Opera North
The Turn of the Screw, Opera North, OperaVision review - claustrophobic visions of terror and beautyFriday, 03 April 2020
Feeling stir-crazy right now? Imagine being confined to one room with a half-crazed housekeeper, two dysfunctional kids and two increasingly insistent ghosts, plagued by nightmares, unable even to get out into the garden or walk down to the lake.... Read more... |
Street Scene, Opera North review - a true ensemble achievementMonday, 27 January 2020
Kurt Weill’s “Broadway opera” – his own preferred description – is an extraordinary and brilliant piece of work. Its music ranges from the seriously dramatic to fun numbers like the "Ice Cream Sextet" and the jitterbug dance song “Moon Faced, Starry... Read more... |
The Greek Passion, Opera North - pertinence and powerSunday, 15 September 2019
Martinů's The Greek Passion is a bold choice as a season opener, all the more so given that Opera North are staging the rarely-seen original version of his 1957 opera. Commissioned for Covent Garden then shabbily ditched, this is faster moving and... Read more... |
'This goes beyond music and drama': tenor Nicky Spence on Martinů's 'The Greek Passion'Friday, 13 September 2019
I’m a big fanboy of Czech music, Janáček and Martinů especially, but I’d never seen The Greek Passion before being cast as Manolios in Opera North’s new production, as it remains quite a rarity in the opera house. For those who don’t know the... Read more... |
Aida, Opera North review - militarism soundly subvertedThursday, 02 May 2019
Opera North created something approaching a new art form when they performed Wagner’s Ring in "concert stagings", putting their large orchestra in full view, with singers symbolically dressed and given limited front-of-stage space, and a continuous... Read more... |
'The orchestra becomes the landscape': Annabel Arden on Opera North's concert staging of AidaTuesday, 30 April 2019
This will be the latest in Opera North’s acclaimed concert stagings of large-scale works, which have previously included Wagner’s Ring cycle, Puccini’s Turandot and Strauss’s Salome. For Verdi’s Egyptian epic, we’ve recreated the team which brought... Read more... |
The Rite of Spring/Gianni Schicchi, Opera North review - unlikely but musically satisfying pairingSunday, 17 February 2019
Stravinsky acknowledged that his orchestra for The Rite of Spring was a large one because Diaghilev had promised him extra musicians (“I am not sure that my orchestra would have been as huge otherwise.”) It isn’t huge in Opera North’s production... Read more... |
Katya Kabanova, Opera North review – a grim taleMonday, 04 February 2019
A sad tale’s best for winter, and Opera North have returned to Janáček’s lyrical taken on a classic Russian drama of domestic abuse, guilt and suicide for this ingredient of their current season. Director Tim Albery and designer Hildegard Bechtler... Read more... |
'Bringing things to life is what opera is all about': Robert Howarth on a 'Magic Flute' with a differenceFriday, 18 January 2019
I’m here in Leeds at the end of five weeks of quite intense rehearsals for Opera North's new production of Mozart's The Magic Flute. Our director James Brining and his amazing team (including assistant director Deborah Cohen, set and costume... Read more... |
Tosca, Opera North review - exciting update, strong on sonic thrillsMonday, 17 September 2018
Puccini’s Tosca isn’t a subtle work, and this, Opera North’s fourth production since the company’s founding in 1978, is occasionally too loud and crude. But it’s undeniably powerful. Edward Dick’s 2017 Hansel and Gretel left me a little... Read more... |
Kiss Me, Kate, Opera North, London Coliseum review - Cole Porter delivered in true company styleThursday, 21 June 2018
First palpable hit of the evening: a full orchestra in the pit under hyper-alert Opera North stalwart James Holmes, saxophones deliciously rampant. Second hit: they've got the miking of the voices right (very rare in West End shows). Third: the... Read more... |
Berlin to Broadway with Kurt Weill, Opera North, City Varieties Music Hall review - life as a cabaretMonday, 18 June 2018
Peer at the small print and it’s clear that Berlin to Broadway with Kurt Weill is actually a spruced-up repackaging of a show originally devised by Gene Lerner and arranger Newton Wayland, about whom Opera North’s programme tells us nothing. The... Read more... |
