"Opera for the Green!"

Phil Ball's "Big Idea":  To hold a concert of operatic highlights, performed by members of the English National Opera, in St Peter's church in Old Woking

Why?: As well as being a tenor for the English National Opera, Phil is also a resident of Rydens Way, and his house overlooks the Green. Phil wanted to use his skills to raise much needed funds for RWAG, and brought his idea to the committee. They could see the potential for this, and responded with great enthusiasm. Little did they realise the months of hard work and worry that lay ahead!

Preparations: Well we may have started off as amatuer promoters, but one thing is for sure, once the RWAG team get stuck in, they would use their best endeavours to turn the idea into a success! Phil worked hard, using his contacts to organise a group of outstanding musicians. Once we had been offered the wonderful church as a venue, the team got to work promoting the concert. The ticketing prices were agreed, and we used a combination of web-sites, newspapers, e-mails, word of mouth and hand delivered leaflets to reach our target audience. There was a lot of shoe leather used, walking the streets in South Woking, and a total of 1500 leaflets were delivered. Posters were placed in many prime locations around the area, and adverts were placed in the local church newsletter.

It was a nervous time for the organisers as with two weeks to go we had only just about reached the break-even point with ticket sales, at around 60. We were constantly being reassured by people in the know, who said that most sales would occur in the last week (but still we had some sleepless nights!). It was only on the morning of the concert that we started to realise that we would make some profit. When we looked at the combined sales from 78 Rydens Way, the Happy Shopper and the website, we saw that we had sold 120 tickets. This was to rise still further on the night!

There was no time to relax though, as our catering Supremo (aka Ian Hutchinson, with help from Claire and Georgina!) had to ensure that the "light refreshments" included in the ticket price would not disappoint the audience during the interval!

Our musicians spent nearly 4 hours on the afternoon of the concert, rehearsing in the church, and perfecting their perfomance for the evening.

The Concert: Finally the evening had arrived, and there was no time to worry any more. From 6 in the evening it was a blur....the box-office  was set up, and the food was neatly arranged in the church centre. At 6-30, the car parking team swung into action, with military precision, ensuring there were no hold-ups in parking.

7-30 arrived and there were 150 expactant people in the church - the atmosphere was trully electric, as you can see:  

Then without further fuss, the first half of the performance began.The host for the evening, Sarah Collett was superb at keeping the audience informed about the songs, and how they fitted in to their particular opera. The singers were backed by a highly accomplished accompanist, Caroline Jaya-Ratnam, and the acoustics in the church seemed purpose made for this style of music. For many this was to be the first experience of live opera, and they were not disappointed. It was utterly engrossing, and the notes were hit to perfection. The highlights of the first half included Delibe's "Flower Duet" sung by the soprano and mezzo soprano (Bethany Halliday and Suzanne Joyce). To those who may not be familiar, if I mention the British Airways advert, many will now know it! "Au fond du Temple Saint",  from Bizet's "Pearl Fishers" was sung superbly by the bass and tenor (Paul Sheehan and Phil Ball). To cap a stunning first half, Phil Ball sung "nessun dorma", to rapturous applause from a highly appreciative audience.

During the break, the fruit punch was served, cookies and other snacks were consumed, and the audience were already being extremely complimentary about the show so far! As a testament to the Ian's organisational skills, we managed to serve 150 people and get then back to their seats withn 20  minutes!

The second half of the concert was very much lighter and more humorous than the first part. It commenced with Gilberts and Sullivans "3 little maids from school", and this had the audience in hysterics (epsecially as Paul was the 3rd maid!). Other songs included "Waltz", from Lehar's "Merry Widow", Lane Wilson's "Tenor and Baritone", and Kern's "can't help lovin' dat man". The finale was "Brother mine....dui-do" by J. Strauss.

The audience showed their appreciation of a stunning evening of music, with a long ovation. The only dissapointment was that the evenings entertainment had come to an end! Talking to the audience afterwards it was clear that they had all enjoyed the performance, and many asked "when are you organising the next one?" I think the RWAG committee will take a short, well-earned break before we embark on our next fund-raising project!

The Stars: Bethany Halliday, Suzanne Joyce, Paul Sheehan, Phil Ball, Caroline Jaya-Ratnam, Sarah Collett

The verdict: There are now many people who who have finally had their eyes opened to the beautiful sound of the opera. I know that if I get the chance to hear this group of stars sing again, I will be up for it, what about you?

How much did we raise?: It looks like around £1500 was raised by this event.

Acknowledgements

RWAG would like to extend our sincere gratitude to:

• St Peter's Church for generously hosting this event, with special thanks to Rector, Barry Grimster. Also thanks to David Wilde for his technical assistance with the venue.
• The "Happy Shopper" for selling tickets for us
• The extra helpers who "volunteered" and helped on the night, especially Claire and Georgina Hutchinson (food / box office), and Keith Powell and David Saunders (car parking).
• The performers, who were true professionals and brought the stunning sound of opera to South Woking.
• The RWAG team, for making this idea into a successful reality.
• The paying public for attending and their kind words after the event!