The last year has been exciting for Ellen Kent. She has taken on and succeeded in the challenge to create her own production company, ‘Ellen Kent Productions’, which successfully toured Bizet’s Carmen and Verdi’s Nabucco in Autumn 2007. This Spring Ellen Kent Productions returned with two of Ellen’s favourite operas Puccini’s Madama Butterfly and Verdi’s La Traviata. Not only did Ellen offer stunning operas, she is also brought along a wonderful ballet duo – Grigorovich’s Nutcracker and Tchaikovsky’s Sleeping Beauty – that as always offered the very best of Russian ballet. Both productions stared Kristina Terentiev*, the only Grand Prix winner of the international Dance competition, Vienna 2007, where she competed against 300 other participants from around the world.

Ellen has developed a new concept for the Autumn 2008 and Spring 2009 opera tours, magnificent traditional productions will be performed by handpicked international soloists alongside the full Chisinau National Philharmonic Orchestra and Chorus in an amphitheatre setting. Amphitheatre Productions was inspired by the early Greek theatre where the roots of opera began to provide a lot more than just a performance. Ellen Kent Amphitheatre Productions will be touring La Boheme, Tosca and Carmen in Autumn 2008 and Aida, Carmen and Turandot in Spring 2009 across the UK and Eire.

Ellen’s hard work and dedication to the arts has not gone unnoticed and since June 2006 Ellen has received not one, but two medals for her outstanding contribution to the arts.
In June 2006 Ellen was awarded the ‘Golden Fortune Diploma and Honorary Medal’ by the President of Ukraine for her inspiring and immensely successful work with Eastern European operas. This honour is of the highest regard and past winners include Sofia Loren, the Bolshoi Ballet Company and The Pope, so Ellen is in good company! To add to this accolade the 2006 Liverpool Daily Post Theatre Awards granted Madama Butterfly as the winner for the ‘Best Opera Award’ adding to Ellen’s 2005 win for her production of Aida in 2004.

Most recently her efforts have been recognised by the President of Moldova for her continued support and contribution to the arts of Moldova with reference to her tours of Britain and Eire with the Chisinau National Opera and the Chisinau National Ballet. As a direct result of Ellen’s work she has been selected as the one person who has contributed the most to the arts industry in Moldova. As part of their 60th anniversary celebrations the Union of Theatres in Moldova awarded a limited number of awards. Ellen was awarded
with a medal giving her credit for the ‘Best contribution
to the arts of Moldova’.

This is the first time a British citizen has been a recipient of this highly prestigious medal and on 24 November 2006 Ellen arrived in Moldova to accept the accolade. The award ceremony was held at the Chisinau National Opera House and was attended by the Prime Minister, the President and over 1000 people from the arts industry.

Ellen Kent started touring opera in 1994, successfully opening up the British market by being the first producer to introduce Eastern European opera to the UK & Eire. The inspiration came to Ellen as the plans for the Channel Tunnel were unveiled. It was a huge opportunity to open up communications with the French Theatre network and the rest of Europe and Ellen took the chance to forge pioneering relationships with Theatre La Fontaine and the Romanian National Opera. Consequently at the grand opening of the Channel Tunnel, attended by Her Majesty the Queen, Ellen Kent found herself praying for the rain to hold off long enough for her premiere opera performance in Britain. As part of the celebrations surrounding the opening of the Channel Tunnel Ellen had flown the Romanian National Opera to Rochester in Ceausescu’s private aeroplane, for the performance of a lifetime – to stage the epic opera of Verdi’s Nabucco to an audience of 7,000 at Rochester Castle. The rain deluged, but the performance flourished and received a standing ovation and the hearty endorsement of the national press.

Following Ellen’s success with touring opera, Ellen introduced the Chisinau National Ballet to the UK for the first time in 1999. In 2001 Ellen Kent was the first producer to tour Yuri Grigorovich’s famous 1966 Nutcracker around the UK, with the Chisinau National Ballet, since the Bolshoi’s visit in the 70’s. Swan Lake and Sleeping Beauty followed and in 2006 Ellen introduced two new performances to the touring repertoire, Prokofiev’s Romeo & Juliet and Delibes Coppelia.

Since then Ellen has expanded her operations. Based at the Historic Dockyard in Chatham, Kent, Ellen now tours Eastern European opera and ballet, not only throughout the UK & Eire, but also organises visits to the arts festivals in the Middle East, to rave reviews and increasing audiences with the specific aim of breaking down the barriers of the elitist opera and ballet stereotype and instead creating ‘opera and ballet for everyone’.

Ellen Kent always provides the best talent, supported by a large live orchestra, in every venue with traditional and lavish productions. Recently Ellen has toured Britain, Eire and also internationally with the Chisinau National Opera and the Ukrainian National Opera of Odessa as well as the Chisinau National Ballet and the Russian Classical Ballet Theatre and of course her very own Ellen Kent Productions with hand-picked international soloists and the full Chisinau National Philharmonic Orchestra.
Today’s business has grown into an opera and ballet empire that brings something new to Ellen Kent audiences every visit.

*Cast subject to change