Formerly
I founded Felici Opera in 2015 with the inspirational musician and wonderful person, Margaret Johnson, and was the company's Creative Director from the onset until the curtain went down on our adventure in Spring 2025.
You will spot fellow performers from Felici Opera at my Zoe Jasko Productions at my events and I look forward to introducing you to knew artists.
Crispin Lewis (baritone) is a singer and conductor. His new solo commercial album of premiere recordings of the songs of Herbert Murrill, a former code-breaker at Bletchley Park has just been released by First Hand Records. Last year he gave a lecture/recital at Bletchley Park about Murrill and the musical activities of the workers at Bletchley. He has directed his own vocal ensembles many times at Wigmore Hall, in BBC Radio 3 broadcasts, and at St John’s Smith Square, Kings Place Hall One, Royal Opera House, Linbury Theatre, and at the South Bank Centre. Crispin studied violin at the Royal College of Music (postgraduate) and at Trinity Laban Conservatoire (undergraduate), before going on to study conducting and singing. He has performed very many opera roles, gives solo recitals regularly and is the soloist for many choral and orchestral societies. Crispin is also the founder and musical director of Choritalia, a singing course in Tuscan.
Helen Shabetai (piano) read music at Oxford, where she was Organ Scholar at Lady Margaret Hall. Now based in Welwyn Garden City, Helen teaches piano both at St Alban’s High School and privately, and is in demand as a piano accompanist. She particularly enjoys playing lieder, and recitals at the WGC Quaker Meeting House have included performing Schubert’s Schwanengesang and Vaughan Williams’ Songs of Travel with James Gower, Schumann’s Dichterliebe with Richard Perry, and Vaughan Williams’ On Wenlock Edge with Mark McConnell. She also works with music teachers on their pupils’ recitals and exams, and accompanies competitions, music courses and local choral societies. Helen runs the Friends at the Music House programme of charity concerts in Welwyn Garden City and is a key member of the Welwyn Garden City Concert Club committee which has brought chamber music to the town for over 80 years.
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Carola Emrich-Fisher (mezzo-soprano) has been praised for her “creamy tone” (Boston Classical Review) and “mahogany timbre and supple translucence” (Boston Musical Intelligencer). Her versatile career on both opera and concert stage has led her to perform extensively in the US (before relocating to London), the UK and Europe, and her performances have been described as “particularly moving” (Boston Musical Intelligencer). Operatic roles include Carmen (Carmen), Siebel (Faust) with Brent Opera, Phèdre (Hippolyte et Aricie) with Linden Baroque, Cherubino (Le Nozze di Figaro), Annio (La Clemenza di Tito), Dido and Sorceress (Dido and Aeneas), Third Lady, (Die Zauberflöte). She has appeared as Alto soloist in J.S. Bach Cantata BWV77, Herbert Howells’ Requiem, with Cantata Singers and Libella Quartet. Other solo engagements include Handel’s Messiah, as well as And the Trains Kept Coming by acclaimed composer Lior Navok, under the direction of David Hoose. Carola has also appeared under Sir Roger Norrington at the BBC Proms as ensemble member of Handel and Haydn Society and has toured Poland with Boston Baroque. Her solo performances have been broadcast on US radio stations WERS 88.9 FM, WCRI 95.9 FM and WGBH 99.5 FM. She can be heard in solo roles on the Newport Baroque recording of Dido and Aeneas, as well as Cantata Singers’ recording Divining the Incandescent. For more see www.carolaemrichfisher.co.uk
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Jessica Wiley (coloratura Soprano) started taking singing lessons whilst at school and soon joined the National Youth Choir of Great Britain. She has sung in choral performances across the UK and Europe and recorded the popular Millenium Mass for Peace by Karl Jenkins. Jessica studied music at Royal Holloway University, focusing on vocal performance alongside a choral scholarship. She was a regular soloist for oratorio and opera performances and lunchtime recitals. Following university, Jessica was a member of the Chorus of the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, whilst working for ABRSM. She enjoys Leider and French Song but especially loves opera, particularly when there are lots of fast, high notes. She was delighted to sing the role of Barbarina with Felici Opera in "The Marriage of Figaro"and of Adele in Felici's interpretation of "Die Fledermaus" (A Night in Vienna - Gala! March 2018). Jessica is a sought after singing teacher.
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Robert Little (tenor) Having studied singing at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama and then, with former Royal Opera principal tenor, Edgar Evans, who was teaching at the Royal College of Music, Robert has sung principal tenor roles with many companies, performing around the country - most recently, with St Albans Chamber Opera, Felici Opera and Hitchin Thespians. He was also engaged as a vocal coach by the Putteridge Bury G&S Society for their
production of Gilbert and Sullivan’s ‘Ruddigore’. Although specialising in the ‘classical and romantic’ repertoire, Robert has also recorded some contemporary ballads written by the Phil Green/Clive Shepherd songwriting partnership. Robert’s extensive G&S repertoire, in productions and concerts, covers all but a few of the tenor roles. His most frequently-performed roles are Marco (The Gondoliers), Colonel Fairfax (The Yeomen of the Guard), Lord Tolloller (Iolanthe), Cox (Cox and Box), Hilarion (Princess Ida) and Alexis Pointdextre (The Sorcerer). For those who like statistics, Robert’s singing career to date - as a soloist - has included some 50 separate opera productions and around 400 concerts, including a few radio and television appearances. When not singing or providing vocal coaching, Robert is awriter, author and speaker.