The second half of the year, I had more opportunity to work with others and I really relished working with a team again. In July and August, I travelled to Scotland to rehearse and perform in Scottish Opera’s Pop-Up Opera Tour. We performed Derek Clark’s arrangements of “Pirates of Penzance” and “HMS Pinafore”, two fantastic and witty operettas written by Gilbert and Sullivan. During the tour we popped up in Stirling, Drumnadrochit, Fort William, Kingussie, Ullapool, Isle of Lewis, Ayr, Dumfries, Edinburgh, Musselburgh and Glasgow. I had a wonderful time working with generous colleagues, who continuously gave 100% and I adored the playfulness of story-telling together. It was also a joy to explore new parts of Scotland; I tasted delicious food, walked scenic routes, and learnt new historical facts. Link To Blog Post
In the middle of the tour, I married my best friend, George, in London. It was a magical day as we were able to finally celebrate our marriage with friends and family. My amazing Mum transformed the Clayton Hotel in Chiswick into a romantic paradise. She worked tirelessly and whole-heartedly to create thousands of decorations; she reinvented our childhood hula-hoops into a floral cake-stand and the beautiful ceremonial arch began its life as a garden arch. I am in awe of her creativity and ability to stay within a budget thanks to timing, recycling, and bargain hunting. The venue styling was a family effort, many hands certainly made heartfelt work. My parents, brothers and their partners and lifetime family friends Gill and Terry worked as team alongside George, his family and best man Daniel to transform the hotel ballroom. On the morning of the wedding, my fantastic bridesmaids kept me calm and distracted so that when I walked down the aisle, I was mesmerised by the sight of George in his elegant morning suit surrounded by decorative gestures of love and support from our two families. My Dad, who lovingly tousled my veil into position held my hand and walked me down the aisle, a moment I have dreamt about since I was a little girl. We were serenaded by our dear friends Nino, Jobine and Maria. We were treated to scrumptious delights thanks to my brother Matthew, who baked an outstanding wedding cake and also taught and I the choreography for our first dance, which was a Viennese waltz. We shared the beautiful photographs taken by Lloyd Dobbie with our dear guests who were not able to be with us in person and I hope that you enjoy them as well.
Two days after the wedding, I returned to Glasgow to start rehearsals for the last leg of the Pop-Up Opera tour. I am hugely grateful to the Scottish Opera Education Team, as they were so understanding of the difficulty of rescheduling a wedding and securing performance work in 2021. They made every effort to be flexible and I feel very lucky to collaborate with them. At the start of September, I rehearsed with a new team and together we re-worked “Pirates of Penzance” and staged a new show “Bubble McBea”; a playful musical adventure for primary school children inspired by the Scottish mythical creature Selkie and the dangers of water pollution. We visited many primary schools around Glasgow and held family friendly performances in Glasgow and Kirkcudbright. It was special to bring the magic of live performance to children again. I especially enjoyed performing to an audience of children at one school, who all watched through handmade flamboyant opera masks on lollypop sticks. Link To Blog Post
Shortly after the Pop-Up Opera tour finished, I was able to pinch a few days of rest-bite with George in London. I really enjoyed watching “Romeo and Juliet” together at the Globe Theatre. A few days later, I began rehearsals for “The Magic Flute” with Arcadian Opera in Buckinghamshire. I sang the role of Pamina and shared the stage with friends old and new.
In November I returned home, and happily acted as a cheerleader for George as he performed solo piano recitals. We then presented our first concert as a married couple in Torrington, Devon. It felt electric to share the stage together and I loved every minute. Whilst in North Devon, we attended a local high school to perform and speak to their young students about classical music and the life of a professional musician. We also gave a masterclass to a cohort of older students, who had taken Music GCSE, in this group we focused on performance techniques and ensemble skills to help aid their upcoming examinations.
In December, I worked with Improbable on their production of “BambinO at Home”, a digital adaptation of their opera, which was created for babies aged 6-18 months and their Carers. I returned to the role of Uccellina and sang alongside a great team of musicians and artists. As well as singing, I was invited to manage the audience development and social media marketing for the project. This was a new role for me, and I enjoyed applying the knowledge I have gained from running my own social media accounts and blog. It was also a great opportunity to apply the sales skills I learnt through telesales training, but in a different way.
I hope that you can look back on this past year and find memories and landmarks that make you look back in fondness or look forward to what the new year may have in store.
Such a wonderful year you’ve had, Charlotte! Your wedding photos are so beautiful, I wish you and your husband a wonderful and prosperous 2022! ❤️🇬🇧
Thank you very much John.
Best wishes
Charlotte
2021 showed how well you do under pressure… I sincerely wish you two another year of happiness and resilience.
https://pacificparatrooper.files.wordpress.com/2021/12/new-year-now.gif
Thank you GP 😊. Your little gif made me smile.
Happy New Year, best wishes
Charlotte
Happy New Year, Charlotte.
Happy New Year 🥳
Best wishes always,
Charlotte
Such an honor to be able to share this retrospective of happiness with you. Charlotte, you are an inspiration; more than you will ever know. GO YOU!! Here’s to an ever deepening love between you and your beloved. God Bless.
Your little book travels everywhere with me Annette a pocket book reminder to keep on going.
Happy New Year and god bless to you,
Charlotte
What a year. Thanks for the recap. Happy New Year to you, George and your family.
Thank you John, Happy New Year
Best wishes
Charlotte x
Congratulations on your marriage and continued career success. Best wishes for the new year.
Thank you Joe, I appreciate your lovely message.
Happy New Year,
Charlotte
It’s been a pleasure to follow your adventures. What a beautiful. Bride and couple you make. I’m looking forward to more post from you. Have a great new year, lots of love and best wishes to you and George.
Thank you Mart, I thought of you the other day when I passed some classic cars. The weather is so mild I’d guess they’re enjoying some trips before the promised snow arrives. Happy New Year to you.
Best wishes
Charlotte
A great year you have. Happy New Year and great coming year to come for you both!
Thank you very much.
Happy New Year
Best wishes
Charlotte x
You followed a great six month in 21 with six months even greater!!!!
Of course the crown was your marrage to George. He is a very fortunate man.
May your ‘show business marriage’ lasts at least as long as our 60+ year ‘show business marriage’.
What a lovely wish for me Don I know how much you value your family and your wonderful long and happy marriage. I wish you many more.
Happy New Year.
Best wishes
Charlotte x
Happy New Year 2022 And Best Wishes To You!
So wonderful, Charlotte! Happy New Year to you and George and your families!
Thank you Karen, Happy New Year.
Charlotte xx
I adored the pictures of your wedding, and I love that you had a woman minister! Bravo!
You and George both looked gorgeous! Wishing you every happiness and magical musical moments throughout the good and lean years, too.
Love will keep you together, but laughter will make it more fun.
We’d had to change our plans four times so it was a relief that August was left open to have the wedding. People were a little nervous as we had been locked out of indoor events for such a long time but the hotel had a large ballroom and spaced the tables out well with only one covid case occurring a week after the wedding so I’d guess that was caught elsewhere as none of the other guests were affected thank goodness but it was always in the back of my mind as some of our elderly friends didn’t feel confident to come.
That is so true we do often laugh usually at something stupid I’ve said without even trying to be funny 😆.
Best wishes
Charlotte
Good morning my dear friend hoather and wish you happy new year
Good Day my dear friend Amritpal, I wish you a very happy new year in return.
Best wishes
Charlotte
Wow! Wish you a happy new year and may the coming days bring you all the good things in bulk! Have a blessed and blissful year ahead 🙂
Thank you very much for your message and blessings. I wish you a happy new year in return Sowjanya.
Best wishes
Charlotte
The wedding photos are just beautiful! Amazing talent! Always a pleasure to see what you and George have been up to. Happy 2022, Charlotte!
Thank you as always, we have started the year working on our opera project together and our duo material as we have a competition together coming up in February. Competitions are a little like roulette though, you feel you have done well and get knocked out and other times you wish you’d done something better and you get through. Often it is the only way to be seen fortunately, I have been doing festivals from an early age so try not to take things to heart.
Best wishes for a happy new year.
Charlotte
Congratulations on all you have accomplished in 2021. Lovely wedding photos, also. I have fond memories of HMS Pinafore. I was in a university performance of it…many years ago…as Dick Deadeye.
Thank you John. I was surprised just how many audience members knew the songs and told me they’d performed it at school or university, G&S wasn’t performed at my school I would have loved it but I have had the opportunity now to experience four different operettas.
Best wishes for a happy new year
Charlotte
Quite the year (or half-year), and I love the photos. Best wishes for an even better next year!
Thank you, keeping my fingers crossed Donnalee.
I wish you a happy new year too,
Best wishes
Charlotte
Happy New Year, Charlotte, to you and George! 🥳 Judging by the photos your wedding day was indeed magical 🧚
Thank you Elisabeth, the people there made the event so special, we had a lovely day and many happy memories of it.
Best wishes to you for a happy new year.
Charlotte 😊
Congratulations on your marriage! You and your husband looked lovely on the day, and your mom did an amazing job on the decorations. Wishing you both a lifetime of happiness!
Thank you very much, lovely to hear from you, wishing you a very Happy New Year 🥳
Best wishes
Charlotte.
You had a great year…. in a half a year.
You did more than many did in 2 years.
Admittedly, I choked up big time, when I read about your wedding and saw the pics.
I still have a ball in my throat, and some wt stuff in my eyes.
Your mom’s decorations are like my Art Gowns! Recycle, re-purpose, reclaim, up-cycle …. anything but throw it away.
I love that you and George perform together. The sky is the limit!
Happy New Year, dear Charlotte!
Thank you for your lovely message, Resa. I am only just catching up with my e-mails and blog after taking a whole week off over Christmas to recharge my batteries. I wish you could have come over the wedding you would have loved the flower displays my Mum put together on a small budget. She visited the hotel ballroom and the orange in the carpet was so strong a colour she persuaded me to design the whole theme based around the orange spectrum. I must send you a photo of the bridesmaids. Happy New Year my friend.
Happy New Year!
Would love to see the Bridesmaids!!!!
Great photos, Charlotte. Happy New Year to you and yours.
Happy New Year Charlotte and thank you for sharing such an uplifting and pictorial post. Congratulations to the happy couple 🎉 There is so much detail in this post which is worthy of response but it woul take me too long – brilliant! Hope 2022 as good 💖 Thank you for visiting my blog.
Beautiful journey. Congratulations! 🙂
Congrats Charlotte! They were lovely pics and such a beautiful wedding… both you and George looked radiant. All the very best to you both as you share your lives together.
Charlotte.
It has been brilliant this year,following your adventures you have had.
Your amazing wedding was beautiful.the photo’s were fabulous.
Good luck to you both with everything you do.Continued success too Congratulations.😘😘
Congratulations on all your accomplishments, Charlotte! The wedding photos are beautiful. Wishing you and George continuing success in 2022. ❤️❤️
You both did so well to rescue your careers from the chaos of Covid, and the crowning glory in this post is those fabulous wedding photos, and also, our first peek at George’s parents (I’m assuming). I wish you many happy years together.
Oh so wonderful to see your wedding photos! Your mum, dad and brothers sound amazing and I can believe that they made it a magical day. What a year and so brilliant that you both managed to perform and teach and share as well. (I am several hundred emails in arrears at the moment).
Gorgeous wedding photos, Charlotte and George! I hope that 2022 brings more opportunities for you both to perform and that your marriage just gets better and better! xx