Opera North and Bizet’s Carmen at Leeds Grand Theatre
The lights dimmed, the auditorium darkened and the orchestra, in full-on life-affirming tutti, burst upon us with the familiar strains of Les Toréadors, its opening, as ever, pulsating with resplendent cymbals, bass drum and triangle, then repeated for good measure, the little detached trumpet figuration a few bars on, observantly quiet, yet nicely in its […]
HOLST: SAVITRI; AT THE BOAR’S HEAD
Leeds Opera Festival – NORTHERN OPERA GROUP – at Morley Town Hall on 28 August. Gustav Holst’s presence on concert hall programmes has been in sharp decline ever since the death of his indefatigable champion, daughter Imogen, in 1984. Nowadays, his reputation rests again where it began, over a hundred years ago, with nothing but […]
Stephen Sondheim : A Little Night Music
An Opera North co-production with Leeds Playhouse. As both composer and lyricist, Stephen Sondheim, throughout an illustrious career, has been much lauded for reinventing the American musical. After so long an absence from the theatre, this splendid remake of A Little Night Music, a co-production of Opera North and West Yorkshire Playhouse under James Brining‘s […]
Leeds Lieder Festival 2021
The Festival takes place at Leeds Town Hall from Thursday 17 June to Sun 20 June. Tom Tollett previews. Nineteen events in just four days illustrates nicely the breathless intensity of a modern music festival. Now in its 10th renewal, Leeds Lieder assuredly takes its place, alongside the Conductors’ and Piano Competitions, as one of […]
Opera North’s La Petite Boheme
On the face of it, the prospect of the shortest of La Bohème’s four Acts, at just a little over twenty minutes, and in animation at that, would seem of limited appeal. After all, we miss the youthful Act I, the humour and intricate slapstick of denying the landlord his rent at its centre, and […]
