19th October 2009 London Festival Opera will present a highlight performance of Mozart’s The Magic Flute, staged in full costume, sung in English and accompanied by piano and flute, which will be followed by a programme of popular opera and operetta arias featuring the works of Verdi, Bizet, Strauss and Gilbert and Sullivan.  London Festival Opera brings together established artists from the major British opera companies and exceptional young singers. 

London Festival Opera presents thrilling, affordable opera of the highest artistic standards for Festivals, Music Societies, Corporate and Charity Fundraising Events, Parties, Weddings, Anniversaries and Birthdays.

Review of 19th October 2009 London Festival Opera

The Squadron Leader Hartley Evening opened the new season for the Arts and Literary Society. On this occasion it was the London Festival Opera who presented a highlight performance of The Magic Flute, one of Mozart’s most famous operas. This was a full costume performance of the famous arias with linking dialogue accompanied by the London Festival Opera Ensemble. The characters of Pamina and Tamino were performed by Catriona Clarke and Cameron Rolls, the Queen of the Night by Laure Meloy and Sarastro by Timothy Dawkins. The wonderfully comic Papagano was performed by the fantastic Philip Blake-Jones, who is also the founder of the company, and his delightful Papagana was Miranda Westcott.

This performance was followed by a programme of ‘Encores’ which consisted of some of the best loved arias, duets, quartets in opera and included several pieces from Gilbert and Sullivan. Audience participation was encouraged when Philip Blake-Jones sang ‘I am the very model of a modern Major-General’ at breakneck speed. We finally caught up in the last chorus. It was a highly successful and enjoyable evening and a splendid start to the new season.
Audrey Owens
Press Officer

Live opera for corporate, charity and private events. has appeared in some of the world's leading venues including La Fenice Opera House in Venice, as part of the Salisbury, Windsor, Chelmsford Cathedral and Barbados International Festivals.

Performances have also taken place at the Victoria and Albert Museum, St James's Palace, Kensington Palace, 10 Downing Street, Hampton Court Palace, Blenheim Palace and Bury St Edmunds Cathedral in the UK and at the British Embassy in Paris, the Villa d'Este on Lake Como, at the President's Palace in Malta and in a 'Last Night of the Proms' concert with the City of London Sinfonia in Hamburg for an audience of 5,000.