Richard White has a perfect miniature opera house in his home with
full orchestra pit, lighting systems, stalls, gallery and of course a
bar. Here the annual Claxton Opera takes place each June/July - tickets
are hard to come by.
Richard, who directs productions and learned his craft at Cambridge
University, also studied singing at the Royal Academy of Music where he
won the Parepa Rosa Scholarship. Since these glory days he has earned
his
bread by teaching, singing, lecturing and directing. Now retired from
earning the crust, he devotes himself wholly to his singular passion.
His illustrated talk using cd and video material is entitled "The
Trouble with Opera" and addresses the whole problem of this complex,
profound and tantalisingly difficult art form: its triumphs, its
disasters but above all its enduring and increasing appeal in the 21st
century.
