Opera North’s autumn season at Newcastle’s Theatre Royal, which runs from 2 to 5 November, features Strauss, Puccini and Britten.
At 6:30PM on 2 and 5 November, the company revives David McVicar’s production of Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier, conducted by Aleksandar Markovic, Opera North’s new Music Director.
“Due to its perfect balance of humour, sweeping romanticism, brilliant scoring, an ingeniously witty text, and moments that are bluntly grotesque contrasted with those of the deepest sincerity,” Markovic said, “this opera offers such a wide spectrum of expression, seducing the audience with its irresistible charm and sensual appeal.”
The production runs for four hours, including two intervals.
On 3 November at 7PM, Orpha Phelan directs and Garry Walker conducts a new production of Britten’s Billy Budd. It is twenty years since Opera North last presented Britten's tale of distrust and betrayal set on a naval ship.
“It’s not often one gets to work with the intensity of an all-male cast on arguably the greatest operatic work of the twentieth century,” Phelan commented. “The power and force of Billy Budd will certainly leave us quaking in our boots. But while there’s lots of action, what attracts me more is the introspective nature of the opera.”
The running time is approximately three hours.
4 November sees the double bill of Puccini’s short operas Il tabarro and Suor Angelica.
Il tabarro, a noir thriller and love triangle set in working class Paris, was originally directed by David Pountney and this revival is directed by Michael Barker-Craven.
Barker-Craven also directs a new production of Suor Angelica, the story of a woman who is confined to a convent for giving birth to an illegitimate son whom she misses every day, only to discover after many years that he had died a long time ago.
Jac Van Steen conducts both. Each opera lasts about an hour and there will be one interval.