I have attended Lamplighter productions since the 1970s, been a subscriber for 30 years, and was on the Board of Trustees for ten years. In all these years, this was the VERY BEST Pirates of Penzance!
Your musical direction and conducting were superb! You had so much energy and imparted it to the orchestra.
The cast and costumes were also splendid. Gilbert & Sullivan would be so proud. Many thanks for your superb music direction.

[Personal Letter addressed to David Drummond after attending UCO - Ruslan & Ludmila]
“Dear David Drummond, I want to tell you how enormously we enjoyed the evening.  There were many wonderful musical aspects to it, lots of fine performances and a production which was a model of ingenuity and always interesting to watch.  Many congratulations.”

[Personal Letter]
“My dear David, I just wanted to say how much we enjoyed Hulda the other day. 
It really is a masterpiece, at least it certainly seemed so under your marvellous direction and after all the painstaking work you did to bring the whole piece to the public and with the original orchestration!
Bravo to you and congratulations to all the artists, both professional and amateur.
Yours ever, Charles Mackerras.”

“I just want to thank you for an excellent musical experience seeing you conduct at the ENO! We liked the performance very much - and it was nice to see you in this huge opera house.”

[Addressed to the Choir:]
“I would like you all to know what I said to David after your stupendous performance of Elijah on Thursday last. 
I am something of an Elijah devotee and  it was by far and away the best performance I have ever heard. What made it so amazing was that you didn't just "perform" it- you "lived" it and we felt that too- ( I was reduced to tears at several moments!)
 I "caught" (Sir) Thomas Allen on several occasions reacting to the huge wall of sound behind him  - he was obviously completely overcome.

I felt incredibly proud to be in the Barbican Hall last Thursday night to hear that outstanding performance of Elijah. Since leaving the choir I've been to quite a few Oriana concerts, but this was in a different league. Obviously the presence of Sir Thomas Allen had spurred on the choir to new heights of perfection, and it was an awesome experience.

My two friends, who've also been to plenty of Oriana concerts before, described it as 'stunning' and 'absolutely superb', and agreed that you'd all surpassed yourselves.

It's been a great privilege to work with you and the orchestra and cast on this epic opera. If anyone was going to be able to make it work, it was you!
I already knew you are exceptional at using limited rehearsal time strategically and your thorough knowledge of the score helped us out of a pickle numerous times. I wish we could have had the benefit of more rehearsals to really take full advantage of your knowledge and all the score has to offer yet you still managed to get musical themes and dynamics across.
Your expert direction has been pivotal to pulling off the seemingly impossible mandate of performing this with only four rehearsals, last minute changes in orchestra personnel, and limited acoustics and space. Bravo!

[Personal Letter after concert]
“Having come down from cloud nine after last night's concert in Greenwich may I pass on my congratulations, and those from our group that attended, on such a thought-provoking and enjoyable evenings entertainment.
I understand that it was originally your idea to perform the concert for Amnesty International. A very bold step and one which should be acknowledged.

Talking to Choir members and audience alike the highlight was MacMillan's "Cantos Sagrados".
I had been warned that the piece was evocative but even this did not prepare me mentally or emotionally for the sheer impact of hearing it sung with such feeling by the Choir. It left me speechless.”

I came to see The Jewels of the Madonna yesterday evening and am writing to say just how extremely impressed I was.
Everyone concerned performed marvellously, and it was an outstandingly intense and compelling performance, both dramatically and musically.

The real triumph, however, in my view was yours. Already last year I had been extremely impressed, nay amazed, by the standard of the musicianship you had got from everyone in Mazeppa, but this was even better.
I have never heard the UCL Opera chorus sing so well and with such different shades and tones in different places, and the orchestra was almost always a delight to hear. All in all, it was a wonderful experience and you are to be heartedly congratulated. I cannot imagine to what greater heights you will take UCL Opera now, but on past evidence, even this year's triumph is likely to be surpassed.