Garsington Opera’s production of La Périchole will be screened live to a beach in the UK for the first time ever, as part of the largest arts and culture festival on the East Coast, SO Festival in Skegness.
The production, which is part of Garsington Opera’s season, is directed by Jeremy Sams, the director behind The Sound of Music and The Wizard of Oz in London’s West End. The performance is a free event and will be broadcast by satellite from the Garsington Opera Pavilion at Wormsley to a large festival screen at 7.45pm on Sunday 1 July. There will be pre show street theatre and music performances and the Opera will be followed by a spectacular firework display over the sea.
La Périchole, a hugely fun and bubbly comedy which will be performed in English, is set in the 1940s in Cuba, follows the highs and lows of the heroine Périchole, an impoverished Peruvian street singer.
Families are encouraged to come along to the central beach in Skegness, bring a picnic and enjoy an evening of world-class opera. A selection of front row beach deck chairs will be provided for the early arrivals. Local fish and chips, ice creams and refreshments will be for sale from restaurants and food stalls close by.
Anthony Whitworth-Jones, General Director of Garsington Opera, comments: “We are delighted to form a link with the enterprising SO Festival in Skegness with the live screening of our performance of La Périchole. It is thrilling that this event, promoted by East Lindsey District Council will enable a large audience to experience opera, perhaps for the first time, and will be part of the official Cultural Olympiad”.
Public booking is now open for the 2012 season that runs from 2 June to 3 July and features Vivaldi’s rarely performed L’Olimpiade, Offenbach’s charming opera bouffe La Périchole and Mozart’s Don Giovanni . The season will, for the second year running, be supported by Jefferies, a leading global investment banking firm.
For more information about SO Festival please visit www.sofestival.org or contact Lorrie Stock on 01507 613456 or email sofestival@e-lindsey.gov.uk