World Premiere of Samuel Bordoli’s pop-up chamber opera ‘Belongings’ (Tenor and Cello) for the Tete a Tete opera festival- an eccentric and forward looking festival which commissions pieces like ‘Hummus the opera’- a musical exploration of the popular Meditterrannean dip!

Ours was an opera about various lost and found belongings left on a train. I fell into this unusual project quite late and it was quite a stressful challenge to get this virtuosic score together in just a few days but I’m so glad we soldiered on and pulled it off! Our first performance in the dining carriage on the Caledonian Sleeper Train from Aberdeen to London was broadcast on BBC Radio 4, The Today Show, continuing with a month of spontaneous ‘pop up’ performances on the streets of Kings Cross, in RADA Studios Theatre, The Place, again on the Caledonian Sleeper this time from London to Aberdeen and on a tiny vintage train in Aberdeen called the ‘Deeside Railway’.

I have to admit that when I was a student I never imagined (or prepared for) performing sitting backwards-I get motion sickness- next to a vending machine (Irn Bru only of course!) on a FREEZING rickety old train in Scotland in November, accompanying an opera singer who was in a separate carriage!; or in the bar to blindingly drunk guests on a train moving so fast that the singer actually fell over mid phrase!; or under a tree where pigeons made their ‘deposits’ on unsuspecting heads (bad luck Rob!); or with music being desperately glued to the stand by two stage managers and a dozen multicoloured clothes pegs because of the gale force winds (British Summer!) or in a small dark store room to an audience of one; or to heckling builders smoking and sheltering from the rain next to Marks and Spencers… But what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger?! To top it all off, I was regularly approached by Caledonian Sleeper passengers who, seeing me in my costume and whistle, naturally assumed I was a train inspector who could replace the pillow case in their sleeper and direct them to the snack bar! 

The experience was both hilarious and soul-crushing. I now have a newfound appreciation for buskers, people who work outside in all weathers, and anyone who has to perform complex tasks on something which moves with speed.

Despite the struggles we received some really lovely audience feedback and reviews:

‘Cellist Zosia Jagodzinska and Tenor Robert Lewis revel in Samuel Bordoli’s inviting score… the cello replicating the urgent thunder of a train’ – 4* review by operaisimmawhisper blog

‘brilliant, moving performance’-Harlequin Agency

‘Fabulous playing and singing!’-The Hermes Experiment

‘Superb playing’- Stef Conner (Singer/Composer and Royal Philharmonic Society Award winner)

Credits:

Score- Samuel Bordoli

Libretto and Dramatic direction- Bill Bankes Jones

Musical Direction- Timothy Burke

Tenor- Robert Lewis

Cello-Zosia Jagodzinska