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| Rossini: La cenerentola – Barefoot Opera, 2023 (Photo: Chris Parker) |
Tenor Anthony Flaum has just been announced as the new artistic director of Barefoot Opera, a charity based in St Leonards on Sea, East Sussex that has a wonderful track record of working with community choirs, schools and colleges to broaden the reach of the artform in the South East and beyond.
In 2022, their ground-breaking production, Bloom Britannia, captivated audiences with its innovative blend of professional and community singers, under the creative vision of composer Orlando Gough and librettist Stephen Plaice. Their Young Artists Tour presented Rossini’s La cenerentola (in 2023) and Verdi’s La traviata (2024). For 2025, the company will be producing Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor for its Young Artist Tour. Cast and creatives are made up of young professionals – the youngest singers this year was still actually at college in France and also one of the directors was just finishing his time at Guildhall. They brought a South African tenor over this year for Alfredo and thanks to the work they did with bringing him over and supporting him in his quest for work over the past few months, he has now been engaged by a UK company for a major role in 2025.
At each venue, they work with community choirs, schools and colleges, whilst the accompaniment is via their Barefoot Band, created a few years ago and consisting of piano, clarinet, double bass and accordion,
For La cenerentola in 2023, they did eight shows. This year’s La traviata tour took in 12 shows beginning in St. Leonards-on-sea (featuring Voiceworks choir and Bexhill College) and venues including the Grimeborn Festival at the Arcola Theatre (with Hackney Voices). This year the aim is to reach 16 shows – four at Grimeborn, 12 other tour venues and some that they have never been to before to widen their reach in the South East region.
For Lucia di Lammermoor, they are working with a number of new community groups and with mental health organisations and charities to frame the work that they do. Lucia can be a triggering show in some of its subject matter and so, the Creative Team are all going through Mental Health First Aid training and will be sensitive to the subject matter when they run workshops with groups that deal with vulnerable people.
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| Barefoot Opera’s Bloom Britannia (composer Orlando Gough) in 2022 |
Anthony Flaum was the producer for the 2023 and 2024 tours and has big plans for the company. We chatted about it earlier this month when I caught him singing the role of Theseus in Jonathan Dove’s The Monster in the Maze in Sheffield [see my review]. He plans to broaden the model that Barefoot has built over the last few years, in terms of touring but also try to take a deeper dive into their community legacy. Also planned is a gradual implementation of parts of “The Green Book” in the work that they do in an effort to ensure that their touring work is sustainable, whilst they grow.
Full details from Barefoot Opera’s website.
