Late May Newsletter - Last chance to see Die Walküre until 2024

We’re sneaking two newsletters into the “moon of May” to remind you that you have precisely 24 hours to see Die Walküre, or you’ll have to wait until next year.

The première of the second instalment (or first part) of our new Ring Cycle for London ended with a 5 minute standing ovation from the largest audience ever assembled for one of our productions and we have been overwhelmed by the outpouring of love and support from friends and first-timers alike.

Thank you to every one of you who has been so see us so far this week. We truly believe we have made something extraordinary here, if you haven’t seen it, we’d hate for you to miss it…

If you still need persuading, see below for a handful of the reviews in to date:

Reviews

From left to right: Grace Wain, Magdalene Ashman, Charlotte Richardson, Shannon Roberts, Cath Backhouse, Philippa Boyle, Catharine Woodward, Grainne Gillis and Caroline Carragher.

The biggest question in opera this week has been ‘what does the mannequin signify?’ - to the point where we may get Luna (as she is known to the cast and crew) to do her own blog post once the production draws to a close. These tidbits are the sort of thing you can look forward to if you become a Friend of Regents Opera, and it’s a brilliant way of supporting us and making sure we can continue making “the best value Wagner going”.

Justine Viani as Sieglinde with “Luna”

The second biggest question is ‘Will you be selling the individual operas of the cycle separately and if so, when?’

The answer is resoundingly “Yes”.

Götterdämmerung goes on sale at The Year’s End (23:59 31st December 2023) with the other three to follow after Siegfried has closed.

In the meantime, given the Vorabend and the first part have been so good, you definitely want make sure you have your seat reserved for the full cycle - we’ve been called “Britain’s thriftiest Wagner” and you certainly won’t ever get a chance to see a Ring Cycle up this close for such a reasonable price. Don’t forget, we have centre balcony tickets for the whole cycle on sale for £45 - that’s £3 per hour of Wagner and they’re being snapped up at speed!

And that’s not all! In this bumper edition, Così fan Tutte heads off to Shipton Moyne next week and returns to London on 29th July for a performance at St John’s Smith Square with the Southbank Sinfonia.

For those of you new to us, you may not know that we also do Orchestral Study Days where a full orchestra tackles an opera with a cast of singers under the guidance of Ben Woodward.

Attendance at the final playthrough of the whole opera is by suggested donation of £10. If you are a player, participating in the orchestra is £40 for the weekend.

Next up is Elektra on 22 & 23rd July 2023 (final playthrough is usually around 6pm of the second day)

Featuring Die Walküre cast members: Catharine Woodward as Elektra; Charlotte Richardson as Chrysothemis and; Ingeborg Børch as Klytemnestra

It’s possibly been the busiest month in our company’s history.

As Siegrune exclaims to the other Valkyries…”Arbeit gab's!”


As always, many thanks to our sponsors, Big Yellow Storage in Camberley - thank you for keeping all of our stuff safe!

Sarah Heenan