The Phoenix Opera Company
by Philip Harrison

The Phoenix Opera group was founded in 1966. Its first project was a modest tour around England presenting Mozart’s Così fan tutte at technical colleges, universities and festival venues starting in March. The company was headed by former soprano and operatic polymath Joan Cross with Anne Wood as General Manager. Joan Cross’s legacy as a singer is well known. Anne Wood is less well remembered now. She was a contralto who had studied with Elena Gerhardt. She had been a member of the BBC Singers and was on good terms with Britten and Pears. Anne Wood sang in the first British performances of Spring Symphony in 1950.

By the time Phoenix Opera became operational the Arts Council initiative “Opera for All” had been active for at least sixteen years. Towns around Britain would be visited annually by a troupe of singers and chorus, and staged operas presented often with piano accompaniment, bringing the repertory out from the major cities. Of course, the legacy of touring companies to those bigger cities is fairly well known. The Carl Rosa is one famous example and both the Royal Opera and Sadler’s Wells toured extensively in those days too. Glyndebourne began touring in the late 60s. There were many smaller companies too, often linked to regions around England and in Scotland and Wales too. Phoenix Opera’s beginnings though were closely attached to Opera Studio and its successor, the London Opera School. These visionary organisations which date from the post-war period were really a post-graduate training school for opera singers in the capital. I believe the organisation was based at Morley College in Lambeth. With the change of model that came with the opening of the London Opera Centre in 1964, Cross and Wood left to found Phoenix Opera.

Until this Summer I had never heard of Phoenix Opera but with a little time on my hands whilst on holiday I thought I might research them a little. I believe they existed for ten seasons before their funding dried up in 1975. They seemed to be active from March to October only, becoming busiest in the summer months at festival time. In 1978, true to their name, they arose from the ashes and for six seasons they presented a series of rare repertory at the Camden Festival each May, rather like Opera Rara did and would continue to do. In the early years, they were sometimes without an orchestra. I believe they presented some operas with two pianos and harpsichord. From the 1970s they seemed to play more and more with pick-up bands.

1966: The first season
Phoenix Opera gave Così fan tutte staged in English. David Lloyd-Jones conducted most of the performances but in Manchester and Liverpool where an orchestra had been engaged, they were conducted by Basil Smallman. The company took Così to the Bath Festival in June where two performances were conducted by Yehudi Menuhin. Joan Cross directed.

Here was the cast for those performances:

Fiordiligi: Marie Hayward
Dorabella: Esther Latter
Despina: Maria Zerni (announced) but at Bath definitely sung by Soo-Bee Lee
Ferrando: Roger Norrington
Guglielmo: Alan Charles
Don Alfonso: Lawrence Richard

Sir Roger Norrington, who died earlier this year, was by this time already making a name for himself with the Heinrich Schütz Choir in London.

1967: More Mozart and a record
I could not trace any other dates in Spring 1967 other than the Bath Festival. Here Menuhin conducted Mozart’s Die Entführung aus dem Serail given as usual in those days in English.

Konstanze: Mattiwilda Dobbs
Blonde: Annon Lee Silver
Belmonte: David Hillman
Pedrillo: John Fryatt
Osmin: Noel Mangin

The studio recording made by EMI was made at Abbey Road. For the record Nicolai Gedda replaced David Hillman and Jenifer Eddy took over from Silver.

1968: Seraglio revived, a double-bill and Donizetti
As well as Bath, Phoenix Opera visited Cambridge, Norwich, Nottingham, Chichester and Sunderland in 1968. I couldn’t find many reviews or confirm casts this year, but I think they performed the following programmes:

Stravinsky: The Soldier’s Tale and Mozart: The Impresario

At Bath, the Stravinsky work was led by Gary Bertini or László Heltay. Menuhin played the fiddle part. He also grabbed the baton for the Mozart which had Jenifer Eddy, Hanny Steffek and Keith Miller in the cast.

Donizetti: Don Pasquale was conducted by Vilém Tauský who from this year became a kind of music director to The Phoenix.

Mozart: The Abduction from the Seraglio was also led by Tauský.

It is a shame I could not find cast for Don Pasquale. It was revived the following season however and it is possible the cast was the same.

1969: Bertini conducts Figaro and a starry Dido
Donizetti: Don Pasquale was revived from the previous year conducted by Vilém Tauský with the following cast:

Norina: Annon Lee Silver (she was to die in July 1971 aged only thirty-one years)
Ernesto: John Serge
Dr Malatesta: Alan Charles
Don Pasquale: Owen Brannigan

A new production by Joan Cross of Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro was led by Gary Bertini.

Countess: Ava June
Susanna: Soo-Bee Lee
Cherubino: Johanna Peters
Count: Ronald Morrison
Figaro: Terence Sharpe

Finally, at the end of the season Phoenix Opera mounted Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas at Eton, Windsor and in Chichester. The Eton performances were for sure conducted by Yehudi Menuhin.

Dido: Irmgard Seefried
Belinda: Jill Gomez
Aeneas: Alexander Young

One review said there were plenty of Eton boys in their top hats and tailcoats in the audience and a couple of minor Royals too. Before Dido, excerpts were read from Virgil’s “Aeneid”. I giggled when I read that. Considering the venue, that couldn’t be more apt, could it? Seefried would have just turned fifty years of age at the time, a good five years younger than Flagstad when she sang it at the Mermaid in 1951 for the famous fee of two pints of stout a day.

1970: Albert Herring – King of the May
A packed itinerary included Malvern, Chester, Guildford, Nottingham, Sheffield, Exeter and Canterbury. Figaro was revived, conducted by Leonard Hancock with Alan Charles in the title role. The new production that season was Albert Herring, Britten’s chamber opera. Cross directed and Tauský conducted.

Lady Billows: Jennifer Vyvyan (this role was created by Joan Cross)
Miss Wordsworth: Anne Pashley (Margaret Gale sang some shows, too, I think)
Nancy: Alma Myatt
Albert Herring: Kenneth Bowen
Mr Gedge: John Kitchiner
Superintendent Budd: Robert Lloyd

1971: A new Rossini production
Kicking off at the Brighton Festival the season included Rossini’s Il barbiere di Siviglia and a revival of Albert Herring. The interesting thing about the Britten opera in its revival is that the principal role of Lady Billows was now sung by Sylvia Fisher. I see from some contemporary reviews however that she was indisposed at the opening run in Brighton where the part was sung by Judith Pierce. The cast for The Barber of Seville was as follows:

Rosina: Soo-Bee Lee
Almaviva: John Serge
Figaro: Alan Opie
Bartolo: Ian Wallace
Basilio: Frank Olegario

A young John Eliot Gardiner conducted. The production was the last supervised by the great Tyrone Guthrie who died days after the opening performances.

1972: The Beggar’s Opera
New this year was Carl Davis’s new orchestration of John Gay’s Beggar’s Opera. In the cast at Southwark’s Globe Playhouse were:

Macheath: Ian Paterson
Lucy Lockit: Johanna Peters
Mrs Peachum: Joan Clarkson
Polly: Lillian Watson
Lockit: Michael Rippon
Mr Peachum: Richard Angas

Ian Macpherson conducted that performance, but I have seen other casts in other venues. I couldn’t trace any other operas performed in 1972

1973: A trio of operas
Flotow’s Martha was conducted by Tauský.

Lady Harriet: Rita Morris
Nancy: Johanna Peters
Lionel: Kenneth Bowen
Plunkett: Thomas Lawlor

Puccini’s Madama Butterfly was conducted by Albert Rosen in some venues and Lionel Friend in others.

Butterfly: Milla Andrew
Pinkerton: Gunnar Drago

Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro was conducted by László Heltay.

Countess: Jenny Hill
Susanna: Soo-Bee Lee
Count: Peter Lyon
Figaro: Michael Rippon

1974: A favourite returns
This summer saw a production of Offenbach’s La Vie Parisienne. Performances in this season went from May through to October. They started as usual at the Brighton Festival and came to Sadler’s Wells in July. I haven’t traced the details for any other operas but the cast for the Offenbach included:

Métella: Adele Leigh (I believe at Sadler’s Wells the part may have been taken by Joyce Blackham)
Raoul: John Wakefield
Bobinet: Ian Caddy
Brazilian: John Winfield

Ezra Rachlin conducted La Vie Parisienne.

1975: The final season and a European tour
The Arts Council withdrew funding to Phoenix Opera from this year. The company attempted to raise funds in Opera magazine, newspapers and held at least one fund raising gala. The season culminated in a trip to Austria and Yugoslavia. The Austrian part of the tour is a mystery to me but there are some reviews I found of performances in splendidly atmospheric open air venues in both Ljubljana and Dubrovnik. They bought the Beggar’s Opera from 1972. This time Gordon Kember conducted and there were cast changes from previously too. They also presented a double-bill of Lampe’s Pyramus and Thisbe with Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas. Ian Reid conducted this program.

In Pyramus and Thisbe the singers included Bonaventura Bottone and Jessica Cash whilst in Dido and Aeneas the lucky Croats and Slovenes heard Ava June and David Hillman. The reviews were very good.

1978 to 1983: Camden revival
I think that is where the story of the touring days of Phoenix Opera ends. Opera 80 which became English Touring Opera are their natural successors, I guess, and perhaps I will look at their legacy one day. True to the legend of the Phoenix there was life from the ashes. Each year in May from 1978 to 1983 the company made an appearance at the Camden Festival. The operas they presented there were often UK premieres.

1978: Almeida: La Spinalba c. Michael Lankester with Helen Walker, Della Jones, Kate Flowers.

1979: Paisiello: Don Chisciotte (in the realisation by Henze) c. Jan-Latham Koening

These performances were heard in the round (in the Round House actually) and featured Kenneth Bowen, Alan Opie, Alison Hargan and Johanna Peters.

1980: Grétry: Zémire et Azor c. Roderick Brydon with Kate Flowers and Ian Caley

1981: Ricci: Crispino e la comare c. James Judd with a cast that included Lydia Russell, Johanna Peters, Gordon Sandison, Donald Maxwell and Michael Rippon

1982: Cavalli: Eritrea c. Jane Glover with Sally Burgess, Adrian Thompson and James Bowman

1983: Wolf-Ferrari: I quatro rusteghi (The School for Fathers) c. Hilary Griffiths with Ava June, Harry Nicoll, William McCue and a strong supporting cast.

The last three of the Camden performances were recorded by the BBC and relayed on Radio 3 soon after. It is quite possible private collectors may have off-air recordings of these or other performances by Phoenix Opera. I have alas heard none and being only twelve years old in 1983, I have no personal memory of any of their tours. If any older reader has recollection of any of the above nights at the Opera, perhaps they might share them on our message board.