The Classical Opera Company, founded in 1997 by conductor and artistic director Ian Page, is devoted to performing the works of Mozart and his contemporaries. It combines fidelity to the classical age with a commitment to making performances dynamic and enlightening for modern audiences.
The company is emerging as one of the country’s most highly regarded young musical organisations, and has quickly established an outstanding reputation, not only for the quality of its performances but also for the excellence of its casting and its imaginative programming and presentation. It is the first professional period-instrument ensemble in the UK to place opera and vocal music at the centre of its repertoire, and the first to specialise exclusively in the music of the Classical period.
The company’s debut production was of Mozart’s first opera, Apollo & Hyacinthus, at the Britten Theatre in 1998, and it subsequently presented Mozart’s La Finta Semplice and Il Re Pastore at the Linbury Studio Theatre, Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, and on tour in the UK. The company made its overseas debut in 2002 at the Schwetzingen Schlosstheater.
In addition to staged opera, The Classical Opera Company and its dynamic period-instrument orchestra, the Orchestra of the Classical Opera Company, present concert performances of opera, and concerts that mix orchestral and vocal repertoire. Operas-in-concert have included J.C.Bach’s Adriano in Siria, Thomas Arne’s Artaxerxes, Mozart’s Mitridate, Re di Ponto in its ‘original’ version, and the UK premiere of Gluck’s La Clemenza di Tito at the Lufthansa Festival of Baroque Music. At the Wigmore Hall the company has given a highly successful series of concerts exploring Mozart’s travels, and is currently presenting an exciting new Haydn series, which will continue until his bicentenary in 2009.
In 2004 they made their critically acclaimed debut at the Barbican Hall with Apollo to Zauberflöte: an A-Z of Mozart Opera, a programme featuring music from 14 operas sung by 14 singers, including Amanda Roocroft and Mark Padmore as well as several up-and-coming stars, and the company was invited back to perform a new version of this concert in the 2005 Mostly Mozart Festival. In 2006, The Classical Opera Company presented Mozart’s Il Re Pastore at the Barbican as part of an on-going relationship with the hall.
This year marked the launch of the Classical Opera Company’s first ever complete UK cycle of Mozart operas. This began with critically acclaimed performances of Apollo & Hyacinthus, and was followed by Il Re Pastore and Così fan tutte, which, as well as being performed in the UK, toured to Italy with Martin Randall Music Management. The company was also invited to launch the Wigmore Hall’s celebrations of the 250th anniversary of Mozart’s birth with Prodigy of Nature, a concert exploring the composer’s extraordinary childhood.
The Classical Opera Company has enjoyed unrivalled success in finding and developing outstanding young singers, and has recently established an Associate Artist Scheme to provide training and mentorship to exceptional young singers. Regular company artists have included Sarah Fox and Sally Matthews (winners of the Kathleen Ferrier Competition, 1997 and 1999), and Cora Burggraaf and Martene Grimson (winners of the Maggie Teyte Competition, 2003 and 2004). Over half of the singers in its staged operas have subsequently appeared at Covent Garden or Glyndebourne. Similarly, the Orchestra of the Classical Opera Company comprises some of the country’s leading young instrumentalists.
The Classical Opera Company generates a vibrant atmosphere and sense of occasion at its performances, and enjoys tremendous loyalty and enthusiasm from its audiences. Despite its specialisation in the 18th century, it is also committed to creating new and innovative work, and has commissioned and premiered completions by the late Stanley Sadie of unfinished Mozart concert arias and by Duncan Druce of the Largo from Beethoven’s lost oboe concerto. This aspect of the company’s work will culminate with its completion and production of Mozart’s unfinished opera Zaide in 2008.
