New Opera North Season
at Newcastle’s Theatre Royal
Award
winning company Opera North has announced its new 2014/15 seasons at the
Theatre Royal, and featuring works from each of the last four
centuries in a combination of revivals and new stagings, offers the perfect
balance of the comic and the serious.
Prepare to be swept away 11 – 15 November ‘14 & 3 – 7 March ‘15.
The
season opens with a revival of Daniel
Slater’s hugely successful 1998 production of Smetana’s The Bartered Bride (11
& 13 November), the ultimate feel-good opera - being energetic,
comic and colourful.
Next up is Opera North’s first new production since
1999 of one of the most universally popular operas - Verdi’s La Traviata (12 & 14 Nov ‘14, 4 & 6 March ’15). A highly emotional story, showing the strength
of unconditional love through compassion and self-sacrifice, it features
exceptionally powerful music that carries the audience up and down through the
scandal, joy, and despair of the desperate tale. Alfredo Germont, a young nobleman falls in love with
Violetta, a courtesan fighting tuberculosis. The pair live together in the countryside
unmarried.
When Alfredo is away, his father, Germont, begs Violetta to leave his son, as
she is bringing disgrace to the family. Despite her love, she agrees and returns to her old life in Paris. When Germont realises he has
made a mistake, he knows he must make amends for the sake of his son, but as
Violetta’s health deteriorates, is there time? South
Korean soprano Hye-Youn Lee makes her role debut as Violetta in her first
appearance for Opera North. Hotly tipped as a rising operatic star, previous UK roles include Cio-Cio San for Scottish Opera, and
Lisette La Rondine for Opera Holland Park.
A new
production of Monteverdi’s last opera The Coronation of Poppea will be performed on one night only, 15 November ‘14. Never before staged by Opera North, this is one of the earliest and greatest of operas, and a
brand new English translation by Tim Albery whose most recent new
productions for the Company have included Otello
(2013) and Giulio Cesare (2012). Based loosely on actual events in 1st-century AD Rome, The Coronation of Poppea charts the consuming erotic obsession
of the Emperor Nero for the beautiful Poppea. Ruthlessly sweeping aside
anyone who stands in the way of their union – including Nero’s wife Octavia and
the poet and philosopher Seneca – Nero and Poppea triumph over all their opponents
and rejoice in one of the most sexually-charged love duets ever written. The
amorality of this masterpiece ensures that it remains one of the most shocking
and compelling of operas. The cast of
superb singer-actors is led by the American soprano Sandra Piques Eddy (Poppea)
and the British counter-tenor James Laing (Nerone). The conductor is
Laurence Cummings, one of Britain’s most exciting and versatile
exponents of historically-informed performance.
The Spring welcomes a new production of Mozart’s effervescent comedy The
Marriage of Figaro (5 & 7 March).
Opera North's first new production of the
famous opera since 2006 is directed by Jo Davies, who returns to the Company
following highly acclaimed productions of Ruddigore and Carousel, to direct a
cast of versatile singer-actors. It’s Figaro’s wedding day, and to add to the
usual worries, Figaro learns that his philandering master, the Count, is out to
bed his bride-to-be Susanna. Bursting with music evoking all the joy and pain
of love and desire, it is timeless and sublime. Richard Burkhard, a familiar
figure to Opera North audiences, sings Figaro, following his Sir Despard
Murgatroyd in Ruddigore (2010/11). Other recent roles include Papageno The
Magic Flute for Scottish Opera, and Marcello La Bohème and Garibaldo Rodelinda
for ENO. Norwegian soprano Silvia Moi
makes her Company debut as Susanna, a role she has previously sung in Malmö and
at the Komische Oper Berlin. She was Papagena in Kenneth Branagh’s film version
of The Magic Flute.
And
finally, a revival of Falla’s La Vida Breve will be staged on Tuesday 3
March in a double bill with a new production of Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi.
Originally staged as one of Opera North’s groundbreaking ‘Eight Little Greats’
season of one-act operas in 2004, Christopher Alden’s ferocious take on de
Falla’s short exuberant opera was an instant hit with critics and audiences. Telling
the tragic story of a woman too much in love with a worthless man, it is
intense and brutal, and full of highly atmospheric Andalusian folk song
inspired music. The perfect antidote to
the doom ridden La Vida Breve, Gianni Schicchi is a light hearted
satyr play played out around the death-bed of a rich man. A comic masterpiece
in miniature, it includes some of Puccini’s most delightful music including the
exquisite aria ‘O mio babbino caro’. Jac van Steen conducts both La Vida
Breve and Gianni Schicchi, returning to Opera North following Peter
Grimes (2013) and several guest conductor appearances with the Orchestra of
Opera North on the concert stage. Both pieces are directed by Christopher Alden, whose most recent
work at Opera North includes Norma (2012) and Tosca (2008).
Richard
Mantle, General Director of Opera North said: “Opera North's new 2014/15 Season
exemplifies the broad range of work which has come to define the Company, and
continues the spirit of bold and varied artistic programming which attracts
audiences of all ages and tastes to engage with our work across the North of
England and beyond.”
On the Web:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Opera_North
Tickets:
The
new Opera North Season appears at
Newcastle Theatre Royal from Tue 11 – Sat 15 Nov 2014 and Tue 3 – Sat 7 Mar 2015 (all performances at 7pm).
Tickets
are from £16.50 (a booking fee of 95p - £1.95 will apply to most tickets) and
can be purchased from the Theatre Royal Box Office on 08448 11 21 21 or select
your own seat and book online at www.theatreroyal.co.uk
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