Luscious and powerful Fedora at If Opera
1st September 2023
Opera’s knight: Sir Bryn Terfel
12th December 2024
***** Again, If Opera punches above its weight with this luscious and powerfully sung Fedora, an oddly underperformed opera by Umberto Giordano that on the evidence of this outing deserves to be taken on by other opera companies. Charne Rochford Yes, it has the usual operatic excesses of verismo opera, and Act One in particular,…
Wales’ musical knight Bryn Terfel tells me he is always looking for another feather for his cap and there will be plenty to add in 2025. Launching a new singing competition with the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama; working as a coach on Yr Llais, S4C’s Welsh language version of The Voice, being…
Touring across Wales and the Borders, visiting 12 local venues which are rooted in their community, the Mid Wales Opera 2024 SmallStages tour of Pagliacci saw a 37% increase in average ticket sales per venue compared to the previous year. After receiving a lifeline in the form of a grant from Powys County Council’s Shared…
Abergavenny Borough Theatre Mid Wales Opera is like many other touring companies in scaling down for relatively small venues those works written to fill out bigger ones; but, unlike most of them, it has made an art and a virtue of miniaturisation. Given reasonable parameters, most operas can be reduced to basics: with a few…
Mozart Süreyya Opera Sahnesi, Istanbul There is something special seeing a performance of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s opera “The Abduction from the Seraglio” in Istanbul, which is, of course, where the opera is set. However, the venue is not the Topkapi but a gorgeous 1920s theatre. This absolute jewel of a theatre is in the Kadiköy…
Il turco in Italia, Gioachino Rossini For the first time revived at Glyndebourne, the 2001 production by French director Mariame Clément is truly entertaining and very enjoyable. The concept of the piece revolves around a contemporary writer, Prosdocimo, suffering from writer’s block, who flips through a travel magazine and creates all sorts of characters and…
In Ruggero Leoncavallo’s iconic opera, Pagliacci, we witness the tragic unraveling of a man consumed by jealousy and grief, his theatrical role tragically mirroring the heartbreak of his own life. It’s a story that speaks to the vulnerability of the human condition—a theme that resonates with touring companies today as they face the very real threat of dwindling…
This production of Il trittico belonged to the new cast members, who brought even more energy and vibrancy to the stage. While the original cast was impressive, the new lineup delivered unforgettable performances across all three operas. The entire cast was superb, but there were definitely standout performances that made this revival really shine. Andrés…
Mid Wales Opera has saved Arts Council of Wales funding annhiliation to be able to annoucce that tickets are now on sale for their upcoming SmallStages production of Pagliacci. The SmallStages tour of Pagliacci is a continuation of MWO’s commitment to bringing high-quality opera to communities across Wales and the Borders and will run from October…
It is quite an achievement, making the womanising Duke of Mantua the only likeable character in Rigoletto. This was despite Raffaele Abete not giving the finest of the vocal performances of the evening. They belonged to the Rigoletto of Daniel Luis de Vicente and Gilda from Soraya Mafi. Admittedly Abete was not the originally cast…
The Sound Voice Project is a collaboration between people with lived experience of voice loss, opera singers Roderick Williams and Lucy Crowe, composer Hannah Conway, librettist Hazel Gould and professionals from across the biomedical research, technology and healthcare sectors, with video design by Luke Halls and sound design by David Sheppard. The installation is comprised…
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