LOC was formed in the summer of 2020 to give fellow musicians and international opera singers who had lost their work to the Covid pandemic the opportunity to keep performing and to give music lovers a first class treat after a summer devoid of live concerts.
Following the critically acclaimed and sold-out inaugural production of Tristan und Isolde in 2020, the company went on to perform a semi-staged chamber arrangement of Die Walküre in July 2021 to a delighted audience of Wagner opera lovers.
The semi-staged Tristan und Isolde will feature a world-class cast of singers and musical direction by Peter Selwyn, who has assisted on Bayreuth and Royal Opera House Covent Garden productions of Der Ring des Nibelungen.
“I have rarely known any performance, even of this opera, to carry such an overwhelming emotional payload… If this is a taste of their quality, I want to see more of their work, soon.” (Wagner News)
“An accomplished and moving company debut” (Opera Magazine)
Neal Cooper - Tristan
Neal Cooper’s current and future engagements include MELOT Tristan und Isolde Glyndebourne Festival Opera, Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Kennedy Center, Washington DC, Metropolitan Opera and BBC Proms, GRALSRITTER Parsifal Opéra National Paris, Bastille as well as cover SIEGMUND Die Walküre, ERIK Der fliegende Holländer Metropolitan Opera and Peter Grimes (title role cover) Royal Opera House Covent Garden. Important recent engagements include EISSLINGER Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg Teatro alla Scala, TRISTAN (title role) Melbourne Opera, MELOT MÜPA Budapest, GRALSRITTER/KNAPPE Parsifal Baden-Baden and Berlin Philharmonie (Sir Simon Rattle), and Mahler VIII Tonhalle Düsseldorf(Adam Fischer). Further engagements include upcoming debuts at both The Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia and Teatro Real, Madrid.
Simon Thorpe - Kurwenal
Bass Baritone Simon Thorpe will sing Kurwenal. Simon studied at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and the National Opera Studio. He has sung at the Sydney Opera House, the ROH and in France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Singapore and Spain. He also works at ENO, WNO, Opera North, Scottish Opera and many other quality, smaller opera companies. As a Heldenbaritone his operatic repertoire centres around Puccini, Verdi and Wagner. He recently sang the title role in Der fliegender Holländer for Longborough Festival Opera.
Harriet Williams - Brangäne
Brangäne will be sung by Mezzo-Soprano Harriet Williams who has sung principal roles with ROH, WNO, ENO, ETO, Grange Park Opera, Longborough Festival Opera, the Early Opera Company and Opéra de Toulon. She has sung as a soloist with orchestras including the RPO, the RLP, theASMF, the CBSO, the RSNO and the LPO. Recent engagements include Brangäne (Tristan und Isolde), for Longborough Festival Opera, Mrs Olsen, Street Scene, at the Teatro Real in Madrid and Opéra de Monte Carlo in Monaco.
Cara McHardy - Isolde
Cara McHardy will sing the role of Isolde. Cara has covered leading Wagner roles for ROH, ENO and Opera North. She has played leading ladies including Lady Macbeth, Tosca, Norma, Turandot Aida for Opera Dorset Opera, ETO and Kentish Opera. Recently she sang the role of Ortlinde in Die Walküre at Longborough Festival Opera and Isolde, Brünnhilde Die Walküre for The London Opera Company.
Peter Selwyn - Conductor
Peter studied Modern Languages at Cambridge, then piano at the Royal Academy of Music. Primarily known for his work in opera, he has conducted over 60 different works, for companies including Opera North, Welsh National Opera, English Touring Opera, Opera Holland Park and Singapore Lyric Opera, and assisted at ROH, ENO, in Oslo and at the Aldeburgh and Bregenz Festivals. During 8 years in Germany he worked as Head of Music and Kapellmeister at the Staatstheater Nürnberg, spent a season at the Hamburgische Staatsoper, and assisted for three seasons at the Bayreuther Festspiele. He co-founded and for nearly 20 years was co-Artistic Director of the Internationales Kammermusikfestival Nürnberg, where he conducted numerous Britten chamber operas and several operatic world premieres.
An experienced and passionate Wagnerian, he has worked on numerous full Ring Cycles, at Bayreuth, ROH, Nuremberg, Strasbourg, Longborough and with the LPO. This summer he will return to Bayreuth as Music Assistant on the new Ring, and will conduct Siegfried and Götterdämmerung to conclude the Graham Vick/Jonathan Dove Ring Saga, as part of the Grimeborn Festival at Hackney Empire.
He is a Professor at the Royal College of Music, a regular coach on the Jette Parker Young Artists Programme at the Royal Opera, where he also works regularly on the music staff, and is the newly appointed Principal Conductor of the Lambeth Orchestra.
