Opera North: Masque of Might at Leeds Grand Theatre, to the music of Henry Purcell
Like many of the new promotions at Ilkley’s splendid Literature Festival, this latest world’s first from Opera North was conceived and worked out under the Covid pandemic’s restrictions. Confine a creator physically, by decree if you must, but, evidently, their brain can never be held in lockdown. Director, Sir David Pountney‘s initial approach to his […]
Opera north: Giuseppe Verdi: Falstaff – at Leeds Grand Theatre
Further performances will take place on Thursday 05 October, Saturday 14 October and Saturday 21 October , all at 7 p.m. Saturday 7 October and Wednesday 25 October are at 2 p.m. “Nothing ever goes in the bin,” is this Autumn’s mantra for Laura Hart, Opera North’s Production Office Co-ordinator. Sustainability lies at the heart […]
Opera North – Mozart: Requiem and Neo Muyanga: After Tears
I have known and loved Mozart’s Requiem for over 50 years, the last and, intriguingly, unfinished work by one of music’s unequivocal geniuses. I have sung in it. I have listened to dozens of performances and recordings, from church settings to concert hall, chamber choirs to major choral societies, organ accompaniment to full classical orchestra, […]
Opera North: The Pearl Fishers at Leeds Grand Theatre
Like Mozart and Schubert before him, Georges Bizet did not see out his thirties. Unlike them, his published output, from first to last, consisted of works destined solely for the theatre. Carmen, the world’s most-performed opera, would be Bizet’s last triumph. The Pearl Fishers, given here in director Matthew Eberhardt‘s new realisation for Opera North, […]
Opera North – Richard Strauss: Ariadne Auf Naxos at Leeds Grand Theatre
Over the years, Opera North has done us sterling service in putting on Strauss’ operas. The Company still managed semi-staged offerings of the sensational, flagitious tales embodied in both Elektra and Salomé, even when it had no theatre in which to perform. This co-production, with Gothenburg Opera, of the delicious Ariadne Auf Naxos is the […]
