Peter Moores Foundation to support eight opera productions in 2013-15
6 December 2012, London, UK
Sir Peter Moores(Photo: Bill Cooper)
The Peter Moores Foundation has announced plans to support eight productions by UK opera companies between 2013 and 2015 under a scheme called the Swansong Project, which will mark the Foundation’s closure in 2014.
The eight companies, which have all enjoyed a long association with the Foundation, will present repertoire that would otherwise not be possible without this support, including a site-specific production of Musorgky’s Khovanshchina at Birmingham Opera Company, Donizetti’s three Tudor operas (Anna Bolena, Maria Stuarda and Roberto Devereux) at Welsh National Opera and the UK premiere of George Benjamin’s Written on Skin at London’s Royal Opera House. The other five project partners are English Touring Opera, Opera North, Scottish Opera, English National Opera and Glyndebourne Festival Opera
Established by Sir Peter Moores in 1964, the Foundation has been a major supporter of opera in Britain over the past 50 years, as well as funding projects in education, health, community work and the visual arts.
Sir Peter said his commitment to opera has been inspired by a desire ‘to make things happen that otherwise would not happen, to enrich the repertory with works that otherwise would not be heard, and wherever possible to ensure that these reach and are accessible to the widest possible audience, whether through tours, broadcasts, education projects, recordings or in the cinema’.
He added: ‘While bringing our curtain down, we want to remind the world at large of the many ways, large and small, in which opera and its enjoyment can be nourished in the UK. We want our Swansong to encourage other, younger, would-be or active philanthropists and charities to take up the baton. Spread the word!’
