OPERA GROUP 1 – meets at 9.30am on the second Friday of the month from September – April 
Venue circulates
At each meeting an opera (and occasionally a ballet) is chosen and shown by one of the members in their home and diversity is our aim.
Choices have ranged from Sullivan to Wagner and members generally take a turn to host the meeting and select the performance.
DVD’s are borrowed from member’s collections or from the Resource Centre of U3A and we usually end our season in April with a ‘bring and share’ lunch. From time to time members attend operatic performances at the theatre or cinema.
Group Leader: Jean Thompson
OPERA GROUP 2 – meets from 9.45am – 12noon on the first Tuesday of the month
Venue: Group Leaders house
The group meets in Yelverton on the first Tuesday of the month and as most of what we want to watch seems to be at least 2hrs long and sometimes as much as 3, we aim to start at 9.45am.
If someone has to arrive later we can pause the disc and fill them in on what has happened so far. If someone needs to leave early they can creep out quietly.
There is a good big screen and a Bose sound box so the quality of reproduction is high.
We aim to cover a range of composers, eras, languages (there are usually subtitles), singers, opera houses, etc and to include some less well known operas among the old favourites. So far the Group Leader has made the choices which have included Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas, Norma by Bellini, Don Giovanni and Verdi’s La Forza del Destino.
Suggestions are always welcome and the U3A’s resource centre has a wonderful range to choose from. There is room for one or two more members.
Group Leader: Sue Foster