You Cannot Be Serious!

Impropera is causing a real stir in the West End. Audiences love us but the opera establishment don't always know what to make of us.   Praise or pillory?  Bravo or boycott?

The Public may find Impropera entertaining, funny and musically brilliant but can this still be Opera?  One top opera critic gave us his passionate view in a no-holds barred interview on the steps of the theatre. 

Click here to see this YouTube film

It's great but is it proper?   Take a look and then you decide.

Who are you calling una Bigotta?

A rogue camera was on hand to capture the truth behind the Bigotgate scandal.   Here Giulia Dufay, the volcanic Rochdale soprano, lets rip and tells the world what she really thinks about the situation.  

Our new 4pm time slot at the Leicester Square Theatre makes the show ideal for families.  Of course, this brings us face to face with our most demanding critics.   Children tend to say what they think even if we bribe them not to (and we've tried!).   Hear what some kids (and some immature adults) have to say about the show.

An unsuspecting Danish passer-by gets an impromptu singing lesson from Adey

Following Impropera's performances in the small Danish town of Horsens in 2009, Lene Bjarke Skov of the Holmboe Classical Music Festival invited the company to return in 2010 to perform and to conduct a creative experiment.  Could we get the famously taciturn citizens of this Jutland town to sing and record an ad hoc opera in the streets in just one day?  Horsens, once known as 'the ugly duckling' of Denmark has reinvented itself as a cultural engine, hosting one of the most star-studded annual rock concerts in Skandinavia.  It all began back in 2000 when someone asked Bob Dylan to come and sing at the Horsens theatre. And he did!

In March 2010, it was the citizen's turn to do the singing.

Nail-biting stuff.  Adey Grummet fearlessly braved the incomprehension, shyness and blank terror of the townspeople accompanied by Anthony on accordion with David directing with much arm-waving in the background.  So many people initially refused to sing, we called the first section of the film "No, We Do Not Sing!".  With the help of a local choir and a good deal of cajoling we managed to turn things around into a final, triumphal chorus.

The whole thing was filmed by a local crew led by the one-man creative whirlwind that is Dion "Disse" Egtved and invluding several students from the enlightened local creative training centre (Horsens Produktionshojskole) for disadvantaged young people.  Thank you, Disse, for not Diss-appearing and working through the night with Rune, Kat and David to get the film edited.

The short film was shown to the town at a red-carpet screening at Horsens Theatre.  A fitting end to Oscar week and a great overture for Impropera's sell-out show that evening.  Avatar, eat your heart out.  Click here for a sneek peek at the film.