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Dennis Knight

Although Dennis Knight has devoted most of his professional life to being a conductor, chorus master and répétiteur, he was at first a concert pianist. He studied a the Royal Academy of Music, gaining two scholarships and three prizes as soloist and accompanist, and his concert work included BBC broadcasts and concerto performances with leading orchestras.

However, he fell in love with the world of the singer and began conducting opera. Increasing reputation led to an invitation to join the Royal Opera. He was at Covent Garden for 26 years, working at first with the chorus, then with international soloists and conductors.

Making music with singers remains his favourite occupation.

He has worked with all the great conductors you care to mention and his score of La Traviata still has Carlo Maria Giulini's notes on it!

Richard Gregson

1997-2004 Freelance Theatre Director and Educator

Richard Gregson's career in these years has been a continuation of the previous years. He gave up working on the major productions for Floral Opera and Riverside Opera. He revived Les Contes d'Hoffmann and La Bohème in the re-opened, re-furbished Royal Opera House and directed Cura in Otello in Madrid in 1999. In 1998 he worked with young people in Delhi on a special version of Seven Brides for Seven Brothers . He has continued to direct Handel operas in a semi-period style; has worked for several smaller companies; started an annual engagement with Canford Summer Music School (opera course). He has expanded the lecture weekend he gives, now having 10 on offer, and more in preparation. His connection with the Education Department at the Royal Opera House has slowly relaxed.

1993-1996

In these three years Richard Gregson has further established his work in education, as well as continuing to direct a wide variety of operas. Abroad he directed Madama Butterfly in Seville (Spring 1996). He directed Handel's Partenope for the Cambridge Handel Opera Society and Siroc for the London Handel Society - the first full performance since Handel conducted it. Other operas include Lucia di Lammermoor, la Forza del Destino, Cendrillon, Der Freischutz, King Arthur, La Perichole and Cavalleria Rusticana. In education he has run and worked on a number pf summer schools, regularly lectures on weekends (on composers and on the history of opera), helped establish and now tutors on the Open College of the Arts course 'Understanding Opera' and run many 'Practical Opera Weekends'. He is an artistic director of Floral Opera, a company which is semi-educational, performing shortened versions of operas in their original languages. He has written scripts for actors in a ballet company, and preserves his links with the Royal Opera House, directing revivals there as well as working on education projects.

1988-1993

In 1993 Richard Gregson directed Handel's Berenice for the Cambridge Handel Opera Group - probably the first complete staged performance since the composer's lifetime; and revivals of Otello and La Bohème for the Royal Opera. He renewed his contract with Share Music in Action, in Northern Ireland; and in the autumn restaged the 'old' Madama Butterfly for Covent Garden.

In 1992 he directed La Bohème in Genoa and Covent Garden . His 'Practical Opera Weekends' increased considerably, as did his work in adult and general education. He wrote the script for the narrator in a new ballet The Little Mermaid , which he also helped the choreographer to direct.

In 1991 Richard Gregson directed Otello for the Kirov Opera, Leningrad - the first production there sung in Italian from before the Revolution. He also directed a very successful revival of Les Contes d'Hoffmann for Covent Garden .

Richard Gregson's other work has included a quantity of educational work for the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, some of it shown nationwide on BBC TV. He has organised and tutored on teachers' training weeks at Covent Garden and in the USA : 3-day practical opera course for target groups of various experience and ages; introductory workshops for schools; and various study days. He has revived Cavalleria Rusticana and Pagliacci; Otello and La Bohème for the Royal Opera.

He has directed Salomé for the Pittsburgh opera and The Happy Prince for Jubilee Opera. He has devised and led workshops of a general or specific nature for groups in Wales , London University , Haslemere, etc; and has been involved in the re-start of Abbey opera, directing and educating. He has worked with Opera from Scrap and Scratch on Community days.

1987-1988 Director of Education/Education Manager Royal Opera House

Responsible for bringing together the education work of the three companies administered by the Royal Opera House, and initiating a House policy, committee structures, etc. Continued to initiate and work on projects as in 1988 paragraph above. Involved in consultations about accessibility for the disabled; building development; outreach and community work; and other areas of House policy.

In addition, he directed Il Trovatore for San Diego Opera and revivals for the Royal Opera House ( La Bohème, Peter Grimes .)

1982-1987 Resident Producer, The Royal Opera

In these years he ran the department responsible for overseeing revivals and assisting visiting producers on new productions. For the Royal Opera he revived Cavalleria Rusticana and Pagliacci; Eugene Onegin; Don Pasquale; Rigoletto;L'Africaine; Lohengrin; Fidelio; Die Fledermaus and Les Contes d'Hoffmann. He revived Peter Grimes for the Royal Opera visit to the 1984 Olympic Arts Festival. He directed Peter Grimes, in a different production, for San Diego Opera. He increased his involvement with the expanding education work of The Royal Opera.

1973-1982 Staff Producer, The Royal Opera

Richard Gregson worked with such directors as Friedrich, Ponnelle, Lindtberg, Schlesinger, Sanjust. He revived their work with the Company. He directed the London premiers of Maxwell Davies's The Two Fiddlers and Cinderella and the British premier of Henze's Pollicino . He directed Peter Grimes in Rio de Janeiro and Amsterdam and Così fan Tutte in Amsterdam .

1966-1973

During this time he worked for the English Opera Group as director and Manager; and for the Royal Ballet as stage manager. He did much work at the Aldeburgh Festival and was co-director for the premier of Britten's last opera, Death in Venice . He worked at the Helsinki festival on his own productions for 3 years, revived Peter Grimes for the Royal Opera in Milan and the Far East, directed operas for the Buxton Festival and stage managed major tours for the Royal Ballet in the USA .

Mary Hill

Mary Hill studied piano, organ and viola and played the Bach D minor concerto with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra whilst still at school. She studied music at Oxford University , the Guildhall School of Music and the London Opera Centre, where she later joined the staff as a coach. In the 60's and 70's she sang with the Schutz Choir under Roger Norrington, the Monteverdi Choir under John Eliot Gardiner, and the Elizabethan Singers.

She founded Abbey Opera in 1965. In 1976 Antony Shelley became its conductor and formed Abbey Orchestra. The company productions (many of them premières and lesser-known opera rarities) played in all the major venues in London and visited Rennes ( France ) and the Edinburgh Festival. Many concerts for the Camden Festival were recorded for broadcast by Radio Three. In 1996 Abbey Opera was affiliated to Birkbeck College .

Mary has worked for Glyndebourne, Opera North, Welsh National Opera, Kent Opera, Opera Rara, the Northern Ireland Opera Trust, the Royal Opera at Stockholm , and Virginia Opera Association, USA . She was involved in accompanying for the BBC and also gave recitals in the South Bank ( London ). In 1985 she became Acting Director, then Director of Opera Studies at the Royal College of Music, and from 1989 Assistant to the Director of Opera at the Royal Academy of Music and coach for the National Opera Studio. She is currently Chief Coach and Opera Co-ordinator at the Royal Academy of Music, and runs the postgraduate opera course at Trinity College of Music.

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