Mark Davoren, Author at North West End UK

15Dec

By Mark DavorenNo Comments

REVIEWS

Andréa Chenier – Metropolitan Opera

Nicolas Joël’s staging of Umberto Giordano’s epic verismo opera of revolution and forbidden love is brought back to life by Revival Director J. Knighten Smit with the orchestra under the baton of Daniele Rustioni in his first season as Principal Guest Conductor at the Metropolitan Opera. At a glittering party in 18th-century Paris there are distinctly two tiers of society on display from the lowly footman Gérard (Igor Golovatenko) who follows in the footsteps of his father who has been in service for sixty years, to the sumptuous host, Contessa di Coigny (Nancy Fabiola Herrera), whose daughter Maddalena (Sonya Yoncheva) straddles both as she eschews the fancy dress and faux manners in favour of intellectual discussion, so when the poet Andréa Chenier (Piotr Beczała) delivers an impa...

Tannhäuser – Sofia Opera and Ballet, Bulgaria

3Dec

By Mark DavorenNo Comments

REVIEWS

Tannhäuser – Sofia Opera and Ballet, Bulgaria

This summer’s Sofia Opera Wagner Festival was bookended by performances of Richard Wagner’s Tannhäuser so it was fitting to see a winter revival from director Plamen Kartaloff and a lovely prelude to next summer’s Wagner Festival where it will once again feature alongside Der Ring des Nibelungen. Tannhäuser (Martin Iliev) awakens in Venus’ (Radostina Nikolaeva) embrace at her cave where she reveals to him the wonders of her kingdom, but when he utters the name of the Holy Mary, her spell is broken. The pilgrims’ hymns echo through the valley of Wartburg as the men travel towards Rome and Tannhäuser decides to join them and beg for forgiveness for his sins. Herman (Petar Buchkov), the landgrave of Thuringia, arrives accompanied by many of the most famous minnesängers. Wolfram (Ventses...

Medea – Ivan Vazov National Theatre, Sofia, Bulgaria

26Nov

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REVIEWS

Medea – Ivan Vazov National Theatre, Sofia, Bulgaria

Cheek by Jowl do what they do best as director Declan Donnellan and designer Nick Ormerod thrust us into the heart of Euripides' great tragedy with an intelligent and immersive in-the-round production which takes the challenges of an ancient past and reimagines them in the here and now, with this production performed in Bulgarian, translated from the Greek by Dorothea Tabaskova, and with English surtitles, translated from the Greek by Lucinda Dawkins. Jason (Velislav Pavlov) is set to marry the daughter of Creon, King of Corinth (Valentin Ganev), yet the talk of the Chorus (Radena Valkanova, Joreta Nikolova, Stafania Koleva, Elena Ivanova, Nadya Keranova, Ana Papadopolu) is less about this occasion and more in concern to Jason's ex-wife, Medea (Radina Kardzhilova) who is present f...

The Tempest – Ivan Vazov National Theatre, Sofia, Bulgaria

26Nov

By Mark DavorenNo Comments

REVIEWS

The Tempest – Ivan Vazov National Theatre, Sofia, Bulgaria

The term legacy is often over used but the work of experimental theatre director Robert Wilson who sadly passed away earlier this year is rightfully celebrated with his production of Shakespeare's celebrated play that lends itself perfectly to his innovative exploration of time and space on stage. Opening to the travails of a ship at sea, we meet Prospero (Vesslin Mezekliev) and his daughter Miranda (Zhaklin Daskalova), and learn how 12 years ago his brother, with assistance from Naples, had usurped him as Duke of Milan. Put to sea in a rotten boat, they washed up on a distant island inhabited only by the son of a witch, Caliban (Yavor Valkanov), and a spirit, Ariel (Vasilena Vincenzo). Since then, Prospero has ruled the island and its two inhabitants using magic arts and having divined...

24Nov

By Mark DavorenNo Comments

REVIEWS

Arabella – The Metropolitan Opera

Dylan Evans’ revival of Otto Schenk’s masterpiece brings the glamour and enchantment of 19th Century Vienna back to the Met with Strauss’ elegant romantic lyric comedy in three acts. Count Waldner (Brindley Sherratt) and his wife, Countess Adelaide Waldner (Karen Cargill) have fallen on hard times, much because of his love of gambling and her loftier aspirations, although a fortune teller (Eve Gigliotti) suggests things may be about to change by marrying their eldest daughter into money. Unable to afford the expense of marrying off two daughters, the younger one, Zdenka (Louis Alder) has been brought up as a boy, and whilst older sister Arabella (Rachel Willis- Sørensen) is much admired, it in fact Zdenka who has fallen in love with one of her rejected suitors, Matteo (Pavol Breslik)...

18Nov

By Mark DavorenNo Comments

North West

Susanna – The Lowry

Director Olivia Fuchs and Choreographer Marcus Jarrell Willis combine perfectly with this fourth major collaboration between Opera North and Phoenix Dance Theatre delivering an all-too prescient take on Handel’s celebrated Biblical operetta whose themes of chastity, integrity, and corruption are explored in terms of power, gender, and judgement. Susanna (Anna Dennis) and Joacim (James Hall) celebrate their love for one another while her father, Chelsias (Matthew Brook), shares in their happiness, before Joacim is called away on business leaving Susanna with a sense of foreboding. Two elder statesmen (Colin Judson; Karl Huml) confess their lust for Susanna to each other, and when she seeks respite from the heat of the day by taking a bath in her garden, they first spy on her then, whe...

14Nov

By Mark DavorenNo Comments

North West

La Bohème – The Lowry

Phyllida Lord’s classic production, designed by Anthony Ward, is one of the longest running at Opera North having been in their repertoire since 1993. James Hurley’s current revival is big on the comedy but sadly fails to hit the high notes that this staple of the operatic calendar deserves. With the action transposed to late 1950’s Paris, we meet four struggling bohemians living in a garret: a poet, Rodolfo (Anthony Ciaramitaro); a painter, Marcello (Yurly Yurchuk); a philosopher, Colline (Han Kim); and a musician, Schaunard (Seán Boylan), who arrives having had some good fortune and they agree to celebrate by dining at Café Momus. They are interrupted by their landlord, Benoît (Jeremy Peaker), but cleverly trick him into revealing he has been playing around which allows them to throw ...

10Nov

By Mark DavorenNo Comments

REVIEWS

La Bohème – The Metropolitan Opera

Mirabelle Ordinaire’s revival of Franco Zeffirelli’s rich and sumptuous 1981 production is epic on every level, as it visualises the musical textures of Puccini’s timeless masterpiece that tells of love, friendship, and death in 1830’s Paris. It is Christmas Eve when we meet four struggling bohemians living in a garret: a poet, Rodolfo (Freddie De Tommaso); a painter, Marcello (Lucas Meachem); a philosopher, Colline (Jongmin Park); and a musician, Schaunard (Sean Michael Plumb) who arrives having had some good fortune and they agree to celebrate by dining at Café Momus. They are interrupted by their landlord, Benoît (Donald Maxwell) but cleverly trick him into revealing he has been playing around which allows them to throw him out in comic moral indignation without paying their rent...

La Fille mal gardée – The Royal Ballet and Opera House

7Nov

By Mark DavorenNo Comments

London

La Fille mal gardée – The Royal Ballet and Opera House

Based on a 1789 French ballet originally created by Jean Dauberval, Frederick Ashton’s final full-length ballet for The Royal Ballet premiered in 1960, with this the 377th performance by The Royal Ballet at the Royal Opera House. Inspired by his love for the Suffolk countryside, the piece is set on a farm and tells the story of the burgeoning love between Lise (Francesca Hayward), the daughter of Widow Simon (James Hay), and Colas (Marcelino Sambé), a local farmer. But Widow Simone has far more ambitious plans for her only daughter and is determined that she marry Alain (Joshua Junker), the half-witted son of a wealthy landowner (Christopher Saunders). The only question is, will love win the day? The ballet displays some of Ashton’s most virtuoso choreography, that stretches the wor...

No Woman’s Land – Rose Theatre, Arts Centre, Edge Hill University

29Oct

By Mark DavorenNo Comments

North West

No Woman’s Land – Rose Theatre, Arts Centre, Edge Hill University

No Woman’s Land is a powerful and engaging one-woman performance from Ciara O’Neill that blends verbatim theatre and storytelling to bring to life the voices of Belfast’s women activists. Developed through a series of interviews conducted in October 2024, the piece weaves together biographical accounts that illuminate the city’s vibrant feminist legacy. As a work in progress – although it was far more than that – this review contains observations for consideration as part of the ongoing development process. The simple black box staging was ideal for this multi-character performance with the musical opening of Simple Minds’ Belfast Child setting the scene. O’Neill’s own arrival brings her own unaccompanied rendition of Belfast, which was powerful and moving, and with its repeat at the...