NEW CARMEN MARKS OPERA NORTH’S RETURN TO NOTTINGHAM

 

This November brings the long-awaited return of Opera North to the Theatre Royal Nottingham, with the Company’s first full live season and tour since the beginning of the pandemic.

 

The season opens on Wednesday 17 November with Opera North’s first new production of Carmen in over a decade. With its themes of femininity, desire, violence and toxic masculinity, Bizet’s passionate masterpiece continues to resonate strongly with audiences today, ensuring it remains one of the most popular operas of all time. Edward Dick returns to the Company to direct the production following his critically-acclaimed Tosca in 2018: “Essentially, I want to harness the raw energy of the music, whilst creating a production that makes an audience think about the attitudes that are embedded in the opera.” American mezzo-soprano Chrystal E. Williams makes her Opera North debut in the title role alongside American tenor Erin Caves as Don José.

 

Leonard Bernstein takes centre-stage the following day, when a double-bill of his works explores the tensions which can arise in both a relationship and in society at large. His one-act opera Trouble in Tahiti puts the American Dream under the spotlight, as the cracks begin to show in Sam and Dinah’s seemingly perfect marriage in 1950s suburbia. First performed as part of Opera North’s Little Greats season of short operas in 2017, this revival, directed by Matthew Eberhardt, sees baritone Quirijn de Lang returning in the role of Sam, with American mezzo Sandra Piques Eddy joining him as Dinah.

 

Paired with Trouble in Tahiti is a new co-production of West Side Story Symphonic Dances in collaboration with Phoenix Dance Theatre. West Side Story is a landmark of musical theatre and Bernstein’s standalone Symphonic Dances extracted from the show are packed with mambos, waltzes and cha-chas. Conducted by Antony Hermus, Opera North’s Principal Guest Conductor, and choreographed by Phoenix Dance Theatre’s recently appointed Artistic Director Dane Hurst, Symphonic Dances is an entirely new dance work which responds to these rhythms as dancers navigate the rough edges and walls of city life, exploring conflict and the need to connect.

The double bill will be complemented by a short spoken word performance, Halfway and Beyond, by poet, writer and performer Khadijah Ibrahiim.

To encourage people of all ages to give opera a go, Under 30s can watch a performance for just £10 a ticket, while newcomers to opera can book up to two tickets for £20 each through Opera North’s popular Try it ON scheme.

Audio Described performances of each production are also being offered, including a pre-show touch tour where blind and visually impaired audience members are allowed access to the stage to touch and get closer to the sets and costumes.  For the Bernstein Double Bill, audio description and touch tours are available for the performance on Thursday 18 November; and for Carmen on Friday 19 November. Places for the touch tour are free but must be booked in advance.

CARMEN                                                                                 

Georges Bizet

New production, sung in French with English titles

Wed 17 Nov                                    7.00pm

Fri 19 Nov                                       7.00pm               Audio-described

Bizet’s masterpiece of sexual obsession and self-destruction is enduringly popular for many reasons, not the least of which is its brilliantly characterful score. It’s the story of a woman on the margins of society, driven by a fierce, uncompromising desire for personal liberty, and of a man who, in the grip of sexual obsession, tries to own her.

The opera’s frank sensuality, stark emotional realism and brutal violence outraged many in its first audiences, and it was widely condemned for its perceived immorality. Almost 150 years later, Carmen presents a new challenge to contemporary sensibilities, whilst Bizet’s music – overflowing with passion, colour, energy and unforgettable melody – continues to mesmerise.

Edward Dick directs the Company’s first Carmen in more than a decade, following Tosca (2018) and Hansel and Gretel (2017). American mezzo-soprano Chrystal E. Williams makes her role and Company debut as Carmen. Her recent engagements include her Metropolitan Opera debut, as Maketaten in Philip Glass’sAkhnaten, and the title role in Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk for Birmingham Opera. She is joined by Erin Caves* who makes his Company debut as Don José.

Cast and creative team includes:

Carmen                                            Chrystal E. Williams

Don José                                         Eric Caves*

Micaela                                             Camila Titinger

Escamillo                                         Phillip Rhodes

Frasquita                                         Amy Freston

Mercedes                                         Helen Évora

Morales                                            Christopher Nairne

Remendado                                    Stuart Laing

Dancairo                                          Dean Robinson

Zuniga                                              Matthew Stiff

Lilas Pastia                               Nando Messias

 

*Replacing Rafael Rojas, who has had to withdraw from the current run due to the effects of long Covid.

Conductor                                       Harry Sever            

Director                                            Edward Dick

Set Designer                                   Colin Richmond

Costume Designer                       Laura Hopkins

Lighting Designer                   Rick Fisher

Choreographer                              Lea Anderson

Fight Director                               Claire Llewellyn of Rc-Annie Ltd

 

Bernstein double bill

 

Thu 18 Nov                                     7.00pm               Audio-described

Sat 20 Nov                                      7.00pm

 

TROUBLE IN TAHITI                                                                           

Leonard Bernstein

Revival

In a double-bill with West Side Story Symphonic Dances

Sung in English with English titles

The American Dream turns suffocatingly sour in Bernstein’s unsparing examination of a marriage falling apart in 1950s suburbia. Sam and Dinah appear to have the perfect life in their ‘little white house’. But their growing failure to connect exposes a mutual feeling that they are trapped in a life that has turned into a lie.

Bernstein’s score is heavily influenced by the syncopated rhythms of jazz and by the distinctive American vernacular of musicals and the movies. A highlight of Opera North’s Little Greats season of short operas in 2017, Matthew Eberhardt’s production of Trouble in Tahiti is deeply touching, whilst giving full value to the Hollywood pizzazz of Dinah’s showpiece number ‘Island Magic’.

 

Baritone Quirijn de Lang (Count Almaviva, The Marriage of Figaro; Fred Graham Kiss Me, Kate) returns as Sam, joined as Dinah for this revival by American mezzo Sandra Piques Eddy, whose previous roles at Opera North have included the title roles in Carmen (2011) and The Coronation of Poppea (2014).

                                                         

Cast and creative team includes:

Sam                                                   Quirijn de Lang

Dinah                                                Sandra Piques Eddy

Trio                                                    Laura Kelly-McInroy

                                                            Joseph Shovelton

                                                            Nicholas Butterfield

Conductor                                       Antony Hermus                 
Director                                            Matthew Eberhardt

Set designer                                    Charles Edwards

Costume designer                        Hannah Clark

Lighting designer                    Charles Edwards/ Ben Pickersgill

 

WEST SIDE STORY SYMPHONIC DANCES           

Leonard Bernstein                                                                                                 

 

New production, opens Sat 16 October

In a double-bill with Trouble in Tahiti

 

A collaboration with Phoenix Dance Theatre

At a stroke, Bernstein’s West Side Story redefined musical theatre when it opened on Broadway in 1957. It broke new ground in several ways, not least in responding to the newly contemporary issue of gang violence in American cities, and in the way that the storytelling was driven by dance.

Bernstein himself arranged the Symphonic Dances from West Side Story as a work to stand on its own terms, free of the story of the show from which the music is derived. This new dance work, choreographed by Phoenix Dance Theatre’s recently appointed Artistic Director Dane Hurst, interprets Bernstein’s thrilling, poignant music outside of the narrative of West Side Story, exploring conflict and the need to connect, but also the dream of a better life, somewhere…

This is the second major collaboration between Opera North and Leeds-based, internationally renowned, Phoenix Dance Theatre, following our hugely successful work together in 2019 on Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring. Principal Guest Conductor Antony Hermus conducts both productions in the Bernstein Double Bill.

Creative team includes:

Conductor                                       Antony Hermus                 
Choreographer                              Dane Hurst
Set designer                                    Charles Edwards
Costume designer                        Ana Inés Jabares-Pita
Associate Designer                      Caitlin Abbott
Lighting designer                         Kieron Johnson

HALFWAY AND BEYOND

The double bill will be complemented by a short, spoken word performance, Halfway and Beyond, a poetic dialogue between nature and consciousness, the concept of identity and the notion of belonging.

Writer/performer                         Khadijah Ibrahiim