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OperaPlus is a group of like-minded people, mainly from Northamptonshire who are interested in opera and would like to know more. Originally the group met "live" at the Doddridge Centre in Northampton with a tutor who led us through an opera every term, studying each work in great detail. However since the outbreak of Covid in 2020, the group has met mainly through the medium of weekly Zoom meetings.

Sessions are led by a tutor and we are fortunate to have an extremely talented group of lecturers with a wealth of knowledge about the world of opera. Usually we spend two or three weeks studying an opera, learning about how it came to be written and performed and how the music and libretto work together.

Importantly the members are fully involved in the running of the group and the choice of operas to be studied. To supplement the Zoom talks OperaPlus has also organised trips to see operas in Milton Keynes, Birmingham and Nottingham, as well as usually having at least one "live" session each term where we meet together to watch an opera DVD and talk about it.

Zoom technology is easy to use and support is available to those unfamiliar with it.

The History of OperaPlus

The Group originated at The Leicester University Centre in Barrack Road, Northampton in the 1990s; moved to The Mounts in smaller premises in the 2002, and then in 2006 when the university dropped most local courses, OperaPlus was set up independently, through the energy in particular of David Wilkins, Vibeke Romose and the late Richard Fox at the Doddridge Centre with 15 members. Since then membership has grown to about 40.

What We Have Done 2022 / 2023

It is now eight terms on since our first programme of Zoom lectures began in January 2021 and OperaPlus definitely feels like a fairly well established and stable group with an operating format that works well for most people most of the time (albeit the vagaries of the internet sometimes intervene to hamper us!). We are fortunate to have a loyal group of subscribers who are treated to a wide range of different types of opera, all delivered by speakers who are knowledgeable and willing to spend time preparing material for their lectures. As we have got to know our speakers, it does seem to me that they also like doing the talks for us which adds to the overall enjoyment of the sessions. We are very fortunate to have them and grateful to our members who made the initial approaches and act as link people to them.

Since the last AGM we have been able to add Sandy Burnett to our list of speakers which has proved an excellent find. Sandy runs his own series of opera lectures but has been willing to adapt these talks to make them fit our format. From next term, he has offered to deliver four talks on Verdi operas beginning with Falstaff in November and followed over the year by Il Trovatore, I Lombardi and Nabucco. Thanks to Mike and Dee for making that contact on our behalf.

In March this year we also had a fascinating talk by Naomi Dawson on set design. Naomi has been involved in designing sets for Richard Strauss's Die Frau ohne Schatten, for the Opera House in Amsterdam and although she was not able to share these directly at this stage for contractual reasons, it was very interesting to hear how she goes about her work. At the end of the previous term John Gibbons had given us two talks on Die Frau ohne Schatten so we are hopeful that once she is able to do so Naomi might come back to talk specifically about her work on the opera.

All the while our core group of speakers has continued to give us a richly varied programme ranging from Walton and Holst to Puccini and Wagner. From a personal point of view (if I may) I thought Nic Chalmers' talk on the Dialogue of the Carmelites was absolutely wonderful and I also really enjoyed Simon Rees on The Rakes Progress with its amazing Hockney sets. I'm sure you will all have your own favourites!

While we are blessed to have such a good speaker group, I think it is important that we keep things "fresh" by trying to bring in someone new from time to time. Angela and I thought in particular that adding a female speaker to our list would be really good, so any thoughts you may have do please let us know.

Unfortunately opportunities for seeing live opera more locally have been considerably reduced as companies are forced to tighten their belts. This seems to be part of a generally fairly bleak picture in term of arts' funding which has led to the loss of Glyndebourne Touring and the cancellation of the WNO spring visit to Milton Keynes. Several of our speakers have expressed their concern at what is going on (including at ENO) and we hope that things might improve although the loss of visiting companies and slimmed down programmes is extremely disappointing.

However in November we did manage a trip to Birmingham to see WNO's the Makropulos Affair by Janacek. Happily we had sufficient numbers to have a coach which made the outing much more relaxed. We have also got tickets to the Buxton Festival's production of La Sonnambula on the 16th July so a group of sixteen of us will be going up for that. Many thanks to Sandra for getting the tickets.

We have managed to have a few live sessions at Doddridge, sometimes just to watch a DVD together and sometimes with a speaker coming up to Northampton. The plus side of this is that it is really nice to see people in person and to meet speakers. The downside is that it is too far for some people to come. Our hope is that keeping this element in the programme but limiting it to once a term is a reasonable balance but again any views at the AGM would be welcome.

Another decision we made last year was to have slightly fewer sessions and to include a half-term break. So this year the spring term was eleven weeks (including a Doddridge meeting) and the summer term eight weeks. This definitely feels more manageable and the current plan is for the autumn term to start slightly later (27th September) and end on the 13th December (11 sessions). This gives us the 30 sessions for 2023.

Earlier this year we were all saddened to learn of the death of Dan Edwards. Dan was a much liked and long standing member of OperaPlus who will be much missed and our thoughts are with Margaret during this time.

Finally I do just want to give my personal thanks to Angela Perkins and Sue Westall whose support is invaluable. Organising OperaPlus is very much a team effort with lots of people playing a part and I think this is key to making it successful and enjoyable. If we can keep this going, hopefully we will be able to look forward to many more Wednesday mornings of lovely music and fascinating insights.