There may at least be the possibility now to see this opera in production one day – fingers crossed. After languishing forlorn on Composer Andrew Nicklin’s Imac for several years during lockdown in need of edit, mix & mastering TLC. It was a challenge which brought a fair chunk of skills from my 35years of commercial mixing & mastering to bear – alongside the 10 years of private music perf & theory grades before that from the age of 6.
2 x 1400 bar Acts of nifty-shifting 2s, 3s, 4s, 5s, 6s, 7s, 8s, 9s & 11s – with ever-morphing key sigs, exercised musical muscles flexed a lot less often in my normal drill, trap, chill & indie workdays. And those International award-winning operatic soloists could have done with a zoom class or two on simple, effective home recording of their huge talent. But it’s all part of the job retrieving all manner of ‘less than ideal’ recording setups. Andrew developed prefrontal dementia (think Bruce Willis) and lost his musical ear and much worse, the ability to speak. Hence I guess, the problems with the parts in the Logic Pro X sessions I picked up on a snowy December day being out of time or place, but the quality of some of the original recordings was extremely problematic to get this project over the line into the international caliber it so needed. Let’s just leave that quietly there.
Composer and ex National Gilbert & Sullivan Opera Company conductor & director Andrew Nicklin initially kickstarted this magnum opus to the tune of £4k after being inspired by Librettist Simon Buterriss words. Simon is renowned for live opera and much more. The initial funds raised apparently covered only the 4 professional soloists, and not an orchestra! So this work is backed courtesy of DAW Sibelius’ finest plugin orchestra Noteperformer 4. It’s not the real deal, but it serves well to provide a musical backdrop for Andrew’s accomplished composition. You can hear my Soundcloud snippet above and make your own judgement.
What I received were 2 Logic Pro X projects with audio parts randomly out of time or sequence. By Andrew’s accounts I succeeded in re-editing those parts and the performances, bar by bar, note by note; sorting the mix and translating the whole caboodle into two mastered 40 min acts which represent his musical vision. There’s a first time for everything.
Andrew had to go back to Kickstarter with assistance from myself and friends in December 2024 after the Christmas death of his good friend Jane Stokes, who had initially approached me in November with a view to getting at least Act 1 delivered – without letting Andrew know the cost. After weeks of work on it, she had tried to pay the first invoice – as one of her literal last acts on going into hospice, but the payment was hung on the Stripe authentication when I checked. After warm, friendly messages and calls prior to this, I had no idea Jane was so seriously ill. We’d all be proud to have friends the calibre of Jane Stokes RIP.
He quickly raised more than amount needed for my work so far on the first act, and the completion of the second…and enough to press some CDs for loyal Kickstart followers and close friends. Rightly so. This witty, musical tour de force finally saw the light of day as a very limited edition CD release. I’m unsure of any other plans at the time of writing September 2025. Andrew was really struggling with his own health last time we messaged.
A technical note to those recording at home – even world class professionals, apparently:
You need a decent audio interface and a decent cardioid mic – no excuses on cost. Budget Behringer interfaces have Midas preamps and the 80quid(!) AT2020 loved by Billie Eilish was top 5 in my yearly £35k blind mic shootuts when lecturing at DeMontfort Uni for 10 years. BUT you need a proper NYLON pop–shield and serious damping like a duvet or heavy curtain ideally in a corner BEHIND the VOCALIST, not in front – ii.e. not one of those stupid 1ms mid-mud echo horseshoe ‘portable vocal booths’ that kill the natural ambience on the dead side of the mic and reflect any powerful vocal passages into the back of the mic horribly. Those ‘mic shields’ also allow the capture in glorious detail of the full complement of every domestic room’s worst reverb and resonances – straight into the sensitive front of the mic around the sides of vocalist’s head – often off the fabulous acoustic mirror plaster walls of the corner they’ve stood in. btw Every journalist speaking from home into a foam box needs their head of technical re-educated.
The Complete Text From The CD Booklet Including Credits
Four soloists recorded the opera singly in their home studios.
An orchestral track was synthesised from the composer’s Sibelius full score by NotePerformer 4.
The Chamber Orchestra consists of 15 players –
Flute, alto flute, piccolo
Oboe, cor anglais
Clarinet, bass clarinet, Eb clarinet
Basssoon
Horn
Trumpet
Trombone
Percussion (1 player)
Harp Piano
Solo 1st violin
Solo 2nd violin
Solo viola
Solo violoncello
Solo contrabass
ACT 1
00.00 – Scene 1 – Onboard ship not far from the Italian coast
01.59 – Scene 2 – The ship’s hold
17.04 – Scene 3 – Backstage at the Imperial Burgtheater, Vienna
21.44 – Scene 4 – Another part of the backstage
26.26 – Scene 5 – Another part of the backstage, Michael rehearsing for La Notte del Epifania
36.41 – Scene 6 – Onstage with Viola and Orsino’s scene
40.30 – Scene 7 – Backstage at the Imperial Burgtheater
ACT 2
00.00 – Scene 1 – London, Winter, backstage at the King’s Theatre, Haymarker
20.23 – Scene 2 – Spring, still backstage at the Kings Theatre
35.07 – Scene 3 – End of the opera, but like Mozart/da Ponte operas, it goes into a moral vaudeville
Michael Kelly – Jack Roberts (tenor)
Lorenzo da Ponte – Matthew Kellet (bass/baritone)
Stephen Storace – Thomas Chenhall (baritone)
Nancy Storace – Annie Fassea (coloratura soprano)
JACK ROBERTS
Jack trained at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, where he won the Joyce Budd Second Prize of the Kathleen Ferrier Bursary, and then completed his studies at the Dutch National Opera Academy.
In 2022, Jack made his debut at Opera Holland Park, singing Lensky in Eugene Onegin, for which he was described by Opera Magazine as “the epitome of an emerging talent.” He has since performed Mr.
Upfold in Albert Herring and Tamino in Die Zauberflöte for Clonter Opera, Almaviva in Il barbiere di Siviglia with Ulster Touring Opera, continued collaborations with Opera Holland Park and Charles Court Opera, and sung the tenor solo in Stravinsky’s Les Noces with The English National Ballet.
Jack has performed with the Royal Opera, Garsington Opera, Grange Park Opera, The National Gilbert and Sullivan Company, and the London Symphony Orchestra.
For more information, visit jackrobertstenor.com
MATTHEW KELLETT
London-born baritone Matthew Kellett is a graduate of the RNCM and Trinity College of Music, where he was awarded the TCM Trust’s Silver Medal for vocal studies.
Among his recent performances, Matthew has appeared as Jack Point The Yeomen of the Guard and Robin Oakapple Ruddigore at Opera Holland Park and Njegus The Merry Widow for Scottish Opera. He is a regular performer with Charles Court Opera, where his roles have included Papageno The Magic Flute, Bartolo The Barber of Seville, and KoKo The Mikado among many others. Matthew’s appearances with other companies include ENO, Wexford Festival Opera, The National Gilbert & Sullivan Opera Company and Blackheath Halls Opera.
THOMAS CHENHALL
Award winning Baritone Thomas began his international career back in 2019 at the Wexford Festival in Ireland.
Since then, Thomas has performed extensively around the world.
Summer 2025 will bring Thomas to his US debut at some world class venues such as the Zellerbach Hall in Berkeley CA and Carnegie Hall in New York. And a Festival debut at the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence in their new production of Britten’s Billy Budd.
ANNIE FASSEA
Lyric coloratura soprano and recipient of the Fulbright Artistic Scholarship. She has won awards in international competitions, including the 2024 Concours International de Belcanto Vincenzo Bellini (Prix Spécial Voix Féminine & Prix Spécial du Public), 2023 Belvedere (Hans Gabor Prize), 2022 Let’s Sing (Winner), 2022 Bolko von Hochberg (Interpretation Award), and 2021 Jacques Offenbach (Third Prize).
SIMON BUTTERISS
Writing includes A Motley Pair, A Salaried Wit, A Gooseberry Fool (SkyArts TV), I am the Very Model (BBC), Let’s Make an Opera! and new narration for Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra (Britten Estate commissions), Making Massinger (Wiltshire Creative commission), The Magic Flute and The Breomstick (Wigmore Hall commission and New Zealand Opera), Kis and Tell Mozart (Covent Garden Festival) Voltaires Amphibian (an opera libretto), and numerous translations and adaptations of operas. He is curre writing a full-length staged concert piece for the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment.
He has directed operas for NGSOC, Philharmonia Orchestra, OAE, RLPO, CBSO, IF Opera, Wes: Green Opera, Landestheater Niederbayern; his Der Mikado in Germany won a Bayerische Rundfunk Operetra Award.
He has sung roles at opera houses from La Scala, Milan to ENO, where his repertoire includes roles by Puccini, Ligeti, Lehar, Bernstein, Offenbach, Britten, Strauss.
As an actor he has appeared in the West End, with the RSC, and on Film, Television and radio.
ANDREW NICKLIN
A composer, arranger and accompanist, and conductor of many operas, musicals, and concerts throughout the UK, principally in the East Midlands.
Previous conductor and stage director of the National G&S Opera Company. He won the International Waterford Festival of Light Music three times, with Sondheim musicals and won the International Gilbert & Sullivan Festival at Buxton no less than seven times.
Wich Noel Jervis he formed Nottingham Festival Opera, which performed in Nottingham Theatre Royal and in the Concert Hall. Andrew teamed up with Donald Maxwell, the well-known bass/baritone to perform the songs of Flanders & Swann.
He met Simon Butteriss through his connection with Gilbert & Sullivan. Andrew arranged several cabaret songs for him and during lockdown they decided to write an opera together.
Historical Note – This opera is a work of fiction, based on historical facts
Michael Kelly’s piano was attacked by pirates aboard the ship on which he sailed to Italy, he did meet the Storaces (but on the quayside at Livorno) and they did all go, with Da Ponte, to serve the emperor.
Kelly did have to fight Mozart to be allowed to introduce a broad comic element as Don Curzio and Mozart did acknowledge the gag’s success. Nancy did marry an abusive older man, John Fisher, but there is no evidence that she had a sexual relationship with Mozart (though all his major biographers assert that she did, Salieri or Da Ponte or that her child (which died shortly after its birth) was fathered by anyone other than her husband. The emperor did banish her husband for abusing her and Fisher did eventually go to live in Ireland.
Da Ponte was furious that Stephen and Michael declined to get him employment at Drury Lane and did plan an ugly revenge.
The brothel where Da Ponte plied his trade was actually in Venice, but he did leave Vienna in disgrace.
He did become a grocer, but in Pennsylvania. In New York he opened a bookshop.
Stephen did die, probably of a brain tumour and with a severe chill, aged 33.
Michael and Nancy had many triumphs at Drury Lane, Stephen’s operas among them. Kelly’s reminiscences are gossipy and indiscreet but there is no mention of any romantic attachment to any woman.
He lived latterly with Mrs Crouch, but the relationship was evidently platonic. He had a number of intimate friendships with men, including Stephen Storace.
Stephen married but he and his wife lived apart.
Young Irish tenor Michael Kelly encounters the teenage soprano, Nancy Storace and her composer brother Stephen during a violent storm at sea and the three become friends. Recruited by Da Ponte, they join the Imperial Opera in Vienna, where Mozart composes roles for Nancy and Michael in Le Nozze di Figaro.
Nancy spectacularly loses her voice mid-aria and it emerges she has been brutally, perhaps sexually, assaulted by Da Ponte. She flees to London, with Michael and Stephen, but Da Ponte, banished from Vienna, turns up to blackmail them. They beat him at his own game but Stephen mysteriously and suddenly dies – has he been poisoned by Da Ponte?
Signor Kelly’s Soufflé is dedicated to Andrew’s friend, the late Jane Stokes, without whom the opera would have not been recorded.
Mixing & Mastering Engineering by Karl Junga
Artwork by David Parkins
CD manufactured by Alpha Duplication
The 2nd Kickstart Appeal In Full
2nd Kickstarter Campaign – Andrew’s plea.