The Classical Opera

The Classical Opera Company
London, UK

Chairman of the Board of Directors for One of the Leading
Exponents of the Music of Mozart and His Contemporaries

Classical Opera recently embarked on MOZART 250, a ground-breaking exploration of Mozart’s life, works and influences. Each year the company will explore the music that was being written by Mozart and his contemporaries exactly 250 years previously, following the trajectory of his life, works and influences in chronological sequence.

Classical Opera records Zaide: Mozart’s thrilling unfinished opera from ClassicalOperaVideos on YouTube.

Classical Opera records Where’er You Walk: Allan Clayton’s debut solo disc from ClassicalOperaVideos on YouTube.

Classical Opera: Making of Mitridate from TallWall Media on Vimeo.

The making of Die Schuldigkeit des ersten Gebots from TallWall Media on Vimeo.

Classical Opera records Mozart’s Il rè pastore, K.208 from TallWall Media on Vimeo.

Classical Opera – Associate Artist Scheme rehearsal session from TallWall Media on Vimeo.

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★★★★★

“Never has Mozart’s writing here sounded so remarkable; it is not so much that Ian Page pushed the music, though speeds were quite brisk, but instead he encouraged the players to explore the full range of timbres and colours available to the period instruments. There was a vividness and unvarnished directness to the music which made it remarkable ...

…[Jaques Imbrailo] made a suave and charming Don, singing quite lightly with a superb sense of character. He brought a lovely charm to the serenade (when leader Matthew Truscott enterprisingly swapped his violin for a mandolin), and was a vivid torrent of words in the champagne aria… Imbrailo’s Don really was someone you would forgive anything, with a remarkable range of facial expressions and an impishly sexy charm…

—Planet HugillReview of Mozart's Don Giovanni, Cadogan Hall

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★★★★★

Classical Opera’s concert-performance at the Cadogan Hall was a welcome relief from director-led Mozart. It was by no means lacking in dynamism and acting, being a masterclass in how to do a concert performance—and do it well.

…The orchestra started as it meant to go on with a perfectly paced overture that veered between urgency and whimsy, while the period-instruments contributed an earthy sound that is not commonly heard in the work. Particularly impressive was Pawel Siwczak on the harpsichord, whose contributions were vibrant and alive to the contours of Mozart’s writing. What a fine note on which to conclude Classical Opera’s season!

—BachtrackReview of Mozart's Don Giovanni, Cadogan Hall

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★★★★★

A dramatic account, demonstrating that period instruments can still surprise in Mozart.

Mozart operas on period instruments – it’s hardly a new idea, but it’s still the exception rather than the rule. The 18th–century sound has a lot to offer in Don Giovanni, as Ian Page and his Classical Opera Company demonstrated this evening. Clear string tone and vibrant woodwind colours were the order of the day. There was plenty of drama too, with Page expertly pacing the narrative and drawing an impressive and often robust tone from his modest forces. He also assembled a fine cast, no superstars here but rather a well-balanced and well-integrated ensemble. The result was a compelling reading, and a concert performance that never felt lacking in drama for want of staging…

—The ArtsdeskReview of Mozart's Don Giovanni, Cadogan Hall

Committed to Ensuring the Inspiration Continues

A lifelong believer that greatness in the arts—most notably classical opera—is capable of extraordinary transformations to the mind and spirit, George Koukis proudly serves as Chairman of the Board of Trustees for the Classical Opera in London. Established in 1997, Classical Opera is one of the leading exponents of the music of Mozart and his contemporaries.

Under the direction of founder and conductor Ian Page, and with its own specialist and highly acclaimed period-instrument orchestra, the company regularly presents benchmark performances of operas and orchestral works in some of London’s most prestigious venues and, increasingly, abroad, attracting extensive critical and public acclaim for the high quality of performances on CD and in the concert hall, for intelligent and imaginative programming, and for its ability to discover and nurture world-class young singers.

In addition to its other performances, in 2012, the Classical Opera embarked on an unprecedented recording cycle of the complete Mozart Operas (20 releases in total, released at the rate of one a year), and in 2015 launched its ground-breaking MOZART 250, described by The Observer as “among the most audacious classical music scheduling ever.” Spanning 27 years—from the 250th anniversary of his childhood visit to London to the 250th anniversary of his death—the aim will be to re-tread the steps of musical history, examining, contextualizing and celebrating the life of arguably the greatest composer ever to have lived.