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Spectator
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- Spectator
Brilliant rewrite of Shakey: Hamlet, at Buxton Opera House, reviewed
'There is good music, bad music, and music by Ambroise Thomas,' said Emmanuel Chabrier, but then, Chabrier said a lot of things. I adore Chabrier – who couldn't love the man who wrote España and turned Tristan und Isolde into a jaunty quadrille? – but it doesn't do to take him too literally. Thomas ended his career as a notoriously crusty director of the Paris Conservatoire, and when the French musical establishment puts you on a pedestal younger composers invariably start hurling the merde. Scraps of Thomas's music survive in all sorts of odd corners (a snippet from his opera Mignon crops up in The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp). I've always found it rather appealing. The Buxton International Festival's production of Thomas's 1868 tragedy Hamlet confirms that it is, indeed, extremely listenable. The libretto is based on Alexandre Dumas's version of Shakespeare, and it's calculated to turn Bard-worshippers puce. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are cut and Polonius and Horatio are barely walk-on parts. Brilliantly, Thomas and his librettists Carré and Barbier also rewrite the ending so the Ghost gatecrashes Ophelia's funeral like the Commendatore in Don Giovanni, while Hamlet survives to be acclaimed King. And if you think that's sacrilege, you can't have been to Stratford-upon-Avon recently. In any case, Thomas's score, which can feel a little polite on disc (think Gounod and soda), is actually very effective in the theatre. With Adrian Kelly conducting the orchestra of Opera North it's trim, it's passionate, and you still get all of old Shakey's juiciest bits: the gravediggers, the play-within-the-play and a stonking coloratura mad scene for Ophelia – sorry, Ophélie (Yewon Han). At one point in the Buxton production Hamlet – sorry, 'Amlet (Gregory Feldmann) – even addresses himself to a skull, and the fact that the director, Jack Furness, manages this without self-consciousness speaks volumes. Furness engages with Thomas's opera on its own terms, and plays it for what it is. So it's updated – suits and evening wear – but you barely notice, with the chorus gliding around like predatory caterers. Sami Fendall's set designs are minimalist (not much more than a flight of steps) but they're so skilfully lit (by Jake Wiltshire) that they evoke the whole noir-ish, shifting world of Elsinore: shadows, corridors and blasted wastes. The appearance of the Ghost (Per Bach Nissen), meanwhile, is a real coup de théâtre. The atmosphere is as compelling as it is oppressive, and with Hamlet as a sort of tormented hipster amid the upscale couture of the court, Furness lands hit after palpable dramatic hit. Certainly, Feldmann and Han seemed to be giving their all, in a pair of enormously extended and taxing leading roles. Feldmann conveys Hamlet's seesawing naivety and angst as vividly as anything you'll see at the RSC, but he's got vocal stamina too, sounding nearly as fresh at the start of the final scene as he had three hours previously. The same goes for Han's touching Ophélie. Her voice had a shaded, poignant undertow that added multiple layers to her huge, virtuosic final aria – which was received in icy silence by the Buxton audience. They're hard to please in the High Peak. Alastair Miles was a proud, oaky-sounding Claudius and Allison Cook, as Gertrude, found powerful reserves of nuance and pathos. Like everything about this production, they delivered more than the sum of their parts. The singing and the playing are also the thing in Opera Holland Park's new staging of Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor. Cecilia Stinton's meat-and-two-veg production doesn't spring any particular surprises, but if you like BBC period dramas you'll enjoy the tailcoats and stovepipe hats (Stinton has updated the action to the era of Walter Scott). Three graves dominate the front of the stage, to remind you that this is not – despite the evidence of the costumes – a revival of Oliver!. OHP does have one killer card to play. This company has always excelled at casting, and pretty much everyone here is the genuine bel canto article, pouring out those long aching melodies at fever heat. In fact for large parts of the evening Morgan Pearse, as the heartless Enrico, sounds even sexier and more lustrous than Jose de Eca (as a Heathcliff-like Edgardo) – though when Eca hits his full-throated stride, it's more than worth the wait. The big news, though, is Jennifer France's role debut as Lucia. It's dangerous for a critic to have too many preconceptions, so take it as you will when I say that the hushed intensity of her singing in the quiet passages and her absolute control in the mad scene exceeded my (high) expectations. The rest of the cast (and indeed the City of London Sinfonia under Michael Papadopoulos) were audibly inspired by France's singing, and her final scenes – bloodied, bedraggled and caked in mud – are the kind of theatre that stays with you.
Yahoo
20-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Thousands of Bradford children take to stage for ballet and opera
More than 2,000 Bradford primary school pupils took to the stage recently to perform a ballet and opera inspired by their own hopes and dreams. The children filled the newly refurbished Bradford Live to perform the new ballet and opera as part of Sing, Dance, Leap - a mass participation project for young people commissioned by Bradford 2025 UK City of Culture. Tom Whitehead, a Bradford-born Royal Ballet dancer who returned to his hometown for the project, said: "It has been a real privilege to be able to help bring Sing, Dance, Leap to my hometown and see the impact it has had on these brilliant young people. "I know how much I would have loved to have been involved in a project like this when I was young, so it makes it extra special to be able to give Bradford's next generation this opportunity. "If Sing, Dance, Leap can be that spark of inspiration for one child to pursue their passion, whatever that is, then this project has been a huge success." The Sing, Dance, Leap project was commissioned by Bradford 2025 UK City of Culture (Image: Elly Welford) Led by the Royal Ballet and Opera, Opera North, and Northern Ballet, the Sing, Dance, Leap project intends to help children to express how they feel about themselves, and their city, through ballet, opera, and the arts. The children's thoughts and feelings helped shape the performance's music, lyrics, and choreography, which were created respectively by Will Todd, Kadijah Ibrahiim, and Carlos Pons Guerra. Jillian Barker, director of learning and participation for the Royal Ballet and Opera, said: "Sing, Dance, Leap is a real celebration of young voices and the power that access to the arts can have. "We want to ensure that projects like this give children more than a momentary experience – we want these young people to take what they have learnt in this project and continue to be creatively inspired in their daily lives. The project was led by the Royal Ballet and Opera, Opera North, and Northern Ballet (Image: Elly Welford) "We have seen firsthand how impactful projects like Sing, Dance, Leap can be on young people, and we will continue to advocate for greater arts access for children across the UK, both in our own work and in the national curriculum." Rhiannon Hannon, director of creative engagement and participation for Bradford 2025, said: "It's so fitting for Bradford's young people to be among the first to use this stage to share this inspiring new work." Sing, Dance, Leap is part of a four-year community partnership, launched in 2023, between the Royal Ballet and Opera and Bradford.
BBC News
18-06-2025
- Entertainment
- BBC News
The new show that lit a spark for Bradford's children
I wasn't expecting to shed a tear while watching hundreds of Bradford schoolchildren performing on stage, with professionals from some of the country's most prestigious arts as they sang and danced about "Five hundred and thirty thousand hearts / Our brilliant city of many parts", I admit, I welled something very moving about the hopes and dreams of the youngest generation being on show, in one of the youngest cities in the UK. Nearly 30% of Bradford's inhabitants are under 20 years old. Ten-year-old Aiza told me she has never done anything like this before. "Does it make you want to do it again?" I asked. "Yes!" she nodded, Zuriel said that singing with the Royal Opera was "exhilarating and exciting". More than 2,000 Bradford children are involved in Sing Dance Leap, the first ever collaboration between Royal Ballet and Opera, Opera North and Northern Ballet, who've been working together in schools to create this one-off performance at the newly refurbished Bradford Live the biggest moment of mass participation created by and for young people commissioned by Bradford 2025 UK City of Culture. The show is inspired by the children's own thoughts about their city. Nine-year-old Toby told me it was exciting "because some people don't even get to perform on stage in their life and we've got the opportunity to do it".He loves Bradford's landscapes - "it's just nice to walk around in the sun every day".Hidaya,10, says "it's a really diverse place, there's so many cultures and traditions around here."Nine-year-old Willow likes "the different kind of foods we have and the different places you can take walks and have fun". For many of the children, this is their first introduction to ballet and North's vocal coach Marry Claire Breen has been working with some of them for says that it became apparent very early in the workshops that opera didn't have much meaning to young people, so the team started to have discussions what opera rejecting the claim that the art form is elitist, Marie Claire told me that the children were made aware that "opera doesn't have to just be about the stereotypical big, huge voices on big, big, stages, but that we're telling a story with their words, with their emotions, with experience". One of the professional Royal Ballet dancers working with them, Tom Whitehead, was born and raised in Bradford. He told me he began dance classes when he was ten, "a long time ago, pre-Billy Elliot... so quite a lot of stigma still attached to it".For him, it's been a calling for many years now, but he insists "a project like this is not about discovering the next Darcey Bussell or [opera singer] Jonas Kauffman". From my perspective, watching on, it was impossible to look at the sea of enthused, focused and increasingly confident young faces as the rehearsal progressed, without wondering what kind of spark might be lit as a consequence of taking can't know for certain, but the Royal Ballet and Opera's director of learning and participation, Jillian Barker, who was also born in Bradford, told me her hopes for its legacy."I would love to be sitting in the Royal Ballet and Opera in maybe 10 years' time next to somebody who did this project when they were younger... and then maybe to look up on the stage and there may be one young person for whom this lit a fire and now they are on the stage." The point, of course, is about widening access to the arts and inspiring creativity in every child involved. Outreach work, particularly in areas of social deprivation, is an important part of the contract between these institutions and Arts Council England which awards them public funding (in steadily decreasing amounts in recent years when it comes to Royal Ballet and Opera). But the composer of Sing Dance Leap, Will Todd, puts it even more strongly. For him, these kinds of programmes are "the jewel in the crown" of the work of these arts bodies."In a sense, we could expect them to do great performances of Puccini or of The Nutcracker," he says. "But can they go out and inspire ordinary people to participate, to be energised, to sing and dance? To me actually that's the apex of what they can do, so it thrills me that they're here doing this." Being on stage and participating in something of this scale is confidence-boosting. I could see the children walking just that little bit taller, after a day of rehearsing in a theatre so embedded in Bradford's rich cultural history - and they will take that confidence into other aspects of their Tom Whitehead had a message for them: "Have your ideas, dream big and don't be afraid to go for it."
The Guardian
08-06-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Così Fan Tutte review – country house remix offers fresh farce, fun and energy
Atop its elegant Leicestershire hill, the operatic foundations of the Nevill Holt festival feel more secure right now than those of the beleaguered state funded companies down in the cities. The stable courtyard at Nevill Holt was converted into a comfortable 400-seat opera house seven years ago, and now this year's festival also offers the first fruits of a tie-up with Leeds-based Opera North, who will take a new production south for the coming five years. This summer's Così Fan Tutte offers alternating casts under the assured and energised conducting of Chris Hopkins. But it is not in every respect a wholly new production. Cecilia Stinton's direction and George Leigh's designs provide a specially created version of Mozart's opera for the Nevill Holt residency. Yet there remain traces, notably in the costumes, of the Tim Albery production that did sterling work for Opera North from 2009. Perhaps it is best to think of this as a country house remix of Albery's Cosi. Another survival is that this version is in English. This brings terrific immediacy, even for those who can follow Lorenzo Da Ponte's punning Italian original. The programme gives no single writer the credit, but it is a witty and succinct translation that adds to the overall fun and pace. 'One man is as good as another; and they are all good for nothing,' sings Dorabella, as she and her sister Fiordiligi debate how to deal with their respective suitors. Stinton places the cynical philosopher Don Alfonso at the centre of things. This Alfonso is not simply trying to prove his misogynistic point about women's affections. He is trying to prove it inside an opera-within-an-opera version of Così that he is himself writing and directing. Confused? It sometimes gets that way. But it is a device that offers plenty of opportunities for stage farce, as well as adding fresh layers of transgressive ambiguity to an opera that is already full of them. Vocally, all six principals make a mark. Seán Boylan's stylish Guglielmo and Egor Zhuravskii's ardently sung Ferrando are a well-matched pair of officers turned increasingly troubled pawns in Alfonso's game. Among the women, Ella Taylor's Fiordiligi is particularly fine in her two formidable arias and for her ability to command expressive softness as well as strength. Heather Lowe's Dorabella is bright voiced and engagingly acted. Claire Lees knows all the ropes as Despina and has little difficulty stealing the show when she needs to do so. It helps most of all, though, that William Dazeley is such a well acted and sung Alfonso. Mozart may have denied Alfonso the chance to shine in an aria of his own, but he is very much the puppet-master. Or at least in this version he is until the final moments, when his traumatised charges finally revolt against his loveless philosophy and chase him from the stage. Nevill Holt festival continues until 22 June
The Guardian
26-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Simon Boccanegra review – Opera North's staging of Verdi's knotty score is a brooding triumph
'I had to read this libretto six times before I understood any of it,' fumed the great Italian opera scholar Abramo Basevi in 1859. The work that had defeated him? Verdi's opera Simon Boccanegra, based on a play by the same Spanish writer as Il trovatore, the longstanding sitting duck for potshots at contorted opera plots. Even the composer diagnosed Boccanegra as 'too depressing'. Yet he was persuaded to return to his poorly received score, overhauling it with the help of Arrigo Boito (subsequently the librettist of his final operas, Otello and Falstaff). That revised version was a roaring success in 1881 and is staged quite regularly today – although marshalling its heavyweight lineup of principal basses and baritones, with only a single tenor and soprano to leaven the texture, remains a serious challenge. No stranger to those, Opera North has taken Boccanegra as the latest candidate for 'concert staging' treatment, after its success with Wagner in recent years. This performance at Royal Festival Hall was the finale of a tour that has already stopped off at concert halls across the north and midlands. Directed by PJ Harris, the opera's dark doings in Genoa played out across the three 'rooms' of a subtly lit metal frame stretching across the front of the stage, with marble columns, plinths and benches for a touch of civic pomp and banners for rival political factions hanging overhead. In a gesture Basevi would presumably have appreciated, characters wore election-style rosettes to show which side they were on. The 25 years that elapse between the opera's lengthy prologue and its first act saw one character's parka switched for a different vintage anorak and Simon Boccanegra's sailor peacoat swapped for a political leader's shirt and tie. But we were otherwise rooted in a historical no man's land of ill-fitting suits. Some principals inevitably fared better in this bare-bones set-up than others and the opera's tell-don't-show approach demands real singing actors even in a full staging. Alongside energetic vocal performances from baritones Mandla Mndebele and Opera North stalwart Richard Mosley Evans as the tireless plotters Paolo Albiani and Pietro and Andrés Presno's hefty, heartfelt tenor contributions as political rebel turned romantic Gabriele Adorno, the scenes between Roland Wood's sensitive Boccanegra and his long-lost daughter Maria (Sara Cortolezzis, in a promising Opera North debut) stood out as compelling and poignant. They were amply supported by the other stars of this show: Opera North's excellent chorus – which poured down the aisles of the auditorium for an inspired, immersive take on the ever-powerful council chamber scene – and, above all, the orchestra. Onstage throughout with principal guest conductor Antony Hermus, the musicians served up a vivid and intensely committed performance, the strings a gripping, vital dramatic motor.
