THE OPERA HOUSE HAS A PUBLIC SIDE AND A PRIVATE ONE.

THE OPERA HOUSE HAS A PUBLIC SIDE AND A PRIVATE ONE.

THE OPERA HOUSE HAS A PUBLIC SIDE AND A PRIVATE ONE.

I take you to the private one.

01 - THE INSIDER NIGHT


One performance and everything surrounding it.

I host you at the opera - from briefing over dinner to the drink with the conductor afterwards.

We begin two hours before curtain. We talk about what we're about to hear: what makes this casting interesting, where the production takes a risk, and what to listen for in the second act. I'll answer your questions and add a few things that aren't in the program book.

Then we go into the house, to seats I've carefully chosen for their sightlines or sound qualities.

During intermission, or after the final curtain, we go where the audience normally doesn't - into the wings, a dressing room., or for a drink with an artist or the conductor.

And then, we finally get to discuss how we *really* feel about the performance over a night cap.

Your own team handles the hotel and car. I handle the opera experience.
For a Festival, Ring Cycle, or several performances across a few days, the arrangement simply extends.

02 - THE SEASON *

02 - THE SEASON *

02 - THE SEASON *


I direct your year in opera.


I direct your year in opera.


I direct your year in opera.

There are perhaps twenty-five performances worth crossing a border for in any season, and a few hundred that probably aren't. Knowing the difference is part of my job.

Across a season, I tell you what's worth seeing and where — which debuts matter, which revival is better than it sounds, and which opera house is having a remarkable year. Then I'm there for an agreed number of those nights, hosting you and your friends at the opera.

Between performances, I'm available to you. For a question about casting, a recording worth hearing, whether a production justifies the trip, or what to make of something you saw last month and can't stop thinking about.

Your own planner arranges the travel. I make sure your trip is unforgettable.

*Limited to one to two patrons each season

* Limited to 1-2 VIP Patrons per season

03 - THE PRIVATE CONCERT


The voice, in your own room.

Hearing an operatically trained voice at ten feet/three meters is a different experience than the same voice at 100 feet/30 meters.

Most people have never heard one up close — the sheer physical act of singing, without an orchestra pit to separate you from the artist.

I bring singers I know and trust into your home for an evening. I chose the program with you and the artists, introduce the selections, and talk the room through what they're about to hear. Then dinner, with the artists at the table.

These take some planning and they're worth it. People remember them for years.

04 - PHILANTHROPIC ADVISORY

04 - PHILANTHROPIC ADVISORY

04 - PHILANTHROPIC ADVISORY


For when a seat at a performance isn't enough.

I've sat on both sides of this conversation — the family deciding, and the institution asking.

I've sat on both sides of this conversation — the family deciding, and the institution asking.

Many of my guests reach a point where attending a performance isn't all of it. They've fallen for the art form and they want it to outlive them.

I spent years as a General Director raising money, and years on boards deciding how it should be put to best use. I'm also a Chartered Advisor in Philanthropy. I know which organizations are well run and which are not, what a gift actually accomplishes at each scale, and where money sometimes quietly disappears.

I'll help you decide what you want your giving to do and evaluate the institutions and programs you're considering.

Then, if you'd like, I'll handle them for you. Once we've agreed which organisations deserve support, I can act as your representative with their development offices — taking the meetings, asking the questions that are awkward to ask in your own name, and making sure a gift is structured to do what you intended rather than what's convenient for the institution.

I work alongside your lawyers and financial advisors, not in place of them. They handle the structure, l handle the conversation.

Principals and development officers routinely talk past each other. I speak both languages.

"Opera doesn't reveal itself from the front row. It whispers its secrets backstage."

"Opera doesn't reveal itself from the front row. It whispers its secrets backstage."