Advance Tickets: Adults £12.50 (booking fee applies) Licensed bar. Doors open at 7.00pm
On the door on the night tickets will cost £16.00
Regular attendees of our events know that we have a limited number of wheelchair/accessible seats and therefore in an effort to make it fair for all concerned we are asking friends and family to book a seat in the row behind – Row A .
Thankyou for your understanding and co operation
Cardiff Opera present The Pirates of Penzance
Come set sail with Cardiff Opera who are making their Tetbury debut with a swashbuckling production of The Pirates of Penzance!
Combining Sullivan’s timeless music and Gilbert’s hilarious story of duty, piracy and legal technicalities. Come watch our bashful tenor fall in love with every girl he sees. See the soprano fighting off the fearsome pirates. Hum along with the Major General’s famous patter song and listen to the lonely alto lamenting her advancing years as a woman of…….over 25!!
Cardiff Opera aims to bring you an evening of laughter through sublime music as only Gilbert and Sullivan can deliver.
About:
Andrew Woodmansey – Frederick
Is a Master’s student at Trinity Laban, supported by the Elliot Rosenblatt Memorial Scholarship, the Kathleen trust, the Prowdes Trust, and the Williams Trust. He is a keen exponent of Contemporary music, appearing in World and UK premieres, including works by Michael Gordon, Peter Wiegold and John Sturt. In addition to his contemporary work, canon roles have included Tamino (Die Zauberflöte), Sailor (Dido and Aeneas), and Don Ottavio (Don Giovanni), as well as scene performances of Peter (Peter Grimes), Vere (Billy Budd), Lord Bothwell (Mary, Queen of Scots), and Michele (The Saint of Bleecker Street). Soloist engagements have included Beethoven‘s 9th Symphony, Haydn’s Creation, and Bach‘s St John Passion (Arias and Evangelist) among several others; in venues such as Christchurch Priory, St John’s, Guernsey, The Minack Theatre, The National Center for Arts: Mumbai, and Cadogan Hall. Andrew is a seasoned regular with Cardiff Opera having performed the role of Monostatos in their 2023 production of the Magic Flute.
Adam Brown – The Pirate King
Adam is a baritone recently graduated from Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance, where he received the Morag Noble
Scholarship. Originally from Yorkshire, he spent his school years playing the trombone, before switching to singing when he realised it was easier to carry around. Recent performances include: Boatswain – HMS Pinafore, Giuseppe – The Gondoliers, Sergeant of Police – The Pirates of Penzance (Forbear! Theatre), Death – Savitri, Mr Bluff – The Impresario, Thomas Brown – The Zoo (All Aboard Opera), The Learned Judge – Trial by Jury, Papageno – Die Zauberflöte, The Pirate King – The Pirates of Penzance (Cardiff Opera), Harlekin – Ariadne auf Naxos, Medico/Sicari – Macbeth (Uncovered Opera Company), Nottingham – Roberto Devereux (Opera Integra), Angelotti/Sciarrone – Tosca (Carmina Priapea), Father – Hansel and Gretel, Mr Gedge – Albert Herring (St Paul’s Opera), Captain/Vanderdendur/Ragotski – Candide (Blackheath Halls Opera), Notary – Don Pasquale (Hurn Court Opera).
Tom Fesner – Samuel
This is Tom’s debut production with Cardiff Opera and we are thrilled to have him on board as one of our swashbuckling baritones!
Wendy Silvester – Ruth
British mezzo-soprano Wendy Silvester, has been celebrated by critics for her ‘impressive’ and ‘brave’ stage presence. In recent years, she has been a finalist in the Mastersingers UK Wagner Vocal
Competition, and the Neapolitan Masters Vocal Competition; performed the role of Fenena (Nabucco) in concert productions with both Uncovered Opera and St. Paul’s Opera; made her debut at the Wagner in Vermont festival as Waltraute (Die Walküre) whilst also covering Fricka (Das Rheingold; Die Walküre) and singing Waltraute(Götterdämmerung) and Ortrud (Lohengrin) in concert; won an Off West End Award for Opera Performance (Ensemble) as part of HGO London’s The Cunning Little Vixen; directed, and played Waltraute, in an adaptation of Götterdämmerung for Cardiff Opera; had her first foray into the role of Herodias (Salome) with Tundi Productions; and performed two different Blumenmädchen (Parsifal) with New Palace Opera, and at Wagner in Vermont.
Megan Strachan – Mabel Stanley
Having last year graduated with distinction on the MMUS Programme in Vocal Studies at Trinity Laban Megan is in the early stages 
of embarking on career as an opera singer. After leaving school Megan trained as an actor, specialising in Theatre in Education with Peer Productions. In 2014 she made her operatic debut as the title role of Patience with Cirencester Operatic Society; having caught the ‘opera bug’ Megan began working with various small and touring opera companies. Megan is honoured to be a founding member of Sorelle an All-female operatic concert trio who made their debut in 2019.
Megan has worked for a number of companies throughout her career including, Oxford Opera, Longborough festival opera, Opera Anywhere and of course Cardiff Opera. In 2023 after singing such roles for them as Queen of the Night, Mimi, Fiordiligi and the Plaintiff (trial by Jury) Megan came on board as co-creative director of Cardiff Opera and has been happily pretending to know what she’s doing ever since! Having grown up in Nailsworth Megan is thrilled to be singing in Tetbury on her home turf.
Katie Blackwell – Kate Stanley
Katie is a director, performer, and theatre maker. She graduated with a Masters from Trinity Laban Conservatoire in 2021, having
previously graduated from Cardiff University with a B.A. in Music and History. She has directed, assisted, and performed with companies including: Longborough Festival Opera, English Touring Opera, Cardiff Opera, Oxford Opera, Barefoot Opera, and Diva Opera. Recent roles for Cardiff Opera include: Despina (Cosi fan Tutte), Papagena (Die Zauberflote), Susanna (Le Nozze di Figaro), Kate (The Pirates of Penzance).
Katie is co-founder of All Aboard Opera!, an initiative founded to promote innovation and accessibility in opera. She currently works as a producer for Creation Theatre, Oxford’s largest producing theatre company, and as an education consultant for Oxford Opera.
Lizzie Nicholson – Edith Stanley
Originally from Middlesbrough, soprano Lizzie has recently graduated from Trinity Laban Conservatoire with a Distinction in MMus Vocal Studies under the tutelage of Teresa Cahill. She has participated in masterclasses led by Elizabeth Llewellyn, Susan Bullock, Nicky Spence, and Martin Constantine. Lizzie began her vocal tuition at the University of Leeds, where she graduated with a First-Class BA (Hons) Music degree. During her time in Leeds, Lizzie was the 2019 Bursary Recipient for the Tallis Consort in addition to often appearing as a guest on BBC Radio Leeds.
In 2020, she was delighted to have been awarded the Kathleen Roberts Vocal Scholarship at Trinity Laban, as well as a scholarship from Rocket Opera with whom she is frequently invited to perform. Roles include Cousin Hebe (HMS Pinafore, c. Peter Ford); Kate (Pirates of Penzance); and Dolly (The Woodman (c. John Treherne MBE). Lizzie was delighted to also be involved with Rocket Opera’s 2020 Christmas Doorstep Concert Series which helped to bring music to the doorsteps of those in the community who needed it the most during the global pandemic.
Dave Key-Pugh – Major General Stanley
Born and raised in Bath. He was Head Chorister at the Abbey and caught the performance bug here before studying at Magdalen
College, Oxford and then training as an actor at the Poor School in London. After a decade as a jobbing actor, cabaret artist, director and barman he returned to the West Country. Nowadays he spends his days in the software industry as a Product Owner and his evening and weekends directing, acting and singing with several groups around the region. Recent directorial credits include Handel’s ‘Semele’ and Gounod’s ‘Faust’ for Bath Opera, Mozart’s ‘Magic Flute’ for Cardiff Opera, ‘Princess Ida’ for Bath Gilbert and Sullivan Society and Stoppard’s ‘Arcadia’ with Bath Operatic and Dramatic Society which won the Rose Bowl for Best Dramatic Production.
Rob Sanders Hewett – Sergeant of Police (and Piratical defector)
Rob is delighted to be making his debut with Cardiff Opera in the role of Sergeant of Police. His past performances include playing the Duke of Plaza-Toro (the Gondoliers), Lord Chancellor (Iolanthe), Pish-Tush (the Mikado), Lieutenant (Yeomen of the Guard), Notary (the Sorcerer), Constable (Hugh the Drover), Zuniga (Carmen) and many other roles and choruses across various amateur and professional companies.
An enthusiastic choral singer, Rob regularly performs with the Lyra Singers and the London Symphony Chorus.
Sian Davies – Musical director
After leaving the teaching profession, Sian trained at Wales’s International Academy of Voice on their repetiteur course. She has
accompanied for many leading opera singers such as Stuart Burrows, Leah Marion Jones, Rebecca Evans, Donald Maxwell, Katherine Jenkin. Sian has accompanied for masterclasses for Kiri Te Kanawa, Ryland Davies Dennis O’Neill, Rosemary Joshua, Della Jones, Susan Bullock, Michelle de Young and Paul Groves. Also for Stephen Isserlis. Sian has also been repetiteur for the Cardiff Opera Company for their production of Cosi Fan Tutti and The Marriage of Figaro and was selected to be one of the repetiteurs at the Vienna Opera Company, working with the conductors, singers and coaches for their production of Cosi Fan Tutti and Rigoletto. Sian’s passion is to see music pass onto the younger generation and teaches at Bridgend schools for the Bridgend Music Services ensuring live music continues to enrich their young lives as it has Sian’s.
