A full scale opera depends on a very large team. The 2011 team numbered over 30, many of whom were also performing. Bringing the opera to life on stage were 40 singers, supported by 14 musicians in the orchestra pit.
Meet the creative leaders who ensure we turn all that creative energy and passion for opera into a thrilling production. James Longstaffe is a conductor, repetiteur and tuba player. He has been principal repetiteur for Oxford Touring Opera since 2006 (for whom he has also conducted productions of operas by Verdi and Rossini), and for the Oxford Opera Company from 2007 until 2009, taking part in performances of operas such as Le Nozze di Figaro, Cosi Fan Tutte, The Turn of the Screw, Madama Butterfly, and I Pagliacci. From 2008 to 2010 he was conductor of the Oxford University Sinfonietta, with whom he conducted music by, amongst others, Stravinsky, Webern, Varèse, John Adams, Magnus Lindberg, and Copland. He also conducted the Orchestra of Oxford from 2007 to 2009, whose concerts included a complete performance of Wagner’s Das Rheingold. James conducted concerts with the Oxford Chamber Orchestra, East Oxford Community Choir, and the Oxford Sinfonia. This is James’s second season with Midland Opera.
Sarah hails from Liverpool, and studied singing at the Birmingham Conservatoire of Music.
Since graduation, Sarah's singing career has taken her all over the world, including performances in Europe, the USA and Japan. She has appeared for many opera companies, including Mid-Wales Opera, Carl Rosa Opera, Lyric Opera Dublin, D’Oyly Carte Opera Company, Opera North, Opera Ireland, Pavilion Opera, New Devon Opera, and City of Birmingham Touring Opera.
She directed act 1 of Le Nozze di Figaro, and several student-led projects whilst at Birmingham, and has combined a singing and directing career ever since. She first sang with Heritage Opera in 2006, became staff director in 2008, and took over as Artistic Director in 2011. Productions for HO include: Dido and Aeneas, The Magic Flute, Die Fledermaus (co-translated with Nick Sales), HMS Pinafore, Tosca, Cosi fan Tutte, Carmen (also translated), Madame Butterfly, Don Giovanni, and Il Barbiere di Siviglia. Under her management, Heritage Opera gave the world première of Jonathan Dove's chamber opera, Mansfield Park (in which she created the role of Mary Crawford).
This year, she will translate and direct Rigoletto and La bohème, and direct The Marriage of Figaro, and in 2013 will direct Guilio Cesare and La Clemenza di Tito for Opera Seria in Manchester.
Sarah lives in Staffordshire with her partner, the tenor Nicholas Sales.