Claxton Opera
The Final Curtain fell on Claxton Opera with the death on August 8th 2021 of its founder and artistic director, Richard White.
It is impossible to convey in a few words the phenomenal talents he had and which he so freely gave to promote the art and science of music.
Richard was a one-off and it was a privilege to have known and worked with him. Most of us will never see his like again.
Thank you, Richard – you WERE Claxton Opera.
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Claxton Opera’s last production was “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” in 2014. Since then activities have been very much scaled down and the group is now dormant. As the domain name for Claxton Opera has now expired, this site will remain on https://xoosh.co.uk/clax as an archive and a tribute to all the hard work and talent over the years from all participants – performers, musicians, backstage crew and not least from the director and founder, Richard White.
Many of the group’s shows are documented here beginning in 1978, a span of 37 years. Photographs, where available, are stored and one year’s video recording – the 2007 recording of Stravinsky’s ‘The Soldier’s Tale’ and Donizetti’s ‘The Night Bell’ – can be viewed. The link to the videos is in the footer of the page. This also contains a copy of the excellent BBC 4 documentary “The Man with an Opera House in his Living Room” from 2003.