Press Release 25 February 2019
OPERA NORTH ANNOUNCES 2019/20 SEASON
Opera North today announces main stage repertoire for Autumn 2019 and Winter 2020, headlined by new productions of Bohuslav Martinů’s rarely performed The Greek Passion and Kurt Weill’s great American opera, Street Scene.
The season showcases the best of Opera North, with revivals of some of our most popular and critically-acclaimed productions programmed alongside these adventurous new productions of two masterpieces from the 20th Century, which, although very different in character, both focus on the plight of displaced people and the experiences of communities at times of great change.
Opening the year in September 2019, The Greek Passion will be directed by Christopher Alden, designed by Charles Edwards and conducted by Garry Walker, with an ensemble cast including Nicky Spence as Manolios and Magdalena Molendowska as Katerina. Set in a remote community, Martinů’s final opera explores the divisions created in the village when refugees arrive, pleading for food and shelter, at the same time as the villagers are preparing their roles for the traditional Easter Passion play. Opera North, recently announced as a Theatre of Sanctuary, presents a new production of this urgent plea for compassion and tolerance, in what must surely be one of the essential operatic events of the year.
Returning to Opera North in Autumn 2019, Tim Albery’s thrilling production of Handel’s Giulio Cesare will be conducted by one of today’s leading early music conductors, Christian Curnyn. Mezzo-soprano Justina Gringytė makes her Opera North debut in the title role, while Sophie Bevan joins the Company for the first time as Cleopatra. Counter-tenor James Laing returns to this production in the role of Tolomeo.
Phyllida Lloyd’s classic staging of Puccini’s La bohème completes the Autumn; a production which has, over the years, provided an ideal introduction to live opera for countless newcomers. It is revived as part of the season which sees the launch of Try It ON, Opera North’s new initiative to offer first time attendees £20 tickets for all performances. La bohème will be revived by Michael Barker- Caven, with a new international cast showcasing some of the most promising young artists of today, many of whom make their Opera North debuts, including Lauren Fagan and Katie Bird as Mimì, and Eleazar Rodríguez and Thomas Atkins as Rodolfo.
November 2019 will see Christopher Purves and Alice Coote perform a concert of Bartok’s one act expressionist opera Bluebeard’s Castle, with the Orchestra of Opera North conducted by Sian Edwards, on Thur 28 Nov at Huddersfield Town Hall and Sat 30 Nov at Leeds Town Hall. Further orchestral concert programming for the year will be announced in June.
Opening the Winter 2020 season, Giselle Allen and Robert Hayward head the cast as Anna and Frank Maurrant in Weill’s Street Scene, in a new production by Matthew Eberhardt, with designs by Francis O’Connor. This is Opera North’s first production of a work the composer himself regarded as his masterpiece, which will be conducted by James Holmes, one of the world’s leading authorities on the music of Weill.
Also in the Winter, Antony Hermus (Tosca, 2018) returns to Opera North to conduct Jo Davies’ meticulously detailed production of Mozart’s sublime human comedy The Marriage of Figaro in Leslie Travers’ beautiful designs, whilst Leo McFall takes the helm for Alessandro Talevi’s truly chilling production of one of Britten’s consummate masterpieces, The Turn of the Screw, with Sarah Tynan making her role debut as the Governess.
The Spring of 2020 will see the premiere of a large-scale people’s opera in County Durham, in partnership with Northern Heartlands, involving communities from across south and west Durham to create an opera inspired by the county, its people, landscape and heritage. As yet untitled, the opera will receive four performances in May 2020 in the exhibition hall of Locomotion, the National Railway Museum in Shildon.
The new opera is being created by Durham-born composer Will Todd (Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland; Mass in Blue; The Call of Wisdom), with a libretto by Manchester-based poet Tony Walsh, who came to worldwide attention in May 2017 when he recited his poem ‘This is the Place’ at the vigil following the Manchester bombing. It will be directed by Caroline Clegg with designs by Madeleine Boyd and will feature the Chorus and Orchestra of Opera North alongside soloists and community performers. Further main stage work for the Spring 2020 season will be announced later in the year.
Audiences and Engagement
Continuing Opera North’s commitment to growing our audience, a new scheme for 2019/20, Try It ON will ensure that 20 stalls tickets are available at a significantly reduced rate of £20 for every performance in Leeds, Salford and Nottingham, bookable by anyone who is new to Opera North’s main stage work. In addition to a cheaper ticket, audiences trying opera for the first time will receive additional information and insights in advance of the performance. Our Under 30s scheme also enables anyone aged 16-29 or full-time students to book £10 tickets at all performances.
The season will include sign interpreted, audio described and captioned performances, as well as a dedicated dementia-friendly matinee performance of La bohème. A first for Opera North, the dementia-friendly performance will be given with the house lights on low, light and sound contrasts minimised on stage, a longer interval, and a relaxed attitude towards people leaving the auditorium with spaces for them to sit and continue to watch the performance on a screen.
Music Works During the 2019/20 season we will also realise our long-held plans to transform Opera North’s home in Leeds, through Music Works, our £18 million capital redevelopment programme. The Company’s transformed buildings will create a more welcoming home for everyone: a place for artists to make thrilling music, a place where we will develop talent and inspire audiences, and a place where people of all ages can learn and participate. Music Works will cement Opera North’s position as a creative powerhouse in the heart of the North.
The redevelopment work is due to begin in Spring 2019 with work continuing into 2020. During the project, Opera North’s administrative and technical offices will be relocated, and studio rehearsals will also take place off-site. Our main stage opera productions will continue to be performed at Leeds Grand Theatre throughout the year, as well as on tour, but our ‘second space’, the Howard Assembly Room, will close from 2 March 2019, reopening in 2020 with a new dedicated entrance, box office, restaurant and bar, and an expanded events programme bringing more of the best live music, films, talks and performance to the heart of Leeds. Music Works will also create a new Education Studio, a dedicated rehearsal room for the Chorus and Orchestra, and a refurbished costume workshop.
Opera North’s overall target for the Music Works fundraising campaign is £18 million. This will deliver the project, which represents a cost of £15 million, and will also create a new fund to enable Opera North, a registered charity, to deliver more music and education activity in the future. Opera North has raised £14.9 million to date, including a significant philanthropic gift of £11.25 million from Dr Keith Howard OBE, President of Opera North and founder of Emerald Group Publishing.
Opera North Projects
Opera North Projects crosses conventional boundaries and brings together classical and contemporary arts in an eclectic year-round programme of performance, visual arts, literary events and artistic development. Current projects include the first phase of a commission in partnership with the Royal Opera House aimed specifically at BAME theatre-makers, music-makers and writers. Opera North Projects is working with award-winning composer Hannah Kendall on a re-telling of the Caribbean Anansi trickster myths.
Opera North’s commission for PRS Foundation’s New Music Biennial 2019, Requiem for the 21st Century, is an immersive sound installation by Iraqi oud player and composer Khyam Allami. Constructed from a collection of ouds playing notes in generative patterns, the work takes its inspiration from the history of the instrument, and is conceived as a powerful, ever-changing requiem for our troubled times. It can be experienced at Southbank Centre, London and in Hull during July 2019 and will also be broadcast on BBC Radio 3.
Also supported by PRS Foundation, Opera North’s Resonance residencies return in March 2019, giving professional artists from BAME backgrounds working in all genres the opportunity to develop new performance ideas with a week of free rehearsal space in central Leeds, support and technical advice and a work-in-progress performance.
Over the longer term, Opera North has started a workshop process in collaboration with classical Indian artists and musicians to develop a new production of Monteverdi's 1607 opera, Orfeo, led by Baroque specialist Laurence Cummings (The Coronation of Poppea), and Indian music expert, Ustad Dharambir Singh MBE (South Asian Arts-uk). Main stage repertoire information 2019/20
The Greek Passion Bohuslav Martinů
New production, opens Sat 14 September 2019 Sung in English with English titles
In a remote Greek community, the villagers are casting roles for the upcoming Passion play. Manolios is cast as Christ, the widow Katerina will play Mary Magdalene, and her lover Panait is to be Judas.
When refugees arrive in the village, fleeing conflict and seeking shelter, the community becomes divided. Do the refugees present a threat, or should they be welcomed with compassion? When Manolios and Katerina take their side, an inexorable chain of events is set in motion…
Martinů’s rarely-performed opera creates a spectacular soundscape deploying large orchestral and choral forces in a drama that proceeds with filmic fluidity. Originally written for Covent Garden in 1957, it was subsequently revised for its eventual premiere in Zürich in 1961. In recent years the strength of Martinů’s original vision for the opera has come to be recognised, and it is in the first ‘London’ version that Opera North presents this new production.
Christopher Alden directs a superb ensemble cast, with Garry Walker conducting what is set to be one of the essential operatic events of the year.
Cast and creative team includes:
Manolios Nicky Spence Katerina Magdalena Molendowska Yannakos Paul Nilon Panait Jeffrey Lloyd-Roberts Priest Grigoris Stephen Gadd Priest Fotis John Savournin Captain Steven Page Archon Brian Bannatyne-Scott
Conductor Garry Walker Director Christopher Alden Set & Lighting Designer Charles Edwards Costume Designer Doey Lüthi Choreographer Tim Claydon
Supported by the Friends of Opera North
Giulio Cesare George Frideric Handel
Revival production, opens Sat 28 September 2019 Sung in Italian with English titles
Egypt, in ancient times. The Roman leader Julius Caesar hounds an enemy to the edge of his empire. Arriving at the Egyptian court, he encounters a dynastic feud between the young queen, Cleopatra, and her cruel brother, Tolomeo. As alliances shift, an ecstatic new love soars, but Caesar soon finds himself drawn into a dangerous web of shifting alliances and bloodthirsty ambition… Handel’s take on the tempestuous romance between Caesar and Cleopatra features some of his most exciting music. Vengeance and desire drive vividly-etched characters through this ravishing, brutal masterpiece and an astounding series of glittering arias, by turn seductive, desperate, triumphant and tender. The result, in a production by Tim Albery with beautiful and dramatic designs by Leslie Travers, is a work that has all the colour, passion and epic sweep of a Hollywood blockbuster.
Baroque opera specialist Christian Curnyn, who has made several acclaimed Handel recordings with the Early Opera Company, conducts a cast including soprano Sophie Bevan as Cleopatra, mezzo-soprano Justina Gringytė as Cesare and counter-tenor James Laing as Tolomeo.
Cast and creative team includes:
Giulio Cesare Justina Gringytė Cleopatra Sophie Bevan Sesto Heather Lowe Tolomeo James Laing Nireno Paul-Antoine Bénos-Djian Achilla Darren Jeffery
Conductor Christian Curnyn (ex 6 Nov) Manoj Kamps (6 Nov) Director Tim Albery Set & Costume Designer Leslie Travers Lighting Designer Thomas C. Hase
La bohème Giacomo Puccini
Revival production, opens Sat 12 October 2019 Sung in Italian with English titles
Rodolfo and his friends are free-spirited artists, living in poverty amongst the garrets and cafés of Bohemian Paris. But one cold Christmas night, Rodolfo’s neighbour Mimì comes to his door in search of a light for her candle. Their passionate love will change his life, but can it survive until spring comes?
Set in the bustling clubs and cafés of early-60s Paris, Phyllida Lloyd’s vibrant and joyous production is back with a new international double cast, showcasing some of the most promising young artists of today, many of whom make their Opera North debuts. Australian soprano Lauren Fagan and British soprano Katie Bird share the role of Mimì, with Mexican tenor Eleazar Rodríguez and New Zealand tenor Thomas Atkins as Rodolfo, Armenian soprano Anush Hovhannisyan and British/Australian soprano Samantha Clarke as Musetta, and Ukrainian baritone Yuriy Yurchuk and British baritone Timothy Nelson as Marcello.
One of the best-loved of all operas, Puccini’s tale of tragic romance is told through gloriously moving music that perfectly captures both the overwhelming rush of love at first sight, and the utter devastation of love lost.
Cast and creative team includes:
Mimì Lauren Fagan* Katie Bird** Rodolfo Eleazar Rodríguez* Thomas Atkins** Musetta Anush Hovhannisyan* Samantha Clarke** Marcello Yuriy Yurchuk* Timothy Nelson** Schaunard Henry Neill Colline Emyr Wyn Jones
Conductor Renato Balsadonna / Matthew Kofi Waldren Original Director Phyllida Lloyd Revival Director Michael Barker-Caven Set & Costume Designer Anthony Ward
*Opening 12 October
**Opening 16 October
Audio described and Sign interpreted performances available. A dementia-friendly performance will take place on Thu 24 October.
Street Scene Kurt Weill
New production, opens Sat 18 January 2020 Sung in English
On a stiflingly hot summer’s day in New York, a family is pushed to breaking point. Frank is angry at a world that’s changing too fast, his daughter Rose longs for a better life away from the squalor of the city, and his unhappy wife Anna struggles with a terrible secret that could tear them all apart… As the heat builds, the tension erupts into violence and their lives are changed forever.
Weill’s richly-varied score is as diverse as the community he portrays, blending the European operatic tradition with the idiom of golden-age Broadway. Soaring arias and duets rub shoulders with jazz and the jitterbug, and Puccini shakes hands with Gershwin. With numbers such as ‘Lonely House’ and ‘Moon-faced, Starry-eyed’, it’s little wonder that Street Scene was awarded Best Original Score at the very first Tony Awards in 1947.
With a cast led by Giselle Allen and Robert Hayward and featuring many members of the Chorus of Opera North, this new production of Weill’s great American opera is conducted by one of the world’s leading interpreters of the composer, James Holmes. The director is Matthew Eberhardt, whose production of Bernstein’s Trouble in Tahiti was a highlight of Opera North’s The Little Greats season in 2017.
Cast and creative team includes:
Anna Maurrant Giselle Allen Frank Maurrant Robert Hayward Rose Maurrant Gillene Butterfield Sam Kaplan Alex Banfield
Conductor James Holmes Director Matthew Eberhardt Set & Costume Designer Francis O’Connor Lighting Designer Howard Hudson Choreographer Gary Clarke
A co-production with Theater Magdeburg
Supported by a generous gift from The Liz and Terry Bramall Foundation. This production is funded in part by the Kurt Weill Foundation for Music, Inc., New York, NY
Captioned performances available
The Marriage of Figaro Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Revival production, opens Sat 1 February 2020 Sung in English
It’s Figaro’s wedding day, and trouble clouds the horizon. His master, Count Almaviva, plans to seduce Susanna, Figaro’s bride-to-be. Meanwhile the heartbroken Countess finds herself the object of the page-boy Cherubino’s infatuation and to top it all off, if Figaro cannot repay a debt to the housekeeper Marcellina, he’ll have to marry her instead!
The Marriage of Figaro is a joyous farce of mistaken identities and misunderstandings, bursting at the seams with invention and wit in Jo Davies’ hit 2015 production. Mozart’s sublime music bubbles along with comedic high spirits, conveying all the delight and pain of love and the agony and ecstasy of desire.
Antony Hermus (Tosca, 2018) returns to conduct a cast including Phillip Rhodes as Figaro, Fflur Wyn as Susanna, Quirijn de Lang as Count Almaviva and Máire Flavin as the Countess.
Cast and creative team includes:
Figaro Phillip Rhodes Susanna Fflur Wyn Count Almaviva Quirijn de Lang Countess Almaviva Máire Flavin Cherubino Heather Lowe Doctor Bartolo Jonathan Best Don Basilio Joseph Shovelton Marcellina Gaynor Keeble
Conductor Antony Hermus (ex 4, 10, 12, 18, 21 Mar) James Hendry (4, 10, 12, 18, 21 Mar) Director Jo Davies Set Designer Leslie Travers Costume Designer Gabrielle Dalton Lighting Designer James Farncombe Choreographer Kay Shepherd Translation Jeremy Sams
Audio described performances available
The Turn of the Screw Benjamin Britten
Revival production, opens Sat 15 February 2020 Sung in English
In a remote country house, a newly-appointed governess fights to protect two children from menacing spirits. But are these apparitions real, or the product of her troubled imagination? And what terrible evil occurred before the governess’s arrival?
Benjamin Britten’s edge-of-your-seat psychological thriller is based on the chilling ghost story by Henry James. The theme of The Turn of the Screw – of innocence abused and corrupted – had a particular fascination for Britten, and he clothes this dark material in music of disturbing beauty that winds up the tension to breaking point.
Sarah Tynan (Cleopatra in Giulio Cesare, 2012) returns to the Company to make her role debut in what is probably Britten’s most intriguing and complex soprano part. This gripping production is conducted by Leo McFall (The Snow Maiden, 2017), and directed by Alessandro Talevi in Madeleine Boyd’s 1920s-period designs.
Cast and creative team includes:
Prologue/ Peter Quint Nicholas Watts Governess Sarah Tynan Miss Jessel Eleanor Dennis Mrs Grose Heather Shipp Flora Jennifer Clark
Conductor Leo McFall Director Alessandro Talevi Set & Costume Designer Madeleine Boyd Lighting Designer Matthew Haskins
By permission of Boosey and Hawkes Music Publishers Ltd
Performance Diary 2019/20
Leeds Grand Theatre
Sat 14 Sept The Greek Passion 7.30pm Sat 21 Sept The Greek Passion 7.30pm Fri 27 Sept The Greek Passion 7.30pm Sat 28 Sept Giulio Cesare 7.00pm Sat 5 Oct Giulio Cesare 7.00pm Fri 11 Oct Giulio Cesare 7.00pm Sat 12 Oct La bohème 7.30pm Tue 15 Oct Giulio Cesare 7.00pm Wed 16 Oct La bohème 7.30pm Thu 17 Oct Giulio Cesare 7.00pm Fri 18 Oct La bohème 7.30pm Sat 19 Oct The Greek Passion 7.30pm Tue 22 Oct La bohème 7.30pm Wed 23 Oct La bohème 2.30pm Thu 24 Oct La bohème 7.30pm Sat 26 Oct La bohème 2.30pm Sat 26 Oct La bohème 7.30pm
Dementia-friendly performance at Leeds Grand Theatre (not on general sale, booking available direct through box office) Thu 24 Oct La bohème 2.30pm
Theatre Royal, Newcastle
Tue 29 Oct La bohème 7.30pm Wed 30 Oct Giulio Cesare 7.00pm Thu 31 Oct La bohème 7.30pm Fri 1 Nov La bohème 7.30pm Sat 2 Nov The Greek Passion 7.30pm
Theatre Royal, Nottingham
Tue 5 Nov La bohème 7.30pm Wed 6 Nov Giulio Cesare 7.00pm Thu 7 Nov La bohème 7.30pm Fri 8 Nov La bohème 7.30pm Sat 9 Nov The Greek Passion 7.30pm
The Lowry, Salford Quays
Tue 12 Nov La bohème 7.30pm Wed 13 Nov Giulio Cesare 7.00pm Thu 14 Nov La bohème 7.30pm Fri 15 Nov La bohème 7.30pm Sat 16 Nov The Greek Passion 7.30pm
Huddersfield Town Hall Thu 28 Nov Bluebeard’s Castle (concert) 7.30pm
Leeds Town Hall Sat 30 Nov Bluebeard’s Castle (concert) 7.30pm
Leeds Grand Theatre
Sat 18 Jan Street Scene 7.00pm Sat 25 Jan Street Scene 7.00pm Sat 1 Feb The Marriage of Figaro 7.00pm Sat 8 Feb The Marriage of Figaro 4.00pm Wed 12 Feb Street Scene 7.00pm Fri 14 Feb The Marriage of Figaro 7.00pm Sat 15 Feb The Turn of the Screw 7.30pm Tue 18 Feb The Turn of the Screw 7.30pm Wed 19 Feb The Marriage of Figaro 7.00pm Thu 20 Feb Street Scene 7.00pm Fri 21 Feb The Turn of the Screw 7.30pm Sat 22 Feb The Marriage of Figaro 7.00pm Tue 25 Feb The Turn of the Screw 7.30pm Wed 26 Feb The Marriage of Figaro 7.00pm Thu 27 Feb The Turn of the Screw 7.30pm Fri 28 Feb Street Scene 7.00pm Sat 29 Feb The Marriage of Figaro 7.00pm
Theatre Royal, Newcastle
Tue 3 Mar Street Scene 7.00pm Wed 4 Mar The Marriage of Figaro 7.00pm Thu 5 Mar The Turn of the Screw 7.30pm Fri 6 Mar Street Scene 7.00pm Sat 7 Mar The Marriage of Figaro 7.00pm
The Lowry, Salford Quays
Tue 10 Mar The Marriage of Figaro 7.00pm Wed 11 Mar The Turn of the Screw 7.30pm Thu 12 Mar The Marriage of Figaro 7.00pm Fri 13 Mar Street Scene 7.00pm Sat 14 Mar The Marriage of Figaro 7.00pm
Theatre Royal, Nottingham
Tue 17 Mar Street Scene 7.00pm Wed 18 Mar The Marriage of Figaro 7.00pm Thu 19 Mar The Turn of the Screw 7.30pm Fri 20 Mar Street Scene 7.00pm Sat 21 Mar The Marriage of Figaro 7.00pm
Locomotion, Shildon
Fri 29 May Northern Heartlands: A people’s opera for Durham Sat 30 May Northern Heartlands: A people’s opera for Durham
For further information and images, please contact:
Julia O’Sullivan, Head of Communications julia.o’[email protected] | 0113 223 3526
Elizabeth Simmonds, Press Officer [email protected] | 0113 213 5641
Rowland Thomas, Press Officer [email protected] | 0113 223 3528
Notes to Editors: Opera North is a national opera company based in Leeds, and is a leading UK arts organisation. Rooted in the North of England, international in outlook, we create extraordinary experiences, every day.
Our award-winning work tours to theatre stages and concert halls throughout the North and beyond, including to London and major international festivals, and we curate an eclectic artistic programme of gigs, concerts, spoken word and film in the Howard Assembly Room. Our aim is to make bold, innovative, ambitious work and share it in new ways.
Opera North believes opera and music is for everyone, and champions diversity in artists, repertoire and audiences. Opera North Education connects with communities and inspires each generation, aiming to enhance the health and well-being of people in the communities where we work through arts participation and performance.
Opera North is grateful for the generous support of Arts Council England and Leeds City Council, sponsorship from the private sector, trusts and individuals, the Friends of Opera North, the Opera North Future Fund and the box office income from its audiences, which allows us to continue to mount our award-winning work.