CHOIR UPDATES
Each year, EXTRA INFORMATION & UPDATES for the choir in the run-up to, during and after the festival appear here between the time when singers enrol and the end of the festival!
….. (and please check in here often for updates)
** NEW ITEMS to follow BELOW re the dress code, timetable, your accommodation and meals, musical scores and editions plus WATER, DINNERS, SCHEDULES & WINE + INFO re all questions for our choir singers this summer**
2025
This is where choir singers can find updates and extra information for your participation in the
2025 SUMMER FESTIVAL CHOIR!
The key items of COSTS for choir singers (in GB pounds) in 2025 are:
- membership (£30 per year)
- Choir participation £420 per singer (not charged to accompaying partners etc. Children are free!) Special much-reduced fee for choir-singers who are aged 26 or under – on application: contact us.
- Food: breakfast and lunch are self catering wherever you stay (or local restaurants, pizza, cafe, bar etc.)
- Dinner : we provide an optional evening meal with unlimited wine each evening during the choir week: communal out of doors or under a big tent with other singers, soloists, players and team, usually after any evening concert- there is a concert most evenings through only 2 involve performances by the choir (or 3 if optionally also singing a cappella programme in addition to the major choral work) £225 for 6 of the 7 evenings with one evening off (or £40 each)
- Accommodation (unfortunately this is the MOST complicated thing that we try to arrange and is in short supply): varies according to what you want (we rent a variety of houses and apartments for one or 2 weeks of the festival. We book these each year and these are shared/ allocated among choir, players and team. Some have pools, houses range from 20 occupants down to one or two. We do not seek to make a profit on this part of the operation, just to cover our costs. You are welcome to find your own accommodation (or there is a local camp-site) but hotel rooms barely exist in the area, especially in the high season. Costs are unavoidably higher (usually double per person) for single-occupancy. We have rooms with shower/ bath + kitchen, living room patio space in apartment with just one or 2 beds, suites with doubles and twins in houses for 6-8 people. Some have pools – and our people can have access to pools in other houses in and around Seillans we rent if none where they stay). The best places go to earliest bookers, of course. We ask for initial deposits and staged or final payments later. Accommodation costs can range from £250 per person (double occupancy) to £ £500-1000 (single occupancy) for the week. We ask you what you want on the enrolment form and follow on phone and by email and WhatsApp (there is also a choir WhatsApp group for contact others). We try our best to allocate and match according to your requests/priorities but democracy and supply and demand can be challenging!
- Travel depends on what you want and when you book. You can arrive by train, Eurostar from London St Pancras, SNCF: /2 price levels (arrive St Raphael or Draguignan Les Arcs travel e.g. via Paris or Lille and Marseille, car or plane (Nice airport). We try to help with lifts/ car-shares to/ from station or airport. Taxis to/from Seillans (booked in advance through us) are about £100 per person or less if a full car is arranged. More expensive if booked at the airport. There are also very cheap buses to Seillans from Nice airport, Canne or St Raphael at the right times of day. You can rent cheaper local car-hire through Super-U in Fayence. Otherwise all the big and small rental operators can be advance booked online and found at arrival airports and stations.
- Music: please buy your copies in advance; we do not usually supply them for the major works but may do so for smaller a cappella works.
- Phones; remember to buy European roaming deals from your phone operator before you arrive in France. Mose accommodation has Wi-Fi and there are good 5g local services
- EXCHANGE RATES: we invoice in GB pounds and convert these to Euros, depending on your preference or location. All prices are based on the GBP sterling price that we set. Depending on how you pay, the euro price varies with live rates linked to our online Transferwise /Wise multi-currency account if you pay (as we prefer) by online bank transfers/virements or by direct debit. If you pay by card or PayPal, we typically receive funds several days later after deduction of a %age processor fee and the sum may vary according to your card-processor or PayPal rate. We reserve the right (but rarely exercise it) to change you for any processor costs or delays.
Please let me know if you have any questions: Jonathan (jo******@**************le.com)
MORE UPDATES will follow here or via the WhatsApp choir group over the coming months and days before the festival and thereafter once you arrive in Seillans…
2024 info (last year) – some applicable in 2025 too!
The 2024 festival starts with orchestra and a few soloists arriving on or before 28 JULY. Most choir members are not expected until 4 AUGUST 2024 though, if you are nearby, do please come and enjoy some of the early concerts and events. (Let us know if you would like to come early and we maybe can help with accommodation and meals before your booked arrival dates). We did stage a little introductory concert in Seillans for local people and Easter visitors – to share the provisional programme and to give them a taste of what is to come. See the other pages on this site for some slight changes to the concert schedule.
BUS (and cars – thank you) depart Salle Polyvalente car park for Menton at 09:45 on 8 August
updated to 8 August 2024
Eurostar and TGV terrorism – an apology
Courtesy of Olympic saboteurs, we had to rebook all the train and Eurostar arrivals today onto scarce planes. And now hope to have enough for viable performances and rehearsals THIS week by the morning. ( welcoming them this afternoon and late into the night…..) Very stressful and expensive!
So the CHOIR is slightly lower down our “urgent” priority list. But we obviously won’t forget and will provide essential info ASAP! Thanks for your understanding! Jonathan
DRESS CODE for concerts, choir & orchestra
Red, white or blue tops, shirts or dresses (primary colours only – as in French flag – NOT turquoise, mauve or orange or magenta!) Black or white trousers or skirts. NO black tops except conductor. No shorts for performers in concerts please.
Accommodation, arrival information etc.
We will be writing to everyone who has booked accommodation, providing details, addresses, arrival & parking info etc. Following final (multiple) re-revised allocations (always one of the MOST complex and daunting tasks that faces us), we are less than half way through this process so far. Please be patient; we will reach all of you by email.
Concert Tickets
Please book tickets – ON LINE before 3PM on the day of the concert – for all evening concerts you or your friends want to attend as audience. Choose choir tickets (free) or buy standard (or gallery or premium) tickets for friends or non-singing partners or for yourselves for any concerts before 4 August: please order tickets online for all evening concerts that you want to attend. We need you to book tickets, including free choir ones, to control audience numbers. We encourage choir members to hold back and allow paying audience members priority for standard seating. (You do not need to pay for any concert tickets for any singing participant for the “choir week, viz 4 – 10 August). Lunchtime-concerts are FREE-entry with no tickets. (NOTE: when booking free tickets for choir-singers (or others for non-singers), please note that you will be in Menton on 8 August for the concert + dinner afterwards and coach back to Seillans. So you can’t also go to the Eau de Chansons concert that evening (but you can go on 7 Aug – same programme).
Rehearsal schedule – (provisional – may change!)
| Day | Time | Detail | Location | Music Staff | Evening Meal |
| Sunday 4th | Salle Polyvalante car park tent (7pm) | ||||
| Monday 5th | AM (9-12) | Verdi Requiem | Salle Polyvalente | GR, RT, AC, MS | |
| PM (2-5) | Verdi Requiem | Salle Polyvalente | GR, MS | Salle Polyvalante car park tent (9.30pm) | |
| Tuesday 6th | AM (11-2) | Verdi Requiem | Salle Polyvalente | GR, RT, AC, MS | |
| PM (3-6) | Optional Vocal Sessions | Salle Polyvalente | AC, RT | Fayance, Theatre de Verdure (7pm) | |
| Wednesday 7th | AM (9-12) | Verdi Requiem | Salle Polyvalente | GR, RT | |
| PM (2-5) | Verdi Requiem possible extra session | Salle Polyvalente | GR, RT | No evening meal | |
| Thursday 8th | AM | 10 am departure | Salle Polyvalente | ||
| PM (1-4) | répétition finale | Menton | |||
| Evening (6-8PM) | VERDI 1 CONCERT (no interval) | Menton | Menton (8pm) | ||
| Friday 9th | AM | Free | |||
| PM | Free | Salle Polyvalante car park tent (9.30pm) | |||
| Saturday 10th | AM | Free | |||
| PM (5-6) | Sound Check only | Seillans Church | Salle Polyvalante car park tent (9.30pm) | ||
| Evening (7-9) | VERDI 2 CONCERT | Seillans Church |
Dinners
There will be dinners (evenings only) for choir members from 4 August to 10 August (EXCEPT Wed 7 Aug when you can make your own/go out or bring a picnic to the jazz concert) for everyone who have purchased the ‘forfait/6-day meal deal’ when you enrolled or for individual dinners if you book – and pay – by the morning. (We do not provide lunch or breakfast on any day).
ARRIVAL: We will be meeting trains and planes that WE have booked for musicians, singers or team and will do our best to arrange to meet and pick you up on arrival at airports or train stations too if we are informed and consulted (though mostly we will have to CHARGE YOU the costs of shared taxi or buses we arrange for this). But, when booking travel to France, please try to coordinate with others to arrive at adjacent times. (all this info will be here on the CHOIR UPDATES page on the site and in emails to you closer to the time).
Several of you have said you would like to arrive before 4 August (not least so as to experience our opera performances in the previous few days). We will TRY to arrange you accommodation for extra days if you let us know ASAP!
- and note that it will doubtless be HOT again this summer in the Var, will little sign of much cooling during the festival though Seillans has seen some rain in recent months – unlike the previous couple of years.
- Our evening concerts are mostly back to earlier times by popular request this year (ditto dinners) – to allow more relaxed and convivial dinners together. But outdoor concerts will again be later in the evening.
- Brits rarely remember to keep shutters shut in daytime, get up early, take siestas, stay poolside (but sun-protected), generally arrive early and slow down …. and sing soto voce, except as directed! Water instead of wine … ??
- Things to bring: INCLUDE music, sunglasses, swimming towels, sun hats and cream, pencils, mobile phones, your insurance documents…