Sixteenth Annual Opera Concert

An audience of two hundred crammed into Winchelsea Church on Saturday 29th November for the sixteenth annual opera concert by current and former members of the Royal Opera Jette Parker Artists Programme, organised as always by Rye LTC chairman Jonathan Jempson. 

This year the stars of the show included guest soprano Sky Ingram, mezzo-soprano Kseniia Nikolaieva, returning to Rye for a second time, tenor Ryan Vaughan Davies and baritone Josef Jeongmeen Ahn, who also sang in the concert last year. At the piano was Oliver Gooch, on his eighth visit to Rye, who created the programme and guided the musical journey from French composers, including Massenet, Gounod
and Bizet, through to Puccini, Verdi, Lehár and Rossini among others, all rendered with power, precision and vitality by the talented team. As a surprise, Sky Ingram unexpectedly threw in a lively rendition of ‘My Simple Christmas Wish’ (‘I wanna be rich, famous and powerful…’) before the programme concluded with the intricate quartet ‘Bella figlia dell’amore’ from Rigoletto. 

After a rousing encore of ‘Brindisi’, the ‘Drinking Song’, from La Traviata, the appreciative audience dispersed to reflect on yet another superb musical evening.

To view the full album from the evening, please click here: https://photos.app.goo.gl/KndRpcAHj9Hv35QA7

Photo credits: Roger Way