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Feverish Figaro
To the ENO for the Marriage of Figaro last night, with around 20 fellow Onegin chorus members, which added to the entertainment value. We went because Kate Valentine, who sang Tatyana in our production of Eugene Onegin, is singing the Countess, and very relieved we were that she was singing the Countess, as she missed…
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The Passenger
So the Wendy Dawn Thompson Fan Club (Blackheath Chapter) were out in force last night, Me and A, M and D (separately, we thought they were going a different night and bumped into them in the bar). I have to admit I would not have gone to The Passenger if WDT (Vlasta) hadn’t been in…
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Essex extremes

I do like a mix and match day. So we started with a couple of kilometres of walking round Rainham Marshes bird reserve. Not many birds to see, but there’s not much to beat a marsh in the sun; a beautiful morning, a stolen September summer Sunday, wandering about in shirtsleeves with the end of…
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Opening Doors to the ‘Other Side’

In a previous post I mentioned that I thought I might be missing out in not having seen a variety of operas. I’ve started making up for it. The advantage of doing a community opera of the calibre of Blackheath’s is that you get to meet people who know a thing or two, and this…
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The Blackheath Onegin book launched
Most of my free waking hours since finishing the opera (apart from work, singing, partying, holidays…) have been spent fighting with the software to get the book to look beautiful. Anyone planning to do a photobook on Blurb be warned you need a lot of free RAM. It does very strange things, like randomly copying…
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Eugene Onegin – Gallery – Kate Valentine (Tatyana)

What the reviewers say: Kate Valentine’s Tanya, radiant with optimistic innocence in the ‘letter scene’ The Stage I particularly liked Kate Valentine’s change from diffident ingénue (left alone at her own birthday party after Lensky and Onegin’s row and duel challenge) to assured princess. Classical Music Source Superb: Tatyana dominates (it surely won’t be long…
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Eugene Onegin – Gallery – Damian Thantrey (Onegin)
What the reviewers said : Perhaps Damian Thantrey’s chisel-featured Onegin was not self-centred enough (after all, after the performance he opened the door for me as I left), but I liked the way he threw over most of the chairs in his final confrontation with Tatyana. Classic Music Source Damian Thantrey’s slicked-back, cold-fish Onegin impresses.…
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Eugene Onegin – Gallery – Production team & Dancers

To view a large version of any image click on the thumbnail all images are copyright, and will eventually be available on a CD if you are interested, make contact:
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Eugene Onegin – the Chorus – Act III and miscellaneous

More comments from the Audience: We came specially from Amsterdam (where we often go to the opera), to watch that electric first performance – it was well worth the trip. The professionals were excellent, both in their singing and their acting. The orchestra flung their hearts into the music and the chorus, surging in from…
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Eugene Onegin – Gallery – Act I

Some more comments, from participants and from audience! I love opera and this was my first time taking part in a community opera chorus. I loved it…with a passion. Behind this project, there are a multitude of stories about people’s individual motivation to perform and publicly succeed in front of family and friends, I listened…
