Performing opera "in the round" and sung in English to communities throughout Sussex since 1989.
We are excited to announce that online booking for our next production, Verdi's King for a Day (Un Giorno di Regno) is now open.
Please use the Tickets menu option to make your booking.
Telephone booking will be open from 7th April.
We are delighted to announce our next production, Verdi's King for a Day.
Tickets will be on sale soon!
We are delighted to announce our next event, a celebration of the life and work of Giacomo Puccini.
To purchase tickets, please click here to be taken to the Hurst Festival web page.
Heber Opera will be taking part in the Hurst Festival with a concert celebrating "Puccini's World".
From 1893, when Puccini's Manon Lescaut was first performed (a week before Verdi's last opera, Falstaff) he came to international acclaim with La Boheme, Tosca, and Madam Butterfly - culminating in his final work, the unfinished masterpiece: Turandot. This was in 1924.
100 years on it is easy to see how he became the natural successor to Verdi. However, in succeeding The Master, it turns out he was to become the Last Master of Italian Opera - for, though much imitated, he has never been equalled, and music has travelled in very different directions since.
The Performance is at 6pm on 29 September in Hurstpierpoint Village Centre.
Our soloists Veronica Brooks and Matt Connolly will be celebrating Puccini during the Brighton Fringe Festival. Please come along and support them!
Please follow this link for tickets
We are delighted to announce our next event, an afternoon tea served up together with operatic delights performed by Heber's talented soloists.
We’ve had a busy time at Heber Opera since our last email. We were delighted and privileged to be invited to sing in the Music Room at Brighton Pavilion for a Christmas concert (jointly with Brighton Chamber Choir) and also to entertain the diners at two of the Pavilion’s Christmas banquets. We were also very happy to have been invited back to the Bluebell Railway to provide carol singing for the Golden Arrow Christmas Dining trains.
It was lovely to be back singing again in the evocative surroundings of Horsted Keynes station.
Plans for 2024 Our plans for this year are still in flux. You can see from the photos elsewhere on this page that last year’s Tales of Hoffmann was a tremendous achievement and was hugely enjoyed by everyone who attended but it has left our finances a little strained!
We will be concentrating on fundraising performances this year – we aren’t planning another fully staged performance until 2025 - but we are counting on our supporters to continue to come along to concerts and other events that we have planned.
We are aiming to present a couple of ‘gala’-type concerts in the spring and autumn and we intend to hold more of our popular ‘Afternoon tea’ concerts. We can already announce the date of our very popular fundraising craft fair in Hurstpierpoint Village Centre which is on 23 November 2024.
Planning is underway for all these projects so watch this space for further information and dates when these become available.
Better still, why not join our mailing list so that you can be the first to hear about our events [link to: http://heberopera.co.uk/mailing]
In addition, we would love to hear any suggestions you might have for additional fundraising activities, or venues or organisations that might like to book Heber Opera for events.
Meanwhile, for anyone who might have been thinking of joining Heber Opera, there will be opportunities for taster sessions throughout the year. If you would like to learn more about what it takes to sing in opera, please contact Michael Withers (michael@heberopera.co.uk).
This weekend we are performing our last 2 shows of Offenbach's Tales of Hoffman. We had an amazing time last weekend and we can't wait to do it all again! Tonight at Uckfield Civic Centre and tomorrow at Hurstpierpoint Village Centre.
Tonight we start our run of the Tales of Hoffman with a performance at King Edward Hall, Lindfield at 7:30pm. We are looking forward to seeing you there!
Our ‘Page to stave’ concert was a great success. The programme included references to the literary origins of most of the pieces we played – emphasising that the stories of operas have their roots in book, plays and poems. We tried to mix the familiar choruses with some lesser-known but equally exciting extracts, so the audience enjoyed such pieces as the ‘Easter Hymn’ from Cavalleria Rusticana and ‘Speed your journey’ from Nabucco as well as the ‘House Beautiful’ scene from Vaughan Williams’ Pilgrim’s Progress and the peasant’s chorus from Boito’s Mefistofele’.
We were also privileged to be able to include two first performances. Tim Nail is our regular accompanist and Steve Hawksley gave a beautiful performance of Tim’s setting of the Yeats poem ‘The Wild Swans at Coole’. We were delighted that Nick Bicât was able to join us for the first performance of two pieces from his community work ‘Nova Drift’.
We have already started rehearsing for our Autumn show, The Tales of Hoffmann by Jacques Offenbach.
Tales of Hoffmann tells the story of the four women that Hoffmann – a poet – has fallen in love with; they include a mechanical doll, a doomed singer and a courtesan. But Hoffmann is being watched over by the Muse of Poetry who has no intention of allowing Hoffmann’s love life to detract from writing his poetry!
The opera was written at the end of Offenbach’s life and they style is far removed from the frothy, satirical operettas he had written previously. Hoffmann is a much more romantic opera – often called an opera-fantastique, and it features a wealth of beautiful, lyrical tunes – including the famous ‘Barcarolle’.
The cast includes Veronica Brooks as Hoffmann’s loves, Matt Connolly as Hoffmann and Steve Hawksley as the villain, the voice of unmitigated evil!
There is still time to join the Heber Opera chorus for this production – if you are quick! If you are interested, please email Michael Withers before 25 June 2023 for more information.
Watch this space for more information about ‘The Tales of Hoffmann’ in the coming weeks.
Hoffmann will be performed in Lindfield, Steyning, Uckfield and Hurstpierpoint in September. Tickets for the performances will be available from 1 July 2023.
