Cambridge University Opera Society (CUOS) exists to organise, advise and encourage operatic activities within the university, including staged productions, masterclasses, workshops, concert performances, recitals, talks, opera trips to London and social events.
By bringing together those with the different skills and interests involved in opera, be they musical, dramatic, artistic, technical or organisational, CUOS provides a focus for the wealth of talent, energy, and experience in Cambridge. Few student activities are so ambitious - or rewarding - as opera.
CUOS has a distinguished history of bringing new works to audiences, as well as conceiving fresh presentations of well-known operas, from the British premiere of Berlioz’s Beatrice and Benedict in 1967 to Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro in 2006, with a new English translation by Jeremy Sams. In 2003–4, the student productions in Cambridge were a double bill of undergraduate chamber operas, Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas, Mozart’s The Magic Flute and Britten’s Peter Grimes. In 2004-5, the society staged two major English-language productions: Britten’s The Turn of the Screw and Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress. Following on from the success of last year’s Hansel and Gretel (Humperdinck) is a modern production of Don Giovanni in Lent Term 2008.
CUOS provides a platform for young performers, having nurtured the first collaborations of David Pountney and Mark Elder, and launched the careers of David Atherton, Michael Chance, Andrew Kennedy and Alan Clayton. A recent offshoot of our activities has been the development of education programmes (The Marriage of Figaro and Hansel and Gretel took opera into 19 local schools), something we hope to make a regular feature of productions.
If you are interested in singing or orchestral playing; conducting, repetiteuring, accompanying or continuo-playing; stage directing, stage management, lighting design, set design, costumes or make-up; in producing, publicity, graphic design or sponsorship work or simply organising: CUOS offers you the challenge of bringing opera to the stage. Watch out too for the CUOS-run masterclasses with prominent professionals in the opera world. Besides the scope for active participation, CUOS also offers a good membership package for those who wish to enjoy the end result, including reduced ticket prices to Cambridge productions. Annual membership costs £5. Please contact soc-opera-sec@lists.cam.ac.uk or visit the website at http://www.cuos.co.uk.
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