About us

Peterborough Opera exists to bring annual live performances of opera in English to Peterborough and the surrounding area. We also give concerts of operatic and other music several times during the year.

Although we are based in Peterborough, our singers come from a wide area and include all ages and performing backgrounds. We rehearse on Friday evenings for most of the year, with extra rehearsals in the run-up to our annual staged production.

Responses from some of audience members:

“We both thoroughly enjoy opera, whether it be the grandeur of Verona, or the excellent performances of P.Op. We have our tickets for May, and look forward to seeing you there.”

“Lovely concert yesterday evening – most enjoyable – and nice to see a good number of people there… Friends of ours thoroughly enjoyed the performance, they hadn’t seen/heard Peterborough Opera before and were quite impressed.”

“Absolutely brilliant tonight you guys! I’ve never watched Opera before live. Was particularly impressed with the pianist and how they really led and complimented the cast. Beautiful voices especially with the church acoustics! Should be very proud of yourselves.”

MUSICAL DIRECTORS

Clive Fairbairn 1969 – 1973
John Walmsley 1973 – 2008
Fraser Goulding 2009 – 2011
Marc Murray 2011 – 2015
Kate Wishart 2015 – 2023
Jingle Gawley 2023 – 

 

MEMBERSHIP

Peterborough Opera was formed in 1969 and we still have a few members of the original group singing with us! We have about 35 members, but always welcome more. Many of our members live in and around Peterborough, but we do have several from further afield. We would particularly welcome male singers, both soloists and chorus members. We are an amateur company in the truest sense, with all of our members giving their time and talents unpaid, for the love of the work. Many are ex- or semi-professional singers, but we also welcome anyone who loves to sing – an enthusiastic chorus is the backbone of the company!

Want to get involved but don’t fancy being on stage? We also need people who would like to get involved in other aspects of staged performances, including stage management – they can be singers or non-singers, but without the ‘backstage’ crew we can’t mount a production.

We rehearse almost every Friday at Folksworth Village Hall, Manor Road, Folksworth, Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, PE7 3SU (see map), from 7.30pm-9.30pm. Anyone interested in finding out more is welcome to come along on a Friday evening, or to contact us at admin@peterboroughopera.co.uk. There are no auditions to join the company and no experience of opera is needed, just a love of singing and performing! The annual subscription is £100 (£70 for OAPs and students); members can arrange with the treasurer to pay in instalments if necessary.

If you are interested in finding out more, please contact:

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