ENO: A Midsummer Night’s Dream

Robert Carsen’s classic production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream returns to the London Coliseum

Opens Thursday 01 March at 7.30pm at the London Coliseum (6 performances)

Robert Carsen’s ‘legendary production’ (Bachtrack) of Benjamin Britten’s Shakespearean comedy returns to the London Coliseum this spring, featuring an ensemble of some of British opera’s most sparkling rising stars.

The production is the first of four works by Benjamin Britten to be performed in this fiftieth anniversary year of opera in residence at the Coliseum and highlights the historic role of the company in premiering and performing the composer’s work.  The Turn of the Screw  at Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre and  Paul Bunyan at Wilton’s Music Hall follow later this season, finishing with a staged interpretation of Britten’s  War Requiem  in November.

Shakespeare’s romantic comedy, with its two pairs of lovers enchanted, switched and finally given their happy ending by fairy magic, is beautifully retold in Britten’s opera. Carsen’s bewitching nocturnal staging, with Michael Levine’s arresting dreamscape designs and Matthew Bourne’s gorgeously fluid choreography, has enchanted audiences from La Scala to Beijing since its 1991 premiere at the Aix-en-Provence Festival. This is its third revival at the London Coliseum, where it last appeared in 2004.

Shakespeare’s hapless and hilarious cast of fairies, lovers and mechanicals are given life by a group of singers closely associated with ENO, including five Harewood Artists, members of ENO’s scheme for the training of talented young singers. Harewood Artist and winner of the 2016 Susan Chilcott Award Soraya Mafi sings fairy queen Tytania in her role debut, after her ‘scintillating’(The Daily Telegraph)performance as Mabel in 2017’s revival of  The Pirates of Penzance. She is joined by countertenor Christopher Ainslie as her husband Oberon; the two also sang together in October 2017 as Cleopatra and Cesare in ETO’s  Giulio Cesare. In 2014 Ainslie performed in Thebans with his most recent appearance being a ‘breathtaking’ ( The Guardian )performance in Rodelinda.

Harewood Artist David Webb returns for his second engagement of the season as the young lover Demetrius following his Messenger in  Aida . His Frederic in  The Pirates of Penzance  opposite Mafi was praised for its ‘effortless vocal lyricism’ ( What’s On Stage)and considerable comic ability. Fellow Harewood Artist Matthew Durkan sings his rival Lysander in his third appearance of the season, following Fiorello in The Barber of Seville and Malcolm Fleet in the world premiere of Marnie .

Lysander’s lover Hermia is sung by mezzo-soprano Clare Presland, who has appeared in many roles at ENO since training with Opera Works, in shows which include  Lulu, The Force of Destiny and Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk. She is the winner of the 2014 Susan Chilcott Award. Her rival Helena is sung by Harewood Artist Eleanor Dennis, whose role as the High Priestess earlier in the season in Aida  gained wide attention: ‘she is a major talent’ (What’s On Stage).

Bottom is sung by bass Joshua Bloom, whose comic chops were demonstrated by his swaggering Pirate King in the 2015 run of  The Pirates of Penzance . The non-singing role of Puck is performed by  Miltos Yerolemou, who has performed the role in Carsen’s production since 2008: ‘has it all: a scorching twinkle in his eye, the richest of speaking voices and fearless tumbling skills’ ( Bachtrack ). Yerelemou is known to television audiences as  Game of Thrones’  Syrio Forel.

Theseus is sung by ENO Harewood Artist Andri Björn Róbertsson and his bride Hippolyta by Emma Carrington. The band of Mechanicals, Quince, Flute, Snug, Snout and Starveling, are sung by familiar ENO faces Graeme Danby, Robert Murray, Jonathan Lemalu, Timothy Robinson and Simon Butteriss respectively.

Making his debut conducting the ENO Orchestra is Alexander Soddy, Music Director at the National Theatre at Mannheim since 2016. Having spent the last decade with orchestras in Germany and Austria, the English conductor has been a guest conductor at the Hamburg and Berlin State Operas as well as the State Theatre at Klagenfurt where as Music Director he last conducted  A Midsummer Night’s Dream in 2015.

The Canadian Robert Carsen is one of the most prominent and influential international directors of opera of the last thirty years, originator of numerous acclaimed productions and recipient of the Order of Canada. Revival direction is by Emmanuelle Bastet, longtime collaborator of Carsen’s and revival director for the previous run of performances at the London Coliseum in 2004.

Matthew Bourne is one of the most important figures in contemporary choreography, whose work includes seminal interpretations of  Swan Lake  (1995) and  Carmen (Matthew Bourne’s The Car Man,  2000 ). Designer Michael Levine has provided designs for ENO productions including  The Magic Flute ( 2012 ) Between Worlds ( 2015 ) and A Dog’s Heart (2010) .  Lighting design is by Robert Carsen and Peter van Praet.

A Midsummer Night’s Dream opens on Thursday 01 March at 7.30pm at the London Coliseum for 6 performances: 01, 08, 10, 14 and 15 March at 7.30pm and 04 March at 3pm.

Brighton Philharmonic Orchestra

On Sunday 11 February the Brighton Philharmonic Orchestra will be performing a concert of unashamedly romantic music to get everyone in the mood for Valentine’s Day, and we are delighted to welcome Howard Shelley back to Brighton as both conductor and pianist. (Regular audience members will recall that on his last visit to the Dome with the Brighton Phil two years ago, performing Shostakovich’s Piano Concerto No.2, he created quite a stir by directing the orchestra from the piano using a digital score on an iPad with a Bluetooth foot pedal.)
This time he opens proceedings with Schubert’s enchanting “Unfinished” Symphony No.8. Schubert started composing it in 1822 but put it aside to concentrate on other works, leaving it unfinished at his death six years later. We are left with two remarkable movements that herald the dawn of the Romantic symphony.
Mendelssohn wrote his First Piano Concerto aged just 21 on a trip to Italy (at the same time as composing his “Italian” Symphony) and its urgent, irrepressible opening seethes with the dynamism of impetuous youth. Franz Liszt famously played it at sight in a piano showroom, before going on to perform it many times in public to great acclaim. One of the great vehicles for the piano virtuoso, it is the perfect showcase for the dazzling technique that has made Howard Shelley one of the country’s truly great artists.

Our concert ends with Dvo?ák’s Symphony No.6 – full of rich melodies, lively rhythms and vivid orchestral colour, incorporating the folk music of his native Bohemia (now the Czech Republic) within a classical Romantic form. Premiered in 1881, this lush and confident work contributed greatly towards establishing him as one of the foremost composers of his generation, and provides a fitting conclusion for a programme that charts the evolution of the Romantic symphony.

Tickets (from £12-£38) are available from Brighton Dome Ticket Office in Church Road, in person, by telephone (01273) 709709, or online at: www.brightondome.org

50% discount for students and under 18s.

Discounted parking for BPO concert ticket-holders (just £6 between 1 & 6pm) is available at NCP Church Street Car Park.

 

ENO: Iolanthe

Arthur Sullivan  William Schwenck Gilbert                                                           
Conductor, Timothy Henty
Director, Cal McCrystal

 

Cal McCrystal directs a joyful new production of Gilbert and Sullivan’s hilarious satirical fantasy, Iolanthe.

Opens Tuesday 13 February at 7.30pm at the London Coliseum (14 performances)

Acclaimed comedy director Cal McCrystal – the mastermind behind some of the most celebrated comic scenes in theatre (One Man, Two Guvnors) and film (Paddington,Paddington 2, The Dictator and The World’s End) – makes his ENO debut with a new production of Iolanthe. Gilbert and Sullivan’s hilarious satire on British government, law and society features a stellar cast, including comedy legend Andrew Shore, who has performed some of ENO’s most memorable roles. ENO Harewood Artists Samantha Price sings in the title role and Barnaby Rea performs as Private Willis.

The first Gilbert and Sullivan opera that ENO performed in January 1962 (on the day on which the D’Oyly Carte monopoly ended) – Iolanthe is a brilliantly funny, satirical fantasy, revealing a typically Gilbert and Sullivan topsy-turvy worldview. Phyllis and Strephon wish to marry, but as she is a ward of court she requires the Lord Chancellor’s permission. He, however, wants her for himself. With madcap fairies in the Palace of Westminster and honourable members of The Lords in Arcadia, when Strephon turns out to be the son of The Lord Chancellor and the exiled fairy Iolanthe, all is cast into confusion. Iolanthe is a joyful show featuring flying fairies, quarrelsome lords, an ensemble of quirky characters and even stand-up comedy. This brand new production marries opera with theatre and comedy like never before.

Following the huge success of Mike Leigh’s The Pirates of Penzance (which broke ENO box office records upon its premiere in 2015) and the enduring popularity of Jonathan Miller’s The Mikado (a true audience favourite that has been revived 13 times in 28 years), ENO has become the foremost exponent of imaginative, witty stagings of these timeless British classics. Cal McCrystal’s new production ofIolanthe, with Gilbert and Sullivan expert Timothy Henty leading the ENO Orchestra, looks set to further bolster ENO’s reputation as the premier home for the works of this great comic pairing.

ENO’s international reputation for working with exciting directors from across a wide range of artistic disciplines has offered a fresh perspective and unique approach. Cal McCrystal is the latest artistic talent to apply his skills to the world of opera. Previous directors ENO has worked with include Mike Leigh, Terry Gilliam, Anthony Minghella, Rufus Norris, Carrie Cracknell and Fiona Shaw.

Brighton Philharmonic Orchestra

What better way is there to spend a chilly winter’s afternoon than by attending one of the Brighton Phil’s enjoyable Sunday afternoon concerts at Brighton Dome and being entertained and moved by wonderful music played by some very talented professional musicians. We are now half way through our current season (which runs from October to March) and thanks to a generous grant from the John Carewe Brighton Orchestra Trust, we are already planning our next season.

Over the next four concerts the orchestra will whisk Dome audiences away on a musical journey around the world and back and forth through the centuries with glorious music by the likes of Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Mendelssohn, Dvorák, Tchaikovsky, Glinka, Mussorgsky, Sibelius, Malcolm Arnold, Delibes and Saint-Saëns as well as less well-known composers such as Alexander Arutunian, an Armenian whose fabulous Trumpet Concerto (which we perform on 4 March) is a real show-stopper.

­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­Our first concert of the New Year takes place on Sunday 28 January when we are joined by Michael Collins, one of the foremost clarinettists of his generation, as both conductor and soloist. Those of you with long memories may recall he won the woodwind prize in the very first Young Musician of the Year in 1978 at the tender age of 16.

The concert opens with one of Haydn’s London Symphonies, Symphony No.102, one of twelve symphonies written in 1794 on a visit to England. Rarely performed, it opens with stately grace and progresses to joyous vigour, and is regarded as one of his finest symphonies in both scope and scale.
Michael Collins is both soloist and conductor in Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto, a work of exquisite beauty that has become one of the most popular pieces in the repertoire. Completed just two months before Mozart’s death for his friend, the clarinettist Anton Stadler, its tender slow movement has featured in the soundtracks of films such as The King’s Speech and Out of Africa and often appears in the top 10 of Classic FM’s Hall of Fame.
Beethoven’s elegant and expansive Symphony No.1 which completes this concert is clearly influenced by the composer’s teachers, Haydn and Mozart. First performed in 1800 (in a concert he arranged himself) it impressed the Viennese public with Beethoven’s incredible talent. The form of the symphony pays homage to his teachers whilst at the same time pushing the boundaries of symphonic composition.

Tickets (from £12-£38) are available from Brighton Dome Ticket Office in Church Road, in person, by telephone (01273) 709709, or online at: www.brightondome.org

50% discount for students and under 18s.

 

 

Fantasia ! Spring 2018

45 Minutes of Music

The Meeting House at University of Sussex

A series of informal concerts by D’Arcy Trinkwon

Last Wednesday – every month @ 12 noon

January 31 February 28 March 21* April 25 May 30

FREE ADMISSION  everyone welcome

 

January 31
Fantasia & Fugue in F KREBS
Fantasia in G minor PACHELBEL
‘Echo’ Fantasia SWEELINCK
Fantasia: Nun komm’ der Heiden Heiland BRUHNS
Sonata quasi una Fantasia, Op.129 PEETERS
Fantaisie et fugue BOËLY

 

February 28
Fantasia & Fugue in C minor, BWV537 BACH
Fantasia in G, BWV571 Trio Sonata in D TELEMANN
Deux fantaisies ALAIN
Fantasia & Fugue on BACH LISZT

 

March 21
please note this is the penultimate Wednesday of March – not the last
Fantasia & Fugue in G minor, BWV542 BACH
Fantasia in C, BWV570 Echo Fantasia SWEELINCK
Fantasia in F minor & Major, K594 MOZART
Troisième Fantaisie, Op.157 SAINT-SAËNS
Fantasia on Mozart’s Turkish March WEINER

Bath Camerata: Bach St John Passion

Bath Camerata to perform JS Bach’s ‘St John Passion’ with world-class Evangelist, James Gilchrist

On Saturday 3rd February 2018 Bath Camerata will be joined by leading soloists and instrumentalists to perform JS Bach’s dramatic masterpiece, the St John Passion, in St Mary Redcliffe Church, Bristol.

James Gilchrist, a frequent soloist at the BBC Proms and one of the world’s greatest Evangelists, will sing the central role in this performance, alongside soloists Elizabeth Cragg (soprano), Robin Blaze (countertenor), Joshua Ellicott (tenor) and Giles Underwood (bass), all widely regarded as the finest interpreters of this music.

Accompanying the performance will be some of the best baroque players in Europe , led by Kati Debretzeni, Leader of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. The St John Passion tells the story of Jesus’ last days; His betrayal, the denial, His burial and resurrection. It captures the drama, sadness and anger of the crowds, setting movements of vivid excitement against moments of startling beauty and compassion.

St Mary Redcliffe is a masterpiece of Gothic Architecture. Sited on the ‘red’ cliffs above the floating harbour for over 800 years, the church’s ancestry at at the heart of the local shipping industry is reflected in the carved bosses, elegant 18th century ironwork, beautiful stained glass windows, and in more contemporary pieces such as the chapel altar dedicated to St John.

Tickets are priced at £28, £22, £15, £10 with under 25s half price. A £45 VIP ticket includes reserved seating at the front of the nave, a pre-concert drinks and canapés reception in the church vaults and a concert programme. Tickets are available from Bath Camerata’s website site www.bathcamerata.co.uk or from St George’s Bristol Box Office on 0845 402 4001.