Leading British composer David Sawer and celebrated young playwright Rory Mullarkey have been commissioned by Garsington Opera to write a new work – The Skating Rink (based on the novel by Chilean author Roberto Bolaño).  It will have its world premiere during the 2018 season and will be Garsington Opera’s first new festival commission.

Douglas Boyd, Artistic Director of Garsington Opera said:

‘I am delighted that we have reached a stage in our development as a company where we will be presenting a major new festival commission.  I strongly believe in our responsibility as musicians to create new works of art that will stand alongside great works of the past, both for audiences today and in the future.  David Sawer is one of the leading lights of our generation and has a wonderful flair for dramatic character.  Together with librettist Rory Mullarkey they are creating a work that is theatrically thrilling and musically exhilarating. This is a very important step for us and I can’t wait to share this new work with our audience and the wider world.’ 

The 2017 season that runs from 1 June to 30 July features four opera productions  and a community piece – Handel’s Semele, Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande, Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro and Rossini’s Il turco in Italia. Roxanna Panufnik’s new community opera Silver Birchcommissioned by Garsington Opera, for professional singers and over 180 amateur performers, completes the season.  Public booking opens Tuesday 28 March 2017.

www.garsingtonopera.org

Thursday 1 June – Sunday 30 July 2017

The main season will expand from three to four opera productions annually, and will see the start of a partnership with the Philharmonia Orchestra. In addition, next year  there will be a large scale, newly commissioned community opera involving 180 local people of all ages alongside professional singers and the Garsington Opera Orchestra.

1,3,9,15,24,30 June, 4 July  5.55pm

NEW PRODUCTION

SEMELE

George Frideric Handel

(sung in English)

Conductor  Jonathan Cohen

Director  Annilese Miskimmon

Designer  Nicky Shaw

Lighting Designer  Mark Jonathan

Cast

Heidi Stober, Robert Murray, Christine Rice, David Soar, Christopher Ainslie,

Llio Evans 

GARSINGTON OPERA ORCHESTRA & CHORUS

2,4,8,10, 17 June, 3,6,9,11,14,16 July  5.25pm

REVIVAL

LE NOZZE DI FIGARO

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

(sung in Italian)

Conductor Douglas Boyd

Director  John Cox

Associate Director Bruno Ravella

Designer  Robert Perdziola

Lighting Designer  Mark Jonathan

Cast

Joshua Bloom, Jennifer France, Duncan Rock, Kirsten MacKinnon, Marta Fontanals-Simmons, Stephen Richardson, Janis Kelly, Timothy Robinson, Alun Rhys-Jenkins

GARSINGTON OPERA ORCHESTRA & CHORUS

16, 18, 22, 25, 27 June, 1, 7 July  5.55pm                                                                      

NEW PRODUCTION

PELLÉAS ET MÉLISANDE

Claude Debussy

(sung in French)

Conductor Jac van Steen

Director  Michael Boyd

Designer  Tom Piper

Lighting Designer  Malcolm Rippeth

Cast

Jonathan McGovern, Andrea Carroll, Paul Gay, Brian Bannatyne-Scott,

Susan Bickley

PHILHARMONIA ORCHESTRA & GARSINGTON OPERA CHORUS

26, 29 June, 2,5,8,10,13,15 July  5.55pm

REVIVAL

IL TURCO IN ITALIA

Gioachino Rossini

(sung in Italianj

Conductor David Parry

Director  Martin Duncan

Designer  Francis O’Connor

Lighting Designer  Mark Jonathan

Movement Director  Nick Winston

Cast

Sarah Tynan, Luciano Botelho, Katie Bray, Quirijn de Lang, Geoffrey Dolton,

Mark Stone 

GARSINGTON OPERA ORCHESTRA AND CHORUS

28, 29, 30 July 7.30pm

NEW COMMISSION

SILVER BIRCH

Roxanna Panufnik

(sung in English)

Conductor Douglas Boyd

Director  Karen Gillingham

Designer  Rhiannon Newman Brown

Composer  Roxanna Panufnik

Librettist  Jessica Duchen

Movement Director  Natasha Khamjani

Cast

Sam Furness, Victoria Simmonds, Darren Jeffery, Bradley Travis, Sarah Redgwick, James Way and 180 members of the local community

GARSINGTON OPERA ORCHESTRA

Garsington Opera at Wormsley   Box Office  01865 361636

www.garsingtonopera.org

The BBC Proms, the world’s largest classical music festival, together with the BBC Symphony Orchestra and BBC Singers, has today announced it is going to Dubai for a four-day festival in March 2017.

Taking place from 21 to 24 March at Dubai Opera, part of the UK/UAE 2017 Year of Cultural Collaboration led by the British Council, BBC Proms Dubai will give audiences the opportunity to experience some of the music, talent and tradition the festival offers. Only the second time abroad, following the inaugural BBC Proms Australia in April 2016, this will be the first time the BBC Proms has travelled to the Middle East and will also mark the first visit to the UAE for the BBC Symphony Orchestra and the BBC Singers.

BBC Proms Dubai will host a rich programme including core classical repertoire, British music and new music, all accompanied by a full and varied schedule of learning activity in the region. Mohammed Fairouz’s music will feature in the festival alongside world premieres of works by Dubai-based British composer Joanna Marsh and Australian-Egyptian composer Joseph Tawadros.

BBC Proms favourites, conductor Edward Gardner and pianist Benjamin Grosvenor, will join the BBC Symphony Orchestra on stage, whilst James Burton leads the BBC Singers in two a cappella programmes of British choral music and the Joseph Tawadros Quartetlead their own Late Night Prom.

The series of six concerts will culminate in the traditional and wildly popular Last Night of the Proms, where Edward Gardner will lead the BBC Symphony Orchestra and BBC Singers performing Last Night favourites including Henry Wood’s Fantasia on British Sea-Songs, Thomas Arne’s Rule, Britannia! and Edward Elgar’s Pomp and Circumstance March No. 1.

In the spirit of the founding principle of the Proms – to bring the best of classical music to the widest possible audience – nearly 600 ‘Promming’ (standing) tickets will be made available each day for each concert, priced from just 50 dirhams (£10).

In collaboration with the UK/UAE 2017 Year of Cultural Collaboration led by the British Council, there will be a comprehensive learning programme across the four-day festival, with workshops, masterclasses and open rehearsals providing budding musicians and singers with the opportunity to develop their skills and engage with the performers. Activities include a workshop for the Arabian Youth Orchestra with players from the BBC Symphony Orchestra, a series of workshops for local adult and children’s choirs with the BBC Singers and a masterclass for chamber musicians at the Centre for Musical Arts in Dubai.

The BBC Proms Dubai concerts will be recorded for broadcast on BBC Radio 3.

Opens Wednesday 9 November at 7.00pm at the London Coliseum (5 performances)

In one of autumn’s most anticipated arts events, eminent South African artist William Kentridge makes his ENO directorial debut with this ‘provocative and visually stunning’ (New York Observer) production of Berg’s modernist 20th century masterpiece.

Kentridge locates his production to the period of the opera’s creation in the late 1920s and 1930s, using his own ink drawings to form part of the set and production design. This production has previously been seen in Amsterdam and New York where it was critically acclaimed.

A married woman, a mistress, a murderess and a prostitute who ends up as one of Jack the Ripper’s victims, Lulu is an enigmatic figure. A symbol of sexual desire and its ideal fulfilment, her trajectory from Viennese middle class respectability to her brutal end in a London garret is both harrowing and revealing.

Kentridge’s creative team comprises his co-director Luc de Wit, designer Sabine Theunissen, costume designer Greta Goiris, lighting designer Urs Schönebaum and video designer Catherine Meyburgh. Former ENO Music Director Mark Wigglesworth conducts.

Brenda Rae makes her ENO and role debut as  Berg’s femme fatale, Lulu. She has been a resident artist at Oper Frankfurt since 2008 and has performed with numerous opera companies including Santa Fe Opera, Bayerische Staatsoper Munich, Opéra National de Bordeaux, Théâtre de Champs-Elysées and Glyndebourne.

Acclaimed British mezzo soprano Sarah Connolly returns to ENO as Countess Geschwitz. She last sung with the Company in the title role of David McVicar’s production of Medea, a role that she sang ‘with total technical assurance and radiating baneful charisma’ (Daily Telegraph). Other appearances for ENO include La clemenza di tito (for which she won an Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement in Opera )Der Rosenkavalier,Agrippina, The Coronation of Poppea, The Rape of Lucretia, Xerxes and I Capuleti e I Montecchi.

Irish-Canadian tenor Michael Colvin makes his role debut as The Painter. He last appeared with ENO as Bob Boles in the revival of David Alden’s critically five star production of Peter Grimes. He has also performed in Madam Butterfly and The Turn of the Screw for the Company.

Eminent bass Willard White is Schigolch. Willard last appeared with ENO as Pope Clement VII in Terry Gilliam’s Benvenuto Cellini in June 2014. Other notable roles for ENO include the title role in Stein Wenge’s production of The Flying Dutchman, Kutuzov in War and Peace and Bottom in A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

American bass-baritone James Morris takes on the roles of Dr Schön and Jack the Ripper. He last appeared with ENO as The Doctor in Carrie Cracknell’s acclaimed production of Wozzeck in 2013, a role in which he exuded “an air of vocal gravitas and cynical manipulation” (Financial Times).

ENO Harewood Artist Nicky Spence makes his role debut as Dr Schön’s son Alwa. Nicky last appeared with ENO as Steva Buryja in the revival of David Alden’s five star production of Jen?fa in June 2016. Other roles with the Company include David in Richard Jones’s Olivier Award-winning production of The Mastersingers of Nuremberg, Francesco in Terry Gilliam’s production of Benvenuto Cellini and Brian in the world premiere of Nico Muhly’s Two Boys in 2011, a role he also reprised at the Metropolitan Opera in 2013.

The cast also includes David Soar (Animal Tamer/Athlete), Jeffrey Lloyd-Roberts (Prince/Manservant/Marquis), Clare Presland (Schoolboy/Dresser/Waiter), Graeme Danby (Theatre Director/Bank Director), Sarah Labiner (15 year old girl), Rebecca de Pont Davies (her mother), Sarah Champion (Female Artist), Geoffrey Dolton (Journalist), Joanna Dudley (Solo Performer) and Andrea Fabi (Solo Performer).

Lulu opens on Wednesday 9 November 2016 at 7.00pm for 5 performances – 9, 14, 17 November at 7.00pm, 12, 19 November at 6pm.

500 tickets for £20 or less are available for each performance. Tickets start from £12. www.eno.org

English National Opera (ENO) has announced that British conductor Martyn Brabbins will become Music Director of the Company with immediate effect.

An inspirational force in British music, Martyn Brabbins has had a busy opera career since his early days at the Kirov and more recently at La Scala, the BayerischeStaatsoper, and regularly in Lyon, Amsterdam, Frankfurt and Antwerp.  He is a popular figure at the BBC Proms and with most of the leading British orchestras, and regularly conducts top international orchestras, returning to the Royal Concertgebouw, Tokyo Metropolitan and Deutsche Sinfonieorchester Berlin this season.  Known for his advocacy of British composers, he has conducted hundreds of world premieres across the globe. He has recorded over 120 CDs to date, including prize-winning discs of operas by Korngold, Birtwistle and Harvey. He was Associate Principal Conductor of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra 1994-2005, Principal Guest Conductor of the Royal Flemish Philharmonic 2009-2015, Chief Conductor of the Nagoya Philharmonic 2012-2016, and Artistic Director of the Cheltenham International Festival of Music 2005-2007, and has this season taken up a new position as Visiting Professor at the Royal College of Music.

Brabbins’s performances of The Pilgrim’s Progress at ENO (2012) were conducted with “wonderful breadth and assurance” (The Guardian) and The Times praised his “exemplary musical direction”. His acclaimed performances of Tristan and Isoldewith Grange Park Opera (2016) caused The Observer to describe him as “a musician’s musician, he can turn his hand with ease and perception to anything.”

The appointment runs until August 2020, and  Brabbins will plan the 18/19 and 19/20 seasons together with ENO’s Artistic Director, Daniel Kramer. We are delighted that Brabbins will already be able to conduct one opera production (title to be announced) in 2017/8.

Speaking of his appointment to ENO from 21 October 2016, Martyn Brabbins said:

“With an orchestra and chorus of such exceptional calibre, and a musical legacy nurtured by the finest British conductors, from Reginald Goodall through to Mark Wigglesworth, I feel incredibly honoured to have been invited to join ENO and to become a part of this treasured British musical company.  It is quite an act to follow, and in a tough financial climate, but I am determined that ENO will continue to produce stimulating operatic performances of the highest musical quality at the London Coliseum.  I look forward to working with Daniel, Cressida, and with my dedicated and hugely knowledgeable colleagues in every department at ENO to achieve this.”

Wednesday 16 November at 7.00pm at the London Coliseum

Over the last four decades Jonathan Miller’s much-loved productions have been at the heart of ENO’s work. From his insightful The Marriage of Figaro in 1978 to his charming and witty The Elixir of Love in 2010, Jonathan has provided the company with fifteen productions, many of them now staples of our repertoire. Only last season his classic productions ofThe Barber of Seville and The Mikado returned to our stage. In 2015 The Mikado celebrated its 200th show, with over 20,000 people attending this run of performances. In February 2017 his legendary ‘Mafia’ production of Rigoletto will be seen once again at the London Coliseum.

For one night only ENO celebrates this great director’s phenomenal contribution to the Company. Some of the UK’s best loved opera singers will come together to perform excerpts from many of his productions  including The Mikado, Rigoletto,The Barber of Seville, The Elixir of Love, The Marriage of Figaro, La traviata, Tosca and Carmen. The evening also offers a rare chance to enjoy a series of filmed interviews with the man himself.

The all British cast features representatives from some of the productions first performances through to the latest generation of artists to have benefitted from Miller’s experience.  Performances include Bonaventura Bottone performing ‘Wand’ring Minstrel’ (The Mikado), Alan Opie with Germont’s aria ‘The sea and soil of Provence’ ( La traviata), Andrew Shore with ‘To a doctor of my class’ (The Barber of Seville) and Richard Suart with his infamous ‘Little List’ (The Mikado). They are joined by a host of ENO favourites including Peter Auty, Susan Bullock, Graeme Danby, Jean Rigby, Mark Richardson, Sarah Tynan and Roland Wood alongside ENO’s award-winning chorus and orchestra conducted by Peter Robinson and Martin Fitzpatrick.

For almost 40 years audiences at the London Coliseum have been thrilled and delighted, moved and entertained by more than 1,000 performances of Jonathan’s work. This special evening offers an opportunity to relive many of those wonderful moments whilst fundraising for ENO’s world-class work.