Norse myth may draw children to opera (From Darlington and Stockton Times)

Norse myth may draw children to opera

10:23am Friday 3rd July 2009

• Print
• Email
• Share

A WORLD premiere, designed to introduce children to opera, four new productions and three revivals are promised for the coming Opera North season.

The emphasis is on opera, rather than the lighter music theatre fare of the past year that saw Gershwin resurrections, Shostakovich and Sawyer’s Skin Deep, writes Dave Robson.

A collaboration with Scottish Opera will bring about the first production outside London of Janacek’s marvellous The Excursions of Mr Broucek.

The season starts on September 11 with Tim Albery’s production of Mozart’s ever-popular Cosi fan Tutte, followed by a new production of Massenet’s Werther, launched on September 26, under the direction of Richard Farnes and with mezzo-soprano Alice Coote singing Charlotte to Paul Nilon’s Werther. It will be sung in French with English titles.

This is followed on October 10 by the opening of The Excursions of Mr Broucek, last seen in the UK in the 1980s. It is, in fact, two amusing fantasy excursions in which the eponymous hero travels back to the 15th century and, in the second part, to the moon.

Martin Andre will conduct the Opera North performances; sung in English.

The winter season sees the revival of the Phillida Lloyd 1993 production of Puccini’s La Boheme, starting on January 15, conducted by Richard Farnes and sung in Italian with English titles.

Swanhunter, by the composer Jonathan Dove and librettist Alasdair Middleton, will receive its world premiere on November 13 in the newlyopened Howard Assembly Rooms adjoining the Grand Theatre in Leeds.

The aim is to offer young people the chance to hear and be involved in opera., with a magical story based on Norse mythology, involving a talking swan and a menacing hat.

The running time is one hour and 15 minutes, and after six performances in Leeds, there are ten on a tour to smaller venues as far afield as Hexham, Thoresby, Bridlington, Berwick and Salford.

A new production of Gilbert and Sullivan’s witty Victorian burlesque/melodrama Ruddigore should lighten things up in the new year. It starts on January 30.

Giselle Allen takes the title role in the revival of the Olivia Fuch 2003 production of Dvorak’s Rusalka, opening on May 22, while the brilliant internationally famous mezzo soprano, Sarah Connolly, who spent her early years in Darlington, returns to the Opera North stage to further explore the art of bel canto in the role of Mary Queen of Scots in Donizetti’s Maria Stuarda from June 4.

This is sung in Italian with English titles.

For full details, log on to www.operanorth.co.uk

• Print
• Email
• Share