ALBAN OPERA UPDATE - THE REHEARSAL DATES AND VENUES ARE NOW PUBLISHED - DO SIGN UP AND JOIN US!!

ALBAN, the COMMUNITY OPERA, will happen in May this year in St Albans Cathedral from 20 - 23 May. We are looking for more singers. Given it's an opera, there are really not many rehearsals for you if you would like to join the large chorus. You get to sing and move and dress up, but do not fear, you won't be put on the spot - you'll just be involved in a hugely moving experience. It will be great! So read the outline below, and the list of the (few) rehearsals and see if you wish to join in. Apply using the individual Application Form at the foot of the page.

Our Area is delighted to be involved in this exciting community opera project. We have been asked to coordinate 100 choristers from all over the diocese and we want you to be involved! Previous experience of taking part in an opera will not be necessary. What's it all about?

Alban is a two act community opera involving over 150 performers which has been commissioned by the St. Albans Cathedral Music Trust. It will be given five performances (including a matinee) in St. Albans Cathedral in May 2009, bringing together a wealth of local talent. Singers, actors, dancers and musicians of all ages drawn principally, though not exclusively, from parish and school choirs across Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire will join a core of experienced professional performers. Like all large-scale community ventures it will offer many their first experience of taking part in a professionally-staged theatrical production.

This exciting project will build on the Music Trust's previous success in staging Benjamin Britten's Noye's Fludde, a major community undertaking which made imaginative use of the cathedral's setting. Alban will be even more immediate as it has been composed with this particular building in mind. From the start it has been a site-specific enterprise with composer Tom Wiggall and librettist John Mole taking into consideration all the possibilities for music and movement, drama and ritual offered by the cathedral's architectural design.

Composer and librettist have imagined the last week of Alban's life - a family man, a successful doctor with a wife and two young children, and the opera will be staged through a combination of intimate domestic drama, and events in the public arena - the former exploring the psychological impact on Alban's family of his new-found capacity for Christian belief, and the latter dramatising the inevitable consequence of his decision to sacrifice himself in place of the priest to whom he has offered sanctuary.

Alban has been designed to encourage engagement at all levels of musical ability and it involves many different kinds of music ranging from market cries and exclamatory mob interventions through to a closing hymn in which the audience joins with the performers.

The Cathedral Music Trust is working to ensure that Alban will be a high profile event, a celebration of the city's patron saint and a moving experience for everyone involved, whether as a participant or as a member of the audience.

UPDATE MARCH 2009

• Flyer and booking form available for download

UPDATE FEBRUARY 2009

The dates for the rehearsals (that is with everybody) are listed here.

• Saturday 25 April - in St Albans, venue to be arranged
• Saturday 9 May - in St Albans, venue to be arranged
• Wednesday 13 May 6.30-9.30 pm
• Saturday 16 May 9.30 - 2.30 with orchestra (in the cathedral from now on).
• Monday 18 May 6.30 - 9.30 pm
• Tuesday 19 May dress rehearsal 7.30 pm

Performances Wed 20 May - Saturday 23 May at 7. 30 pm with a matinee at 2.30 pm on Saturday.

There are four regional rehearsals and we ask that you attend only ONE of these. Venues in Beds and Herts.

The dates for the regional rehearsals can be chosen from ONE of Tuesday 17 March (St Peter & St Paul, Flitwick), Thursday 26 March (St Saviour's St Albans), Tuesday 21 April (St Saviour's, St Albans) or Thursday 23 April (St Peter & St Paul, Flitwick). (Of course, if you would like to come to more than one you will be most welcome).

Don't delay - sign up today!

An Alban recruiting poster is now available for display in your church vestry.

For more background, and much more information, see the Alban Opera website