Ali Marshall initially trained at Tring Park School for the Performing Arts and later at the Royal Academy of Dance, subsequently gaining a contract with a ballet company in Germany. Working in a theatre with its own resident ballet, theatre and opera companies Ali discovered a love of opera, sometimes singing with the extra opera chorus on her nights off.
After a back injury forced retirement Ali returned to England and, while taking a postgraduate business degree, and later a degree in History of Art and Heritage Management, she returned to singing part time. After getting married to a vet and moving to Buckinghamshire Ali sang principal roles in a variety of genres with several local companies and was a founder member of the Stowe Opera chorus.
Over the past twenty years Ali has enjoyed directing productions on a wide variety of pieces, including several of the Gilbert and Sullivan canon. However, her greatest love is still remains opera, which she enjoys both designing and directing. She has designed and directed Gounod’s Romeo and Juliet, Smetana’s Bartered Bride and a dynamic production of her own translation of Offenbach’s Orpheus in the Underworld for Opera at Bearwood. For Aylesbury Opera she directed and designed both Verdi’s Macbeth and Otello, Weber’s Der Freischutz, Bellini’s Norma and Saint-Saëns Samson et Delilah. Since founding Arcadian Opera with her sometime singing teacher Justin Lavender, Ali has directed Puccini’s La Bohème; Donizetti’s Elixir of Love; Gounod’s Romeo and Juliet, Mozart’s The Magic Flute and Don Giovanni and Gounod’s Faust. Future plans include a production of Bizet’s Carmen for Arcadian Opera and the world premiere of The Stone God, an Anglo/Chino collaboration of Nicholas Smith’s new opera based on Chinese children’s fantasy novel which is to be performed in the Bloomsbury Theatre London in 2024.
In addition to her theatre work Ali has recently sold her cultural tour company organising and managing tours around the art galleries and palaces of Europe and the UK. She also studied for a Master’s degree in medieval graffiti and apotropaic symbols.