I had a lovely evening at the Royal College of Music yesterday. What a great pleasure it is to see young singers getting to grips with pre-Handel repertoire, especially the Venetian stuff. An excellent production by English Touring Opera's James Conway provided a frame for some first class performance by a number of young members of the RCM's International Opera School.
Notable standouts were a hugely interesting young Swedish soprano Annie Fredriksson as Nero, Hannah Sandison as Drusilla, and Katherine Crompton as Poppea. These are all to be watched - they are going places I feel!
I have been delighted during the last two weeks to see the new stars emerging from the two Royal "conservatories" in London. Opera is alive and well at this level and great work is being accomplished. London continues to be great cradle of advanced training and development of opera singers. Very encouraging.
I am spending today in Somerset visiting my elder daughter and her family. I have to run for the train!
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