Hidden treasures

After spending two decades searching the archives for neglected operas, conductor Charles Peebles recalls the risks and challenges of bringing them to the stage

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Between 2001 and ’22, I was tasked with finding a ‘rarely performed’ opera on an annual basis for University College Opera’s yearly production in March.

The invitation to take down a piece from the shelf that few, if any, had ever seen, then putting it on the stage, must count as one of the most desirable assignments one could have. The model was professional principal cast, director, designer, plus student chorus and orchestra, for four performances in University College London’s Bloomsbury Theatre.

Choosing the piece wisely was crucial. We all had to live by that choice. The students needed the right level of stimulation and challenge; you had to be able to cast the piece. There ideally ought to be some whiff of topicality or point of interest in that selection that caused it to edge ahead of other possible pieces one might have lighted upon at the time. So how much of a downside lay in that characterisation of ‘rarely performed’ opera? Was this obligation to investigate opera’s reject pile a restriction? What lay there, and what was it that caused an opera to find itself in the ‘rarely performed’ category?