Carmen July 2013 | Page 3

Welcome Winterbourne Opera would like to extend a very warm welcome to you to our fourteenth summer production and we hope that you enjoy our interpretation of Bizet’s well-loved opera. Over the last two years we have pursued the idea of staging site-specific operas, which is exciting and rewarding for us, and our audiences, and it accords with our strong belief that opera should be accessible to all. Our production of Figaro in its Georgian setting in the Close was a great success last year, and we are very excited by this year’s production of Carmen in a venue that is the nearest approximation of a bullring that it is possible to find in Salisbury! Our founding vision is to develop and nurture the next generations of musicians within the world of opera, and the venue this year together with our new musical directors, has enabled us to pursue this whole-heartedly with many more young singers and orchestral players, all of an extraordinarily high standard. We are extremely grateful to Southern Counties Auctioneers and Netherhampton Salerooms for generously providing us with a venue. The directors embraced our extraordinary idea with unquestioning enthusiasm. We would like to thank the people who have sponsored soloists, orchestral players and understudies and all the people who have helped us in many different ways, without w