‘A really happy time’
Soprano Elizabeth Llewellyn MBE, who sang the roles of Prima Donna/Ariadne in Strauss’ Ariadne auf Naxos, and recently performed a song recital in the Howard Assembly Room, remembers her National Opera Studio residency at Opera North.
“The whole idea of doing a residency with a real opera company – being in the building, and working with the same staff – has an effect. Right the way through music college you’re in a bubble, it’s all theoretical, but residencies like those at the National Opera Studio and Scottish Opera ground things and give us a dose of reality, which I think singers need a bit more of!
During our residency we worked on scenes from Britten operas with Jo Davies and Richard Farnes. As you can imagine, that was a bit of a dream team: a director and a conductor with such deep understanding and love for the art form, and I think it really rubbed off on all of us.
I think the opportunity to take the musical challenges seriously, working with members of the Orchestra, and also to get into the very specific dramatic challenges, made it a very successful residency for us, even if it wasn’t going to be repertoire that we sang again.
We all learned a lot, and it was good to work in the Howard Assembly Room, too; it lent itself very well to chamber opera. I think we had a really happy time there”.
