Garsington Opera is delighted to announce that it has been commissioned by Arts Council England in partnership with East Lindsey District Council to deliver an exciting programme of free opera throughout the country.

Arts Council England has approved £750,000 for the Opera for All programme which will deliver free public screenings, together with extensive education projects, from Garsington Opera. The screenings will take place in the North, South East, South West and Midlands, including East Lindsey. A large-scale programme of education and outreach work is firmly integrated with the digital free public screenings and will provide ground breaking opportunities for communities to be involved in creating and learning about opera.

The project will be delivered through members of the Coastal Communities Alliance (CCA), which has identified areas of low engagement with the arts for the project to target, remaining a key strategic partner for the delivery of the programme.    The project will establish a new network of touring partners through the Coastal Communities Alliance in areas with little existing access to live performance, enabling high quality art to continue to be presented in these regions after the initial three-year period.

In 2012, Offenbach’s La Périchole was broadcast live to Skegness from Garsington Opera, with Sir Terry Wogan as compere. Following this success, in 2013 the SO Festival presented a relay of Humperdinck’s Hänsel and Gretel and in 2014 Offenbach’s Vert-Vert, both from Garsington Opera. Educational projects took place in support of these free screens.

Douglas Boyd, Artistic Director said:

“We are thrilled that Arts Council England is supporting the Opera for All project, which will be delivered in partnership with East Lindsey District Council and the Coastal Communities Alliance. To be able to reach new audiences through extensive education work and free opera screenings in areas that have limited engagement with the arts is vital and will have an enormous impact in the various communities who will participate in the project, as well as for access to opera and the arts nationwide.

This news comes at an exciting time in Garsington Opera’s development as we continue to strive for the very highest quality of production and performance in our award-winning new opera house at Wormsley. We are passionate about sharing our work with the widest possible audience and both this project and the continued work of our brilliant education team clearly demonstrates that what we do off the platform is as important as what we do on it.

Elizabeth Zharoff makes her UK debut in the first revival of Peter Konwitschny’s Olivier Award-nominated La traviata.

Described by The Guardian as a ‘totally convincing piece of music theatre’, this production was nominated for the Olivier Award for Best New Opera production in 2013.

Making her UK debut in the role of Violetta, which launched the European career of soprano Corinne Winters in 2013, is young superstar soprano Elizabeth Zharoff. Fast emerging as one of opera’s most exciting young artists, Zharoff was a member of the Junges Ensemble at the Semperoper Dresden in their 2012-13 season, where she performed the role of Violetta for the first time. 2015 will also see her create the role of Esther in the world premiere of Ricky Ian Gordon’s Morning Star at Cincinnati Opera.

ENO Harewood Artist and Wigmore Hall Emerging Talent Ben Johnson returns as Alfredo. His previous performances in the role were sung ‘with lovely lyricism’ (The Observer). He was most recently seen at the London Coliseum singing the role of Tamino in Simon McBurney’s production of The Magic Flute, where he sang ‘superbly throughout’ (Daily Express). In 2013 he was awarded the Audience Prize at the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World.

British mezzo soprano and former ENO Opera Works student Clare Presland will sing the role of Flora while acclaimed British baritone Anthony Michaels-Moore, who sang the role ‘with real style’ in 2013 (The Arts Desk), revisits the role of Germont. Paul Hopwood (Gaston), Matthew Hargreaves (Baron Douphol), Charles Johnston (Marquis d’Obigny), Martin Lamb (Dr Grenvil) and Valerie Reid (Annina) will also revive their roles from the 2013 performances.

La traviata will be conducted by Roland Böer. Music Director of the Cantiere Internazionale d’Arte in Montepulciano, he first appeared at the London Coliseum in 2005, where he ‘thrillingly conducted’ (Financial Times) David McVicar’s production of La clemenza di Tito.

La traviata opens at the London Coliseum on Monday 9^th February for 9 performances – Feb 9, 13, 17, 20, 24, 27 & Mar 5, 11, 13 at 7.30pm.

Tickets from £12-£115
Running time: 1 hour 50 minutes

Pre-performance talk 13 Feb, 5.15-6pm, £5/£2.50 concessions

Broadcast live in cinemas across UK and Ireland, and selected cinemas worldwide, as part of ENO Screen on 11^th March 2015

Friday 5 June – Sunday 26 July 2015

Three new productions and the first collaboration on a joint project with the Royal Shakespeare Company in an abridged version of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream with Mendelssohn’s incidental music.

Così fan tutte

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (sung in Italian)

Conductor Douglas Boyd  Director John Fulljames  Designer Dick Bird

Cast Andreea Soare, Kathryn Rudge, Ashley Riches, Robin Tritschler, Lesley Garrett, Neal Davies

5, 7, 13, 19, 22, 25, 28 June & 3, 8, 11 July. Start time 5.40pm

Intermezzo

Richard Strauss  (sung in English)

Conductor Jac van Steen Director Bruno Ravella Designer Giles Cadle

Cast  Kate Valentine, Mark Stone, Ailish Tynan, Sam Furness, Benjamin Bevan, Sarah Redgwick, Oliver Johnston, James Cleverton, Gerard Collett, Barnaby Rea

6, 8, 14, 20, 26 June & 2, 5, 7, 9 July. Start time 6pm

Death in Venice

Benjamin Britten

(sung in English)

Conductor Steuart Bedford

Director Paul Curran

Designer Kevin Knight

Cast  Paul Nilon, William Dazeley, Tom Verney, Joshua Owen Mills, Henry Manning

21, 23, 27 June & 1, 4, 10 July. Start time 6pm

Garsington Opera Orchestra & Chorus

A Midsummer Night’s Dream

William Shakespeare’s play (abridged)

with incidental music by Felix Mendelssohn

Royal Shakespeare Company under the creative guidance of Gregory Doran

Conductor Douglas Boyd

RSC Actors, Garsington Opera Orchestra & Chorus

16, 17, 18 July at Wormsley. Start time 6.30pm

26 July at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon. Start time 7.30pm

Garsington Opera at Wormsley General enquiries 01865 361636

www.garsingtonopera.org

Experimental pianist  is to become the first artist in residence at Brighton Dome’s earsthetic festival (8-13 December) – an annual celebration of artists who break new ground with their symbiosis of sound and visuals – following a successful funding award from Arts Council England.

The musician, who invented the ‘Inside-Out Piano’; a sculptural feast of an instrument on which she creates her own music, will present two pieces of work as part of the mini-season of interdisciplinary performance which returns to Brighton Dome for the second time this year. Meshing together visual art, new electronic music and experimental soundscapes, this year’s bill also includes a mixture of live shows, DJ sets and installations from analogue heroes Simian Mobile Disco, electroclash and multimedia artistsChicks on Speed, abstract techno-merchants Emptyset and composer and artist Claudia Molitor.

Sarah Nicolls – Inside Out Piano (8-13 Dec) will see the artist inviting members of the public to play her original creation in a fully interactive installation in Brighton Dome foyer. Visitors can discover their own favourite sound, take their photo with this unique instrument and also see Sarah play it herself in a series of short intervention performances. On 10 December Nicolls will then perform Moments of weightlessness: Pendulum Piano; a brand new commission specially created for earsthetic featuring her second Inside-Out Piano which includes has surprising extra characteristics. Calling on parallels between her exploration of new instrument and her own journey into motherhood, this live show promises to be visually, narratively and sonically breath-taking. Expect to see a piano swinging in mid-air, to hear the achingly beautiful melodies and textures of Sarah’s piano-songs and to contemplate the intense moments of life where everything seems to stop still.

earsthetic will also play host to The Works (8 Dec); a regular night at Brighton Dome that provides a chance for theatre makers, dancers, choreographers and musicians to present their cross-artform and interdisciplinary work in development. This special earsthetic edition is particularly focussed on presenting work by musicians and visually led artists. Hosted and facilitated by dramaturg Lou Cope and Sarah Nicolls, a handful of artists will be selected to present short 10-15 minute excerpts of site-specific work in development; offering opportunity for them to seek the opinions of the audience they wish to attract, and an opportunity for people who care about performance to engage in collective dramaturgy and development.

Details & tickets www.brightondome.org

Peter Sellars returns to English National Opera to direct the world staged premiere of John Adams’s The Gospel According To The Other Mary as part of his role as the Director-in-Residence of the 14/15 season. Commissioned in 2012 by Gustavo Dudamel and the LA Philharmonic, The Other Mary has been performed in concert around the world, including at the Barbican in March 2013 to great critical acclaim. The Guardian described the performance at the Barbican as “vivid and immaculate…a remarkable occasion”.

The Other Mary continues the long-time creative collaboration between ENO, Peter Sellars and John Adams. Sellars’ “unmissable” (Evening Standard) production of Adams’s Nixon in China was presented by ENO in 2000 (revived in 2006) and Doctor Atomic, a“landmark work” (The Observer) with a libretto by Sellars, was directed by Penny Woolcock in 2009.

Like John Adams’s opera-oratorio El Niño, the Nativity work to which The Other Mary is a companion piece, the text has been created by weaving together an assortment of literary extracts – ranging from both Old and New Testaments to a variety of twentieth-century writers. Sellars described the work as an attempt to “set the Passion story in the eternal present, in the tradition of sacred art”, and so the narrative continuously attempts to combine the Biblical past with themes and references that remain relevant to a contemporary audience. The story unfolds from the point of view of Mary Magdalene, her sister Martha and their brother Lazarus.

Making her ENO debut, The Other Mary is conducted by Joana Carneiro. In 2010, Carneiro led performances of Peter Sellars’s stagings of Stravinsky’s Oedipus Rex and Symphony of Psalms at the Sydney Festival, which won Australia’s Helpmann Award for Best Symphony Orchestra Concert in 2010. Carneiro is currently Music Director of Berkeley Symphony and in January 2014 she was appointed Principal Conductor of the Orquesta Sinfonica Portuguesa.

Set Designer George Tsypin is a sculptor, architect and designer of opera, film and video. Tyspin was Artistic Director, Production Designer and Co-author of the script for the Opening Ceremony of the Winter Olympic Games in Sochi in 2014.

Completing the creative team is Gabriel Berry (Costume Designer), James F. Ingalls (Lighting Designer) and Mark Gray (Sound Designer).

Playing the role of Mary Magdalene is Patricia Bardon. In 2008, Bardon sang the roles of Rosmira in Partenope and Maurya in Riders to the Sea, for which she nominated for an Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement in Opera.

American contralto Meredith Arwady plays the role of Martha. Arwardy made her UK debut as Pasqualita in John Adams’s Doctor Atomic for ENO in 2009.

The Gospel According To The Other Mary opens at the London Coliseum on 21 November 2014 for 6 performances – 21, 25, 27 November and 3, 5 December at 7.30pm and 29 November, 6.30pm

Celebrated opera director Richard Jones returns to ENO to direct the first of two productions this season, following his ‘rapturously received’ (Daily Telegraph) success with Handel’s Rodelinda in February 2014. This new production of Puccini’s ‘American’ opera set in the Wild West during the Californian gold rush will be ENO’s first for 50 years with the great British soprano Susan Bullock making her stage debut in the title role. Leading the ENO orchestra and all-male chorus, experienced opera conductor Keri-Lynn Wilson makes her British debut.

Richard Jones collaborates with designer Miriam Buether to create a stark and claustrophobic setting, highlighting the desperation and sacrifice felt by the community of miners who live there. Costume designs reflective of the period are by Nicky Gillibrand. The translation is by Kelley Rourke, whose translation for ENO’s The Elixir of Love was praised as it ‘goes all out to capture the vernacular of the time and works rather brilliantly’ (Daily Telegraph). Lighting designer Mimi Jordan Sherin and choreographer Lucy Burge complete the creative team.

Canadian conductor Keri-Lynn Wilson makes her UK operatic debut. She previously conducted the opera in Montreal in 2008.

Leading the cast of outstanding singers is British soprano Susan Bullock who makes her stage debut as Minnie. She previously sang the role in concert at the 2010 Edinburgh Festival with the Daily Telegraph describing her performance as ‘tremendous’

British tenor Peter Auty makes his debut in the role of the bandit Dick Johnson. Peter’s professional musical career started at the tender age of 13, when as a choir boy at St Paul’s Cathedral he was chosen to sing ‘Walking in the Air’, the theme to the 1982 animated film of The Snowman.

American bass baritone Craig Colclough makes his European and role debut as the Sheriff Jack Rance. He started his career at LA Opera before joining Florida Grand Opera’s Young Artist Studio. In 2012 he became a Filene Young Artist at the Wolf Trap Opera company. He has also performed with Arizona Opera.

British tenor Graham Clark and Richard Roberts share the role of Nick.

Making their ENO and role debuts are young British tenor Sam Furness as the miner Joe, British bass Nicholas Crawley as the miner Larkens and Anglo French baritone Charles Rice as the miner Handsome.

The Girl of the Golden West opens at the London Coliseum on Thursday 2 October for 9 performances – 2, 10, 15, 22, 24, 27, 30 October at 7.30pm, 18 October and 1 November at 6.30pm

Pre-performance talk, 15 October 5.45-6.30pm £5/£2.50 concessions

Opening Thursday 2 October 2014, 7.30pm at London Coliseum (9 performances)

A co-production with Santa Fe Opera

THE SCHUBERT PROJECT
BRINGING SCHUBERT’S VIENNA TO OXFORD

10 October – 1 November 2014

Many of the world’s greatest musicians arrive in Oxford this October to take part in The Schubert Project – the UK’s first complete performance of Schubert’s songs, and a world first in the scope of a single festival. Around this unparalleled body of work – some 650 songs by the age of just 31 – the city of Oxford will be buzzing with other Lieder Festival events planned to illuminate the songs and bring to life the world that Schubert inhabited.

The Festival is launched with a stellar cast of tenors and baritones (John Mark Ainsley, Joshua Ellicott, James Gilchrist,Daniel Norman / Neal Davies, William Dazeley, Stephan Loges, Christopher Maltman) joined by mezzo sopranoSarah Connolly for songs, partsongs and the exquisite serenade, Zögernd leise (10 Oct).  In more than 60 concerts, singers include Sir Thomas Allen (25 Oct), Ian Bostridge (16 Oct), Christiane Karg (21 Oct), Susan Gritton (26 Oct),Dietrich Henschel (17 Oct), Robert Holl (28 Oct), Wolfgang Holzmair (30 Oct), Sophie Karthäuser (11 Oct), Angelika Kirchschlager (29 Oct), Jonathan Lemalu (1 Nov), Mark Padmore (24 Oct), Christoph Prégardien (19 Oct),Maximilian Schmitt (28 Oct), Sylvia Schwartz (11 Oct), Birgid Steinberger (11 Oct), Kate Royal (13 Oct) andRoderick Williams (15 Oct), alongside emerging stars including Allan Clayton, Anna Lucia Richter, Martin Haessler, Christoph Pohl and many others. They will be joined by the world’s leading pianists, including Thomas Adès, Eugene Asti, Imogen Cooper, Julius Drake, Bengt Forsberg, Graham Johnson, Malcolm Martineau, Roger Vignoles &Justus Zeyen. In addition, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, the Doric String Quartet and the Schubert Ensemble will be performing key chamber works.

The Bodleian Library will show several Schubert manuscripts; the Ashmolean Museum will host live music events and a specially-devised audio guide; there will be four performances of  a new play by Iain Burnside; Schubert’s sacred musicwill resound around college chapels; the Botanic Gardens will collaborate on a study event looking at Schubert’s relationship with nature; a pop-up theatre will recreate a famous Schubert gathering; and local restaurants will feature Viennese food and wine. Masterclasses, talks and workshops abound, and the Festival will stretch to all corners of the city from Christopher Wren’s Sheldonian Theatre and Europe’s oldest concert hall – the Holywell Music Room – to the contemporary settings of the O’Reilly Theatre, the Phoenix Cinema and the recently-restored Ashmolean Museum.