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  • Dunoon’s own Moira Lewitt joins Aria Alba in Bizet’s opera CARMEN

    Dunoon’s own Moira Lewitt joins Aria Alba in Bizet’s opera CARMEN

    Photo by Sally Brown

    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!

  • Carmen Update – costumes, set and more!

    Carmen Update – costumes, set and more!

    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!

  • Celebrating 10 years of Jake Zualski

    Celebrating 10 years of Jake Zualski

    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.

  • FUNDRAISING SUCCESS AT ARIA ALBA QUIZ NIGHT

      Our 2024 quiz night was a roaring success with questions ranging from mildly befuddling to facepalmingly frustrating! Our teams were challenged to 8 rounds from general knowledge, music and film, through to the very popular chocolate round.

      We enjoyed a fun night all round, but were particularly enthralled by Aria Alba member Eilidh Riddell and quizmaster Neil McTavish’s set of popular songs at half time. Who’d have thought that we’d see Neil strumming away to Taylor Swift?!

      An enourmous thank you to everyone who turned up on support of our charitable mission to provide education in Opera and transform lives in the process. The grand total for the evening is £665

      which will directly benefit our community by supporting our running costs for 2024.

      Further donations can be made in cash or bank transfer and for every £10 donated by UK tax payers we can claim an extra £2.50 through gift aid. Contact Judy via our web form or directly to find out more: ariaalba00@gmail.com.

      Watch out for more fun ways to get involved and sign up to the blog for updates!

    • Annual Quiz 16 March 2024

      Are you ready quizheads?💡😄

      We’re delighted to announce our annual fundraising quiz night to have some fun and raise money for our upcoming Fringe production of Bizet’s Carmen 💃

      There will also be a raffle on the night with some exciting prizes including a John Lewis ultrasonic reed diffuser and room oil, cinema tickets, an M&S, and a few bottles of booze! 🥂

      The quiz will be next Saturday the 16th of March, 7pm at Duddingston Kirk Hall. The event is BYOB, refreshments will be available but you’re very welcome to bring your favourite snacks!

      🎟 We encourage you to bring your friends to compete as a team, but we’re all very friendly! You can book your tickets through this link:

      https://aria-alba-opera-for-all.sumupstore.com

      Can’t wait to see you there! 🎉

    • Our Story

      The Story of Aria Alba – Opera for All

      Belle McGregor – reflects on the conception and realisation of Aria Alba.

      So, the story goes that our wonderful founder, teacher and inspiration Dr Nell Drew was woken up one morning at 4 am by the sudden idea of starting an opera company. Just like that. And here we are, 13 years on, still going strong. Of course, there is more to it than that. Like Nell asking some friends to join her in the venture. “Just a few meetings a year – it’s not a big commitment.” Really, Nell? But Sarah, Fiona and Belle all joined Nell and helped to set up the Company.

      Nell’s vision was threefold: that the Company would bring opportunities to sing and act opera to interested singers of all abilities; that it would reach out to community audiences containing people who felt that opera was “not for me” and finally; that the Company would provide a platform for young singers with professional potential to experience all aspects of opera in a safe and nurturing environment. All these ambitions have been and are being realised.  

      Initially, willing recruits were found among Nell’s singing students, many of whom were intrigued by the notion and challenge of taking on the singing of opera choruses and principal roles and, eventually, performing in a complete opera.  Other recruits came from Linlithgow Rugby Club Choir (one of whom is still with us!) and, notably, the National Youth Choir of Scotland. A start was made. Some Company members were daunted by the notion of singing pieces in the language in which they had been written, an unbreakable rule for our founder.  Fortunately, an expert linguist had joined the Company and could coach members through the vagaries of the pronunciation and meaning of the words being sung. Learning was fast!

      The Company cut its teeth on The Chorus of the Enchanted Islanders (from Alcina, by Handel) and The Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves (from Nabucco by Verdi), learning Italian, learning part-singing, learning singing techniques and, above all, dramatic presentation.

      It was soon realised that singing opera is no walk in the park – you have no book to look at, you must remember all the words, and your vocal line, and the singing techniques, and the correct way of breathing, and the dramatic direction, and all the while making the whole thing look effortless. But we got there. Our first opera was the Marriage of Figaro by Mozart. In preparation, we went off for a workshop to a grand house in Ireland, at the end of which we gave a performance, in the most realistic of settings, even to the ‘sotto i pini’ of the last Act, for the local community.

      The Edinburgh Festival Fringe that year saw our opera performed four times, presented to families, friends, and the roving entertainment-seeking Fringe-goer. Occasionally, we have presented opera workshops in various communities, as well as holding ‘Come and Sing’ events. In addition, each year we present a concert, usually with a specific theme, which gives us further opportunities to sing favourite arias, duets, ensembles and choruses and to reach out to new and old audiences.

      Our initial experience with Figaro has been repeated in the years since, weekly rehearsals preparing the ground, the annual workshop and local open dress rehearsal (now annually in the Ardentinny Outdoor Centre near Dunoon) setting up four Fringe performances.

      In 2023, our outreach ambitions saw us giving 2 very well-received performances in Melrose and we hope that this aspect of our life will expand and continue. It is always a source of great joy and pride when an audience member says: “This is the first opera I’ve ever been to and it was wonderful!” Company members have come and gone, some to greater heights. Opportunities have been given to budding instrumentalists as well as singers, lighting engineers, backstage assistants and many others.

      We depend on volunteers to support us and our members and friends are indefatigable in their efforts to sell tickets, prepare props, serve interval refreshments and even take on administrative roles.

      Very, very sadly, our lovely Nell died in 2022 after 12 wonderful years with us. Though bereft, we have carried on in the spirit she would have wished. Her singing and artistic direction student Jake has taken over the reins and now leads us in the next chapter of our existence.  We look forward to many more years of wonderful singing, acting and contributions to local communities. Come and see us!