Martin ThomassonThe nice woman working security at the Lowry approaches me with her metal-detecting device.“Do you have a pacemaker,” she asks. “I don’t think so.” This is not to be found on anyone’s list of Sensible Answers. What was I thinking? That some rogue...
I posted a photograph on social media last night, showing the musicians starting to take their seats on stage at the Lowry’s Lyric theatre. You can also make out how thinly populated the auditorium is. “Sparse,” a friend of mine commented. Indeed...
Moses KabungaKurt Weil’s dramatic opera, Street Scene was awarded the inaugural Tony Award for Best Original Score in 1947. It’s based on a play by Elmer Rice and charts the events that take place over two days in the slums of a New York district. Trailer The...
Georgina WellsThe night of Opera North’s performance of The Turn of the Screw at The Lowry was a dark and stormy one, fitting weather conditions for the Benjamin Britten opera based on Henry James’ ghostly short story. The set up is, to an extent, familiar: a...
Lorraine Worsley-CarterIt’s Figaro’s wedding day – or is it? Poor, honest to the core, Figaro, is as a happy man, as any prospective groom would expect to be on his wedding day. That is, until he realises his master, Count Almaviva, to whom he is deeply loyal, holds...
Carmel ThomasonTim Albery’s critically acclaimed 2012 production of Handel’s Egyptian epic, Giulio Cesare (Julius Caesar) is just as thrilling in this latest revival from Opera North. Opera North’s production of Handel’s Giulio Cesare Heather Lowe as Sesto and...
Michael Barker-Caven’s able revival of Phyllida Lloyd’s 1993 production of La Bohème for Opera North, gives us a layered and richly rewarding take on Puccini’s classic tale of bohemian Paris. Lloyd’s transposition of this late Victorian tale to the...
Love to sing? Sing ON is a chance to learn from the best, at an afternoon workshop with the critically-acclaimed Chorus of Opera North at The Lowry. The event is suitable for adult singers of all abilities, with no requirement to read music or to...
Opera North may have found the perfect cultural response for our fast-paced digital age – ballet and opera in one evening. The pairing of Stravinsky’s ballet The Rite of Spring with Puccini’s one-act opera, Gianni Schicchi at first seems an unusual...
James Brining can usually be found in the director’s chair at the Leeds Playhouse where he’s been Artistic Director for the last six years. This month, however, sees him take the plunge into the world of opera, directing The Magic Flute in a...
