If you want to know who we are…

    

                                                                                                                                                                                      A Couple of Old Cartes                                                                                                         Former D’Oyly Carters, Jane Metcalfe and Barry Clark, got together in 2013 to work on a concert of Gilbert & Sullivan songs interspersed with tales about their time in the company – between them ranging from 1972 -1982. During rehearsals they found themselves musing about the company, particularly on how much had changed in the world of singing/theatre from the 1970s to modern-day. They discussed the tremendous legacy the original D’Oyly Carte had left in its wake –  an institution of significant historical merit of which they had been a part; one that had given so much to the country and its culture, instilling in people an enthusiasm for the language, the music and the sheer enjoyment of performances – both as audience and as amateurs performing in schools and Operatic societies; the great passion it had inspired, not only in the British Isles but in America and other parts of the world. The works of Gilbert & Sullivan had been an influence on satirical writer/composers such as Flanders and Swann, and in America, Tom Lehrer, amid countless others….

Life in the Carte                                                                                                                                Jane and Barry were part of a company that was like one big family – like all families, not always in accord, but in a relationship that was undeniably close by the sheer nature of the length of time spent together. In the 1970s until its close the company toured for 48 weeks of the year, which is something that very few companies do today…There were the digs, the rehearsals, the funny happenings onstage and off, the spats and the good times, the ups and downs of relationships formed and broken, cast, orchestra, technical crew and management, the trains and cars up and down the country, the rush home from wherever you were on Saturday night to enjoy a brief moment in your own bed, the repeating of repertoire, rehearsing, over and over… Life in the Carte was simply a way of life that had its own routine and its own rewards. Nothing today can compare to that kind of constant touring….and there are so many tales to tell! Which is how A Couple of Old Cartes came about. The Old Cartes will give performances incorporating songs and recollections, touring tales, unique Cartesian stage business, dance, patter and dialogue – in short a snapshot of life in the Carte,  plus a look into why it all had to end, and last but not least, a homage to the company in recognition of all it has achieved…

Meet the Artistes…

Jane Metcalfe trained at The Royal College of Music where she was the recipient of a number of awards, including the Sir Thomas Beecham Scholarship. She started her career as a chorus member in Scottish Opera moving on to Glyndebourne Festival Opera before joining the D’Oyly Carte Opera Company in 1975 as principal mezzo-soprano, where her roles were Lady Angela, (Patience), Iolanthe, (Iolanthe,) Pitti-Sing, (The Mikado), Phoebe Meryll, (The Yeomen of the Guard), Tessa (The Gondoliers), Melissa (Princess Ida) and Mad Margaret (Ruddigore). She may be heard on Decca’s D’Oyly Carte recordings of The Grand Duke (Lisa, 1976), The Gondoliers (Tessa, 1977), The Zoo (Eliza Smith, 1978), and The Yeomen of the Guard (Phoebe, 1979).

Jane left the Company in 1979 to pursue an operatic career. She has sung principal roles with English National Opera, Opera Factory-Zurich, English Bach Festival and Wexford Festival Opera, among others, and given recitals in London on the South Bank and in the Wigmore Hall. She has been involved in contemporary music-making, working notably with The New Opera Company and with composer Jonathan Dove and dancer/director Clare Whistler. Jane has taken part in Gilbert & Sullivan concerts in the UK and abroad, notably at Grymsdyke, the home of WS Gilbert, and on Cruise Liners and with The Madison Savoyards (Wisconsin). She was a founder member of the quartet Studs & Bustles along with other former D’Oyly Carters (1983-89). The group primarily sang Gilbert & Sullivan, performing in diverse situations ranging from church-halls to The Royal Liverpool Philharmonic.

Until recently Jane taught singing at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama. During her time there she worked on the Drama, Performance and Communication Skills courses and latterly in the Music Therapy Department as voice teacher and workshop leader. Jane has worked for Gyndebourne Education and as a freelancer runs Opera/Voice projects and workshops for people of all ages and abilities. She is leader of East Sussex-based group, The ParkinSongsters, an informal choir for people with Parkinson’s, who perform to a variety of audiences with infectious enjoyment.

Jane has an MA in Creative Writing from The University of Sussex. In this field and under the umbrella of Sussex-based Arts charity Shaping Voices, she has devised plays and monologues based on people’s memories, ranging from the 1930s to the 1970s. She has written a series of linked monologues, Second Thoughts, performed at St Mary in the Castle, Hastings, and gives creative writing courses for beginners. With Shaping Voices she is currently engaged in a fascinating project about the women who worked in the munitions factories in WW1.

Barry Clark began his career as a chorister with the D’Oyly Carte Opera Company in 1971, where, after a short time, he was promoted to Principal Tenor Understudy, covering  all the Gilbert & Sullivan roles in the company’s repertoire, which he subsequently performed on numerous occasions. He also played the smaller tenor roles, graduating to Leonard Meryll in The Yeomen of the Guard, and, in the Company’s 1975 Centenary celebrations at The Royal Festival Hall, he played the Defendant in Trial By Jury.

After the D’Oyly Carte’s demise in 1982, Barry’s career took on the role of the true freelance, appearing in opera, pantomime, and music theatre. Among many other engagements, Barry played Pirelli in Stephen Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd at Bristol Old Vic, and joined Sir Peter Hall’s Company for Born Again at the Chichester Festival. He also played The Auctioneer and Piangi in the original cast of Phantom of the Opera.

From 2000 to 2012 Barry returned to Gilbert & Sullivan, when the long-defunct Carl Rosa Opera Company was reconstituted. Thus began a long re-acquaintance with the Savoy Operas, but this time principally in the patter roles of Sir Joseph Porter in HMS Pinafore, Jack Point in The Yeomen of the Guard, Lord Tolloller in Iolanthe, The Duke of Plaza Toro in The Gondoliers and Major General Stanley in The Pirates of Penzance, in which he appeared at the Gielgud Theatre during Carl Rosa’s 2008 West End Season.

Barry toured the UK, the USA and Canada with the Carl Rosa and in Carl Rosa’s South African tour, he added the role of Baron Zeta in The Merry Widow to his repertoire and, later in the UK, Alfred in Die Fledermaus.

In the 2011 International Gilbert & Sullivan Festival at Buxton, he appeared as Lord Dramaleigh in the first professional revival of Gilbert & Sullivan’s Utopia Ltd  since D’Oyly Carte’s revival in1975. Barry also directed and appeared in a production of Gilbert’s one act drama, The Hooligan, in the same Festival.

Barry has worked in Education taking The Pirates of Penzance into schools and creating excerpted performances with children. He is co-founder with Jane Metcalfe of A Couple of Old Cartes.

 At the Piano…

Fraser Goulding studied the piano from the age of six, and organ from thirteen. He read music at Bristol University, where he studied, conducting with Kenneth Mobbs, and conducted Offenbach’s The Grand Duchess of Gerolstein. He went on to the London Opera Centre to train as a répétiteur under the guidance of James Robertson, later becoming assistant to his other mentor, Vilem Tausky on the Opera Course at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.

Training the chorus for The Yeomen of the Guard at the Tower of London in 1978 brought him to the notice of the D’Oyly Carte Opera Company, and he was their Musical Director from 1979 until the closure in 1982. This Savoyard experience was an invaluable grounding for his subsequent career as conductor, accompanist and arranger.

Fraser’s repertoire ranges from Beethoven to Britten and includes music written in this century. He has given more than 300 concerts for the impresario Raymond Gubbay, and is guest conductor of the BBC Concert Orchestra and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra.

Keenly interested in encouraging young musicians, earlier this year Fraser began a fruitful association with Birmingham Conservatoire of Music, working with the vocal and orchestral students on Poulenc’s Dialogues des Carmélites.

Nicholas Bosworth is much in demand in the UK as an accompanist and repetiteur and is experienced as stage accompanist for singing groups ranging from G&S to Grand Opera. His concert and recital work has included performances at various Opera festivals, Wexford, Edinburgh Fringe, London Opera and in diverse locations such as the Royal Lodge at Windsor, the Presidential Palace in Malta, and the QE2 for its 50th birthday celebrations, accompanying Lesley Garrett.

Nicholas has worked for many opera companies including Glyndebourne, ENO, Scottish Opera, English Touring Opera, Opera Holland Park, Opera North, Grange Park Opera, Opera Ireland and Music Theatre Wales and has also worked as musical director for Scottish Opera-go-round, the Wexford Festival, Opera Minima, Pavilion Opera, travelling with the latter to Japan, the USA, France and the Netherlands.

In 2010 he was the pianist for Glyndebourne Education in their newly commissioned Knight Crew, with music by Julian Philips, featured on a BBC series Gareth Malone Goes to Glyndebourne. You may also have spotted him in the BBC’s series Operatunity. More recently he has been at Glyndebourne and Garsington Opera, worked on a recording with Sir Mark Elder for Opera Rara and given concerts with celebrity soprano Lesley Garrett.

Nicholas studied at the Royal Academy of Music with Guy Jonson and John Streets; at the National Opera Studio, and in Italy with financial assistance from the Peter Moores Foundation. He has been made an Associate of the Royal Academy of Music in recognition of his work.

 Logo by Shov…

Geoffrey Shovelton joined the D’Oyly Carte Opera Company, as Principal Tenor in 1975. He left in 1979, but rejoined in 1980 until its closure in 1982. During his time with the company he performed as Box in “Cox and Box”, The Duke in “Patience”, Tolloller in “Iolanthe”, Cyril in “Princess Ida”, Nanki-Poo in “The Mikado”, Fairfax in “The Yeomen of the Guard”, and Luiz in “The Gondoliers”.  Geoffrey has performed regularly with “The Magic of Gilbert And Sullivan” concert group, for “The London Savoyards” (for impresario Raymond Gubbay), for The Gilbert & Sullivan Opera Company, and as both singer and director at the Gawsworth Hall Open Air Festival. Geoffrey has also directed many amateur opera companies in both Britain and America. A talented artist, he has designed many theatrical programs and greetings cards, as well as illustrating books. He designed the programme cover for the D’Oyly Carte last night at the Adelphi, as well as for all the Gawsworth Hall productions. His cartoons have been a regular feature of the New York Gilbert & Sullivan Society’s newsletter The Palace Peeper, and he provided original artwork for all three editions of Harry Benford’s definitive “Gilbert & Sullivan Lexicon.”

 For all enquiries and bookings please contact: janeopera@hotmail.com