Gilly French

Early English church music, late-18th century opera, Stephen Storace

My research is centred around Stephen Storace and in particular his 1789 opera The Haunted Tower.  It may include, but is not limited to:

• Biographical sketch of the composer’s family
• Other works by Storace that pre-date The Haunted Tower
• An analysis of the opera itself, musically and dramatically
• Vocal style and pedagogy of the time
• The lives, training and careers of the opera’s principal singers
• Other ‘gothic’ opera

My interest in Storace stems from productions of his two Viennese operas, Gli sposi malcontenti and Gli equivoci, by Bampton Classical Opera, an established company specialising in 18^th-century rarities and of which I am joint founder and artistic director.