There are likely many reasons why Ruddigore is one of the lesser performed works of Gilbert and Sullivan. But audience enjoyment is not one of them. There was a palpable lightness in the Lowry’s large Lyric auditorium for Opera North’s high energy...
Ellen Kent has been touring operas for donkey’s years (32 years, to be precise), and I’ve been watching them throughout that time. There are certain things you can bank on with this company. If you start out fearing opera is pretentious, an Ellen...
Puccini’s Madama Butterfly continues to pull the crowds; partly, of course, because of the maestro’s music, but also because it is a simple, truthful story, based (albeit at some creative distance) upon real life events. The entire opera is set at...
This extravagant production of Verdi’s La Traviata arrives at The Lowry at the end of its run for Opera North, and this last week of shows bursts with the energy of a final hurrah. Verdi’s La Traviata (The Fallen Woman) has long been one of the most...
The 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...
Kurt 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...
The 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...
It’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...
Tim 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...
Carmel Thomason
Martin Thomasson
Moses Kabunga
Georgina Wells
Lorraine Worsley-Carter