What we do, what we want to do

Every year, NSO aims to stage at one or two new productions – with our chorus at the heart of every one of them. For our in-house productions, announced as “New Sussex Opera Chorus presents” we choose works that can be successfully performed on a relatively modest budget, but which create great opportunities not just for the whole chorus to show its singing and acting talents, but also for individual chorus members to take maybe their first steps as soloists in cameo, step-out roles.

For principals, an NSO chorus production is a great opportunity to extend their repertoire and take a step towards fulfilling their ambitions of a professional operatic career. Rehearsals are relaxed and enjoyable, but, even though joining the chorus doesn’t involve an audition, standards are high; after all, in the words of Roderick Dunnett we have ‘ one heck of a tradition’ to live up to.

Then, finances permitting, we launch a major, fully-staged production. For these we have professional soloists, music director, stage director, designer, lighting designer and orchestra. For the chorus, it’s an opportunity to use and extend their skills under the guidance of conductors and directors already prominent in the national and international world of opera.

Past productions have included British premières of Kurt Weill’s Lost in the Stars, Tchaikovsky’s The Enchantress, von Einem’s Danton’s Death, Offenbach’s The Rhine Fairies and the original four-act version of Puccini’s Edgar, while works rarely performed in the UK have included Benvenuto Cellini by Berlioz, the Paris version of Wagner’s Tannhäuser, Euryanthe and Oberon by Weber,  Mignon by Thomas, A Village Romeo and Juliet by Delius and The Travelling Companion by Charles Viliers Stanford. NSO sometimes uses its own orchestra, but has also collaborated with the Symphony Orchestra of the NCOS, the Flanders Symphony Orchestra, the Hanover Band, Kent Sinfonia, the Kantanti Ensemble, St Paul’s Sinfonia and the Bellot Ensemble (for baroque operas).