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A Night at the Opera

10th April 2016

In 2016, Garnethill Synagogue asked us to provide a Candlelit Classics evening to help them raise funds for the upkeep of their truly unique building in Glasgow’s city centre, and A Night at the Opera was born.

We arrive with a full complement of professional musicians including four singers, five strings, four woodwind, a horn player, a harpist, a conductor/pianist and a compère and a wonderful evening is in store.

The programme of favourite operatic melodies include pieces to delight both the musical connoisseur and the less operatically minded, and homage is paid to Bizet, Delibes, Donizetti, Mozart, Offenbach, Puccini, Saint-Saens, J Strauss and Verdi with an acknowledgement to Lehar and Gilbert and Sullivan. Each item is introduced with polish and panache, explaining which character was singing, how he/she was feeling and why, and what he/she was expressing in the music. A surprise or two may also be in store!

Performances:

7.30pm, Wednesday 22 October 2025, St Andrew’s Hall, Crieff

7.30pm, Saturday 18 October 2025: Dollar Academy

7.30pm, Sunday 12 October 2025: Newton Stewart Cinema

7.30pm, Tuesday 29 October 2024, Lanark Memorial Hall

7.30pm, Friday 25 October 2024, MacArts, Galashiels

7.30pm, Thursday 24 October 2024, Northesk Church (Brunton) Musselburgh

7.30pm, Sunday 13 October 2024, Crail Community Hall

CANCELLED due to COVID, Sunday 29 March 2020, Edinburgh Synagogue “An Evening of Opera Classics”

Sunday 19 May 2019, The Spire Concert series, 260 Bath Street, Glasgow G2 4JP

Sunday 31 March 2019, Edinburgh Synagogue

Sunday 25 March 2018, Garnethill Synagogue Act III “Opera with a Twist”

Sunday 18 March 2018, Edinburgh Synagogue

Saturday 26 August 2017, New Kilpatrick Church, 28 Kirk Place, Bearsden, G61 3RT

Saturday 24 June 2017, Royal Faculty of Procurators in Glasgow, at 12 Nelson Mandela Place, Glasgow

Sunday 26 March 2017, Garnethill Synagogue, “A Night at the Opera Act II”

Sunday 20 March 2016, Garnethill Synagogue, Candlelit Classics

Derek Clark

13th June 2012

He was Head of Music at Scottish Opera from 1997 until March 2023, and conducted more than 25 operas for the company, including major works by Handel and Mozart, Rossini, Verdi, Tchaikovsky, Massenet, Puccini, and Gilbert & Sullivan – his most recent conducting engagement being the outstanding production of “Il Trittico” at the Edinburgh Festival Theatre.

He provided re-orchestrations for recent touring productions of Hansel and Gretel, Cinderella, Die Fledermaus, Carmen, Rodelinda and The Elixir of Love and devised twenty-two Opera Highlight/Essential Scottish Opera programmes. His re-orchestration of ‘Hansel and Gretel’ has also been used by other companies and colleges, both in the UK and in America.

He has also specialised in contemporary music, as conductor of all three seasons of Scottish Opera’s highly successful Five:15 project. He conducted the Scottish premieres of James MacMillan’s Clemency, Philip Glass’ The Trial and the world premieres of Craig Armstrong’s ‘The Lady from the Sea’ and Rory Boyle’s Kaspar Hauser: Child of Europe.

He works as an accompanist, appearing regularly throughout the country, and is a regular Guest Coach at the major conservatoires and colleges and at the National Opera Studio. Though most of his professional life has been spent in the opera house, he has also found time to compose and arrange music for a wide variety of people and circumstances.

He was appointed Musical Director of Dundee Choral Union in 2011, and since 2014 has been Director of Music at Helensburgh Parish Church.

After retiring from Scottish Opera in March 2023, his diary is quickly filling up with new and exciting projects, including concerts with The Antonine Trio, Opera Alba, and “Celebrating Irving Berlin”.

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A Night at the Opera

Derek Clark

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