Jessica Dean and Anthony Hunt

Without further ado, we are in February already!

Time has a habit of passing quickly in London, when one spends an hour on the bus getting to college and an hour getting back, in the dark of winter, it can seem quite depressing. People are always huddled up in their coats, focussed on getting home as quickly as possible, which of course never goes to plan, as the bus is diverted, or the tube is delayed. Even more disappointing is the distinct lack of snow in London this January! We were promised a little by the meteorologists one weekend, but in the event it didn’t materialise! Although it is still quite cold, I suspect the opportunity for snow has passed.

January is really the tale of the Opera Scenes. First day back, the Academy Opera had three weeks in which to rehearse and stage over an hour and a half of selected opera scenes. Anthony and Stephen Wood, the second year repetiteur, shared the work of conducting and playing for the scenes, which was a great pleasure; particularly as Anthony got to conduct the Flowermaidens scene from Parsifal - something particularly satisfying about 12 amazing women singing such brilliant music! Ingeneously staged by John Ramster, the drama teacher at the RAM, we had the girls being rudely interrupted by Parsifal, arriving in confusion on stage in bathrobes and towels on their heads, before they all whipped offstage for a magical transformation into slinky black dresses!

Jessica’s role during the scenes, aside from as one of the Flowermaiden’s (2nd group, 1st maiden for you Wagner-ites!) was as Le Feu (the Fire) in Ravel’s L’enfant et les Sortileges. This is in anyones book a very demanding sing, and even more demanding when dressed up as a Kylie Minogue showgirl, running about the stage! Unfortunately, Jessica was taken by a nasty chest infection, very unusual for Jess, and was unable to perform on the first night. Despite the continuing illness, she did have a little more voice for the second night, and so soldiered on to perform the L’enfant scene, disguising as much of her illness as her voice would allow!