After the success of the spring opera tour of Aida and Tosca, Ellen Kent immediately set to work to create a fresh tour of Carmen and Nabucco for autumn/winter 2007. Ellen feels bringing something new to her audiences is important and is continually creating new ideas to add to her traditional operas. For this tour of Carmen and Nabucco Ellen is introducing exciting new soloists. She has invited Heather Shipp to sing the role of Carmen. Heather will be appearing this autumn at the Royal Opera, Covent Garden, in ‘The Ring Cycle’ playing Wellgunde. This summer Heather performed in the Bregenz Festival and last summer at Opera Holland Park. She has also worked with the English National Opera and Opera North among others. Ellen is also introducing Zarui Vardanean in the role of Carmen. Zarui, who starred as Prince Orlovsky in Die Fledermaus and Amneris in Aida, is a young singer who won a scholarship to the CEE Musiktheater in Vienna and studied the role of Carmen whilst at the Vienna Opera House. Maria Tsonina, an earlier winner of the Vienna scholarship, will be returning also.
For Carmen Ellen has taken her inspiration from the time she lived in Spain as a teenager. Ellen and her mother started the equivalent of the RSPCA in Spain and rescued hundreds of donkeys from ill treatment. Animal welfare has been a part of Ellen’s life ever since. To bring the Spanish setting of Carmen to life and to raise money and awareness for donkey sanctuaries through the U.K, Ellen has invited a donkey to take part in Carmen, where possible, throughout the tour.
As well as inviting a donkey on stage, Ellen has decided to also include a majestic black stallion too! Louis the black stallion takes part in both Carmen and Nabucco and is used to stage work having just finished taking part in The Royal Opera’s version of Carmen in Covent Garden. In Nabucco Louis will thunder on stage as the war horse and to add to the power of the opera Ellen has also included stunning pyrotechnic displays in Nabucco for the burning down of the temple, the collapsing God and for the scene where Nabucco falls to madness.
Extravagant effects on stage are nothing new in an Ellen Kent performance. In the past Ellen has included a life sized hand-made elephant, real stallions, golden eagles, falcons, borzoi hunting dogs and Coi Carp on stage - all relevant to their operas and looked after as the stars of the shows. Stunning pyrotechnics, fire spinners, stunt artists and naked ladies have been included in Ellen’s operas for authenticity. Ellen Kent’s productions have received rave reviews and always contain something new and spectacular.
Ellen’s ambition and entrepreneurial spirit has led to fantastic achievements including 12 separate BSIS awards from 1987 to 1996, two consecutive awards by SFX (LiveNation) for breaking all opera box office records in the history of the Manchester Opera House, finalist for European Woman of Achievement Awards in 2001 and 2005 and winning the award for ‘Best contribution to Theatre in Liverpool’ by the Liverpool Daily Post in 2004. Aida was hailed a triumph at the Liverpool Daily Post Theatre Awards winning ‘Best Opera’ in 2004 which Ellen won again in 2006 for her production of Madama Butterfly. Ellen Kent has a medal from the president of Moldova for the ‘Best contribution to the arts in Moldova’ and a Medal from the President of Ukraine in recognition of the respect Ellen has gained from the population of Ukraine along with the ‘Golden Fortune Award’ granted for Ellen’s pioneering work with the Ukrainian National
Opera of Odessa.
Ellen Kent successfully opened up the opera market of Britain by being the first producer to introduce Eastern European opera to Britain. In 1994 Ellen found herself praying for the rain to hold off long enough for her premiere opera performance in Britain. Ellen had flown the Romanian National Opera to England, in Ceausescu’s private aeroplane, for the performance of a lifetime – to stage the epic opera of Verdi’s Nabucco to an audience of 7000 at Rochester Castle as part of the celebrations surrounding the opening of the channel tunnel. The rain deluged, but the performance flourished and received a standing ovation and the hearty endorsement of the national press. Nabucco is one of Ellen Kent’s favourite operas and returned in 2005 to perform at the Royal Albert Hall with a sell out performance including 60 dancers in a spectacular production to celebrate 11 years of Ellen Kent’s productions being performed there.
Ellen Kent’s season of opera has never looked so magnificent. More stunning opera is promised with La Traviata and Madama Butterfly in spring 2008.
Ellen’s business has grown into an ‘opera empire’ which brings something new to Ellen Kent audiences in every visit. When attending an Ellen Kent production you are watching award winning opera from an award winning producer who’s aim is to provide ‘opera for everyone’ and that is just what she is doing.
N.B Horse and donkeys do not appear in all venues
