Floral Pavilion Archives - Page 4 of 4

Ellen Kent: Madama Butterfly – Floral Pavilion

31Mar

By Lou SteggalsNo Comments

North West

Ellen Kent: Madama Butterfly – Floral Pavilion

Puccini may have been a philanderer and scoundrel, with a Hitchcock-like tendency to put his heroines through merry hell, but my goodness, he could write an aria. Madama Butterfly, one of the most widely performed operas in the world, boasts its fair share, and is deemed to be one of the most accessible to audiences. Set in one location - a hillside house in Nagasaki, Japan - we follow Cio-Cio-San, nicknamed ‘Butterfly’, the young bride of an American naval officer, Lieutenant Pinkerton, as her romantic ideals are tested to their limits when he seemingly abandons her, yet she still waits hopefully for his return. The sense of tragedy is embedded from the get-go, as we know as an audience that Pinkerton has no intention of coming back, seeing the match as a short-lived one until he can f...

Ellen Kent: Carmen – Floral Pavilion

Carmen is a four-act opera by French composer Georges Bizet, first performed in Paris on 3rd March 1875 with audiences initially objecting to the wild and immoral behaviour on view. Sadly, Bizet's sudden death in June meant he did not get to see its resounding success in Vienna later that year and its subsequent international acclaim. It is now one of the most popular and frequently performed operas. Set in Seville, Spain around 1820, Carmen tells the story of the downfall of Don José (Sorin Lupu) a naïve corporal who falls head over heels in love with Carmen (Katerina Timbaliuk), a seductive, free-spirited gypsy girl. The infatuated Don José abandons his childhood sweetheart, Micaela (Alyona Kistenyova), and neglects his military duties much to the annoyance of his senior officer Zunig...

Judy & Liza – Floral Pavillion

What an absolute joy and honour it was to be able to be at the first show at the Floral Pavilion, whose auditorium has been closed to patrons since March last year. The staff and regulations that have been put in place to allow people to feel safe, have definitely done just that. And what a show to reopen the theatre with! Judy & Liza is a bit like the concert a lot of people would have wanted to see, but never got the chance to. 45 years after they performed together at the London Palladium, this vaudeville-style concert of a show tells us a brief history of Frances ‘Baby’ Gumm and her daughter Liza May Minnelli. It’s been well thought out and put together so well, that at times you forgot you were watching actors playing the roles and not the legends themselves. Helen Sheals as Ju...