Author: JZualski

Come to our open dress rehearsal at Ardentinny Outdoor Centre, Saturday 6th July at 6.30pm!

Aria Alba returns to Ardentinny with CARMEN. Atmospheric. Dramatic. A musical tour de force. And you’ll know loads of the tunes.

This year it’s feeling a bit different. Dunoon-based flamenco dancer, Moira Lewitt (also PhD, physician, researcher, and now Professor at the University of the West of Scotland by the way) adds a touch of sensuous sizzle! She is careful to tell us that the music in Carmen isn’t actually flamenco, but has a Spanish style. Whatever, it is good!

Everyone knows something of Carmen’s story. She is a fiery, magnetic seductress, who draws solder Don Jose into a turbulent love affair. He is dutiful, she is a free spirit. The opera tells the tale of their descent into a criminal underworld. It doesn’t end well.

Spoiler alert: he kills her and is hauled off to meet his own fate!

You’d think a community opera company would play it safe, but that has never been our style. It’s our first opera in French although there will be English explanations for the audience. It’s been great to have a French conductor and Royal Conservatoire of Scotland (RCS) graduate, Suzanne Godet, volunteering with us for the first time this year. And we have a bunch of new members – it’s so interesting to introduce them to the magic of our residential week in Ardentinny.

The language and the music are stretching but it is a joy to see Jake Zualski’s concept emerging and the confidence of the singers building, supported, as ever by our lovely pianist, Max McWhirter, MMus, also an RCS alumnus.

Moira, Max and Suzanne in rehearsal.

Every year we arrive feeling like we have a mountain to climb, and every year by the Saturday evening we have the makings of our Fringe performances. It’s uncanny the way it works. Just being around each other for six days, 24 hours a day, cements relationships on the stage and off it. And if it has rained a bit this year, well, at least we have those wonderful views around us as we rehearse.

Peter and his team in Ardentinny couldn’t be more welcoming and nothing is too much trouble for them as we scavenge for props. This year we’ve purloined a checkerboard for our dancer’s formidable clacking and stamping, and a climbing rope – yeah, I’ll let you find out what that’s for!

And the flamenco! The moment Moira takes the stage in the overture, the spirit of Carmen is evoked. Her smouldering interpretation is captivating. It’s hard to take your eyes off her as she stamps and turns, her fringed shawl writhing around her, adding even more drama, as if that were possible. Threaded through the opera, she acts as a kind of ghostly presence, amplifying the action and supporting the story!

We’re welcoming those local to Dunoon to experience our open rehearsal for Carmen free of charge (although, optional donations to Aria Alba -Opera for All would be greatly appreciated!). No need to get a ticket, just show up at the Ardentinny Outdoor Centre for 6.30pm on Saturday 6th July! We’re so excited to show off all our hard work!

Updated: Jun 30, 2024

Our 2024 Edinburgh Fringe Production comes ever closer, and tickets are now on sale for both the Melrose preview performances and the final run at Stockbridge.

Our props and costume department have been working hard to bring together the brutalist vision of director Jake Zualski. One of the biggest tasks has been stitching the many hundreds of meters of seams for a full set of black circle skirts for the female presenting chorus!

Check out the amount of fabric in the video below, and also the smiles on the girls faces when we asked them to twirl!

We’re also so excited to have Kelly Doherty on board to design and create bespoke skirts for our three Carmen performers. And a striking new-romantic inspired tartan extravaganza for Escamillo.

Thanks to the wonders of gift-aid we’re now equipped with a complete set of theatre flats to help transform new venues into a professional theatre and open up more touring and community engagement opportunities for the future.

Lastly, but not leastly, we’re proud to announce that we’ve been working closely with our Flamenco consultant, Moira Lewitt to make sure that we honour the traditions which inspired this iconic opera. Moira has not only been an integral voice behind the scenes, but will also represent the spirit of Carmen throughout the performance. Lending rhythmic footwork, castanet clicking and physical performance elements that make the whole production sparkle.

Book your tickets today to avoid disappointment!

A few weeks back saw a great milestone for our Artistic Director Jake Zualski, who has now been with us for 10 years!

Although Jake was known to the company from the very beginning for singing with some founder members at a Linlithgow Rugby Club Choir rendition of Les Miserables in 2010, it wasn’t until 2014 when he came to us as a music graduate in the role of conductor.

Soon after that, he became the comusical director of the company beside his mentor and friend, our founder Dr. Nell Drew. Over the years they produced 7 operas for us (another 4 for other companies) and side by side they led us through many challenges.

Jake has been a central figure in the development of our community this past decade, often taking on more than his role asked for. In 2018 he stepped in to direct Idomeneo at Edinburgh Fringe and in 2022 he oversaw a production of Maria Stuarda which Nell directed from her hospital bed.

Since inheriting the role of Artistic Director in 2022, Jake has produced one full scale opera, Cosi fan tutte which enjoyed successful runs at both Melrose Corn Exchange and Edinburgh Fringe. And this year he leads our company through the complexities of Carmen in a brutalist production quite unlike anything we’ve done to date. Catch it in Melrose (August 3-4) or Edinburgh Fringe (August 14-17 2024)

We look forward to many more adventures under the leadership of Jake over the coming years and thank him for the years of service he has given us.