The perfect joining of great architecture and sublime song...
Oliver Gerrish and Meeta Raval
New Georgian Opera launches on saturday May 3rd 2014 at The Grand Pavilion Matlock Bath, one of England's great Edwardian concert venues. NGO's directors, lyric spinto soprano Meeta Raval and I met in 1999 at an Eton Choral Course. Meeta was far more studious than me, so she did not notice me! I was far to busy larking about with the other singers, including brilliant tenor and now World famous actor Eddie Redmayne. At any rate, Meeta and I were destined to be in the same year at The Guildhall School of Music and Drama and have been best friends ever since. She was also one of the first members of The Young Georgians, the under 35 wing of The Georgian Group I set up in 2002. Meeta was brought up in Staffordshire, which was another key part of founding NGO as I too spent a lot of my childhood growing up in Staffordshire, so it was decided by us both that we would like our new opera to be primarily Midlands based.
Our dual interests in music and the plight of Britain's historic buildings lead to the foundation of New Georgian Opera. It is our passionate belief that the finest music should be spread throughout Britain and, in doing this, regenerate and raise much needed attention for historic buildings on the verge of disaster.
Meeta and I are both from the Midlands so it was decided that our first venue would be The Grand Pavilion Matlock Bath as our cause, along with The Derbyshire Historic Buildings Trust. The Grand Pavilion (or 'The Pav' as it is fondly known, partly from when it was a nightclub) is a huge concert hall and was originally a veritable pleasure palace. Even in the hall's present state of restoration it has been host to a multitude of acts. We are the first opera act to have taken to the stage in decades and all profits of this concert with go straight back to The Grand Pavilion and the DHBT.
Meeta and NGO's mascot 'Shira'
For our main photo shoot Meeta and I choose Sutton Scarsdale, a ruined Baroque palace high up above the M1 Motorway. Elisabeth Stoppard and Zuleika Parkin were our photographers. Sutton Scarsdale, even in its present state is utterly beautiful. Historic architecture enriches us with its beauty and helps to inspire us for the future. Nowadays we like to think we know better than those before us, but at NGO we believe that great opera and great historic buildings should be celebrated and made as approachable and accessible as possible. This will form a partnership that will inspire and help to protect what we are lucky enough to have in our national heritage for many years to come.
For tickets please go to:-
All images in this blog are the copyright of Oliver Gerrish - please ask before reproducing them, many thanks
