I saw a small,english language production of don giovanni in regents park a few years ago and am toying with the idea of organising a la boheme in regents park one summer, I think it would be fun.

Any comments on 'diy' opera ?

PS If you're thinking of Regents Park Open-Air Theatre - I've seen G&S done there.  There is nothing behind the stage area to throw the sound forward into the auditorium, and as a result the sound disappears into thin air.  They throat-miked everyone who sang in the shows I've seen there, and this would really be the only viable way of using this unkind stage for anything musical.  Unfortunately the throat-miking merely magnified the grim vocal deficiencies of those performing.

If you're really serious about a diy opera, then give yourself a fighting chance - make use of the marvellous box-of-tricks that is a modern, pukka theatre.  It won't make your cast sing better, but you'd be surprised how much better everything will go if it's lit nicely (audiences continue to ignore lightning in stage shows, yet I would rate it more valuable than scenery - and it's already there in the theatre, and costs you 0 to utilise it),  and even if you cannot afford scenery then you can play against black backdrops and it looks ultra-fashionable (as though you actually intended this, rather than that you couldn't afford David Fielding).  Plus, you can tuck the orchestra away where they are supposed to be - in the pit.   And it need not be expensive - you could stage a fab show at the Bloomsbury Theatre, for example (or the Cochrane, or the Peacock, although Bloomsbury are the cheapest to rent... I think Golden Lane is closed now?).  Bloomsbury are lovely helpful people, you get all the facilities of a pukka theatre, and instead of freezing their nuts off in the rain in Regents Park your grateful cast will have proper dressing-rooms*, backstage tannoy relay, a Stage Management desk, and all the facilities to help your show come-over looking professional and competent :-)   And then if you get adventurous, you can have hydraulic scene-changes,  you can fly-in the Cafe Momus for Act II,  you can have Marcello's painting on the saloon exterior come down on a scrim...  it will all look most delicious :-)

PS - Buy a copy of The Art Of Coarse Acting  and make sure you never do anything mentioned within its amusing but admonitary covers :-)  It has a whole chapter on what can go wrong when performing in the open air, for example...

* at the risk of being banal, you need to provide your cast with some washbasins where they can get the make-up off, and they will need at least one loo which is "theirs" - you can't get out of costume to go and use the lavvy provided for the public   Ideally you need three loos - one for use as a loo, another for the tenor to do 2 hours of vocal warm-ups in, and another for the soprano to lock herself inside and sulk.

I'm surprised the Royal Parks gave permission, because usually they are against all kinds of public performances (except on designated bandstands and in the Open-Air-Theatre?   But good luck to the Don Giovanni team for getting permission

In the 3-4 weeks before the show, it would be a full-time job for at least 3-4 people, not including those actually performing

durrrrrrrrr, of course, cd and filmed opera...

easier to organise,cut, stop if raining and can use sets, gives me longterm income stream and can advertise in the eno brochure


in english,wonder if i can talk peter moore into backing it eh

I would love to have live music but wondering about cd, after all, less hassle, having probs pinning down my director at the moment though , blinkin artistic folk init

still early days at momento

Janthefan, Are you back from your trip to London? Or are you writing from London? Or am I confused?
Come to tell us about your trip if you want to. I am sure many will want to know how your time in London went.

Are you going to produce an amature opera Lord Byron? We used to have very good amature opera here before it turn itself into production of contemporary musicals of dubious taste.