For all press and media enquiries please contact:
Rachel Duffield (Colman Getty) rachel@colmangetty.co.uk

To see documentaries about Streetwise Opera, click on the ‘Films’ tab above.

Reviews

Canticles, Westminster Abbey, May 2002

Proof that it is worth investing in the arts because they can improve people’s lives, at ground level, where it’s needed. Erica Jeal, The Guardian (4 stars)

Truly awe-inspiring. Cynics detecting political correctness in overdrive would have felt satisfied if the results were makeshift and amateurish, but the opposite was true. Musically the performances were superb. Rodney Milnes, The Times (5 stars)

I could sing a hundred praises of this superb stage premiere, yet still undersell it. This was peripatetic drama at its best: powerful, involving, sympathetic, touching, inspiring. Roderic Dunnett, Independent (4 stars)

Every performer and director – for there were many – should be proud: a witty, brave, imaginative evening. Anna Picard, Independent on Sunday

Beyond moving The arts have this magical power to bring us closer together through our own creativity and through our responses to that of others. This event proved it beyond a shadow of a doubt. I doubt whether the performers or anyone else present will ever forget this inspired and inspiring occasion. George Hall, Opera

A Ceremony of Carols, New College, Oxford Nov 2003

Enjoyable and deeply moving. Hugh Vickers, Opera

Astonishing and memorable anyone expecting evensong was in for a surprise. Invisible people, seen and heard centre-stage. Michael White, New York Times

Time Flows, Trinity Buoy Wharf, London Aug 2004

If Streetwise Opera confounded the sceptics with their astonishing production of Britten’s Canticles in 2002, their latest venture will almost certainly have reversed the tide of critical opinion. This is a tale about a company drawn from London’s homeless…about how one fleeting moment of grace can make the kind of community art that purists sneer at into something of equal aesthetic and social value. Anna Picard, Independent on Sunday

Delightful…hilarious…admirable and inspiriting enterprise … the homeless performed with such dedication and delight. David Blewitt, The Stage

There is abundant testimony to the wonders Streetwise Opera has worked in restoring morale and self-respect. Long may it thrive. Evening Standard

The concept sounds like the sort of worthy enterprise you’re automatically kind about, but there’s been no need for special pleading; critics have wept and raved. It shows us that the homeless are people like us. Time Out, London

Three successive shows that (have been) brilliantly imagined, strikingly original and deeply touching. No patronising, no pretending and no compromise. It was fantastically impressive. Michael White, Opera Now

Rückert Lieder, Council House, Nottingham, Oct 2005

Streetwise Opera is something else. It teases, surprises, takes risks, and tackles the unexpected… it lures you where you haven’t been before and sends you home enriched. Roderic Dunnett, Independent (4 stars)

This is not just a worthy attempt to make music theatre with an under-represented section of the community, but a vivid reimagining of Mahler’s songs. Tom Service, Guardian (3 stars)

What was made this treatment so convincing and involving was the cast’s discipline and finesse… these figures weren’t so much imitating Mahler’s songs; they became it. Roderic Dunnett, Opera Now

Inspiring, revelatory and wholly original… anyone who doubts the power of art to change people’s lives should have been there on Friday night. William Ruff, Nottingham Evening Post

Whirlwind, The Sage, Gateshead, Oct 2006

Todd’s two-part chorus writing is tight and vivid, provoking an impassioned performance from the homeless and ex-homeless cast of Streetwise Opera. Anna Picard, The Independent on Sunday

Streetwise Opera’s hour-long tale is about loss, but Warner’s production is epic in its stage pictures and intimate in its detail, delivering a profounder hope. Paul Allen, The Guardian (4 stars)

Critical Mass, Almeida Opera, July 2007

Refined theatricality… electrifying… great theatre. Nick Kimberley, Evening Standard (5 stars)

What a touching, unique show this was… a powerful plea for the acceptance of loners and outsiders, of individual conscience, and of the differences between us, in a world that increasingly demands conformity… performed with wonderful energy, assurance, intensity and spontaneity. There wasn’t a whiff of condescension: just a surreal sense of some blissful world having been created in which all people can fulfil their potential. Richard Morrison, The Times (4 stars)

Critical Mass – relevant, intelligent, touching, powerful – should be widely seen. A tremendous achievement. Annette Morreau, The Independent (4 stars)

My Secret Heart, Royal Festival Hall, December 2008

Mesmersing… inspired and inspiring. Erica Jeal, The Guardian (4 stars)

Reminding us that we turn our backs on the homeless. Nick Kimberly, Evening Standard (4 stars)

TV

BBC Breakfast, Dec 2009
BBC Heaven and Earth, 2004
BBC 2 Culture Show, 2005
BBC London, Oct 2008
ITV Tyne Tees, Northern Eye documentary, July 2008 (see Films tab on this site)
Up the Arts Show, Community Channel, Oct 2008
Kanagawa TV News, Sept 2009

Other Articles

The Guardian, Film and Music, Nov 2008
The Guardian, Society, Sept 2007
The Guardian, G2, Oct 2006
The Guardian, G2, Sept 2005 (50 Must See Events of the Autumn)
The Guardian, Rise, Dec 2002
The Telegraph, May 2009
The Telegraph, Dec 2008
The Telegraph, June 2007
The Telegraph, Oct 2006, profile of UK’s top opera companies
The Telegraph, Oct 2006
The Times, Sept 2009
The Times, Dec 2007 (pick of the year)
The Times, Nov 2003
Independent, Happy List 2008
Independent, July 2004
New York Times, Nov 2003
Time Out, Charity Issue, August 2008
Newcastle Journal, Oct 2006
Northern Echo, Oct 2006
Nottingham Evening Post, July 2005
Internationalist, Winter 2006
Inside Housing, August 2007
Classic FM, Oct 2009
Classic FM Magazine, June 2004
Classical Music Magazine, 2002-07
Opera Now, 2002-07
Big Issue, Dec 2008
Connect, 2002-07
FEANSA, 2009
Arts Professional, Sept 2009
Yomiuri Shimbun, Japan Sept 2009
The Kanagawa, Japan Sept 2009
Mainichi, Japan Sept 2009
Big Issue Japan Oct 2009
SVD Cultur, Sweden Dec 2008

Radio

BBC Radio 4 – Streetwise The Opera, 2-part documentary 2006
BBC Radio 4 – Today, 2004
BBC Radio 4 – Mid-Week, 2003
BBC Radio 4 – Front Row, 2004
BBC Radio 3 – In Tune, 2004
BBC Radio 3 – Music Matters, 2003, 2008
BBC Radio 3 – Pick of the Year 2009
BBC Radio 3 – Royal Philharmonic Society Awards, 2009
BBC Radio 3 – British Composer Awards, 2009
BBC Radio 2 – Green Room, 2004
BBC World Service, 2008
BBC London – Robert Elms show, 2010
Classic FM, 2002, 2005, 2008
Local radio 2002-10
ABC, Australia, 2010

• review title 1 - March 2, 2010
• review title 2 - March 2, 2009