Opera

Preview Puccini's Madama Butterfly, Leeds Grand Theatre

Gauche geezer gets geisher, then gives her grief

Tim Albery’s Madama Butterfly is brought forward in time to the 1950s, presumably to evoke a backdrop of that decade’s fresh wave of American imperialism in the Far East, though the production’s specific target is the seedy exploitation of child-brides, however well-mannered and formalised, rather than a more generalised cultural domineering by a colonial superpower.

Butterfly is the unfortunate casualty of a ritualised sex-trade, not a theatre of war and occupation. The production begins and ends with a silent portrayal of the brutal, desensitised underworld of a bordello’s backroom, a stark contrast to the emotional musical rollercoaster that is the…

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Preview Opera North present Bellini's Norma, Leeds Grand Theatre

Boy Meets Gaul from the Fresh Prince of Bel Canto

Norma was written in just a few weeks, following the publication of Louis-Alexandre Soumet’s tragedy in 1831, and represents librettist Felice Romani, composer Vincenzo Bellini and soprano Giuditta Pasta, for whom the title role was created, at the height of their powers.

In an age when the diva reigned supreme, Pasta’s involvement is highly significant. We have all heard of the time when, knowing full-well their box office appeal and unchallenged in their influence, a leading singer could demand from a composer changes not only to the number and range of notes they were to deliver, but even the orchestral…

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Preview Handel's Giulio Cesare

Infamy … infamy … Salad days for Caesar in Egypt and a Carry On with Cleo

Handel wrote about 15 Italian operas for London in the 1720s, which earned him a fortune, and another 15 or so in the 1730s, which lost him the same. How he could have misread the musical fashion so badly is not a subject for this article, except perhaps to note in passing, with the season of Messiah just behind us, that Handel’s operatic failures prompted his successful creation of the oratorio.

Giulio Cesare in Egitto, was written in 1724 and was sensation enough to have three further seasons of revivals in the composer’s lifetime. Significantly, in England, it was the…

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Review Das Rheingold

Opera North perform Wagner's great work at Leeds Town Hall

On Friday 01 July, Opera North offered another performance of Richard Wagner’s immense work Das Rheingold at theLeeds Town Hall.

At half past seven the house lights went out. Then, with a rise of Richard Farnes’ conductor’s baton, the first few notes started to sound out. And as they boomed and rolled around the hall it was as though, for just a moment, the river Rhine itself was flowing through our Yorkshire city. In fact, you might even say that its springs were here and that it flowed from Leeds to the rest of the UK: this excellent…

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Review Weinberg: The Portrait

An artist gives a life for his 15 minutes in this Opera North performance at the Grand Theatre

It is impossible, yet, to tell for how long Keighley-born Paul Nilon’s operatic career will last. Such things remain the preserve of fortune’s fickle finger, but it is to be hoped that he will be blessed with a long and successful one. Yet, it is more than likely that he should eventually rank this portrayal of Chartkov, the talented but penniless artist in Mieczys?aw Weinberg’s The Portrait, as one of his finest achievements.

The painter gets lucky with the acquisition of a bewitched portrait, dropping first fortune and then fame into a grateful lap. From tortured pauper he is transformed…

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Review Opera North's Carmen

Tom Tollett watches am intriguing re-telling of the famous opera

The Carmen storyline has undergone many transformations from its far-off 1875 beginnings. Otto Preminger’s 1954 musical film, Carmen Jones, based it at an all-black army camp, with the beautiful, feisty Dorothy Dandridge, as the eponymous heroine portraying a civilian parachute-maker. A 1990 Carmen on Ice starred the delectable Olympian Katarina Witt in what was a glorious expansion of her gold medal free-programme from the Calgary Games two years before, a performance said to be hot enough to melt the ice. The 2001 MTV film, Carmen: A Hip Hopera, had the multi-talented Beyoncé Knowles as Carmen Brown.

The critics found several…

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Review HMS Pinafore (Opera Della Luna)

Gilbert and Sullivan’s 1878 comic opera comes to St. George’s Hall, Bradford

With the sometimes dozens of theatre visits we make each month, things can start to all look and sound the same. In that respect, Gilbert and Sullivan’s oft-revived HMS Pinafore is a breath of fresh sea air. Whilst comic opera may not exactly be in vogue with the younger audiences, we’re actually quite partial to a bit of light opera having particularly enjoyed Opera North’s production of Ruddigore earlier this year.

HMS Pinafore is a story about the class system of the day, as told aboard the Pinafore – a big butch warship with a girly name. Pinafore…

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Review The Turn of The Screw

Britten’s disturbing, psychological thriller is a masterpiece of 20th Century opera. After having previous successes with the operas of Britten, would Opera North be able to add this one to the list of their classic stagings?

Benjamin Britten’s 1954 opera based on the novella by Henry James of the same title is a disturbing tale of ghosts and child abuse. Myfanwy Piper’s libretto is full of questions and ambiguity, does the audience ever really know whether the ghosts are real or in the imagination of the Governess who has travelled to Bly to look after the children Miles and Flora? Also, what part do the children play in this psychological tale, are they as innocent as first seems or are they partly to blame for the events that take place at Bly? The rising tension that…

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Feature The Rise & Rise of Opera

Emma O'Gorman looks at the rising popularity of opera

With recent prime-time offerings such as ITV’s ‘Popstar to Opera Star’ and BBC2’s ‘Gareth Malone Goes to Glyndebourne’, it seems popular media is waking up to the world of opera. It’s time that you did too.

Long has there been a stigma attached to opera; it is thought to be a high-brow, inaccessible art-form by some, and nothing more than a rotund woman in a Viking helmet, shrieking at the top of her voice, by others. But I urge you to forget all that and embrace it. It truly is a fascinating and varied genre of music that deserves respect…

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Preview Opera North's 2010-2011 Season

A look at what's coming up for Leeds' opera lovers

Opera North have recently released casting information for their forthcoming season. This exciting season consists of one revival and a massive six new productions and a concert staging of Das Rheingold. As always, Opera North put together a diverse season of opera, mixing such well known classics as Bizet’s Carmen with little known works such as Weinberg’s The Portrait. Carmen is to play a central part of the freedom themed spring/summer 2011 season which will also feature Beethoven’s Fidelio and Janacek’s From The House of The Dead. Full details for each production and the specific Leeds Grand Theatre dates are…

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