Grange Festival

A Tosca that captures the opera’s thuggish violence, Grange Festival

**** Tosca has always been a dark story of violence and cruelty, that crushes love and hope. The famous ending, here with the jealous singer falling backwards from the battlements of Castel Sant’Angelo with her chilling final words, is one of vengeance and hate not of love. That love has been ripped out of her…

An inventive new L’Incoronazione di Poppea

**** Grange Festival, Hampshire It would seem the contemporary version of achieving the feeling of absolute authority, power over everyone including sexual favours, and endless confidence, is an endless supply of cocaine. For director Walter Sutcliffe, there doesn’t seem to be a version for women – they still seem to need to achieve their status…

Queen of Spades wins hands down, Grange Festival

Clear, unfussy direction, a versatile and attractive set, rich orchestral playing, and singers thrilling in their artistry and authenticity – this was the pleasure of Grange Festival’s Queen of Spades. At first it jars a little, having lots of patriotic Mother Russia sentiment expressed on stage at such a time of imperial warfare against Ukraine,…

A charming and clever double bill of Gluck and Purcell at Grange Festival

This intelligent and extremely entertaining double bill of Gluck and Purcell at Grange Festival has three stars: the cast, the orchestra, and Robert Innes Hopkins. Why Hopkins? Because the set is pivotal to not only both dramas but enables this special opera festival to present two works with minimal production changes. Alexandra Oomens and Heather…

Four new productions at Grange Festival 2023 plus evenings of jazz

The Grange Festival is presenting four new productions (Così fan tutte, Orfeo ed Euridice / Dido and Aeneas and The Queen of Spades) combining new and established singers, including Dame Josephine Barstow as the Countess in The Queen of Spades. The Festival will have three conductors – Kirill Karabits, Harry Christophers and Paul Daniel –…

Grange Festival 2023 season

The Grange Festival 2023 season sees four new productions (Così fan tutte, Orfeo ed Euridice / Dido and Aeneas and The Queen of Spades) by daring creative teams, with a blend of young, talented singers and established names, notably Dame Josephine Barstow as the Countess in The Queen of Spades. Continuing its cycle of operas…

A more Kardashian than Kalashnikov Tamerlano, Grange Festival

Handel’s Tamerlano gets a contemporary setting in The Grange Festival’s take on the 15th century story of the defeated Ottoman ruler Bajazet who chooses death over submission to the great Mongol conqueror.It takes rather a long time to get there and when it does is rather sudden, which is all the more surprising when the…

A weird and wonderful Macbeth, Grange Festival

Directed and choreographed by Maxine Braham, this production of Verdi’s Macbeth opened with one of the fantastical spirits poking her head through the curtains and giving the audience a “once-over”, which set the approach to this dark tale.The designs by Madeleine Boyd, lit by Matt Haskins, sets the Scottish Play in the world of books,…

The Grange Festival 2022 season details

Booking is open for The Grange Festival’s 2022 season. The Hampshire festival opens with Verdi’s Macbeth, on Thursday 9 June and followed a day later by Handel’s Tamerlano, These works are followed by Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Yeomen of the Guard in late June. The Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra accompanies these three new productions as part…

Elin Pritchard comes out fighting

Lockdown was intended to squash the COVID sombrero in early 2020 but it also flattened soprano Elin Pritchard’s rising career. Like many other singers the impact of the pandemic was sudden and dramatic. The North Wales-born, Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama graduate was performing as Micaëla in Welsh National Opera’s touring production of…