Mark Davoren, Author at North West End UK

Roméo et Juliette – Met Opera Live in HD

24Mar

By Mark DavorenNo Comments

REVIEWS

Roméo et Juliette – Met Opera Live in HD

Bartlett Sher’s production may be rather staid and static in its staging of Gounod’s sumptuous Shakespeare adaptation but this tale of two star-crossed lovers touched the heavens tonight as its two stars shone brightly and lit up the stage. Lord Capulet (Nathan Berg) is hosting a ball where he hopes to pair off his daughter Juliette Nadine Sierra) with Count Paris (Daniel Rich) but she is not keen. When Roméo (Benjamin Bernheim) appears however the two are immediately love-struck and he has to hide from his friends Mercutio (Will Liverman), Stéphano (Samantha Hankey), and Benvolio (Thomas Capobianco). Her cousin Tybalt (Frederick Ballantine) is less than impressed with the presence of these sworn enemies and accompanied by Gregorio (Jeongcheol Cha), he swears revenge. Romeo and Juliette...

22Mar

By Mark DavorenNo Comments

North West

Opera North: Cosi fan tutte – The Lowry

As the programme notes, Mozart is one of those rare creative beings who comes to disturb the sleep of the world., and certainly mischief and misunderstandings are everywhere in this revived adaptation in English of Mozart’s famous two-act comic opera, and on the whole this good-humoured production from Director Tim Albery does not disappoint. The story begins with an old cynic and philosopher, Don Alfonso (Quirijn de Lang), betting two young soldiers, Ferrando (Anthony Gregory) and Guglielmo (Henry Neill), that their respective fiancées, sisters Dorabella (Heather Lowe) and Fiordiligi (Alexandra Lowe) will not stay faithful if put to the test. The two young men accept the bet and pretend to depart for the front line whilst secretly returning in disguise and under the direction of Don Al...

Opera North: Cavalleria rusticana / Aleko –The Lowry

21Mar

By Mark DavorenNo Comments

North West

Opera North: Cavalleria rusticana / Aleko –The Lowry

Mascagni’s Cavalleria rusticana is usually paired with Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci but director Karolina Sofulak has made an inspired choice to pair it with Rachmaninov’s rarely heard Aleko with some subtle and intricate linking of the two pieces which by and large comes off. In Cavalleria rusticana, it transpires that Turiddù (Andrés Presno) and Lola (Helen Évora) were once lovers, but when he left to join the army, Lola married another man, Alfio (Robert Hayward). Although Turridù finds consolation in the arms of Santuzza (Giselle Allen), his obsessive passion for Lola still burns fiercely as he supports his mother Lucia (Anne-Marie Owens), setting the stage for a tale of faithlessness, jealousy and violence, set in a rural community where the church maintains an iron grip on the souls of...

La Forza del Destino – Met Opera Live in HD

11Mar

By Mark DavorenNo Comments

REVIEWS

La Forza del Destino – Met Opera Live in HD

It has been some thirty years since there was a new production of this opera at the Met and twenty years since that’s last production with a more recent attempt in 2017 faltering due to financial reasons. Well, the financial challenges remain, as they do for all of us, so it was a treat to take in Director Mariusz Treliński’s dark contemporary re-telling which coming in at almost four and a half hours, including two intervals, is a big production in every sense. Leonora (Lise Davidsen) plans to elope with Alvaro (Brian Jagde) but when her father, the Marquis of Calatrava (Soloman Howard), storms in, Alvaro’s attempts to make peace accidentally results in her father’s death. Leonora flees from her revengeful brother, Carlo (Igor Golovatenko), and whilst Preziosilla (Judit Kutasi) sings a...

Crab Tragedy: A Greek Myth told Sideways – Capstone Theatre

7Mar

By Mark DavorenNo Comments

North West

Crab Tragedy: A Greek Myth told Sideways – Capstone Theatre

A special adaptation for families of their previous ‘Sirens, Men and Crabs’, Teatro Pomodoro’s Crab Tragedy is an hour-long surreal comedy that turns Ancient Greece upside down with this performance pre-empting a soon to follow national tour. A cast of three take on the fishy tale of Ulysses (Simone Tani) and the Siren (Carmen Arquelladas) but it’s all about the Crab (Miwa Nagai) thrown in for good measure with the cast taking on other characters to keep the story sailing on to its inevitable albeit unexpected conclusion. There’s a low-budget atmosphere reminiscent of The Play That Goes Wrong but here the money has been spent wisely with thoughtful and considered staging and expertly adapted props that aid and support strong performances: don’t be fooled, the creative skill and artis...

Lettice & Lovage – Little Theatre Birkenhead

28Feb

By Mark DavorenNo Comments

North West

Lettice & Lovage – Little Theatre Birkenhead

Director Mike Sanders has Peter Shaffer’s super witty script to work with but whether a mix of first night nerves and learning curves, this production from the Carlton Players doesn’t really take full advantage of its snappy pacing and eye rolling bon mots. Lettice Duffet (Katy Downes), an expert on Elizabethan cuisine and medieval weaponry, is an indefatigable but daffy enthusiast of history and the theatre which she combines in her role as a tour guide at Fustian House, one of the least stately of London’s stately homes. As she theatrically embellishes its historical past, much to a mix of surprise, consternation, and pleasure from visiting tourists (Phyllis Brighouse; Lynda Critchley; Richard Isles; Rebcca Williams; Lucy Ashdown; Sallyanne Nelson; Gareth Crawshaw), she ultimately com...

16Feb

By Mark DavorenNo Comments

North West

Sheila’s Island – Rainhill Village Hall

It’s Bonfire night and Sheila (Rosetta Parker), Denise (Jo Webster), Julie (Sophie Brogan), and Fay (Lynn Aconley) are Team C in Pennine Mineral Water Ltd.’s annual outward-bound team-building weekend. Somehow, Sheila has been nominated team leader, and, using her cryptic crossword solving skills, has unwittingly stranded her team on an island in the Lake District. Our intrepid heroines find themselves manufacturing weapons from bras and spatulas and create a rescue flag with plastic plates and a toasting fork. Questions are asked; truths are told; dirty washing is aired: is it possible to build an adequate night shelter with a prom dress? What is Julie’s husband really up to in Aldi? And why are they on this team building exercise when they could be at a spa? The only one with al...

5Feb

By Mark DavorenNo Comments

North West

Sus – Hope Street Theatre

Barrie Keeffe’s play Sus exploring the deep-set systemic racism within the Metropolitan Police and society at large premiered over forty years ago yet with the resignation of Commissioner Cressida Dick less than two years ago following her failure to deal with misogyny and racism in the force, this powerful play still resonates. Whilst set on the eve of Thatcher’s landslide election victory in 1979, there are obvious and relevant parallels to Brexit’s ‘taking our country back’ that are reinforced by current-day statistics that tell us that black people are still nine times more likely to be stopped and searched than their white contemporaries. Unemployed father of three, Delroy (Rikki Dallas), has been brought in for interrogation by two police officers, Wilby (David J Williamson) a...

29Jan

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REVIEWS

Carmen – The Metropolitan Opera

Carrie Cracknell’s contemporary take aims at reinvigorating this classic with its resetting to present-day America but sadly is mostly firing blanks in its representation of a world that I’m not sure most Americans would even recognise. In an unnamed town somewhere along the border with Mexico, naïve army corporal Don José (Piotr Beczała) falls head over heads in love with Carmen (Aigul Akhmetshina), a seductive and free-spirited girl working at the ammunitions factory that he and his men are guarding. Infatuated, Don José abandons his childhood sweetheart, girl-next-door Micaela (Angel Blue) and neglects his military duties only to lose the fickle Carmen to the glamorous rodeo rider, Escamillo (Kyle Ketelsen). So far so good but given that much of the allure of the original is its s...

26Jan

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London

Rusalka – Royal Opera House

Created and directed by Natalie Abrahami and Ann Yee, who is also the choreographer, the contemporary whilst still traditional new staging of this lyrical fairy tale captures nature’s impassioned plea to humanity whilst musically only Dvořák can break your heart so beautifully. From an exquisite aerial ballet reflecting the delicate balance between nature and humanity at the start, three wood spirits (Vuvu Mpofu, Gabriele Kupšyte and Anne Marie Stanley) playfully tease Vodník (Alexei Isaev), an immortal water spirit. All seems to be perfect but his daughter, Rusalka (Asmik Grigorian) longs to be united with the Prince (David Butt Philip) with whom she fell in love when he swam in the lake. Despite being warned about the seductive dangers of humanity that promises much whilst deliveri...