziaca, Il Re & L'Ambasciatore/Un Boscaiuolo La bella dormente nel bosco (Guildhall School); Nettuno La liberazione di Ruggiero dall'isola d'Alcina (Longborough Festival Opera); Bass Shepherd, Plutone (cover) and Caronte (cover) L’Orfeo (Garsington Opera); Martino L’occasione fa il ladro (British Youth Opera); and scenes from A Rake’s Progress, Maria Stuarda, Capriccio, I Capuleti e Montecchi, Le nozze di Figaro, Albert Herring, Carmen, L’elisir d’amore (Guildhall School Opera Scenes).
Alaric Green
baritone/bass
Guildhall School Opera Course (second year) studying with Robert Dean and Stephan Loges.
Scholarships Fishmongers' Music Scholarship; Countess of Munster Musical Trust; Henry Oldfield Trust.
Previous roles include Il pellegrino/Abbate Zosimo Maria egiziaca, George Benton Dead Man Walking (Guildhall School); Count Le nozze di Figaro, King Alphonso La Favorita, Cecil Maria Stuarda, Le Philisophe Chérubin, Graf Cappricio (Guildhall School Opera Scenes); created the role of Ulric in Lanternfish, a new opera for Guildhall School Opera Makers.
Future Plans Melisso in Handel's Alcina (Guildhall School Summer Opera 2024).
Jonah Halton
tenor
Guildhall School Opera Course (second year) studying with Amanda Roocroft.
Scholarships Carpenters' Company Henry Osborne Award; Dyers' Scholarship; Dow Clewer Foundation Scholarship.
Previous roles and experience include Peter Quint The Turn of the Screw, Leicester Maria Stuarda, Der Tenor Capriccio, Don Ottavio Don Giovanni, Števa Jenůfa (Guildhall School Opera Scenes); Il lebbroso Maria egiziaca, Il Principe Aprile La bella dormente nel bosco, Walther/Hugo/Old Woman Blond Eckbert (Guildhall School); Robert in Lanternfish, a new opera for Guildhall School's Opera Makers; Head Peasant/Lensky (cover) Evgeny Onegin (West Green House Opera); Solo in Stravinsky’s Pulcinella; Pasek The Cunning Little Vixen with Sir Simon Rattle and Peter Sellars (Barbican Centre and Philharmonie de Paris); BBC Symphony Total Immersion: Chamber Music & Songs by Detlav Ganert, broadcast on BBC Radio 3.
Future Plans Oronte in Handel's Alcina (Guildhall School Summer Opera 2024).
Jacob Harrison
baritone/bass
Guildhall School Opera Course (second year) studying with Samantha Malk and Robert Dean.
Sponsorships Behrens Foundation Scholarship; Help Musicians Van Allan Award 2023; Eva Kleinitz Scholarship 2023.
Competitions The Wyburd Prize for German Lieder 2021; Keith Bonnington Prize 2022; Weston Award 2022; Chris Treglown Award 2023.
Previous roles include Figaro Le nozze di Figaro (University of Exeter Opera Society); Don Quijote El retablo de maese Pedro (Encuentro de Santander); Scenes from Don Giovanni, Il barbiere di Sivilgia, L’elisir d’amore, The Rake’s Progress, Pelléas et Mélisande (Guildhall School Opera Scenes); Voce del mare Maria egiziaca, Il Re & L'Ambasciatore/Un Boscaiuolo La bella dormente nel bosco, Death Sāvitri, Prison Guard 2 Dead Man Walking, Lord Fortune Miss Fortune, Der Begleiter des Zaren Der Zar läßt sich photographieren, Le Baron de Pictordu (cover) Cendrillon (Guildhall School).
Vladyslava Ionascu-Yakovenko
soprano
Guildhall School Opera Course (second year) studying with Marilyn Rees.
Scholarships Gold and Silver Wyre Drawers' Scholarship; Dow Clewer Foundation Scholarship.
Previous roles include Maria Maria egiziaca, Il Fuso La bella dormente nel bosco, Elle La voix humaine, Elisabetta Maria Stuarda, Vitellia La clemenza di Tito, Miss Jesel The Turn of the Screw, Donna Anna Don Giovanni, Jenůfa Jenůfa, First Lady Die Zauberflöte; Majenka The Bartered Bride; Arabella Arabella; Poppea L’ incoronazione di Poppea; chorus member in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Judicium Salomonis & Eintänzer (Guildhall School).
Future Plans Glyndebourne Festival Chorus 2024.
Emyr Lloyd Jones
baritone
Guildhall School Opera Course (second year) studying with Susan Waters.
Scholarships Horners' Becker Scholarship; Tobacco Pipe Makers' Scholarship.
Competitions Pendine Park International Voice of the Future (Llangollen International Eisteddfod) 2022; Betty Bannerman French Song Prize (Royal Northern College of Music/Clonter Opera) 2022; The Joyce and Michael Kennedy Award for the singing of Strauss (Royal Northern College of Music) 2021.
Previous roles include Il pellegrino/Abbate Zosimo Maria egiziaca, Eckbert Blond Eckbert (Guildhall School); Bunyan/Evangelist The Pilgrim’s Progress, Sir Hugh Evans Sir John in Love (British Youth Opera); Il Conte di Almaviva Le nozze di Figaro, Musiklehrer Ariadne auf Naxos, Forester The Cunning Little Vixen, Edmund Bertram Mansfield Park (Royal Northern College of Music).
Future plans Don Riccardo/Chorus in Ernani Verdi at Buxton International Festival 2024; Melisso in Handel's Alcina (Guildhall School Summer Opera 2024).
Shana Moron-Caravel
mezzo-soprano
Guildhall School Opera Course (second year) studying with Robert Dean.
Scholarships Sally Cohen Opera Scholarship; Dow Clewer Foundation Scholarship.
Competitions Trinity Laban English Song Competition 2020.
Previous roles and experience include Gianetta L’elisir d’amore (King’s Head Theatre); Parthénis La belle Hélène (Blackheath Halls); Scenes from La Favorita, Le nozze di Figaro, Werther, La clemenza di Tito (Guildhall School); Leading role in the newly composed Lanternfish by Luka Venter (Guildhall School Opera Makers). Shana has performed in recitals curated by Nicky Spence and Dylan Brewly-Perez with Blackheath Halls Opera, and as a soloist in her own recital at the 2022 Classix Festival (Romania).
Future plans Bartók Bluebeard's Castle (Barbican Centre), Ruggiero in Handel's Alcina (Guildhall School Summer Opera 2024).
Yolisa Ngwexana
soprano
Guildhall School Opera Course (second year) studying with Yvonne Kenny.
Scholarships Gwen Catley Scholarship (The Amar-Franses & Foster-Jenkins Trust); Innholders' Scholarship; Dow Clewer Foundation Scholarship.
Competitions Finalist in the Voices of Black Opera Competition 2022.
Previous roles include Lauretta Gainni Schicchi (Operatunity, South Africa); Gilda (cover) Rigoletto (Opera North); Uno compagno & Voce d'un angelo Maria egiziaca, La Fata azzurra La bella dormente nel bosco, scenes from Die Zauberflöte, Don Giovanni, Werther, Capriccio, The Rake's Progress, L'enfant et sortiléges (Guildhall School); Quicksilver Lanternfish (Guildhall School Opera Makers).
Future plans Morgana in Handel's Alcina (Guildhall School Summer Opera 2024).
Henry Reavey
repetiteur
Guildhall School Repetiteur Course (first year) studying with Elizabeth Rowe and Bretton Brown.
Scholarships Leverhulme Arts Scholarship.
Repetiteur credits include Stephen McNeff Banished, Offenbach Mesdames de la Halle, Janáček The Cunning Little Vixen, Jonathan Dove The Enchanted Pig, Opera Scenes (Royal Birmingham Conservatoire); Autumn 2023 Opera Scenes (Guildhall School).
Future plans Guildhall School Summer Opera and Opera Makers.
Meghan Rhoades
repetiteur
Guildhall School Repetiteur Course (first year) studying with Elizabeth Rowe.
Scholarships Guildhall Scholarship.
Repetiteur credits includes Autumn 2023 Opera Scenes (Guildhall School); La bohéme (The Music Academy of the West); Die Zauberflöte (The Trentino Music Festival); Amahl and the Night Visitors (Music On Site Inc.); Dido and Aeneas (Louisiana State University).
Future plans Guildhall School Summer Opera and Opera Makers.
Rachel Roper
mezzo-soprano
Guildhall School Opera Course (second year) studying with John Evans.
Scholarships Marianne Falk Award.
Competitions MOCSA Young Welsh Singer of the Year 2022; Kathleen Ferrier Bursary for Young Singers Joyce Budd Second Prize 2018.
Previous roles include Jewish Child A Child in Striped Pyjamas (Echo Ensemble); Mistress Ford Sir John in Love (British Youth Opera); Dritte Knabe Die Zauberflöte (Bloomsbury Opera); Chorus La bohème (Nevill Holt Opera); Il povero & Secondo compagno/La cieca Maria egiziaca, La Regina & Il Cuculo/La Duchessa/La vecchietta La bella dormente nel bosco, Jade Boucher Dead Man Walking, Berthe Blond Eckbert, Offstage Chorus Sāvitri, Artist Reborns, Chorus Fairy A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Ottavia L’incoronazione di Poppea; Scenes from I Capuleti e Montecchi, Maria Stuarda, La clemenza di Tito, Il barbiere di Siviglia, La Calisto, Alcina, Così fan tutte, Madama Butterfly, Jenůfa, Chérubin and Albert Herring (Guildhall School).
Future plans Glyndebourne Chorus 2024; recital tour with collaborative pianist Claire Habbershaw.
Steven van der Linden
tenor
Guildhall School Opera Course (second year) studying with John Evans.
Scholarships Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds; VandenEnde Foundation; The Countess of Munster Musical Trust; Grocers' Scholarship.
Previous roles include Varo (cover) Arminio (Royal Opera House Jette Parker Artists); Fenton Sir John in Love (British Youth Opera); Septimius Theodora, Aeneas Dido and Aeneas (International Bach Festival Canarias); created the role of Norman Papoea Opera (IJsalon); Il marinaio Maria egiziaca, l buffone/Mister Dollar La bella dormente nel bosco, Satyavān Sāvitri (Guildhall School); The Attendant Lost Property (Guildhall School Opera Makers); Tamino Die Zauberflöte, Ferrando Così fan tutte, Nemorino L’elisir d’amore, Albert Herring Albert Herring, Le Chevalier Dialogues des Carmélites (Guildhall School Opera Scenes).
Forthcoming Events
Guildhall Symphony Orchestra
Wednesday 13 March, 7.30pm
Barbican Hall
Conductor Roberto González-Monjas leads Guildhall Symphony Orchestra in a triple bill of Respighi’s tone poems, including Pines of Rome, preceded by Ascent by Andrea Tarrodi.
Spring Opera Scenes
21 – 26 March, 7pm
Milton Court Theatre
Outstanding singers and repetiteurs from Guildhall School's Opera course perform operatic excerpts including Mozart’s Don Giovanni, Debussy's Pelléas et Mélisande and many more.
Chamber Music Festival
22 – 24 March
Milton Court and Silk Street venues
Don’t miss this three-day celebration of some of the greatest chamber music ever written, featuring concerts and masterclasses by renowned performers from the School’s Chamber Music faculty.
The Comedy of Errors
22 – 27 March
Silk Street Theatre
Paul Foster directs a new production of Shakespeare’s The Comedy of Errors. Follow the antics of two sets of identical twins as they navigate a whirlwind of confusion, mishaps and misadventures.
Guildhall School Scholarship Fund
Each year the Scholarships Fund enables talented young actors, musicians, production artists and theatre technicians to take up their places or continue their studies at Guildhall School. We are extremely grateful to the many trusts, foundations, businesses, City livery companies and individuals who make annual donations to the Scholarships Fund, and to those people who make provision for legacy donations in support of the School in their wills. Production Arts and Opera students involved in this production who have received support from this year’s Scholarships Fund and from external donors are as follows:
Opera Department Scholars
Ana-Carmen Balestra Anne Pashley Opera Scholarship, Weavers' Scholarship, Tallow Chandlers' Scholarship
Holly Brown Behrens Foundation Scholarship, Wax Chandlers' Scholarship, Walter Hyde Memorial Prize
Shana Moron-Caravel Sally Cohen Opera Scholarship, Dow Clewer Foundation Scholarship
Joe Chalmers Elizabeth Sweeting Award, Dow Clewer Foundation Scholarship
Alaric Green Fishmongers' Music Scholarship
Jonah Halton Carpenters' Company Henry Osborne Award Scholarship, Dyers' Scholarship, Dow Clewer Foundation Scholarship
Jacob Harrison Behrens Foundation Scholarship
Vladyslava Ionascu-Yakovenko Gold and Silver Wyre Drawers' Scholarship, Dow Clewer Foundation Scholarship
Emyr Lloyd Jones Horners' Becker Scholarship, Tobacco Pipe Makers' Scholarship
Yolisa Ngwexana Innholders' Scholarship, Dow Clewer Foundation Scholarship, Gwen Catley Scholarship (The Amar-Franses & Foster-Jenkins Trust)
Henry Reavey Leverhulme Arts Scholarship
Meghan Rhoades Guildhall Scholarship
Rachel Roper Marianne Falk Award
Steven van der Linden Grocers' Scholarship
Vocal Department Scholars
Harry Jacques Edith Vogel Bursary, D'Oyly Carte Charitable Trust Scholarship
Anais Manz Sheila White Scholarship
Hayley Meth Leverhulme Arts Scholarship
Matías Carbonetti Schwanek Guildhall Scholarship
Roei Shafrir Guildhall Scholarship
Ollie Williams Guildhall Scholarship
Production Arts Department Scholars
Peter Adams Norman Gee Foundation Scholarship
Shaunna Cherito Guildhall Scholarship
Molly Hands Guildhall Scholarship
Abbie Hardcastle Guildhall Scholarship
Lauren Jones Guildhall Scholarship
Oscar Keeys Guildhall Scholarship
Ida Pontoppidan Silver Bow Scholarship
Jan Robotycki Guildhall Scholarship
Bea Taylor B&T Scholarship
Callum Wallace Guildhall Scholarship
Our Supporters
Guildhall School is grateful for the generous support of the following individuals, trusts and foundations, City livery companies and businesses, as well as those who wish to remain anonymous.
Exceptional Giving
Estate of David Bartley
The Cole Bequest
Victor Ford Foundation
The Leverhulme Trust
Estate of Barbara Reynolds
Estate of Rosemary Thayer
Estate of Berthe Wallis
Professor Christopher Wood MD FRCSEd FLSW
Leadership Giving
Amar-Franses & Foster-Jenkins Trust
City of London Education Board
Estate of Diana Devlin
Fishmongers’ Company
Norman Gee Foundation
Estate of Ralph Goode
Leathersellers’ Company
Herbert and Theresie Lowit Memorial Scholarship
Ray McGrath Memorial Fund
Sidney Perry Foundation
Estate of Denis Shorrock
Wolfson Foundation
Henry Wood Accommodation Trust
C and P Young HonFGS
Estate of Eleanor van Zandt
Major Benefactors
Jane Ades Ingenuity Scholarship
Baha and Gabriella Bassatne
Behrens Foundation
Maria Björnson Memorial Fund
John S Cohen Foundation
Sally Cohen Opera Scholarships
D’Oyly Carte Charitable Trust
Elmira Darvarova
David Family Foundation
Dow Clewer Foundation
Drapers’ Company
Margaret Easton Scholarships
Marianne Falk
Amy and John Ford HonFGS
Albert & Eugenie Frost Music Trust CIO
Girdlers’ Company Charitable Trust
Haberdashers’ Company
Paul Hamburger Prize for Voice
and Piano
Headley Trust
Estate of Elaine Hugh-Jones
Professor Sir Barry Ife CBE FKC and
Dr Trudi Darby
Cosman Keller Art and Music Trust
Gillian Laidlaw
Damian Lewis CBE FGS
London Symphony Orchestra
Alfred Molina FGS
Ripple Awards
Dr Leslie Olmstead Schulz
Skinners’ Company - Lawrence Atwell’s Charity
South Square Trust
Garfield Weston Foundation
Estate of Elizabeth Wolfe
Worshipful Company of Carpenters
Worshipful Company of Grocers
Worshipful Company of Innholders
Worshipful Company of Tobacco
Pipe Makers
Benefactors
Anglo-Swedish Society
Athena Scholarship
Estate of Ewen Balfour
George & Charlotte Balfour Award
Peter Barkworth Scholarship
Binks Trust
William Brake Foundation
Sir Nicolas Bratza
Noël Coward Foundation
Gita de la Fuente Scholarship
Susan Dibley
Robert Easton Scholarship
Eversheds Sutherland
Carey Foley Acting Scholarship
Mortimer Furber Scholarship
Andrew Galloway
Dr Jacqueline Glomski
Hargreaves and Ball Trust
Ironmongers’ Company
In memory of Barry MacDonald
Marina Martin
Estate of Sheila Melluish
Music First
NR1 Creatives
Norwich Chamber Music
Noswad Charity
John Peach
Peter Prynn
Harry Rabinowitz Memorial Scholarship Fund
Salters’ Company
Edward Selwyn Memorial Fund
Graham Spooner
Stanley Picker Trust
Steel Charitable Trust
Steinway & Sons
Thompson Educational Trust
Kristina Tonteri-Young Scholarship
Hugh Vanstone
Worshipful Company of Barbers
Worshipful Company of Carmen Benevolent Trust
Worshipful Company of Chartered Surveyors
Worshipful Company of Dyers
Worshipful Company of Gold and Silver Wyre Drawers
Worshipful Company of Horners
Worshipful Company of International Bankers
Worshipful Company of Musicians
Worshipful Company of Pewterers
Worshipful Company of Tallow Chandlers
Worshipful Company of Wax Chandlers
Worshipful Company of Weavers
Guildhall School Production Arts Department
Vice-Principal & Director of Production Arts
Andy Lavender
Office Manager & Executive Assistant
Melissa Bonnelame
Deputy Director of Production Arts & Programme Leader BA Production Arts
Hansjörg Schmidt
Programme Leader, BA Digital Design & Production (formerly BA Video Design for Live Performance); Head of Theatre Technology
Andy Taylor
Programme Leader, MA Collaborative Theatre Production & Design
Emily Orley
Head of Costume
Rachel Young
Head of Design Realisation
Vanessa Cass
Head of Stage Management
Helen Barratt
Associate Producer
Stuart Calder
Outreach Manager (Production Arts)
Jon Hare
A full list of Production Arts teaching staff and technicians can be found on our website.
Guildhall School Opera Department
Head of Opera Studies
Dominic Wheeler
Resident Producer
Martin Lloyd-Evans
Opera Department Manager
Steven Gietzen
Visiting Music coaches
Lionel Friend
Alexander Ingram
Michael Lloyd
Elizabeth Marcus
Linnhe Robertson
Peter Robinson
Elizabeth Rowe
Susanna Stranders
Drama coaches
Martin Lloyd-Evans
Victoria Newlyn
Movement coaches
Victoria Newlyn
Rachel Wise
Combat coaches
Jonathan Leverett
Language coaches
Florence Daguerre de Hureaux
Gerhard Gall
Johanna Mayr
Norbert Meyn
Emma Abbate
Emanuele Moris
Lada Valešová
PATRON
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We hope you have thoroughly enjoyed today’s performance at Guildhall School. If you felt inspired by our students and would like to support world-class training for these talented performers and production artists, we would be grateful for a voluntary donation.
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Guildhall School of Music & Drama
Founded in 1880 by the City of London Corporation
Chairman of the Board of Governors
Graham Packham
Principal
Professor Jonathan Vaughan
Vice Principal & Director of Music
Armin Zanner
Head of Opera Studies
Dominic Wheeler
Please visit our website at gsmd.ac.uk
Guildhall School is provided by the City of London as part of its contribution to the cultural life of London and the nation.