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Singing soars above what risks being a one trick zebra

I have had a Jon Snow moment, watching a production that is based on one premiss, black people can be vulnerable outsiders, surrounded by as far as I can see virtually an overwhelmingly white audience. I am not sure what that says about opera or about its reach, but I also suspect that applying a…

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Opera North new season dates

Questions of power and identity, love and loss, will be coming to theatres across the North of England in the new year as Opera North opens its winter season with two new productions, while also offering another chance to see its new production of Carmen which premiered in September. Wagner’s Parsifal follows in June, with…

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Opera North Alcina to be available worldwide

Opera North’s first ever staging of Handel’s opera Alcina, which opens on Saturday 5 February 2022 at Leeds Grand Theatre, will be available for viewers around the globe to watch online in partnership with the European streaming platform OperaVision. The performance on Thursday 17 February at 7pm will be streamed live at operavision.eu, and will…

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Natalya Romaniw can tell Houston that having survived Covid and lockdown there really isn’t a problem

It is a very long way between lockdown in Cardiff and rehearsing in Texas for the opening of Houston Grand Opera Dialogue of the Carmelites in Texas. For soprano Natalya Romaniw that journey, from the cancellation mid run of Madam Butterfly at English National Opera in 2020 to February 2022’s opening of the Poulenc opera,…

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Longborough’s inaugural Ring Cycle Conducting Fellow

Longborough Festival Opera has appointed Harry Sever as its first Ring Cycle Conducting Fellow. Harry will work alongside Longborough Music Director and eminent Wagnerian Anthony Negus for the next three seasons, building towards its 2024 Ring cycle. For his first performance in the post, Harry will conduct Siegfried at Longborough on Friday 3 June 2022….

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Singers and orchestra save this show from being a ring of dire

I sometimes wonder whether Wagner sets some sort of challenge from beyond the grave on the Ring Cycle to test its strength. The challenge being: who can make such a pig’s ear of a production to destroy the magnificence of the music and the impact of the story on audiences. This time it was down…

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A large tot of happiness from ENO’s Pinafore

HMS Pinafore at English National Opera is a joyous entertainment that revels in the humour while ensuring the highest standards of musicianship. It is, shock horror, enjoyable. Yet it is a mark of our strange times when performing Gilbert and Sullivan seems quite brave and some companies would fret themselves onto a woke apoplexy performing…

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Jack Furness to produce Rusalka at Garsington

Jack Furness is to take over from Michael Boyd to produce Garsington Opera’s 2022 Rusalka. Due to ill health, director Michael Boyd has had to withdraw from the production that was originally scheduled for summer 2020. Jack Furness will  make his Garsington Opera debut. The production will have designs by  Tom Piper. Douglas Boyd, Artistic…

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Opera North announces winter season

Questions of power and identity, love and loss, will be coming to theatres across the North of England in the new year as Opera North opens its winter season with two new productions, while also offering another chance to see its new production of Carmen which premiered in September. The Company’s eagerly-awaited concert staging of…

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