Past Events
Opera For All
Friday 23 May 2025
Thameside Theatre, Grays
This performance was a homecoming for Thames Opera Company as it was our first show at the iconic Thameside Theatre. With many of our chorus coming from Thurrock, it was felt in the heart of everyone on stage, particularly as it was dedicated to the memory of founding member Alan Dod.
Full of passion, spectacle and drama, the programme offered a range of pieces in differing styles from different periods, including Mourn, all ye Muses from Acis and Galatea by Handel; The Ballad of Sweeney Todd from Sweeney Todd by Stephen Sondheim; Quel jour serein from Guillaume Tell by Rossini; Brindisi from La Traviata by Verdi.
We were accompanied by some of opera's most talented rising stars including Ana-Carmen Balestra (soprano), Nancy Holt (mezzo-soprano), Emyr Lloyd Jones (tenor) and Jack Holton (baritone). All have won a collection of coveted awards and prizes, and we were delighted to share the stage with them.
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Brandburg Choral Festival of London
Saturday 22 March 2025
St Andrew Holborn, London
Performing with:
London Phoenix Choir
Clerkenwell Community Choir
"How Can I Keep From Singing" was a celebration of the power and joy of community opera and choral music making and marked the first time that all three choirs had come together.
The varied programme included familiar opera choruses including those from Tosca, Nabucco and Semele, as well as from modern operas Nixon in China by John Adams and Der Wald by Ethel Smyth. Choral items included compositions by Sarah Quartel, Rogers and Hammerstein, Stephen Sondheim, Tracy Wong and Lady Gaga!
Highlights from the concert included Habanera from Carmen featuring soloist Nancy Holt (pictured) and the dramatic Te Deum from Tosca featuring soloist James Cleverton.
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Our Street
Saturday 20 July 2024
Catford Broadway Theatre, Lewisham
Performing with Lewisham Creative Chorus
We were delighted to join Lewisham Creative Chorus in a performance of Our Street – a new urban opera that was first devised during the Lewisham Urban Opera project with the jazz singer-songwriter Gwyneth Herbert.
This uplifting musical/opera/theatrical extravaganza tells a heartrending story of connection, loss and change through music and lyrics of gripping power and beauty. It was written, composed & designed by residents of Lewisham of all ages, in collaboration with top professional artists working with the charity, Music and Theatre for All. Workshops were led by MTFA Artistic Director, Thomas Guthrie and Choreographer, Maria Ghoumrassi, and guest artists including dancers, puppeteers, and designers joined us from week to week.​
Gateway Learning Community Summer Arts Festival
Thursday 13th July 2023
Gateway Academy, Grays
For our last concert of the year, we took part in the Gateway Academy's annual Summer Arts Festival concert. The Gateway Academy is a local education partnership and we performed a song which some of our members composed in a workshop with composer Aga Serugo-Lugo (pictured left) called Welcome to the Estuary, about the welcome which communities along the Thames Estuary give to refugees and migrants arriving in the area. We also sang our Summer Term repertoire and it sounded amazing - even though due to a lighting problem, our accompanist Will Gardner had to play completely in the dark without being able to see his music score! Thankfully, his amazing musical memory came to the rescue and nobody noticed a thing!
Opera For All
Saturday 20 April 2024
Towngate Theatre, Basildon
This year, we were thrilled to be joined by our Patron Roderick Williams OBE, who delighted the audience with a lively Toreador Song from Bizet's Carmen and a selection of pieces perfect for his rich baritone. It's not often you get to share a stage with someone who was a soloist at King Charles III's coronation ceremony!
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Hosted by Radio 3's Ian Skelly, the packed programme included a mixture of opera classics such as The Anvil Chorus from Verdi's Il trovatore, Godiam la pace from Mozart's Idomeneo, Brindisi Chorus from Verdi's La Traviata and a sprinkling of Sondheim. Highlights included an enchanting Flower Duet from Lakmé sung by featured soloists Anita Watson (soprano) and Nany Holt (mezzo-soprano); a spirited Chorus of the Wedding Guests by Donizetti featuring Luis Gomes (tenor); and The Blue Fairy's Aria from The Adventures of Pinocchio sung by promising opera talent Blaize O'Callaghan (soprano), a former member of Thames Opera Company.
As a chorus, we were delighted to include Live Upon the Flow - The Purfleet Chorus from Ludd and Isis. Created in 2011, this opera was devised through a collaboration with the community of Purfleet (now Purfleet-on-Thames) and the Royal Opera House, when it set up its production park in the area.
"Anyone who attended Basildon's Towngate Theatre expecting to applaud politely will have had an agreeable shock as the 80-strong chorus took Verdi, Mozart and even Sondheim in their stride. Their language skills matched their choral assurance as they delivered an evening to treasure."
Mark Valencia, Opera, July 2024
Afro Food Fest
Saturday 24th June 2023
Grays Town Park
It's always great to sing in our local area and this year we were invited to sing on the big stage at our local Afro Food Festival in Grays Town Park.​
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It's always a challenge to do a concert outdoors, but despite this, we had a great time singing four songs in our repertoire: Chorus of the Scottish Refugees by Verdi, Ubi Caritas by Gjello, the Rogers and Hammerstein classic If I Loved You and Lamma Bada, a piece which was composed for us and other choirs in 2018 for the Singing Our Lives project.​
A great deal of fun was had by all, and the food we sampled was terrific!
Brandenburg Festival Concert
Saturday 18th March 2023
St Stephen's Church, Gloucester Road
Performing with London Phoenix Choir
For this concert, we sang a range of favourite Opera Choruses, along with another community Opera Chorus from West London, the London Phoenix Choir, and professional soloists Luis Gomes (tenor) and Anita Watson (soprano). Here's a review from an audience member:
"St. Stephen's Church, Gloucester Road built in 1867, is such a beautiful place to listen to Favourite Opera Choruses. The Thames Opera Company and the London Phoenix Choir, conducted by Jeremy Haneman were delightful. Ashley Beauchamp and Will Gardner, pianists were superb. The voices of Anita Watson, soprano and Luis Gomes, tenor were so heavenly when they performed together an excerpt from Act One of La Boheme with Ashley Beauchamp on piano."
Port of Tilbury Open Day
Saturday 25th June 2022
Tilbury Cruise Terminal
The Thames Opera Company were proud to perform at the Port of Tilbury Open Day at the end of June. We consider the Tilbury Cruise Terminal as 'home ground': we have performed there many times in the past and it's always an amazing day out.
We performed two Stephen Sondheim pieces, The Ballad of Sweeney Todd and Sunday (from Sunday in the Park with George), as well as Victoria, the rousing finale from Der Freischütz, an opera by Carl Maria von Weber, in the original German language. We also joined the mass voices of the Singing Our Lives choirs to perform the premiere of Under the Same Sun – a performance featuring hundreds of performers onstage to celebrate the Refugee Week theme of ‘Healing’ through music and song.
You can see and hear us in the video below, from Thurrock Nub News (starting at 0:27).
Singing Our Lives Concert
Sunday 26th June 2022
Union Chapel, Islington
On 26th June 2022, we took part in an evening filled with incredible song and music from around the globe. We peformed with Members of the Orchestra of Syrian Musicians, the Mind & Soul Chorus, the Mixed Up Chorus, Music Connects, the Sing For Freedom Choir, the United Strings of Europe, and Write to Life for an inspirational and emotional evening to celebrate Refugee Week.
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The Singing Our Lives project, now in its 6th year, brings together people from local UK and refugee and asylum seeker backgrounds to compose and perform new music together. We were inaugural members and are proud to have taken part each year the event has taken place. This year, we sang two Sondheim songs along with John Rutter's arrangement of Prayer for Ukraine, and it was our immense privilege to sing with a professional soloist, the Ukranian soprano
Kateryna Bolkunevych.​
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Singing Our Lives is produced by Together Productions in partnership
with the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and Union
Chapel, with generous support from the Arts Council England.
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Video Credit: Paul Murphy